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existential-fox · 4 years

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It’s a Remake not a Remaster

Final Fantasy VII Remake is not Final Fantasy VII.

This is a significant fact that will influence how you experience the game.

I understand how people feel however as I was, and still am to some extent, one of them. When I first heard that the game was in development, and especially when I heard that it would be in parts, I had serious, serious doubts. Despite my fondness for XIII that game is a mess and its sequels do little to amend its flaws. XV I have ranted many, many times about as being a massive disappointment to me in its story telling, world building, and character development. The game play was also woefully disappointing.

The recent Final Fantasy entries didn’t fill me with confidence. And then I played the original again earlier this year and found what I now consider a masterpiece of gaming history.

So I when I decided to buy FFVII Remake I had to wonder if I was leading myself to disappointment again.

What I found was that FFVII Remake is so much better than it has any right to be.

I’m not sure how they did it but they actually managed to deliver a game that feels like a worthy successor to the original.

But that doesn’t mean it is perfect. Oh no...its not perfect at all. When I say ‘is so much better than it has any right to be’ I am also saying that the overall package manages to be ultimately satisfying despite its many, many flaws. Its frankly ridiculous that I can see so much wrong with a game and yet still look back fondly on it without a hint of regret at my purchase. Weird.

Lets start with graphics because they’re objectively easier to review.

Graphics- In some ways I think the graphics are the perfect representation of the game’s overall feel. Because there are so many beautiful moments- the main characters are stunning, the cut-scenes are polished and smooth, the battle scenes and executions are breath taking and spit like an energetic fire and then....you see a NPC. Or you see an ugly textured background. Or you look down at what should be an awe inspiring sight of the slums miles below and yet all you see is a fixed ugly image that couldn’t possibly be anything but a badly glued on wallpaper for your horizon. I don’t get it. I really don’t. Because this game is beautiful and yet if you’re not a main character you’re reduced to looking like someone modelled your face off a cardboard box. This doesn’t take away from the amazing beauty of scenes like Aerith’s house or the colourful energy of Wall Street but it does make you scratch your head and go ‘huh?’.

Music- Every single track that has been taken from original FFVII and remade into a fresh take is amazing. I love that music is dynamic and slides into battle music as you encounter an enemy, and I also love that it will slide back into a more peaceful tune as you emerge in triumph from the scrap. The boss battles are to die for as well- Scorpion Sentinel was my first experience as I played the Demo like everyone else, and it hooked me straight away. The refreshed soundtrack slams.

And then there are the other tracks.Which apart from Hollow Skies (and its accompanying vocal track) are a bit lacklustre. There were moments like the Bombing Mission where I was bobbing along to the music as I made my way through the level. This never happened with the added tracks. I also hate Wall Street’s new track though I appreciate how it changes depending on where you are in the town. They had a perfectly good track already for it and yet... *sigh* Moving on...

Gameplay- Probably my number one surprise from this game, and possibly my favourite thing about the game, is the gameplay. It’s so well done. They went from XV which was boring and involved little to no strategy, and turned it around so fights and bosses actually made you think and rely on your different character’s strengths. I love using every single one of the characters because every single one of the four playable characters is a different experience and with unique skills you will need in different fights. Cloud is a counter hitter with strong sweeping attacks, Barrett is a ranged tank. Tifa is a hard hitting speedster, and Aerith is a powerful mage and healer. I liked that the boss battles often pushed you to discover what could be done with each character, and I liked that none of them felt useless or underused despite everyone but Cloud disappearing for chunks of the story. I also adore what they did with the Materia system, updating it for the more active gameplay while still keeping its roots intact. I like that you can update weapons and learn skills from them. I like that each character has a different ability unique to them, and that their skills reflect their playstyle. I think the majority of the bosses are great and I think whoever was responsible for the game play really knocked it out of the park big time as this is the best battle system I think Final Fantasy has ever had.

However- the camera is sometimes crap when you get shoved in a corner, the lock on is disastrous in moments as it jumps around with its own mind on who you should attack, and aerial combat needs fixing. I appreciate that you’re supposed to use Barrett or Aerith for aerial combat but: 1) They aren’t always with you 2) If you use Blizzard or Aero spells they are so slow that the enemy has usually flown away by the time they hit 3) Aerial enemies are way too fast for something so difficult to hit.

Those are my only complaints by the way.

Characters- I think in a lot of ways this is what Remake really sells itself on. The extended story of Midgar allows you to get to know these characters and really feel them as people before the later events happen. The time given to them allows you to understand Avalanche and their motives as well as learn more about the world around you that they exist in. I want to tell you that of the main cast there was a weak link but I actually don’t think there is at this stage. They feel like they are exactly where they need to be.

I think if you didn’t know the original story Cloud could come off a little too much like ‘stoic hardass Soldier’ but tbh that’s hilarious to me because that’s how he wants people to perceive him. And, while fleeting and few the game gives you moments where Cloud doesn’t live up to that image. Cloud is a very broken boy and it is shown in his inability to understand Aerith’s high fives, his inability to understand how to hug someone, in his moment with Biggs in chapter 12 (which honestly nearly broken me most out of the ENTIRE game), and how he reacts to Rufus in the end. And Cloud does develop but the game doesn’t make a song and dance about it. Cloud holds on so tightly to his ‘I’m out for myself’ mentality but during the game- with these small moments- he eventually learns to trust and rely on others, and in turn stand up for them when he faces Rufus on the Shinra building. I honestly love Cloud because he really flips his character archetype on its head in the original game, and its starting to show slowly in this one too.

Tifa, Barrett, and Aerith are all good too. On the opposite scale to Cloud, I do feel like Barrett could do with a bit more subtley. It would bring so much more to his character. I mean obviously I know he’s an angry dude and I also know why that it is but sometimes his lines felt just a bit too hammy and over-dramatic to me. It was when he was worrying about Marlene and the other members of Avalanche that I felt he was at his best. Tifa’s great because the game shows her conflict and her guilt, while also hinting early at how she tends to keep her feelings and worries inside rather than voicing them. She also felt mature and just...like a normal person which is weird when talking about a JPRG. Aerith is...look Aerith, Cloud and Nanaki are my faves after this game. Aerith was perfectly done with all her sass, cunning, and inner loneliness intact. I also ship Cloud/Aerith < < though I can see why there’s such contention since there is a strong case for Cloud/Tifa too. I just like tragic stuff ok?

The side characters- Jessie, Biggs, Wedge, Nanaki (sadly), Marlene, Reeve etc. etc. were all fine for what they were. Though I wish Japan would stop with making fat characters a constant food/hungry joke. Wedge was actually a rather admirable character in the end but his introduction wasn’t great.

Story- I’ll just say straight up that this game has serious pacing issues. I don’t think it kills the main story but sometimes it kills the build up of story beats. The main villain of this piece is Hojo’s lab. I wish this was an added dungeon you could explore end game or something because I actually quite liked it for the introduction of Nanaki as an AI party member, being able to use all four characters in different scenarios, and the horror game like exploration of Hojo’s experiments. But oh boy...does it kill the pacing between freeing Aerith and following the trail of blood to President Shinra’s office. I literally don’t know why they scrapped the four of them being locked in cells and waking up to the cell door unlocked. If there is one thing I hate about this game its that they got rid of that scene build up. It was perfect in the original game...why would you...?

The other thing that bothers me is Sephiroth. I got sick of seeing his pasty thin face pop up everywhere. I never liked the guy in the original but I could at least appreciate the mystery the game built up around him and not being able to predict when he would show up next. But no...if Cloud starts walking slowly and tense music starts playing you will be sure to see him in this one. I feel it ruins a lot of what made him an antagonist. Not to mention the ending where he starts babbling nonsense at you like he’s from Kingdom Hearts. I kind of liked that in the original he didn’t give a shit about Cloud or who he was because it added a lot to Cloud as a character but all he wants to do in this one is jump out of corners and freak the poor boy out.

I like chapter four though. Weirdly I feel like an arbiter of fate because I’m really fond of what they did with the story as long as it didn’t upset the beats of the original. Adding development to Jessie/Biggs/Wedge was fine. Adding conflict to Tifa’s feelings on Avalanche was fine. Playing as Aerith finding Marlene and finding out how she got her to her house was fine. I just don’t like how the game often bloated itself in moments that needed to be faster paced, or changed scenes in a way that made them lose a lot of their significance.

I’m okay with the ending weirdly though.I thought the fights were a bit ridiculous but I understood the message. I think the thing about Remake is it doesn’t want to be VII. It wants to be something new and exploratory. And it already has done that in a lot of ways...I just hope it follows that with the strength of the character writing and not with the haphazard pacing that pads this game. I think it could do a lot of great things to be honest- expand on Wutai and the war, look more deeply into Cosmo Canyon’s background, give Avalanche more of a presence after leaving Midgar, learn more about Aerith’s mum and her materia etc. etc. I actually took the ending as an opportunity for this rather than an off the rails experiment into noman’s land. It will be the same story but with a chance at new experiences and encounters.

As Aerith says ‘I already miss the steel sky’. We all miss VII and the wonderful memories it gave us but it will always be there waiting for us. Remake is a chance for exploring new ground, learning more about the characters, and potentially widening the plot of what VII left behind. There is a lot of doubt in me moving forward. The second game could be a disaster in story but...I’m willing to give it a chance because this first game was ultimately a game that didn’t disappoint me.

Perhaps its because it reminds me quite a bit of Cloud. By the end of the game it wasn’t selling itself on its strong lineage anymore, it was brave enough to step forward and ask us to trust it with the daunting task of developing into its own skin.

#ffvii remake #ff7r #I had so much more to say #this game is just such an experience for me #I thinks its brave yet often stupid #and I think its observant of its characters while negligent of its plot #and yet I admire it for it #because even though there are parts where I was like WUT R YOU DOING???#I think if the future games learn from this and refine themselves into better paced games it will be a pleasure to experience that journey #the whole defy destiny thing has more to it Im sure #I think its more to do with the planets destiny #and Aerith is connected to it #but it will change them to change things soo.....

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sillyfudgemonkeys · 5 years

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My stance on P5 (cause apparently I need to explain myself :/)

So someone just told me someone was vagueing about me on the confessions blog (can’t say my name cause it’s against the rules but they’ll try to get as specific as they can 🙃 if you have issues just be a real anon hater and send to my inbox directly you coward). And I’m not going to do a reblog to that post, because I’m pretty sure that person must be on my blog. Because the post they were vagueing me about was......not tagged.....in the P5 tagged (I did not tag it as P5 nor Persona 5), it was just a post that was on my blog (now if it showed up in the tag or search I dunno why but I didn’t tag it for P5 for a gd reason cause I keep it to my blog). The post was me pointing out how P5 when they first enter Futaba’s dungeon they didn’t have shoes on, but after the cutscene they DID. The post was more comical (with me getting salty in the tags, but then you’d have to go out of your way to read my tags). And tbh, I’m half and half, yeah I know it’s a nitpick, and I’d just chalk it up to an animation error and let it go usually, but it’s P5 and that game is already inconsistent with it’s plot/world building/characters/anything important that I’m like “nah I’mma rag on it cause it’s just one more thing they screwed up” so I’m like half let it go and half rag on it (fun fact, when I saw they didn’t have shoes on I was gonna make a post saying “hey look this is cool, nice attention to detail” and then they messed it up literally 2 seconds later so dklsjf;afa yeah). (oh and btw, it wasn’t just “one” character, it was the whole PT cast at the time 8U” at least get it right 8U)

But the thing is......that was just a post on my blog, I’m not me berating the P5 tag. So that means you, person who vagued me, tend to go on my PERSONAL BLOG. So like....why are you on here? No, don’t ask me about me and P5, I will answer that, but you answer why are you bothering looking at my personal blog? Is it cause of certain content I post? Then just blacklist certain tags (like my “silly plays” tag cause nothing really interesting happens in that tag, or my more negative “persona problems” type tags), I know I need to be better at tagging my asks, but if you like my original content then just.....go to the OG content tags (aka videos/pictures/edits/coloring)? That way you avoid anything not made by me? Or if you don’t have a reason and you’re just here to be mad cause someone doesn’t like your game, then block me. You don’t seem to like me, so just....why are you here? You seem to want to ask why I’m here with P5, and I have my reasons, but if you don’t have a reason to be on my blog then why are you on it?

I’m not saying this to be mean, but I don’t want to be policed, esp if someone is going to be hypocritical about it. And it’s annoying to see vaguing (cause imo you are as bad as someone who sends anon hate, but you don’t have the balls to just send it to me directly XP)

Ok now where’s my stance on P5? I don’t like it, but it’s a part of a larger series and lore which I do LOVE! Which means, considering I’m a LORE WHORE, it doesn’t feel right to just skip a game esp if it could contain info about the MegaTen/Persona lore (or even Character lore) I want to know. In fact, I really hate it when I’m talking lore with someone and if expanded info is brought up from a side game they are like “Oh I didn’t play that game so it’s not canon” No Bethany, just because YOU didn’t play a game doesn’t mean it’s not canon. And no, no one is bullying you over the fact you didn’t play it, you just don’t like being wrong and the person was like “Ok well it IS canon and it’s in the game, you don’t have to play it but you.....can’t ignore this fact, also why are you arguing this part of the lore when it’s heavily established in said game you ignored???? I mean you do you but don’t get mad when someone corrects you. No one’s forcing you to do anything.” Ahhhhrrrrgggh so many convos I’ve seen happen, I’m not going to be on the end that I hate. DX<

Also, P5 is not the entire Persona fandom, so while I put up with it and indulge in it by association, it doesn’t have the ownership of the fandom (like with all the original games+ spinoffs+all remakes/ports and P5S/P5R included, but not mobile games, it’s only 23% of all of Persona in terms of game entries, and that’s overlapping with crossover games, and if we included other stuff P5 is def a minor aspect in terms of entries). It’s not that hard, I’m just a bigger all around Persona fan than I am a Persona 5 critic (I don’t want to say hater, because it feels like it sounds like I’m hating it just to hate it, when really it was a game I was excited for and loved and then it just burned me bad and I’m just dealing with the scorn). Always keep in mind, I loved P5 before I hated it, it’s probably why I’m as salty about it as I am, because I love P5′s potential and....I was just let down (it wasn’t unrealistic expectations, like I said earlier, P5 contradicts itself.....all over the place, it’s hard to ignore and it’s not something that was as big of an issue, or even an issue at all, in other games).

Why do I still post P5 stuff when I don’t like P5 (by which I mean...posting about the OG manga raws, or wanting to do a partial game to anime dub or even would be willing to help with editing a fandub for the anime)? Because I remember being a newbie Persona/Megaten fan, getting into the series, and wanting to know more about it and it’s side materials but then not being able to have access it any of it (because it was still prettty niche when I first joined and I had no money at the time). I want to give people access to it! Sure it’s harder for me to now to devote time to it (than it was a few years ago), but I want to help with giving access to this Persona/Megaten stuff now that I have some ability! And it also means P5 as well gets some of that love. 8U

As for why I was replaying P5, so this is one thing that’s making me wonder if you are a regular on my blog or not because I’ve been talking about playing the Korean version (but in my one post I forgot to type “silly plays P5/Persona 5 KOREAN” so yeah I forgot to specify Korean at the end). So tbh....I’m actually ignoring P5′s writing while I play (cause I’m just going through the gameplay motions), cause I don’t know korean. 8U And I’m mostly using that tag as a means to point out different things in the korean ver (no that much, but yes Ryu’s shoes ARE censored 8U). But why? Well.....I talk about it here and there but anon/person....1) I’m a trophy whore, I love plat trophies and P5′s is super easy I can get it (and I’m not above playing bad games, oh yeah burn, I’ve played a lot of bad games for plats, and I’ve also played the same games multiple times for plats, I do this to myself but really I don’t mind replaying P5 4+ times for 4+ plats esp since I don’t really have to pay attention). 2) I’m a big MegaTen/Persona collector, I want all the plats I can have (I plan on platting the other versions of the all the dancing games on Vita and PS4, P4G, and the versions of Catherine I don’t have, like I legit have a gd excel sheet keeping track of the versions of Megaten games I don’t have yet....I’m just doing P5 cause it’s 1) one of the easiest to do and 2) it was easier to get my hands on them atm). I don’t talk about my trophy hunting on here that much tbh, but that’s.....really a big reason why I’m doing it (plus with the Korean/CHinese ver I don’t have to pay attention to any story so it’s all good! :D) Yeah I do it to myself, but I don’t really mind. 8U And I mean I tend to keep most of my P5 issue on my blog too. I think the only two posts that I put in the P5 tag were 1) a few consistency issues I wanted to meme about (aka the I’m about to head out post, which was actually the 2nd post I made on that topic but I decided to just meme that one, so I thought it was better than me just bitching, at least I tried to make it a bit funny yet informational 8U), and 2) something that I tbh had an issue since I back when I liked P5 (aka wishing they worked on speeding up the loading times and the fast forward feature), so since I was playing the game I was like “That reminds me, man I hope they fix this in the re-release!”. As for english P5, the only reason I’ll be playing P5 OG in english is for either archiving reasons or research reasons (probably both at once so I don’t have to play through it more than once again).

As for P5R, uhhhhh I’m excited for Kasumi (Jose is cool too, and the new dungeon has me interested too, and all the P2 demons coming back to it makes me wonder what else is/if anything is coming back), she’s my main draw. Yeah it’s connected to P5R, but she looks so much like Hamuko I JUST HAVE TO KNOW WHAT’S UP WITH HER! Hamuko’s my girl, and I need to know if Atlus is going to do something with that, or if I need to be pissed for them literally lifting Hamu’s face! Am I gonna get pissy about P5R’s new add-ons (aka, I’m aware that P5R is probably going to keep the issues from OG P5, so I’mma just judge P5R based on it’s new content)? Yeah, if they kept up the same writing P5 OG had. So yeah, I’m probably going to get pissy if they eff it up, but I’m not going in pissy, going in with really low expectations tbh, but I’m giving it a chance. But if they don’t eff up the new stuff then......that’s good! It means they did something right. So far Kasumi is not Marie so we’re off to a good start. I’m hoping the keep that momentum. 8U

So yeah, I think I have valid reasons for staying, maybe you don’t like it anon/person, but they are there.

tldr; someone feels like the need to police me despite the fact they could just ignore me (even tho it seems like they specifically came to my blog to get mad, rather than me clogging up the tag, like I post there maybe once or twice every 2 months). My stance on P5 is that I deal with it cause it’s part of a bigger fandom I’m a part of and the fact I love the lore of that bigger fandom so it’s not like I can ignore it. I also have a Playstation trophy problem. 8U And I’m excited for Kasumi is that so bad???? (also I didn’t mention it, but Anne/Haru are enough to keep me around 8U)

#silly talks #i'm actually on my last 3 trophies for korean so after that i"m going to chinese #I don't mind the new teacher #not my main draw but I'll give him a shot #also mementos mission is a good manga to read #not canon and still perpetuates issues with mako's character #and the fact that those guys totally gave that one shadow a mental shutdown i'm not letting that go (esp since if they did that'd be so #INTERESTING please dont' let that go to waste mangaka ;w;)#but the mystery is really fun and I like it #i really need to post those raws tho #fdklsajf;lakjfl;a i just....oh man......it's a lot #it's easy to find me and look at my trophies #i have 151 plats yeah I have issues #getting plats is fun ok???? :w;#but yeah I'll try to get working on the P5 OG raws #i love anne and haru ok????#sure I have issues with their writing but I just really like them still

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sonic7ischaos · 5 years

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Putting my money where my mouth is...

I talk a lot about the Sonic Adventure series and have mentioned a potential Sonic Adventure remake but I haven’t gone into much detail about it. What I think is done right, what I think is done wrong. How to improve and fix things and how to amplify working things. I’m doing this because, if enough people can form a consensus on what an Adventure remake should do, it’s designers might take notice and look to the discussion for guidance in some way. Maybe it’s indirect and we don’t even notice the little detail they took from us but nothing happens if no one tries to steer the conversation...

So let’s get started.

1st thing that needs to change fundamentally is how the camera operates. The camera in Sonic Adventure was designed with the idea that there wouldn’t be a second analogue stick to control it. It was made on a console without one and (for some reason) it’s an issue that wasn’t fixed in SADX. This needs to change. Sonic Adventure is a 3d platformer first and foremost. The last thing the camera should be able to do in this sort of game is get in your way and because of how it has to follow your movement so the player isn’t lost, it WILL get in you way if it remains as is. Another thing this might fix is Sonic’s seeming lack of control on narrow roadways. With a camera at the player’s beck and call, they could put it behind sonic and control his horizontal movement with it (y’know, like how most 3d platformers do) so you wouldn’t be getting stuck on walls as much. Speaking of the camera, we need to talk about loops. In every single official 3d Sonic game, loops are handled via automation (I’ll get to that in a minute). In every one of these segments the camera is pulled away from the character or is rendered irrelevant by the boost pads (again in a minute). This needs to not happen in a Sonic Adventure remake ESPECIALLY if the camera is to be reworked to give the player finer control. Having a camera automatically pull away or rendered meaningless by boost pads (IN. A. MINUTE) is inherently contradictory to the freedom and control the player will want and expect with a manual camera. It WILL kill them or it WILL bore them, depending on how you handle it. To summarize, the camera in Sonic Adventure worked how it did to accommodate a controller with no right analogue stick and, with modern controllers, need no longer do so. FIX THAT.

2nd thing that needs to fundamentally change is the automation (told you I’d get there). Now, the presence of automation itself isn’t necessarily a problem, it can be useful for designers who want to guide players in more open ended terrain or who want to present a story moment. The best automation is short and only takes away part of your control so you’re still interacting with the game. Loathe as I am to credit it, Sonic 06′s mach speed sections are a decent example of point about retaining some control. OH they’re abysmal to play for sure but you are still making gameplay decisions during them. The other problem with them is their length. The mach speed sections present an interesting spectacle (kingdom valley in particular is great for that though again, truly awful to play). The problem with Automation in Adventure (and every single subsequent 3d game) is that the automation is far too prevalent in the form of boost pads and springs that divide level sections so that you’re no longer interacting with the game. So, for example, if you remade Sonic Adventure and removed every single boost pad from Emerald Coast, that level would still be mostly playable ESPECIALLY with tweaks to the physics so it takes slightly longer to fall off walls at speed (the vertical boost pad set piece in emerald coast comes to mind). I’m not suggesting getting rid of the whale section, only that bits like that should be modified to be more like the speed highway building section where you’re dodging obstacles and collecting goodies. I’m also, in general, suggesting that the designers have a little more respect for the player’s intelligence and skill. Don’t railroad me into where you want me to go, trust that I’ll get there myself. The physics in Adventure are there for a reason, use them.

3rd thing that needs to be addressed is the level design. This one isn’t so big and to change it too much would make this less a remake and more its own game (which I wouldn’t be opposed to) but the pure linearity of the levels actively takes away from the free nature of the movement mechanics. Sonic can do some crazy stuff with his movement, make it so he’s only doing stuff in one way?Add stuff to the levels so players can experiment and play around more.

4th...the other characters. Now, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Gamma (I like Gamma anyway) work fine (though some tweaking might be good but I’ll get there) but Big is abysmal. His gameplay is frustrating and slow and boring. The problem lies in the fishing mechanics and how hard it is to control where the lure is and how effective it is. There’s also no reason to catch other fish. If there was some integration with the chao garden (I’ll get there) it might help but there’s a lot of other things that need to happen too. Maybe you can unlock things by catching certain fish or meeting certain requirements. The pools where you fish should also have more thematic elements to them as well. Robot fish in eggman themed levels, that sort of thing. There also needs to be better difficulty scaling and specific challenges to differentiate each level mechanically. As for the tweaks to the others? Well Amy’s levels are, thematically, horror themed right? I’d say play that up. Maybe make her acceleration a bit better so she’s not frustrating to control but make Zero more capable and much scarier. Give him more places to pop out of. Make the player always feel like he’s right on their tail. Knuckles just needs to have his dig work like it does in Sa2, other than that, he’s fine. Tails needs no changes and I can’t think of any for Gamma. Maybe make his bosses harder? I dunno.

That’s all the main stuff that absolutely needs to be fixed but there are some other things as well that should be addressed.

1st of these is the hub worlds. They’re fine but they need more things to do. Collectibles to find, puzzles to complete, that sort of thing. Emblems functioning like the red rings of the modern games would be nice (and hide them in more places, maybe expand the hub worlds themselves to create more hiding spots or fun level elements to play with).

2nd is the presentation and there’s a few things I want to touch on. The cutscenes need fixing, that much is obvious but since the technology will let us, why don’t we go all out and make them ALL pre rendered and fully animated. Pour every bit of love into them that was given to the opening to Unleashed (maybe get the same studio/set of artists on that). As far as the voice actors? Well, this is more up to preference but honestly I think it would be fitting to re-cast the surviving actors of the original since this is a remake. Have the lines re written slightly so the story is communicated better and have an actual voice director. For the visuals, don’t just have them look “good” have them be appropriate to the story of both the narrative and specific level. The first fight with Chaos is a tense, intimidating encounter in the darkened rain with a mysterious new foe, lit by police lights. Emerald coast is a sunny vacation spot. Lost world is a dark, mysterious catacomb, lit only by torches and mirrors. Generations actually got the tone of the final boss fight (though I’d prefer if chaos was less lizard+water monster and more just made of water). As for the music and sound design? Modern instrumentation are musts but the actual musical composition should remain untouched. New sounds for game interaction should be recorded so long as they’re mostly the same as the originals (with touched up quality and better sound design from more experienced artists).

3rd is chao gardens. I don’t actually think these need to be changed that much but I DO think they should be changed. Specifically, I think the chao events need to be expanded so that you’re not just unlocking emblems but rather you’re training your chao or unlocking new gear for them. I think the chao themselves need to have a direct impact on the main game in some way. Maybe an equip system so that their stats translate directly onto the character or maybe they can follow you into levels to find items and such. I also think there need to be more gardens, probably themed after levels in the games, probably subdivided so you find each level garden in the hub world garden it belongs to. Speed highway garden in the station square garden for example.

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game-meak · 5 years

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A Proper Postmortem

Maybe?! Heck if I know how to actually format a good post but let’s try. As game development went on for almost four years, this is probably gonna be long... and also give away basically the whole game oops! Read on with caution.

Sometime around July 2014, a month after the initial release of my first game, my room was being remodeled and I was stuck with nothing for free time but a garbage laptop I could do anything on, an old flip phone, my sketchbook, and my 3DS. So beyond playing an obscene amount of Animal Crossing and Tomodachi Life, I at some point went “hey, what if I made a second game starring the kids.” So I started trying to plan it out! And it went

absolutely nowhere that I intended it to go!!!

For instance, this is the very first page of sketches. This squirrel was supposed to be really important. It’s not. I don’t even KNOW what’s up with that duck.

A thing I like to think about before I set off making any of the story, assets, or scripts for my games tend to be themes and motifs. And I kept circling back to a very important, very personal “theme.” Without using the internet at large as my therapy couch, I was emotionally abused and taken advantage of multiple times in my life and it greatly impacts how I interact with people to this very day, as you’d expect events of such a degree would. Particularly, I kept thinking that the RPG Maker fan crowd tends to skew young and be in the teenage range and at ages 14-16, I could’ve used something to help.

Of course, my entire thought process isn’t necessarily one of charity and selflessness. It was also a way of me expressing what I’d dealt with in ways I’ve only ever communicated with my friends who were also victims of the same circumstances, the closest I would let myself come to personal stories and retellings with a cover of plastic children and wild adventures. It was also in some ways a way of me verifying to myself that something ongoing was, in fact, bananas and should not have been happening, but that might be another story for another time.

As you can probably guess, Haze and Seal came into the picture since I needed to make two characters who would have this struggle. A lot of decisions came about because of my personal experience. They’re 15/16 because I was at the time of the incidents that primarily inspired me to make this game. They’re both nonbinary because I am. They love anime because I did (and do...?!) One of their friends is even directly modeled off how one of my friends looked in high school. To that degree, I guess someone, somewhere can call them self inserts. But they’re also not, since I didn’t want to just do a personal retelling with fictional characters. I’d just write a memoir or something at that point.

Haze’s design came first, and then Seal’s was sort of made as a foil to them. Haze’s “colors” are pink, black, grey, and red. Seal’s are teal and light purple... and also black. Haze had a rabbit motif (which got toned down as I went on), Seal had an owl motif (which is now just a single mention in their list of likes...), etc.

Though in the beginning, the story was entirely different. Initially, everything took place in the neon-ish areas with black sky and reflective, celestial water (that I, very eloquently, call “spacewater”). The idea was that Haze and Seal were beings from another dimension and that their “fighting” was causing a rip in the universe that the kids stumbled into and therefore got wrapped up in this mess. I had an entire script written and started making assets and when I went to sum up the game’s plot in a neat paragraph, I realized... I hated it!!!

So I chucked all I had done by that point writing-wise and started again.

In fact, I rewrote a lot. After the first it was mostly small tweaks and adjustments, but the biggest ones (and the ones that still present a challenge to me!) usually involved trying to make Seal feel like a believable character. I had shown an early draft to someone who said that Seal felt too much like trying to get back at someone, so I scrapped a ton of their lines and tried again. I still worry whether or not they come across too Strawman-y, but I’ve done the best I can and whatever criticism people have can apply to my next writing attempts. It’s very hard to separate yourself from subject matter you feel really personally attached to. I don’t want to write them in a way that you immediately hate them, or hate me for writing such a blatant “villain” character, but in a way that you can formulate your own thoughts. That said, though, I am violently allergic to people who call Seal a “tsundere,” even in jest. So I guess I want people to have their own thoughts as long as it’s not that specific one...! (;;;;)

You may be thinking “heck, this is a lot of paragraphs in and you haven’t even brought up gameplay thoughts” and yes... that’s very true. Shamefully, for a game where I thought “I should definitely, absolutely focus more on making it a Fun Game than a walking visual novel” I might’ve actually dropped the ball in that area. I’d like to think I was more adventurous than I had been with my first game. Some parts do kind of fall into the “walk to the next cutscene, find a key to unlock the next cutscene” pit, but I did put effort into figuring out what I could do with RMXP. My obligatory “please don’t use this engine here, people thinking of using RPG Maker” statements here. In the final product, though they’re very simple, I’m most proud of the chalkboard puzzle and the paint sorting puzzle.

Even if, y’know... I somehow neglected to include the letter “k”

Speaking of, I’m not sure if this is a general RPG Maker thing, a “man I hate RMXP” thing, or a “meaka cannot gamemake” thing, but I had several event/puzzles just up and quit on me a few times. Like they would work fine for months and months, but one day I’d go to them and just nope, suddenly they’re not working, sorry. Copy+pasting the event to a new map wouldn’t work, so I’d have to manually redo the event. One of them was the chalkboard puzzle. The other was the sliding puzzle when Tony is by herself. Which I’m also aware slows the game down a ton, but I have legitimately no idea how to fix that... I tried and I could never get to to not lag like crazy.

Like I said, I started in July 2014. I’d shipped the game off to my beta testers in March 2018. A vast majority of that time was spent creating the visual assets since everything you see in the game is custom. All the sprites, all the tilesets, every little pixel of it. All me! Needless to say... it was very exhausting and very time consuming. I grossly underestimated how much time I thought it’d take. I never accounted for the very real possibility of burnout, which is incredibly silly considering I was making something entirely by myself that was also an occasionally difficult subject matter...! There were quite a few weeks where I touched nothing because I couldn’t bring myself to and even a few times where I just considered deleting everything and cancelling the project. I knew I’d be mad at myself if I quit, especially as I got later into production, so I just tried my best to make sure I didn’t turn it into a huge chore. Obviously, there were parts that were more tedious than others, but this game really is a very large labor of love that I put a lot of my heart into.

Part of that time is also a little bit of indecision. Did you know I went through 3 possible title screens? I sure did! I’ve also publicly posted about redoing both Haze and Seal’s bust sprites before. I almost redid all of the kids’, too, but I didn’t wanna get caught in the loop of remaking everything, so I opted to just leave them as they are. Most of them don’t bug me as much. M...most of them!

I’m hopping back on the Story train since obviously that was my main focus, but the decision to have Seal sort of “reveal” their true nature (or at least have a jealousy-related anger burst) to Octavio as an animated cutscene was one I’d decided pretty early. Which is also why, unsurprisingly, I was debating getting voice actors for a hot minute. But I wouldn’t have used it anywhere else in the game, so I opted not to. I also wanted to keep the file size low, but that wound up not happening so much, h-haha... For someone who uses the only engine without native support for videos, I sure do like making animated cutscenes, huh.

Anyway. This scene originally bridged Octavio’s section of the game to Pablo’s, which would’ve been (for some reason) in an abandoned hospital. But that didn’t pan out because it didn’t fit what I wanted the game to be and also by switching the order of the two, it builds up more tension(?) on the kind of character you expect Seal to be. I hope their very first “fuck off, maybe” took someone out there by surprise!

This also was the point when I decided I wanted to commission an original soundtrack, since nothing quite got across what I wanted at the time. Which is when I put out my silly ad post and somehow managed to get the amazing ProjectTrinity to compose for me...! I’m still amazed by the sheer quality of music he made for my little RPGMaker game.

Having the teen characters curse was also something I waffled on for a bit. Clearly, I dwell on the important things as a writer. I wanted it to contrast the cutesy, kidlike way the siblings talk and also the sort of squeaky-clean image the witches (particularly Seal) present to the kids by contrasting how they talk to each other, most importantly how Seal talks to Haze and their other friends. I did have the same issue with the Mother in my first game, but I opted to not have her curse at all either since she’s childish in her own way, too. But that’s not for THIS game’s postmortem, get otta here!!!

I also very much was set on a “battle” with words being the final event of the game. Though I had a hard time imagining what that would be initially, but eventually arrived at a sort of fake battle system that was introduced in the mine. The setting for this battle changed with time (everywhere from the park to the academy and in between) was considered...! The dirty secret is that while I did like the decision to make it take place in the voids between worlds, I also sort of did not want to draw the staircase in the witch academy. Originally, the kids would’ve also helped Haze “reach” Seal (who was putting actual obstacles in the way), but I guess in my own way, I wanted to give Haze the ability to confront Seal on their own, one-on-one. Or something like that...! I also didn’t want to add too much needless backtracking.

I’m... unsure what other point I really want to make, so I guess I’ll end this here unless anyone has anything in particular that interests them they’d want me to answer!

All in all, this game means a lot to me and took a chunk of my life to make and I really hope it’s able to reach at least one person who might need it, even if it’s only a little.

To all of you who gave it a try, thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart.

A shameless link to the game: [itch.io] & [RMN]

#living playground #the witch's puppets #rpg maker #postmortem

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timegears-moved · 4 years

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☕️ mmmm pokemon games specifically (not including spinoffs)

sorry this is late im terrible with actually answering asks. ill do this generation by generation. also this ended up very long because i have a lot of thoughts about pkmn.

gen one: okay so right off the bat im gonna say that i have a massive soft spot for gen one, considering blue was the first game i ever played. i do have a degree of nostalgia towards it which is why i can never be truly be harsh on these games. i know they're a mess of glitches and mechanics that make no fucking sense (seriously FUCK psychic types and everything they stand for) but it has a certain charm to it.

but even as a "kanto apologist" (which damien calls me) i can absolutely agree that the pandering is fucking abysmal. they're trying cater to a demographic who hasn't cared about pokemon in years and aren't going to pick up a new game just because charizard is in it. by doing this it feels like they're alienating the people who actually care, like "yeah ur support is nice but we want the genwunners to like us more than anything.

also on the topic of pandering is that their pandering is so half-assed too. all of this gen one content and not one shred of love for my boys victreebel or cloyster? bro i hate it here.

gen two: i dont really have that much to say here tbh. i have no fond memories of it at all considering i only played through gold once right before hgss came out. i can say that i appreciate all of the bullshit from gen one that it fixed but i have issues with johto as a region that ill elaborate on when i talk about the remakes.

gen three: honestly i never cared much for this gen. i played it quite a bit growing up but it's always been whatever for me. a lot of it just feels kind of.....bland for me. i really don't know what to say because it leaves me feeling conflicted. there's nothing bad about these games that sticks out like a sore thumb but they just don't do it for me, ya know?

i do appreciate frlg for shedding a much better light on kanto though.

gen four: okay so i'll fully admit that the sinnoh games are my childhood faves and are still my faves now but im not letting nostalgia completely cloud my judgement on this.

honestly? i think pokemon peaked with platinum. dp had their problems for sure and some of those still carried over to platinum but the scale in which platinum told its story feels so much grander than any pokemon game that came before or after it. i absolute adore the sinnoh mythos and i only want dp remakes just so it can get expanded upon, i could care less about any actually gameplay from it. ive said this before but you cannot make the god of pokemon and not do anything with it.

as for hgss, i have very mixed feelings about this one but not in the same way gen 3 made me feel because i do have genuine problems here. ive talked before about them but i just cannot stress how bad the level and pokemon distributions are. how the fuck can you make brand new pokemon for your johto region and not put them in fucking johto?

like these games are fine ig. i never cared about the walking pokemon mechanic but it literally feels like people only praise this game as the best because of that one thing that has no bearing on the actual game itself. you can like these games all you want, i still enjoy parts of them myself, but calling them the best is a huge reach.

gen five: right off the bat im gonna say that i do love the gen five games so nobody thinks im being overly critical or anything. i love the aesthetic of these games, i ADORE the pokemon here and they're some of the most fun pokemon games to play through. it's the story and characters (with the exception of n i will absolutely give credit where it is die there) that throw me for a loop.

i feel like whenever i praise the story or characters im just following the crowd here. i don't know if im just very stupid (i definitely am very stupid) or what but none of it felt as powerful as people claim it is for me personally. maybe i should just pay more attention but i honestly don't know. im definitely not saying theyre bad or anything i just in all hobestly dont get the (very sudden) hype.

uhhh i can't say much about bw2 because i haven't beaten it since it came out but i remember liking hugh and it made iris a champion so i remember them being good on those two things alone.

gen six: hohohohoho here we go. tbh i don't even know what i can say about xy that hasn't already been said. like gen one might be a huge mess looking back on it but at least it had character. xy introduced a few pokemon that i really liked and some amazing shiny hunting methods that should definitely return but that's the most i can say in terms of praise.

i dont think pokemon has ever gotten this boring before, and that's speaking as someone who clocked over 300 hours into my x save file. nothing has life (which in hindsight is ironic considering xerneas is the god of life) and i hate the way mega evolution was handled so much. i really don't know what else to say because everyone has already said what i want to but i think this has been pokemon's lowest point so far.

oras once again made hoenn complicated for me. they made hoenn somewhat interesting for me in a way that didnt capture me in the originals. i don't think they're stellar but ive seen people call these the worst ones and....why. i get that the originals are special to a lot of people and that they feel like oras did them injustice but honestly i would oras over the originals because they're just more fun for me.

gen seven: it made popplio. 10/10.

okay so i can understand why the very slow start and unskippable long cutscenes threw a lot of people off but i just don't understand so much of the hate it around other things. again i see people proclaiming it as the worst and you can see it as that from a gameplay element, but the story fucking slapped ass and i don't think amybody can or should deny that. maybe i just feel very passionately about them because they're very personal for me in helping me through a rough time in my life but i just also dont see why everybody is so mad at these games sometimes.

the fact that sm mean so much to me makes usum's entire existence hurt so much more. like wow i love abuse apologism: the game thank you sooooo much gamefreak! /s

aside from ultra wormhole jumping, my baby dusk lycanroc and the new ultra beasts i dont care for anything new usum brought. it feels like it back peddled so much by completely ruining lillie's character by attempting to make lusamine likable when the damage from the first games was already done. i hate usum they're the only pokemon games i can state that i hate. i don't know how you can take sm's well-done albeit flawed blueprints, take out everything that was good and only leave stuff that either doesn't matter or is actively harmful.

also let's go pikachu and eevee exist too idrc

gen eight: ive already spoken my piece on swsh but im gonna be more clear here. i dont think swsh is inherently bad and i can still have fun with them. i dont think the issue here lies with the cut pokedex. i could honestly care less about that and i always figured we would get to this point. the issue lies with nintendo and tpci pushing for yearly releases, forcing the devs to make yearly subpar games. i can think of so many ways they can remedy this situation: taking longer times between releases, hiring more staff at gamefreak or even splitting developments for different projects between multiple different studios. i hope that the reported low moral at gamefreak at swsh's releases is enough of a wake up call for change but that could just be me being optimistic.

i am SO sorry this ended up as long as it is but i have a lot of opinions and not enpugh willpower to keep my mouth shut

#asks #ty for the ask!#jasper tag #long post #also im on mobile so i cant put a read more 😔

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eggoreviews · 5 years

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Viddy Games Monthly #1 - February 2019

Is this really late? Sure Is!

Here's something new I'm trying! In this 'issue' (lol):

NEW RELEASES - A look back at everything exciting that dropped this month, from Resident Evil 2 to the new 2D Mario!

NEWS - January is usually pretty dry for viddy games, but there's some interesting stuff still!

Release dates, updates and more!

NEW RELEASES

Fitness Boxing (RD: January 4th - Nintendo Switch)

And here we have Nintendo’s first real attempt in this console generation to draw in the fitness crowd they catered to so well with the Wii. Except, Fitness Boxing feels a lot more technical and niche than those other titles from a decade ago. Fitness Boxing’s main draw is teaching you how to improve your boxing form, meaning it’s definitely not one to play with the family unless you’re all die hard boxing fans. But if you’re less interested in picking up the technical aspects, Fitness Boxing works just as well as a fitness companion, coming packed with its own motivational trainer (I haven’t picked this game up purely because it would feel like I’m cheating on the Wii Fit Trainer. Plus this basically dashes all hope of Wii Fit Switch so I’ll need to mourn that for a hot minute).

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey (RD: January 11th - Nintendo 3DS)

As the 3DS reaches the end of its lifespan and its screentime in the Nintendo Directs gets shorter, this Mario & Luigi title could well be one of the last RPGs we see on the system. In this enhanced remaster, the worlds of turn based RPG and 2D platformer collide and, coupling this fact with some odd setpieces including Bowser’s literal stomach, also make for one of the weirdest games on the system. Despite this, there’s no doubt that it works. With the addition of the Bowser Jr.’s Journey expansion, there’s undoubtedly a wealth of content to explore here, especially if you’re new to this oddly charming RPG spin-off.

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (RD: January 11th - Nintendo Switch)

The latest in a long line of Wii U ports, Nintendo has bundled up Mario U and Super Luigi U and released it yet again on the Switch. This is by no means a bad thing, as we had yet to see a 2D Mario on the system, but the general consensus seems to be that the play time is much shorter than the price would have you believe. Of course, if you’re a die hard Mario fan, there’s no doubt you’ve already picked this up and it’s definitely worth a go if you didn’t have a chance to play on Wii U. Alongside this, new features include new playable characters and helpful items for if you’re like me and are terrible at platformers (I welcome these changes). But really, I think the talk of the town was the fact they patched in Blue Toad before release when everyone got sad that he was absent. Thanks Nintendo.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (RD: January 11th - Windows, Xbox One, PS4, Switch)

An enhanced port with updated HD graphics to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this beloved entry in Bandai Namco’s Tales series. This edition comes packed with a beefy selection of new content, including all that was exclusive to Japan at the time of the PS3 port’s release. Generally, this game scored high at the time of its release, being cited as an interesting and unique JRPG that was made all the better by its trademark combat system that has been carried throughout the series.

The Walking Dead: The Final Season - Episode 3: Broken Toys (RD: January 15th - Windows, Xbox One, PS4, Switch)

Against all the odds, the critically acclaimed Walking Dead game series has somehow survived the closure of its creator, Telltale Games, continuing under Skybound Entertainment. The series continues to shine in critic reviews, which thankfully continues into the penultimate episode, Broken Toys. With a firm release date of the final episode being March 26th, we won’t have to wait long to finally witness the end of Clementine’s story.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (RD: January 18th - Nintendo Switch)

The third entry in the No More Heroes series has finally arrived 9 years after its second effort, though this time to mixed reviews. The gameplay fans of the series are used to has been totally overhauled this time around, instead throwing Travis into a possessed game console containing six wildly different, self-contained video games. This time, the gameplay is entirely from a top-down perspective. Some enjoyed this radical change of pace for the series, but other fans of Travis believed the drastic change was a little too jarring to enjoy in contrast to this entry’s predecessors.

Resident Evil 2 remake (RD: January 25th - Windows, PS4, Xbox One)

The highly anticipated remake of Capcom’s horror classic finally dropped this month, and let’s be honest, it’s everything fans wanted. The controversial move to ditch the usual fixed camera the early RE games are known for so the game could be built in Capcom’s home-grown Resident Evil 7 engine was what made the game so immersive and genuinely terrifying. With tons of gameplay tweaks, Capcom managed to tread the line between creating a fresh experience and staying faithful to the original game. Entirely different puzzle solutions, new dialogue and a whole new playable character in Sherry Birkin ensures that those who know the original inside out will still have more to discover, but the return of each horrifying boss and setpiece in glorious HD puts the nostalgia into overdrive. Plus, the tofu block came back so really there’s nothing to gripe at.

Kingdom Hearts III (RD: January 29th - Xbox One, PS4)

Here it is. The game fans have been waiting 14 years for. The one that ties every character and confusing plot arc together and says ‘Merry christmas, Baymax is in this game now!’

With a few fan favourite worlds returning among a handful of new ones, Kingdom Hearts has finally launched itself into the current gen with a heartfelt tale of friendship and big hair. There really is very little to say about this, because we all knew it was going to be good.

Also out this month:

First person shooter Bright Memory released this month to positive reception, despite controversy around the stolen assets used by the devs.

Charming adventure game Vane dropped this month, allowing players to explore a beautiful world as a boy who can turn into a bird.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, the critically acclaimed combat flight sim series, released for PS4 and Xbox One, with some great VR content.

Life Is Strange 2 Episode 2 - Rules released this month, continuing the heartfelt tale of two brothers on the run

Gothic Indie RPG Sunless Skies released at the very end of January, showing a detailed focus on narrative and exploration

NEWS

What’s been happenin’? Probably a lot, but this is what I picked up on!

Metroid Prime 4 has gone a bit wonky

As everyone has probably heard by now, the long awaited Metroid Prime 4 has officially been halted and restarted, as announced in a commendably transparent video Nintendo published on their YouTube channel last month. Basically, they weren’t happy with how development was going so they’ve gone back to square one, this time with the help of past Prime developers Retro Studios. Honestly, this is a really good sign, as it shows how committed Nintendo are to creating a solid game to stand next to the other three. Plus, this makes a Prime trilogy switch port way more likely in my eyes, so hooray for that.

Piranha Plant got here early!

At the tail end of January, those who redeemed their plant boi codes turned on Smash and suddenly got the gratefully received ‘Piranha Plant joins the battle’ message! I can confirm I made a bit of a weird dolphin noise when I saw he’d turned up before the estimated February release. In another post, I’ll be breaking down his moveset in a bit more detail, so keep an eye out for that if you’re a fellow plant connoisseur!

Sony patents retro back-compatibility for PS5?

A new patent Sony put through last month that they tried to sneak by us MAY hint at retro back-compatibility for their next system, spanning all four of their home consoles. If this news is true, this could give Sony a massive edge in the next console gen, as remasters and retro games become increasingly popular, as well as the fact that people are unlikely to want to leave the considerable PS4 library behind. So at the very least, we can hope for PS4 games to be playable on the PS5.

Cross platform achievements could be a thing!

A since removed GDC listing teased the possible integration of Xbox Live onto iOS, Android and, interestingly, the Nintendo Switch! At a base level, this would very probably mean that achievements between these two consoles would be cross compatible, or at least viewable on either console. While nothing is confirmed just yet, this could be a sign of the growing partnership between Microsoft and Nintendo.

Nintendo is really lovin’ their mobile games!

With Switch sales beginning to level out ever so slightly, Nintendo seems to be turning to the mobile market. A mobile Mario Kart was announced a couple of years ago, but now it finally has a name, Mario Kart Tour. It’s now slated for a Summer 2019 release. Alongside this, Nintendo have announced Dr. Mario World for mobile, as well as rumours bubbling under that Dragalia Lost could be seeing a localised port for Canada and Europe.

New Nintendo Selects for the States!

Super Mario Maker, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D and Star Fox 64 3D have arrived in America as Nintendo Selects, thankfully proving that Nintendo aren’t quite willing to let the 3DS die just yet. Not to be that guy, but Majora’s Mask over in Europe as a select would be pretty great. Pls.

Indie Highlights

And finally, Nintendo has dropped another Indie Highlights on us, featuring the likes of Wargroove, When Ski Lifts Go Wrong, Forager and the (long awaited?) Goat Simulator port. Worth a look if you’re looking for something a little wackier to play this month!

That’s all the headlines for this month!

FREE VIDYA

Are you subscribed to whatever online service your console has? Then oh boy, you got some free stuff!

NES Nintendo Switch Online - Blaster Master & Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

This month, Nintendo added the ever wonderful and upsettingly hard Zelda II to their retro lineup, along with lesser known run-and-gun platformer Blaster Master.

PlayStation Plus - Steep & Portal Knights

It’s a good month for snowboard enthusiasts over on the PS4 this month, as Ubisoft’s open world sports game Steep joins the lineup. Alongside this, the artistically charming RPG Portal Knights was free last month. January also marked the final month of PS Plus support for the Vita and PS3, with Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion & Super Mutant Alien Assault joining the Vita lineup and Zone of the Enders HD Collection and Amplitude free for PS3 owners

Xbox Game Pass

January was a hecking good month for members of the Xbox game pass, with the entire Life Is Strange saga joining the service, along with other quality games such as Just Cause 3, Farming Simulator 17, Absolver, Aftercharge and ARK: Survival Evolved.

RELEASE DATES

Yoshi’s Crafted World

Nintendo released a story trailer for Yoshi’s creative new outing, showing off Baby Bowser and Kamek as the game’s villains. The release date set for this uniquely cardboard platformer is March 29th, so fans won’t have to wait long!

Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn

Breathing new life into the 3DS is this enhanced port of Kirby’s Epic Yarn, which originally released on the Wii in 2010. Featuring all new content that wasn’t available the first time around, fans of the Kirby series will be able to pick this up from March 8th.

Final Fantasy remasters

After the exciting announcement in September that beloved Final Fantasy games would be coming to other consoles in 2019, Square Enix have finally announced release dates for a couple of these titles. Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster will hit the Switch and Xbox One on April 16th, while Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age arrives on both of these consoles on April 30th.

RUMOURS

Welcome to probably the most controversial segment of this, the rumour-y bit! Just a pre-warning that nothing talked about here is by any means confirmed, so keep your expectations tempered.

SNES for Switch Online?

A recent datamine into the NES Switch Online app has apparently revealed a list of 20 SNES games in the code that could be coming to the system in the future, including Mario World, Kirby Superstar, A Link to the Past and Super Metroid. I’m hesitant to say this is true because nothing has been said on Nintendo’s end yet, but considering the lack of content for Switch Online as of yet, I’d say it’s fairly likely in any case. If this is true, we can all hope for DK Country and EarthBound also because pls Nintendo.

Smash Ultimate Fighter Pass Leak

There have been two notable datamines in the past month that could reveal our four remaining DLC fighters for Smash Ultimate. The first uncovered three names in the coding for the game, Plant (obviously referring to Piranha Plant), Jack (Likely Joker from Persona 5) and Brave (Speculated to be Erdrick from the Dragon Quest series). The reason why Brave is so heavily speculated to be Erdrick is because, in Japan, the hero class Erdrick belongs to in Dragon Quest is called ‘Yusha’, which translates to brave in English. Alongside this, one of the heads of development for Smash Ultimate, Shinya Kumazaki, recently posted a photo of the iconic shield from Dragon Quest with the caption ‘the brave’s shield’, which naturally sent the internet into meltdown. Personally, I think Erdrick is pretty much a dead cert for the DLC roster at this point, especially after that Instagram tease.

Thanks for reading!

In the next issue, most likely in the first week of March, I’ll be reviewing the likes of Jump Force, Metro Exodus, Far Cry New Dawn and Anthem, plus giving you a rundown of anything game-y that happens in February! Plus, the new game of the month feature will begin next time, as I explain my choice for January’s best game. Have a fun day. Stay hydrated.

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storm-driver · 7 years

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Kingdom Hearts: Why are the Remixes Good?

I see people bashing the Kingdom Hearts development team for “buying time” and “making a quick buck” with re-releasing the Kingdom Hearts games on the PlayStation 3 (and later the PlayStation 4). “They only did it because they needed to sate your hunger with mildly new stuff in each collection, only trying to buy time for Nomura’s ignorance to the final installment.”

JUST STOP. THAT’S NOT AT ALL ACCURATE.

The ORIGINAL Kingdom Hearts, made for the PlayStation 2 way back in 2002 (I was literally a babe when that game came out, can you believe that) is probably the most cherished game in the series, but... also the most annoying to play. Platforming was a little jumpy then and the way the combat rolled out was sorta messy. Nevertheless, the game proved to be fun and full of good story.

The original developers lost the assets to the game and took the collective decision to remake it from the ground-up. This let them fix a LOT of issues the game had with it’s camera work and select cutscenes, including the installation of new bosses, weapons, abilities, and an easier-to-use reaction command system, or as people call it in KH2, “PRESS TRIANGLE TO WIN.”

In addition to fixing the mechanical issues, the in-game models were updated to their HD versions, Yoko Shimomura re-composed the soundtrack for the game, and many cutscenes and textures were upgraded to match the stunning HD of the PS3.

This was only the beginning. Since 358/2 Days came out originally on the Nintendo DS, cutscenes were limited in this game. The story was told through, dare I say, poor quality in-game dialogue with hardly any voice acting to back it. This did make the characters in the game feel a little less like themselves. The HD Remaster of 358 really helps to bring back that tie. It completely scrapped the combat system used in Days, but did well to keep up it’s heart-wrenching story. While there is no gameplay, it was a touching movie that I still shed a few tears over.

Albeit, nothing much changed in Chain of Memories aside from the final boss having a remastered soundtrack, it was nice to see the cutscenes in HD. And if you’re like me, that sweet 60 fps on the PS4.

“Storm, this isn’t selling me. It still sounds like a cash-grab. ”

UNDERSTANDABLE! I honestly thought the same thing a long time ago! Allow me to inform you more on the next addition: Kingdom Hearts 2.5!

Kingdom Hearts II is, arguably, the best game in the franchise via gameplay. The combat system is much less punishing if you get hammered, and very cinematic. You thought Ars Arcanum was a cool way to finish off an enemy? Try having the scripted event be throwing the enemy INTO THE AIR and SMACKING IT IN THE CHEST SEVERAL TIMES, then having it LAND ON THE FLOOR BEHIND YOU AS YOU STRIKE A POSE.

Vertigo Toss is the coolest shit ever and I don’t know how to top it.

How do you make it better in the Remix? Anyone knows, compared to Kingdom Hearts I, this “much better” installment was very lacking in secret bosses and bonus content to do after completing the game. So that’s exactly what the developers added: extra areas to explore, more bosses to fight, new abilities to abuse, cool content to have fun with, AND A HELLISH SECRET BOSS THAT TIES INTO THE LORE.

The game also added in new cutscenes to help explain what’s going on within the Organization, as well as Roxas’ motivation behind fighting Sora, and Sora’s resolve to thank Naminé for what she’d done for him. On top of very beautiful HD graphics and a new soundtrack, the game was enjoyable for the viewer and a challenge for the player.

Birth by Sleep didn’t receive much change aside from the new graphics and a few remastered soundtracks. However, the Mirage Arena was modified for single-player use, new bosses were added, and a new Secret Episode was included in the game after finishing the Final Episode. This Secret Episode would tie into the later release of Kingdom Hearts 0.2 on the PS4.

It’s well-known to hardly affect the plot, but some of my theories say otherwise. Coded was a fun, side-game that delved into the data world of Jiminy’s Journal. While not a whole lot happened there, it was a fun game that did hint towards new releases for the future. The Remastered movie pulled a 358 and completely scrapped the gameplay part of the game. It became a 3-hour movie, mostly for viewing pleasure and not exactly designed to move the plot of the franchise. But there were a few-tear jerking cutscenes in there. It was well-worth the remake.

“Okay, but I’m not seeing the point. This still feels like a time-staller for KH3.”

Patience, my reader. We’re on our latest Remix: Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

yeah, i know, it’s a ridiculous name, but this is Kingdom Hearts, we all thought Goofy was dead for 2 minutes

Dream Drop Distance is infamous for being a mind-fuck to the viewer. While it has it’s flashy gameplay and interesting mechanics, the game is best known for it’s sudden exceleration in the plot with the introduction of time travel.

Yes, because things weren’t confusing enough. Plot aside, the gameplay didn’t change all that much. A few new Dream Eaters were added into the game, but aside from revamping the touch-screen commands, nothing really changed.

Here’s the real reason everyone bought 2.8: Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage

HAH, YOU THOUGHT THAT LAST NAME WAS RIDICULOUS.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 was a completely new experience in the franchise. It had only been touched on in the Secret Episode of Birth by Sleep and this short game was only a fraction of what was initially planned. I look at this game to be a demo for Kingdom Hearts III, as it uses the finalized graphics, mechanics, and game engine that is to be used in the final installment, as well as having a final cutscene that connects to the beginning of KH3, as confirmed by developers.

The game should only take the average player about 2 to 3 hours to finish this game. It is VERY short, but very amusing. Featuring absolutely stunning graphics, beautifully orchestrated music, fun gameplay, and an immersive world, I find people replaying this small demo all the time. Not only for it’s fun gameplay, but also the character development and story.

Kingdom Hearts Unchained X Back Cover is an HD recreation of the cutscenes in the mobile game, Kingdom Hearts Unchained X. It’s best understood by watching and/or playing the mobile platform, as the story may not make sense without its guiding game. The remaster touches on the 5 Union Leaders and how they intend to fight the impending darkness, as well as introducing the 6th Apprentice and what his role just might be.

“I can see why that LAST one wasn’t a cash-grab, but it definitely felt like a stall... Storm, where are you going with this?”

I admit, I do believe somewhere in my heart that the Remixes were a way to keep us busy while Kingdom Hearts III was being developed. But in no way or form do I think they were meant to just earn money. Granted, they certainly did, but I doubt that was the goal that the team was going for.

Kingdom Hearts has received MANY new fans since the initial release of Kingdom Hearts on the PS2. And what with how spread out every game is onto different consoles, it’s hard to actually play them all. Tetsuya Nomura, game director and developer, stated in an interview himself that the main reason the Remixes were made was to allow Kingdom Hearts fans new and old to visit and revisit the series without having to dig up old consoles.

Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 released onto the PS4, along with Kingdom Hearts 2.8 and the soon-coming Kingdom Hearts III places each and every game onto the PlayStation 4. Albeit pricey even now, every single game is accessible on a single console. Unchained X, or Union Cross, is still a phone game, but I do think they intend to recreate the story cutscenes and release them onto the PS4 in a potential DLC package.

“So... they made it easier for the fans?”

Not just easier, but they made this series mean even MORE to the fans. The recreation of 358/2 Days and Coded as movies, and the addition of new story content and gameplay material would not have been added if it wasn’t for the fans to enjoy. I don’t think I could love Roxas as much as I do if I didn’t get to see that HD Remaster of Days.

And with the release of Back Cover, it’s proof that they intend to bring Union Cross to the console players in some form or another. I can’t play Union Cross simply because I have a phone that doesn’t allow it to work properly. So being able to watch the “important” cutscenes in stunning HD feels like a privilege that I’m entirely thankful for.

And most important to me was the release of Kingdom Hearts 0.2, a practical demo for Kingdom Hearts III. It was a proof-check for the developers, so they could make sure that we knew their development was coming along just fine, so they could make sure that we LIKED what they were making and to see how they could perfect it for the grand title they’ve been working on for over 7 years. It was a reassurance that Kingdom Hearts III was on it’s way and that we would ENJOY it.

The Remixes were meant to tide us over, yes, but they were meant to make us fall in love with this game even MORE. So it would be beloved by our hearts and enjoyed by new ones. The Remixes, in all honesty, just made the Kingdom Hearts series better. I can say that as a fact.

#LONG RANT BUT IT'S A FUN ONE #Kingdom Hearts #kh #com #358/2 days #kh2 #bbs #recoded #ddd #kh0.2 #kh ux #kh back cover #my post

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arcticferedir · 7 years

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Final Fantasy 3

This game is a bit of an...oddity to me. The final NES final fantasy game, it didn’t actually come into proper existence for the US until it was remade on the Nintendo DS. With some vaaaaaaaast differences from the original. It also got another version on PSP. And another for iOS/Android, which also got ported to Steam(though not sure if it’s the iOS/Android version, or PSP version).

So, let’s look a little closer at this game in the series.

Story: In the original NES version of the game, a prophecy about a swell of darkness coming to the world threatens existance, but a prophecy fortells of 4 heroes that will come and bring Light to the world. The game proper starts with four orphans, adopted by a village elder, are out exploring outside of their village, and end up falling into a cave, having to fight their way out. At the end, they fight a boss(an Adamantoise), in front of a large crystal. Once defeated, the crystal grants it’s blessing upon the four children. They leave, and you learn more about their world. How they live on a giant floating island that rose up after the world flooded, how the crystals are the key to fixing the world, and how the darkness can be stopped.

Now, the NES kids are all onion kids(a basic class of the game), with no...separate personalities. They say things at times but they’re all interchangable, with you naming all of them at the beginning. There’s...not much else to them. HOWEVER in the DS version, they change that. While most of the rest of the game stays the same, instead they prename(but you can change their names) the four kids, and give them personal looks and character. Luneth, the ‘hero’ and the one that originally goes exploring and finds the crystal(he proceeds through that first opening dungeon on his own). Arc, Luneth’s friend, and a shy, kinda wimpy bookworm. Refia, the tomboy daughter of a blacksmith(and the only female of the party). And Ignis, a knight for the nearby kingdom. Otherwise, though, the rest of the story appears to remain unchanged.

The story goes back to a more...I’m not sure what to call it. Impersonal, perhaps? But it’s not as character involved as FF2 was. While there are characters that have importance and personality, for the most part they felt a bit more forgettable, even the though world itself feels fairly fleshed out. It feels like a callback to FF1, returning to it’s roots for a more D&D esque story where you give the personality to your characters and explore the world, while happening to save it. I believe this is also the first instance where your heroes are called the ‘Warriors of Light’, a moniker that eventually travels back to FF1, but also appears in FF5, and even in FF14. It’s a title that carries some weight to it.

Gameplay: While it plays similarly to final fantasy 1 in a lot of aspects, there is one major difference for this one: The Job/Class system. Every time you get a blessing from a crystal(and some other options at the end of the game), you gain new jobs to use for your party members. I won’t get into the jobs this time, as there are quite a few, but I’ll cover them later in a separate post.

Switching jobs costs CP(Crystal Points, supposedly) that you earn after battle. Switching to jobs that are more alike(like...black mage to white mage) costs less CP than switching to jobs that are vastly different(Like warrior to black mage). But, as you fight more and more, eventually you never seem to really have to worry about CP except for the early game or for gaming the system, as after a while it’s not hard to reach the cap of 255 CP.

However the DS version changes that. Instead, it uses a ‘class change sickness’(as I like to call it) system. When you change classes, your stats are lowered until you fight a certain number of battles, and then they are ‘used’ to the class and the stats return to normal. The main issue is that this happens every time you switch. Even if you’ve been that class before on that character. So you never want to change all four characters, otherwise everyone is bound to be lacking for an area.

The other main thing is that jobs have their own levels. The more you use actions that pertain to the job(warriors attacking and guarding, mages using magic) the more exp you get for it, causing it to level up. This increases that characters overall stats for that job, usually(while the character level affects MP/Spellslotnumbers, and HP which increases based on the characters vitality stat at the time of leveling). In the DS version if you raise a class high enough(I’m not sure if the max of 99 or some time before that), you can go to an area to get a special piece of equipment for that class.

Another feature that plays a relatively important part(mostly towards the beginning) are ‘mini dungeons’. Dungeons/paths/areas where you have to be mini’d to progress through them. Basically your attack and defense go to 1, so to properly be effective you need to have a party of mages and the spells to cast to do much of anything.

Remake Additions/Changes: The DS remake added a ‘mail’ system. It could be used to send messages to other players, though I never got a chance to play with it. Even if it unlocked one extra job. Besides that, and the main character changes, there weren’t many ‘additions’ I haven’t already discussed. There was a...change though.

In the original NES version, there could be a multitude of enemies on screen. However for the DS remake, they drastically lowered the number of enemies. However to counter balance that, they increased the stats of the enemies, making a severe change to how battles worked normally as your characters seemed relatively unaffected themselves by the changes. Thus making many complain that the game was much harder in nature, myself honestly included.

Final Opinion: Final fantasy 3 is a very solid final fantasy...in it’s original NES version. I’m truly not a fan of the changes done in the DS remake. While the main characters looking different from each other is a nice touch, they still felt a touch bland to me, and with the gameplay shifts I just couldn’t stomach the game. However with the NES version I was easily able to enjoy a full playthrough.

My suggestion? If you truly want to play this one, find it for NES, or emulate it perhaps. It’s a little old school, but it does start the trend of a job system that shows up again and again in future games. And I’m a sucker for a job system. Just...remember that, in the NES version, to change jobs, you have to remove all equipment, then re-equip. It can be tedious on that front, I won’t lie.

#blah blah blah #final fantasy #final fantasy 3 #final fantasy iii #ff #ff3 #ffiii

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bigboobshaunt · 6 years

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Pokémon Z

I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone that I have my fair share of problems with Pokémon XY and I’ve had them since those games were released. A lot of things bother me about them, but mostly the plot and character aspects of it, as well as something or other about the gameplay.

So! As promised on my gaming sideblog, I took a lot of notes about Pokémon XY while I was replaying them as part of my Pokéthon, in which I’m currently revisiting every region in the main series, in order for me to compile a list of alternatives to its story and characters that might have better served the Kalos region if it had been done differently.

Now, these changes are going to follow the template for Gamefreak’s “third version” so yes, it’s going to bring Zygarde into the spotlight, and I recognize that every paired Pokémon games that eventually got a third version are a little disjointed, before getting improved by their re-release, but, spoiler alert: XY were even more so than usual, so that’s not an excuse by itself.

This does indeed mean this is pretty much “What I would have liked to have seen in a Z version” as was implied by the title. Yes, I am aware of the fact that it’s 2018. Making this made me acutely aware of how many damn plates they were juggling with this region all at once, which probably explains why they all fell to the floor and broke.

This is 10k words long and I’m dying.

When I said I took notes, I mean it in the most literal sense possible, so you’re going to see my commentary unfiltered sometimes, and then my commentary about my own commentary - I like talking even though I probably shouldn’t. Point being: this is not a complete rewrite, because I sure as hell am not being paid to do this, so it’s going to be more or less my suggestions about how I would have gone about developing this world and its characters to fix their issues, had I been at the helm.

That being said, I think I’ve managed to round out a lot of reasons the “primary” versions fell flat and ironed out some solutions to those shortcomings, and though I’ll be the first to admit that my solutions are far from perfect, I do believe they’d have made for a better game than the ones we got.

At the end of the day, though, XY are still Pokémon games, and I’ve replayed them many, many times, because I just can’t outright hate main series Pokémon games, and my criticisms and suggestions here are born out of my own desire to have seen these games be better. I hope I’m not dismissed as a #hater because of it, but if these games are something you hold dear and refuse to admit its flaws, then you should probably not read on.

If it matters, I think Gamefreak’s gotten better about the flaws that made XY what it was, since then. I thought ORAS was a pretty solid remake and game as a whole, I liked the Delta Episode (specially Zinnia) and I absolutely LOVED SM, and even if I did think USUM was considerably more on the squirrely side compared to its predecessor/AU, I still enjoyed it a lot because I love that cast of characters. Meaning this rework of mine is not really topical, or being written because I’m “concerned” for the future of their storytelling abilities, for that matter.

It’s just something I needed to get out of my system, apparently. Now to move on to the actual thing.

This is going to be split in three sections for organization’s sake: Characters, Plot and Gameplay. And though I’ve been careful not to extrapolate too far from something that would happen in Pokémon canon (even though I’d argue it’s a wild ride enough as it is) and did base this mostly on actual Kalos canon (hah) there is going to be some inevitable divergence, reworking and tweaking here and there. Hope you enjoy.

Characters

1) Friend Group

*For the purposes of this post, I’m gonna assume Serena is the protagonist, as I did just play through Y with her in order to do this, which makes Calem the rival. If you flip it around, though, the complaints remain the same.

*I’ll also refer to the collective of Calem, Shauna, Trevor and Tierno as the “Friend Group” from now on, because I don’t feel like typing their names every time, and their flaws come both from how weak they are as a group AND individually.

*The first scene with the Friend Group is actually fairly competent at establishing who these characters are, however, this slips pretty fast into inconsistency as the game goes on and never really recovers.

*I’ve noticed that Trevor doesn’t really come off to me as shy beyond this scene and Tierno seems to dial down in boisterousness from now on. These might have been good changes, had they not happened pretty much IMMEDIATELY after the start of the game and been developed properly.

*Tierno and Trevor are sometimes a package deal, and I believe if they’d interacted more, you’d have been able to tell that they’re growing as people through learning from each other. Trevor could have learned to better manage his shyness through Tierno and Tierno could have gotten some level headed-ness from his friend, in turn. Oh well, down the toilet!

*This package deal is more than a little unkind to Shauna, though. She seems almost disconnected from the entirety of this group besides you. A change that similarly happens right after their first scene. I do consider her the most likable of the four, but that’s a) a low bar to set and b) obviously what the writer intended, and that’s really transparent.

*What’s also transparent is that Shauna gets flirtier dialogue with male players than she does with female ones in the fireworks scene, which should be fixed immediately.

*Truth be told, I liked the part in which all five of you explore Santalune Forest together a lot, because it showed what each of you was up to in that segment and made them feel more alive... Which sucks, because it’s the only time it happens in the game and they go right back to feeling like grating roadblocks after this. I’ve added more segments of that nature down the road.

*I’m not at all bothered by the fact that Tierno, Trevor and Shauna aren’t doing the League Challenge, I do like the concept that they have different goals for themselves. What I don’t like is how none of them ever get development in those areas.

*We see hints of some change when you battle the three of them at the bridge that leads to Snowbelle (Trevor is frustrated by losing and wonders if he should dedicate himself to training a little more, while Tierno says he felt incompetent by comparison after reflecting on what the player character did to stop Team Flare) but that’s not nearly enough to matter in a character growth sort of sense.

*Even worse with Shauna, because it feels like her resolution was, literally, “Whatever!” They tried giving her a thing about how she wants to form memories with you, but a lot of these memories are either bland or rather insignificant. I don’t wanna think too much about “That time my friends and I were roped off by some dude with a half-baked horror story” or “That time my friend and I watched some tower turn on the lights” because they’re boring and don’t Mean anything to me.

*Maybe expand upon Why Shauna wants memories she can treasure? Perhaps she didn’t have many friends she could interact with before your group and she feels her life’s been confusing and uneventful so far, so she wants to recklessly throw herself into an adventure to change that? That would actually have fit as a resolution if she decided she wanted to live in the moment, with her friends and her Pokémon beside her.

*I realize comparing BW to XY in terms of writing is like comparing filet mignon to dollar store cupcackes, but compared to Bianca, a character who also didn’t really know what she wanted in life before going on her journey, and STILL finds herself doubting it two years later, Shauna really pales in comparison, because that inner conflict Bianca was given made her a multi-faceted character, and shock of all shocks, it’s also not all that there was to her at the end of the day!

*This is overlapping a bit with the Gym Leaders’ section, but they gave her this Thing with Clemont that implies they keep in touch, and Clemont gives her that convenient little puzzle machine that comes into play One (1) time because Shauna says she loves puzzles in a single line of dialogue that might even be missed? I get the feeling they wanted Clemont to be a bigger character in this world, if the anime is of any indication, and I think that friendship could be expanded upon.

*You could have been prompted by Shauna to visit Clemont and Bonnie upon arriving in Lumiose (maybe even where we get the Holocaster since it’s not even useful before this point in the story. Oh and believe me, we’ll get to the fucking Holocaster and Lysandre Labs later...).

*Mixing those ideas, she might not have been Clemont’s friend beforehand, but visits him because she’s heard of his gadgets and since she likes that kinda stuff, this could have been where they met? It’s good for characters to interact in meaningful ways, I think. It’s nice.

*When it comes to Tierno, I CANNOT go without mentioning that for a character that’s supposedly obsessed with dancing... he never dances. Unless you count that weird flourish he does in the first battle against you, but if that’s the best he can do while dancing is his only character trait... yikes.

*There could be a theater area to Lumiose (Just a thought - having entertainment in your version of fucking Paris??) and you get to see him perform there when you double back from Coumarine? (This also has the added effect of giving some meaningful Point to restoring the energy that comes from the Power Plant, you’re helping your pal out). We’ll come back to this theater area for another character later, so put a pin on that!

*This also works as his motivation. Joining a famous dancing group or something where he feels his talents are appreciated more and he’d be able to make a career out of something he enjoys. I’ve also considered adding the Dancer class to the game and have them often mention having met up with Tierno and taught him about their personal style so he could learn more about dancing in general, explaining why he went on a journey at all.

*That time he questions himself on whether his goals are even worth it could have decent pay off if he was actually given anything to do of relevance in the story, and that’s something that goes for Trevor and Shauna too, but I have something in mind for them too...

*Trevor... oh Trevor, what even are you doing here, lil’ guy? I’m serious, I realize his focus is on the Pokédex, but I must ask this - to what end? It’s even more embarrassing because he keeps losing to you in what’s supposed to be his primary objective (You had ONE job).

*It’s also been pointed out, I specifically remember it was by tumblr user @kibibarel, that there’s this one particularly disturbing point of continuity concerning Trevor, given that, in BW2, N posits that humans could eventually grow past the need of Pokéballs for interacting with Pokémon, which is honestly a pretty great idea... smash cut to Trevor, one generation later, in which he literally says you must save the Pokéball factory because there would be no way to bond with Pokémon without them, and this is not a notion that anybody else ever questions, which honestly feels like a kick in the teeth the more you think about it... (I’ll actually need to get back to the Pokéball Factory later on in this post REGARDLESS because it’s super blatant padding anyways, so that gives me a chance to retool the whole thing anyhow).

*Trevor lives in Lumiose, and he’s pretty scholarly in general, so I thought it fitting if he’d already decided he wanted to become Sycamore’s assistant, and feels like he needs to get to know all of Kalos to expand his knowledge of it and its Pokémon before he can actually apply for the position.

*His parents are dicks who left him and his sister to travel the world, apparently, so I’d like to think Sycamore has maybe been sort of a parental figure to Trevs? (Err... my version of Sycamore’s not as Sycamore as Sycamore is, but I’ll get to that. Just felt like I’d clarify that because if you’ve recently interacted with Sycamore, you’re probably really concerned by me making that decision).

*As a whole, the Friend Group needs both more interactions between each other and also with the player. And I think adding a few more battles to the ones that exist would be a good way of gauging their progress throughout the game (Have you noticed how battles with Shauna, Trevor and Tierno fucking EVAPORATE after you get two badges, upon which you only battle Calem, and then once Calem takes a time out you battle them again before your eighth? It’s like the writer needed to have an on/off switch to balance them out and couldn’t have both at once, it’s weird as hell).

*Fuck the scary house segment and all it stands for I’ll never get those minutes of my life back ever again oh my god Yah so instead of that huge waste of time in which everyone involved is kind of a grating asswipe, how about we all explore Route 14 together like we did in Santalune Forest? There’s a lot of potential interactions there, and we could even have a Pokémon Graveyard area that was strangely absent in Kalos (unless you count Route 10 which is just a poor substitute) and simultaneously flesh out the Friend Group as they relate to the fact that their Pokémon’s lives are finite and they should enjoy the time they have now?

*Another potential area for this sort of joint exploration is the Terminus Cave, which is a multi-layered dungeon that has three floors, allowing the game to divvy up attention between a couple of characters in each floor (Tierno in the first floor, Trevor in the second and Shauna in the last) as you explore it deeper. It’s really milquetoast and boring in XY, if you visit it before the credits roll, but I think Reversal Mountain would have been the same, had Bianca not partnered up with you to explore it in BW2. This area is required to explore in this hypothetical version for reasons you’ll read more about in the Plot section.

*So, Calem, huh? I’ll admit, the first time I played this, I thought the fact that they were getting progressively more crushed and disappointed with themselves in their dialogue for being beaten by you repeatedly, even though they’re more experienced than you are as a trainer, was...going somewhere, but it really doesn’t. I thought for sure this would lead to them growing resentful towards you, and truth be told, I got that impression too in my replay, which makes the fact that it doesn’t happen all the more jarring.

*I think Calem should have lashed out, at you and at himself at least once for this. Sure, have him apologize on the spot and then leave to clear their head. Do what Pokémon games usually do and say that this character needed some time to think and reflect as they split up. You can even have his training under Gurrkin happen during this part, in which Calem realizes he wasn’t even thinking about his Pokémon, but got so wrapped up in trying to beat you that it became obsessive and unmanageable, and that he was no longer journeying just to improve himself and his Pokémon.

*Have them admit to this later, and think about that fuck-up. This would also have been a fantastic comeback to Lysandre, as even in XY, Calem is shown trying to argue with him once - have this personal failing be where he learned it.

*There is adversity in friendships, sometimes, and we all do wrong things, grow and develop as people, before mending relationships that might’ve become shaky. But as a whole, this friendship the player is supposed to have with the Friend Group feels fabricated because none of your relationships ever grow or change in any way, be it because you’ve learned more about your friends and were able to relate to them on a deeper level, or because you’ve overcome a hurdle in that relationship together.

*There is precisely one scene in XY in which Shauna confesses to the fact that she feels useless, left behind by the player and Calem, but it’s then supposed to be solved by the plot convenient puzzle machine she uses, so it doesn’t feel earned, because it comes out of nowhere and is gone just as fast. It’s portrayed as if getting over that kind of internal worry is something that is even remotely easy, which does her a great disservice.

*TLDR - Instead of reminding you that she matters as a person, it instead imparts the far stupider lesson that yes, she really was useless up to this point in the adventure and then isn’t anymore because of a really contrived happenstance.

*Another thing that bugs me a lot about their portrayal related to Team Flare is that at least in two occasions (Pokéball Factory and then in the Geosenge Lab) instead of using the Friend Group in a way that could portray them as brave and helpful by actively helping you take out the grunts, the game instead opts to make them bail out on you as Flare gives chase off-screen to thin out their numbers... which makes them look weak and kinda hard to love. I think it was meant to be endearingly clever and funny, but it’s............................. really not.

*Wrapping back to Calem for a moment, I realized that, retroactively speaking, the match that decided who’d be worthy of Mega Evolution in the Tower of Mastery was really kind of pointless in the end because Calem later gets a Mega Ring too, so it really ended up just being a battle for who’d get a trinket earlier, basically? It could have added a lot to his character if being judged unworthy Meant something to him (kinda explaining why later he comes back to Gurrkin for additional training).

*Also did y’all notice that this was the first battle with your rival? In the third gym’s city? It should have been a minor culmination of your rivalry up to that point, I feel, which is even stranger to me because the gap between gyms 1 and 2 is So Damn Big in XY anyways, so it could have at least been utilized for character development (also another thing I want to try my hand at alleviating, but that’s under Gameplay).

*I pointed this out in my liveblog, but instead of using a Flecthling that later disappears completely from their team, the rival could have instead used the Swablu that would have later become their Altaria. This would also have been a good shorthand to showcase their experience, since Swablu can’t be caught until almost the end of the game... but conveniently next to the place Calem’s father lives! I just think it’s nice when attention is given to your rivals’ teams, like what happened with Cheren and Bianca.

*Not helping matters is that Calem was written with absolutely no character voice, which does not help give you any kind of idea about what sort of character they are and what’s going on in their head, something that even the other three, bumblers supreme, have. It’s sadly a lot like interacting with an automaton, at times, rather than a human being who has anything that sets them apart.

2) Sycamore, Lysandre and Diantha

*I get the feeling that with Sycamore, Gamefreak tried to make this really cool, relatable dorky character, who could also be shown as a competent person and reliable adult, but I also feel like they failed spectacularly in doing so, because what they did add makes me think he kinda sucks big time. I also get the feeling I’ll get at least one death threat for this.

*I’m referring mostly to two things, his relationship to the game’s main antagonist, Lysandre, and how he kickstarts the player’s journey.

*The fact that you actually interact with Sycamore himself very little in the game doesn’t really help. I’m not kidding you guys, one of my notes actually said “Sina and Dexio are completely useless” verbatim, and my proposed idea was to scrap their interactions with you and replace them with Sycamore, in which he wants to help you directly and isn’t just content with pointless Holocaster interludes, and you know what? I was trying to come up with ways to present that a little better for the Z version, but it’s... already pretty solid.

*Dexio and Sina are themselves another thing I don’t get about XY. They’re given so much importance and yet contribute absolutely nothing of note at the end of the day. It’d be functionally the same thing as if one of Oak’s aides kept showing up at random during your battles with Team Rocket to prattle on about how you must defend the region, before maybe handing you an item and then leaving without Doing anything. You already have a bloated cast, and yet you squander so much potential by giving these goons so much screen time?

*Dexio and Sina would have been fine as assistants that show up to update your dex, leave, and then hang around in the lab. Maybe even have them occasionally give you items for completing a percentage of each of Kalos’ pokédexes? That could give further reasoning for splitting it in three, too. But that’s about all that they need to do, because it really does feel like they’re sort of robbing Sycamore himself of time he could have spent actually showing he cares about you or about the world around him...

*...Specially when his best friend is the very same person who’s threatening that world. And make no mistake, I realize that it’s a game for children, so Lysandre was pretty much always going to be signaled as the Obvious Bad Guy, so I’m not even that miffed that it’s as transparent as it is... what I Am chuffed about, however, is how oblivious Sycamore is to his best friend’s outright genocidal tendencies. It actually makes Sycamore incredibly unlikable when you have Lysandre monologue about how the world’s past saving and then cut back to Sycamore being all “Oh that Lysandre... what a lad.”

*Contrast this with Lusamine, one gen later. She’s also pretty clearly set up as the villain, but you can actually buy that some people would not notice that she is, because you actually get to see that she’s attempting to do good by Pokémon with the whole Aether conservation area, and her true goals don’t come to the forefront until much later.

*We’re repeatedly told Lysandre is trying to help people, but it’s all tell and absolutely no show. Which is even worse when the guy who’s supposedly super close to him and to you, doesn’t notice anything off about him. Contrast to Lillie, another character closely related to the villain, who’s shown going out of her way to avoid interacting with Lusamine, immediately tipping the player off that something’s up, if they’re paying attention.

*You could even, theoretically, keep Sycamore’s obliviousness about his friend - it is, after all, a part of Sycamore’s characterization - however, maybe tone down Lysandre’s obviousness just a bit? Show his work at the Lysandre Labs and how they’re trying to make this a better world? It’s really unclear. Make us see what Sycamore sees in Lysandre.

*The other shoe needs to drop at some point, though. Sycamore NEEDS to realize what Lysandre has become, and through helping you take down Flare in a way that’s more active than what he does in XY, this could serve as his way of atoning for not noticing sooner. Allow his laid back nature to have real consequences, let him fuck up and attempt to help patch things up.

*One of the absolute worst moments of XY was when Sycamore meets you at Couriway and says the following sentence: “By defeating Team Flare, you’ve saved Lysandre,” which is about one of the most insulting endings you could have given Lysandre, because he is SUPER dead by this point, and that also paints Sycamore as someone who apparently didn’t give enough of a fuck about his friend to grieve what has become of him?

*The way he sets up the player and the Friend Group’s adventure is also just blatant, empty padding. There is a lot of promise, mystery and hype about Mega Evolutions, which is understandable considering how innovative and eye-catching of a feature they are... but when it’s all said and done, there was no real solution to any mystery, and this never really goes anywhere, having any and all leads Sycamore gives you about them turn out to be duds... so I can’t help but feel robbed of actual meaningful experiences by this.

*Heck, the way this is set up makes Sycamore feel even dumber of a character, because both of his friends, Diantha and Lysandre, are some of the only opponents in the game who use Mega Evolution against you. It’s specially puzzling in Diantha’s case because she discusses Mega Evolution with Sycamore in Coumarine and seems oblivious about how it works, despite the fact that she can use it herself...

*Instead, if they were not going to answer any of the mysteries behind it, why not just make them a part of the world? Make it so they’re not this closely-guarded secret no one knows about, but just have your objective be to Find the Mega Stones throughout Kalos, since they are indeed still illusive and you can’t perform Mega Evolution without them. You’re given a few Mega Stones anyways, so it’s not any more game-breaking than it already was, in theory, and this would at least have made the really dumb, time-constrictive search for them in the postgame feel less bad.

*It’s implied Lysandre learned how to harness their power through spying on you on the Holocaster, but this is revealed in a throwaway line as he’s about to battle you for the last time (in which, admittedly, the player has other priorities in mind and has most likely even missed this explanation) But it would have been better done if he had just asked Sycamore if he could study the Gyaradosite, and Sycamore had allowed it before realizing Lysandre is Flare’s boss.

*Lysandre himself could have been an interesting villain, but only if his own life and the Kalos region had been developed more than they actually were. We see no actual evidence to prove his point of view that greed is going to be the downfall of the region, when in fact the region seems unfailingly kind and nice. The game should have established instead that such niceties are only skin deep, and hide Kalos’ problems away apathetically while displaying that façade.

*(Ironically this is actually touched upon, but only after the main storyline is over and it has nothing to do with Lysandre, but everything to do with XY’s best character, Emma).

*My proposed development to this would be to expand upon both Lysandre’s relationship to his friends, Sycamore and Diantha, and how he became the person he is today, with his warped, misguided view of the world.

*At Couriway, I think it would have been interesting if both Sycamore and Diantha showed up to talk to you, after Lysandre’s been taken down (Diantha is sorely lacking in interactions with the player before the laughable “Oh I almost didn’t recognize you!” speech at the Elite Four... so this also helps with that).

*I don’t think it’s ever stated where these three grow up, but the fact that Couriway is such an important place for Sycamore gave me an idea to establish that the three of them grew up together in that town as childhood friends. In this version, I would have liked Sycamore (and Diantha) to have shown a lot more sadness over what happened to Lysandre, and about how they were both too caught up with their busy personal lives to really notice his change until it was too late.

*You would be able to find notes from past Diantha and past Lysandre in addition to the one you find from past Sycamore, too. This would have served to shed some light into Lysandre’s past, adding to the tragedy of the kind of person he became, and it would also have fleshed out Diantha as a character the player is supposed to care about and have a bond with.

*I feel XY would feel a lot more personal to the player if it were essentially the story about how three close friends drifted apart by how their lives changed them, only coming together again through the loss of one of them.

*What I had in mind for Lysandre’s backstory and internal turmoil is this - Lysandre, as established in XY, is of royal blood. He’s related to AZ’s younger brother, and I feel like that’s not something XY used well, if at all. In my mind, I assumed people would have pretty much always expected great things from Lysandre, just because of his ancestry, and the fact that he is so successful (through his labs, technological developments and his café) would have been chalked up to that, instead of people actually acknowledging the hard work that he must have done in order to get where he is now.

*Now, what if this is what spurred that change in Lysandre? He could have been someone who always wanted to help, to unendingly give and give to others through his own work... only to be taken completely for granted and basically have his personhood ignored, creating his misanthropic sentiments.

*This way, it could be played like he could never fully escape the shadow of his greedy, yet larger-than-life ancestor, and ironically, this is what made him so much more like this person. It would have added some dimension to Lysandre himself and his decisions, not to mention his worldview.

*In the game as it is, Lysandre seems overwhelmingly concerned with loss and greed, but as the player is never shown what Lysandre even knows of those things, personally, the entire crux of his character seems kind of random, and this is not helped even a little bit by the fact that his and Flare’s actions are all over the place, and end up incongruous with what he believes in.

*If he believes greed is what’s going to tear apart the region again, why does he charge people to join Flare? Why do they seem so concerned with personal style? Those aspects don’t seem to connect in any meaningful way. Why does Flare seem like the exact type of person Lysandre would loathe, yet he’s the one who hires and presumably directs them? Why do THEY get a place at his side, when they’re the very kind of people who’s tearing the region apart according to him?

*I hate to keep going back to BW (that’s a lie, I love BW) but Plasma had similar conflicts between its stated goals and methods... except that this was the entire point, because Plasma’s leader, who did believe in their stated goal, was being manipulated all along by someone who did not believe, and the same went for the Grunts and other members, who eventually even have split factions based on the differing motives that come from both of their leaders.

*It’s never something that gets answered or explained with Flare, which makes their already quite weak motives and cartoonish actions seem even more pointless than they already were. Once again, not helping Lysandre’s case, because his team never really congeals under any singular goal that seems to matter to them, nor is it reflected clearly in their actions.

*There are two quotes that come up about Lysandre in Snowbelle that attempt to shed some light into him. This is a place which, I must remind you, you can only access after Lysandre has been defeated.

"Lysandre... he's my old friend. He was trying to help people in need. Becoming convinced of people's stupidity and facing his own limitations led him to conclude that the world could not be saved, which lead to his suffering... it's ironic."

"Lysandre was his name, right? I wonder why he didn't dream bigger. If he had said he wanted to save everyone in Kalos, surely people would have supported him."

*While interesting, these fall right back into what I said before. We’re told Lysandre wants to help, but we’re never shown how, exactly, he’s supposed to be doing this. His only named invention is the Holocaster, which the player never gets to use for themselves in the game, only being called by others through it. Doesn’t seem like much of an invention that was made to help the needy, either.

*Presumably the reason why he didn’t think to ask for help is because of his own disillusionment with other people, which I need to state again, is wrong and rather myopic unless we know about his personal conflict.

*In short, they’re also too little, too late. Hilariously, Calem even attempts to “both sides” the conflict with Team Flare when you meet him in the Victory Road, and I can’t even begin to explain to you how fucked up this is when there was no real, poignant motivation to Lysandre’s genocidal tendencies and how the Kalos region is never taken to task about the alleged greed of its people, thus failing to let the player and the characters learn any one lesson from the whole thing.

*I like Diantha’s conversation with Lysandre in Lumiose a lot, truth be told. It’s one of the very few scenes in which the legendaries’ main themes (life and death) are brought to the forefront in a way that affects the characters, and it’s even a little subtle about how it goes about it! (Except for Lysandre, there’s nothing subtle about him). It’s just a shame that this is the only part in the game in which they interact.

*Heck, I’m not even sure anymore about how close they are, and if they’re not just friends-of-friends through Sycamore? I had guessed they were also friends, specially given their little brunch in Generations, but I like the concept that I already explained above and I think it could have been expanded upon to further both of them.

*I’ve also involved Diantha directly in taking down Lysandre, but this is something that’s only really going to make sense once you’ve read how I’m going about changing the basic plot-line.

*Speaking of that, though, remember back when I was talking about Tierno and I brought up the new theater area in Lumiose? That could have been used to learn more about Diantha’s job, since it’s absolutely criminal that we have a region based on France, its Champion is an actress and yet we have no real clue about the kinds of movies she stars in? This really could have been both a cool hang-out spot with your friends, as well as providing bonding opportunities with Diantha herself.

*I think that, since movies were already a feature in the game that immediately preceded this one, this wouldn’t really have been a mini-game per se, but rather a place to learn about Kalosian culture and flesh out the world itself. Maybe even let the player “watch” her movies, unlocking more as the story progresses (since you do have to visit Lumiose a lot).

3) AZ

*”You know what would be cool? If we had this really interesting character with a textured lore to him... and then gave him four scenes total, two of which aren’t explained and don’t matter.” - Direct Quote from Junichi Masuda, circa 2013.

*Jokes aside, I can’t believe how under-utilized AZ is, when he was an idea with such potential. He’s still supposed to be the emotional core of these games, and I feel that he is, to some extent, even if I question literally everything about how he was executed. There was obviously a lot of care put into his backstory, and while that presentation goes a long way in making us care about his situation, it kinda gets irreparably damaged if you give his character and his place in this setting and in this story even the slightest bit of thought?

*We’re supposed to think he has changed since he unleashed the weapon upon the region, all those years ago, and while he distinctively doesn’t seem homicidal, of course, in the end he’s... not really done anything to redeem himself for that? All his sorrow is directed to his Floette, and how being parted with it made him grieve and wander the world, but where does that leave the lives he took? How is that supposed to be an answer to his actions when it’s still centered all on himself?

*So many questions, so few answers. Like for instance - why is he so tall? Was he always that tall or was this something the weapon just did? What authority do his soldiers have to send his Pokémon off to war? Heck, it’s never actually confirmed in the game that being exposed to the weapon made him immortal, but I believe it’s what we’re lead to assume, and was later confirmed... but uh. I would... think being exposed to that lethal weapon would make you, er, dead? Like the Pokémon who were killed back then and would presumably be killed by its activation now?

*I get why it made the Floette immortal, that’s where the power of the Pokémon’s lives was used up for (this is basically the Philosopher’s Stone from FMA, let’s be real here) but I would think that being exposed to it would probably have killed AZ instead of giving him eternal life, but that just raises more questions about how the weapon works that are never explained - why did getting exposed to it while in kill mode not kill him if he was that close to it, but then DID affect him when it was in life mode?

*Touching as his reunion with Floette is, I think seeing AZ more and interacting with him in a more meaningful, less one-sided way should be the way to go. He could be met earlier on in the journey, perhaps even in Route 10 itself, maybe he’s taking care of Pokémon injured by Flare or even their own trainers, then he notes about how well the player is raising their Pokémon with care, and then gives the player some healing items? This would at least get the player to make a more personal bond with him and showcase how he’s trying to help Kalos in his own way to atone.

*The only time he makes explicit that he’s the man from the legend is during the parade, by the way, which caught me by surprise. I mean, there’s no doubt that he is, when he’s exposition dumping telling the story to you, but that he refers to himself as “that man” then... it comes off as a little dismissive of his actions, like he’s trying to distance himself from it, which while understandable, given the interim 3000 years, it doesn’t reflect too well on him in retrospect given that, again, we don’t know what he’s done to atone for those actions.

*I’ve also detailed another point concerning both AZ and your Friend Group in the Plot section later, because I want to answer a rather jarring plot hole in XY while also giving your friends something to Do.

4) Others

*In general, the Gym Leaders need to show up outside their Gyms more. They get very little characterization in this game already, which isn’t helped by their only repeated appearance being in the incredibly odd Battle Chateau, that restricts their team so much and is such a hassle to even encounter them in, and doesn’t even add anything to their characters when you do.

*Same goes for the Elite Four in feeling almost disparate from anything going on in the region and the plot itself.

*Neither of those notes above are exclusive to XY, but it’d still be good to have, so I think adding at least one interaction with every leader outside of their gym would be better. I’ve also wanted to involve them in taking down Flare for good, but that’s for later.

*I can’t very well discuss the Elite Four (who should also all show up outside the castle) without addressing the accomplice to attempted genocide in the room: Malva. Now, I realize Pokémon has involved some very hokey decisions for its villains’ daily lives. Giovanni being a Gym Leader being a prime moment of fuck. That was something that happened in a 1996 game, though, and I would think a 2013 game shouldn’t have tried to upstage it by making the villainous team member one of the Elite Four?

*What really doesn’t help Malva’s case is the whole execution of her membership in Team Flare, as it lands with an incomparable *thud* because it’s one big pile of “uh what?” after another, because we don’t actually even know what she was doing in Flare or how she was balancing this triple act of Holocaster host, criminal team member and Elite Four member by night?

*Who even IS Malva, come to think of it? There is no connection to ever be had with her, in the context of her being a Team Flare member, because she only shows up once in the main story - a mandatory, two sentence Holocaster segment that reports back to you the Pokéball Factory incident (a life-changing piece of Kalosian news, as you recall) which you just did.

*It’s the only time in the game it happens, and I can only assume it was meant to be a regular thing, except they changed their minds but decided to keep that scene in for some reason, despite how completely extraneous it is.

*If it were up to me, the Lysandre Labs would be its own area in Lumiose, not attached to the Lysandre Café through a silly secret entrance, because it’s actually kind of pivotal to his character and visiting it would have allowed us to both take a gander into the tech Lysandre supposedly helps people by developing, and have introduced us to Malva in a way that could matter in any way, shape or form.

*Expand Malva’s role in Flare’s machinations and also let the player meet her while it still matters so they’re surprised by her affiliation with a criminal syndicate.

*It would be interesting, I think, if she was so devoted to Lysandre because she came from a place of poverty and was given opportunities by him to make her life better, so she thinks Flare will also make everyone’s lives better, and she’d be a microcosm of Lysandre himself, in their prior disillusionment with the world, and hey, an actual concrete example of Lysandre helping someone, at that - win win.

*Malva’s postgame stuff with Looker is also... a whole ‘nother can of worms about how the International Police works, but it’s postgame so I’m not gonna get into that. Also not having the battle with her only include one damn Pokémon would have been nice... The Essentia subplot was the best part about XY so I feel like it could just be transplanted whole cloth into Z without too many changes, really.

*Alexa. Just as a concept... I don’t understand what happened with her. She was used to promote Kalos in Pokéani, making me assume she’d be an important character, but then she did absolutely nothing of importance in the games? Seriously, there is absolutely nothing to her except being related to Viola and giving you the EXP share. I actively forgot about her the first time I played the game and then the Lumiose Press came up on the postgame, which made me feel like I suddenly got sucker-punched by another character with wasted potential.

*As a journalist, I feel like she would have been the obvious choice to get into Team Flare’s actions across Kalos and also discover Lysandre’s connections to it, and she would have been a pretty great foil to Malva, at that. I can only assume she was meant to interact with the player a lot more, but then had her role cut out for some reason or another, because as it stands, there is no reason she should even have an unique model in this game.

*In Z, she would be the one who gets the Gym Leaders together to fight back against Flare, through her connections with Viola.

*I deliberately said four there, because Xerosic, unexpectedly, actually has dimensions added to his character in the postgame, but while I do believe his button sequence would be scrapped in Z version, the rest can stay because it’s not all bad. Trust me, I wouldn’t have expected this guy to be my favorite member of Team Flare at the end of the day, but the world is a very strange place.

*Speaking of things that were wasted, it absolutely flabbergasted me that they chose to go with four named Scientists in Team Flare while they barely have one personality between them. Granted, there are only so many ways they could have been allowed to express themselves when their individual actions were so nonsensical, disjointed and unnecessary in the long run, but even then, their existence is kind of an accomplishment for all the wrong reasons.

PLOT

*As was established earlier, this version would bring in Zygarde as its mascot, because it’s the obvious third member in the trio that consists of Xerneas and Yveltal.

*My ideas for the plot changes have taken some elements from the XYZ anime, because I think it’s actually a fair window into what a Z game could actually have been about, specially as it pertains to Lysandre trying to use Zygarde to accomplish his goals, and Zygarde admittedly would fit that role a lot better than Xerneas and Yveltal ever did, in the end.

*Everything about Xerneas and Yveltal’s utilization in the games is kind of a big question mark. They’re woefully underdeveloped for the ones who’re supposed to be the title legendaries, and even Team Flare’s utilization of them feels odd and rushed. I aim to give them their own place in the lore, building with what little blocks we have and to try to have both of them exist at once.

*There’s not even an explanation for why they’re what’s needed to power the ultimate weapon, since they didn’t seem to have anything to do with its creation, despite the parallels of its power to theirs (I was under the impression that they were going to BE the ultimate weapon the first time I played the game, because, well, it just made sense to me, but it turns out they were just glorified batteries?)

*The general idea is that Lysandre is trying to fuse Zygarde back to full power in order to raze Kalos to the ground and restore it to a natural, pure state. I’m not having him use the ultimate weapon again, just siphon its power into Zygarde to force that transformation into its 100% forme and make it even stronger.

*I think it’d be appropriate if the final tussle with Flare happened at Lumiose, because it’s the literal center of everything Kalos stands for. Which even the Anime understood.

*I’m... not actually sure why the weapon CAN be used again in XY without killing many before being activated again? Did AZ leave it on standby for 3000 years or...

*I’m of two minds involving Lysandre’s... whatever the fuck he wears for the final confrontation (what ARE those metal ass BUGS??) On the one hand I could give them a reason to exist, being what Lysandre is using to siphon the weapon’s energy into Zygarde... but on the other hand, I hate them and want them gone from the world (or Gamefreak could at least provide an EXPLANATION for what they were supposed to be?? Or to “bee,” rather).

*I think the Prism Tower would be a great final battle location, given its height and stated importance to the city (being the obvious Eiffel analogue and all) but it’s currently just Clemont’s gym, so I feel like I’d expand it to have like a few topmost floors that also let you see a scenic view of Kalos the first time you arrive in Lumiose? This would also sort of bookend your adventure as you climb it up again to confront Lysandre at the top.

*Prism Tower would also be where the Gym Leaders show up, beckoned by Alexa, to block the exit of the Team Flare scientists as you all arrive to storm the place (kind of like what happened in N’s Castle).

*And while I’m certainly not going to contrive a reason for Lysandre to get killed to shit again, I am going to have Diantha show up to block his escape and talk him down out of his genocidal ramblings, by reminding him of their talk back near the beginning of the game, and about how he’s been selling humanity, and life in general, short, before he’s apprehended.

*You explore Terminus cave (as mentioned above) with your friends upon catching wind that Flare wants to nab Zygarde, though you’re too late to stop them there.

*Like I said before, the Lysandre Labs would be expanded into their own area, so you don’t really fight the Scientists there and that’s no longer where AZ gets imprisoned. I’ve sort of mushed Lysandre Labs and the secret Geosenge Lab together into one place because if you think about it, these really did not need to be separate locations.

*If it’s been a while since you’ve visited the Geosenge Lab (aka the “why are you crying?” “Pokémon” place) I’m gonna have to remind you that the whole location amounts to one room and then an endless hallway of nothingness except filler Flare grunts to fight, and then when you reached the place where Yveltal and Xerneas are being held, more Flare Admins appeared to block your path.

*Why Flare even bothers with Admins when they ALSO have the previously discussed Scientists, who basically stand in for the evil team Admins in the past, I don’t know... but I’ve always felt like it would have been way more memorable if you had to fight the four Scientists instead of that random group of nameless Admins before battling the Legendaries.

*You infiltrate this place in Z because you don’t want Flare having their hands on the energy from the ultimate weapon, and indeed, once there, AZ pleads you not to let them use something so morally repugnant and terrifyingly powerful in their schemes, and he fears for Zygarde’s safety if exposed to that energy (hint hint). This, of course, happens before the final showdown at Lumiose, but still happens after your seventh gym badge.

*I’ve alluded to this before, but in XY... it’s never actually explained how AZ got out of his imprisonment, let alone how he got from Lumiose to Geosenge in time, so I think I would like to use this opportunity to have AZ be rescued by the Friend Group, since this also allows them to do something meaningful. Maybe even have them also listen to AZ’s story and comment on it.

*Calem would still be training with Gurrkin at this stage, and wouldn’t come back until the Lumiose sequence, adding more dramatic fuel to the fire as well as letting Shauna, Tierno and Trevor shine a little, as he would have undergone his character development by then, in order to both attempt to reach out to Lysandre, as well as call him out for his methods.

*Due to the fact that the Anistar Sundial is loosely connected the ultimate weapon, and how Olympia warns Ash and Co. in the anime about the impending trouble caused by Team Flare, based on one of her visions, I’ve decided to integrate this into Z by switching the order of Snowbelle and Anistar’s gyms around.

*I would accomplish this just by tweaking where the routes connect, which routes are blocked off from the player Because Reasons and even adding new routes, which is essentially something that always happens in third versions anyhow.

*So the new order is: beating Wulfric, being informed of Flare’s intentions over the Holocaster, flying to Lumiose to ask Lysandre what the fuck, finding him at the Lysandre Labs arguing with Sycamore. The player battles him for the first time, then heads to Geosenge for the lab sequence, which the player ultimately arrives too late to save Zygarde, who has already been exposed to the energy. Lysandre battles the player a second time in order to buy time for the Scientists to relocate Zygarde, and then leaves.

*Player and friends then talk things through with Sycamore, who asks them to go to Anistar to learn about the legendaries from Olympia (instead of that random-ass nameless npc), and she proposed the idea to have them awaken Xerneas and Yveltal to counter Zygarde (pretty much doing what Zygarde was supposed to do for them in XY, but didn’t because it’d get his nerd snake ass kicked) but also warning them to be quick about it because the showdown at Lumiose is imminent.

*You then have to find Xerneas and Yveltal’s slumbering places and do battle with them, before they decide you’re worthy of them and disappear, only to appear during the final battle to try and stop Zygarde. The hint hint above is that Zygarde is eventually defeated, turns into his 100 components, and due to exposure from the weapon’s energy, gets scattered throughout Kalos until the postgame to lick its wounds and rest, while Xerneas and Yveltal return to their spots where you can now catch them.

*I’d like Xerneas to be found at the Pokémon Village, because I think it’s a beautiful area that just fits it, and its tree form would look pretty great in the middle of all the flowers, moreover, the Winding Woods are kind of the perfect security mechanism for this Fairy deer?

*Yveltal is a little harder to place, but I’ve read at least one theory which posits that it was actually what made Route 13 the wasteland it is, and in fairness, we’ve been teased about a hidden legendary in that area before, so actually having Yveltal there could be pretty interesting in a meta way.

*Speaking of that area, though, it also just so happens that it is the only area that Flare attacks during XY that I can see any sort of payoff to. So this would carry over to Z, but then we’d also have all the Scientists show up in that area... which wouldn’t actually be that bad of an idea, all things considered. This would make them more of a package deal, which I think helps, given that individually they’re not that interesting or that tough, as XY proved.

*The Pokéball Factory segment, in all honesty, needs to be scrapped. No payoff at all to Flare attacking there, besides the fact that they used the Pokéballs they stole to uh, try to catch an Abomasnow they didn’t even succeed at catching? Both it and the Frost Cavern were just there to pad the game out... which brings us to...

Gameplay

*There’s no real excuse for the Holocaster not to be useful in any way, specially after the Xtransceiver and the Pokétch. Have it have a call functionality. Maybe have Shauna as the Feelings Checker, Tierno as someone to tell you about moves a Pokémon learns or coverage options, and Trevor as someone who tells you how to evolve your Pokémon or about Pokémon you can catch in a certain area?

*In addition to adding more rival/friend group battles like I said before and switching the 7th and 8th gyms in order, I’ve also attempted to diminish the super weird, long gap between gyms 1 and 2 in XY.

*Since there is a lot more to establish in Lumiose right when you arrive there in Z, I thought it would be fitting if Clemont was challenged as the second gym leader instead of as the fifth. This also goes into why Shauna wants to go with you to meet him and Bonnie now.

*This is there to make it seem like the player is progressing faster, comparing the distance between Santalune and Lumiose in Z to Santalune and Cyllage in XY, but it also requires that the garden area between Santalune and Lumiose be lengthened a little for level balancing.

*It’s also my idea to add a farm area before the garden proper, because France is very rich in farmland, which made me very confused because XY only has one very, very small ranch near Couriway. Having this area here would also make the riding Pokémon feature a little more cohesive and less sparse.

*In either this new farm area or in the garden, Team Flare would make its first appearance, since, at least in my opinion, having it first show up almost at the second gym (specially with such a distant second gym, as we’ve established) is waiting too long.

*In this area, Flare Grunts are harassing a Riolu, because they heard its evolution can harness a special energy they think might come in handy for them (aura, obviously) the player character saves that Riolu, which turns out to belong to none other than Korrina. This is all really here to establish an actual connection between the Lucario that’s eventually given to you and the player, instead of having it instantly love you for no reason like in XY.

*Team Flare should have an expanded roster of Pokémon, including lines like Inkay, Helioptile, Corphish and Pancham’s, as well as each Scientist having a Furfrou with a trim that matches their color scheme.

*Shabboneau Castle is now mandatory because of the Mawilite you’re to collect, as well as by establishing the whole Parfum Palace drama.

*Glittering Cave is visited because of the scientist who holds the Aerodactylite that’s been recently excavated, and Team Flare is encountered for the second time there, having caught wind of the search for the Mega Stones by then.

*AZ is encountered for the first time in Route 10, and then again in Couriway, which has a water route that leads to a mountain route that connects its two halves (AZ being met contemplating life while staring at the water, hinting at something deplorable he’s done in the past). Both halves of Couriway now have a Pokémon Center and can be flown to independently.

*After player beats Ramos, they’re messaged about Tierno’s performance, and this is why they double back to Lumiose, hearing about the Power Plant trouble and helping out there along the way.

*The Pokéball Factory is no longer attacked by Team Flare, though it’s visited together with the Friend Group. It’s a place where you’re given specialized balls daily. They also meet scientists who try to research methods for bonding with Pokémon without involving Pokéballs so they can evolve from there. Player still gets Master Ball there.

*Trouble at Frost Cavern no longer happens, but it’s explored for the Abomasite and functions as the last Friend Group exploration, with a lot of reflection about what’s changed for them since the journey started and also about Calem having just left to do some soul-searching.

*I decided Snowbelle should be the 7th gym after noticing how odd it is that an Ice-heavy area is followed by the Psychic gym, and then it goes back to the Ice gym afterwards, so this is more thematically cohesive, as well as allowing for Olympia’s new plot role.

*Postgame should contain new areas besides Kiloude, but that are connected to it. Calem is found at the top of a mountain peak there, having found the Absolite by themselves after being directed there by Gurrkin.

*EXP share can still be toggleable and for the whole party, but instead maybe gives 25% experience instead of 50%.

*Prism Tower’s top floor becomes the area for Gym Leader rematches with updated teams after beating the Elite Four for the first time. Leaders are invited there after talking to them at their gyms, and each of them uses a Mega Evolution in these matches. These refresh every day.

*Defeating Calem at the new area, every Gym Leader in a rematch and completing Emma’s story makes the Elite Four get stronger and adds a Mega Evolution to their teams.

*Optional postgame battles with everyone in the Friend Group, Sycamore, Alexa and Gurrkin.

#Pokémon #Jack's Pokémon Z #Pokémon XY #gen vi #Kalos #uhhh kinda braindead for tags atm #I'm not even going to calculate how much money this wordcount would have cost me going by my rates #I love Pokémon even when it disappoints me

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