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headfullofgalaxies · 1 year

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Now that I’ve completed Pokemon Violet, I want to give an overview of my feelings on the game. The first part will be general feelings, such as playability and enjoyment. Then I’ll go into details about the story and characters under a cut to avoid spoiling people who haven’t finished yet or are waiting for the holidays to get their game.

I won’t lie- the game is glitchy. VERY glitchy. I wish they had delayed the release to polish up the game, because it is very rough. Luckily, none of the glitches I ran across were game breaking. They ranged from inconvenient (accidentally selecting the picnic button while surfing will punt you back to the shore) to hilarious (friends’ trainers showing up in cutscenes during multiplayer). There is, however, one glitch I ran across that is troublesome. At certain camera angles, the shadows in the game glitch and begin flashing in and out of existence. The flashing isn’t super rapid, but it is still very annoying. I don’t know if it is severe enough to harm those with epilepsy or similar conditions, but the game should be approached with caution nonetheless.

Music slapped, praise be Toby Fox. Except the glitch that made the first two measures of the Elite Four theme loop for all eternity instead of actually playing the track, screw that. Ruined my Elite Four experience and I am still salty about it. Like seriously, how does a mistake like that even happen?!

Navigation was alright but it wasn’t as good as Legends: Arceus. Riding, jumping, and surfing were fine and functioned the same as Legends. Climbing functioned the same, but the game didn’t give you the prompt to indicate whether or not a wall could be climbed, so there was a lot of me jumping and gliding trying to climb up walls. Not much of a problem, but a little bit annoying. Gliding sucked. It was just bad. Unlike Legends, where you descended at a consistent speed, this glide begins descending rapidly after a short distance, to the point where you just start falling. There is also no speed up or dive option. This means that gliding was okay for a short distance, but couldn’t be used to actually get anywhere, regardless of how high up you started.

I mentioned my frustration at the hair customization options when I was liveblogging, and my complaint still stands. Some new hairstyles are unlocked at the salon, but none of them are long styles. I don’t know why Pokemon can’t make long hair styles. They don’t seem to have problems with them on npcs, and if it’s an issue with the backpack, there are long styles that could easily go around it (like Miku-style pigtails. I loved those in XY). Also, clothing options were atrocious. I hated every one of the uniform options, as preppy just isn’t my style, and I hate how limiting the uniform was. I like my clothes to match, so the colors I had to work with for the accessories were limited to the colors on my uniform. Also I couldn’t wear a hat with the only hairstyle I actually kinda liked.

Picnicking was actually very fun. Sandwiches were useful for catching rare spawns and shinies, although, like everything else in this game, it’s glitchy and a bit clunky. Being able to wash your Pokemon was a fun and quick process. I did find the eggs somewhat annoying. Every time I picnicked with my Eeveelution team I ended up with dozens of eggs I didn’t want. Not extremely inconvenient, just annoying.

There is a lack of new Pokemon? Like, I know that’s not really the case, the actual numbers are about on par with other new gens, but driving through the region I felt like I didn’t see a lot of the new Pokemon. This wasn’t much of an issue in the earlier routes, but for some reason the later ones felt like they lacked any new Pokemon, and I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe it’s because a lot of these new Pokemon were single stage or rare spawns, idk. I’m still trying to figure out exactly why I felt this way.

Writing-wise, the game was very solid. Definitely in the upper tier of Pokemon games for me, although still beneath Gen V. I think a part of it was the split paths forced the games to approach their formula differently. There were also small bits of dialogue between characters that were charming and made the characters feel more present than the cardboard cutouts some of the other gens have provided us.

One final qualm was that there was no voice acting. Every cut scene in this game would have so much more impact if Pokemon would just give it voice acting. I don’t think I need to explain why that is- just think back to Piers “singing” in Sw/Sh and the reason becomes obvious. However, I get the impression Pokemon has no intention of adding voice acting to their games, and I don’t know why.

Next I’ll be going into detail about the story and characters. Spoilers are beneath the cut.

Victory Road was very standard with nothing particularly special or interesting going on plotwise. I did like the gym challenges this gen. They were a bit strange, but I felt they captured interesting aspects about the gym leaders and towns in most of them. These past few gens’ gyms have begun to feel stale to me- just differently decorated rooms where you go through challenging trainers. Each of these challenges felt distinct, and I can easily tell you which challenges and gyms went with each town. The gym leaders were a bit hit or miss. Some didn’t have much of a presence, but there were some that interacted with their towns and felt like a part of the world. Same with the elite four. Being introduced to them earlier in the game, rather than having their first and only appearance be the Champion exam, made them feel like more of a presence in the world.

Nemona was a rather standard rival as far as her role in the story goes. However, the game did some interesting things with her that I appreciate. Having her actually be a Campion-ranked trainer that is canonically going easy on you to help you grow throughout your journey was a unique approach to the rival character and one I appreciate. This made it feel like her confidence was earned. The friendly rival newbie that recent gens had adopted always felt like their confidence was somewhat misplaced- after all, they lost every single battle with your character. This trait made more sense with the older aloof and antagonistic rivals, because overconfidence fit well with their characters.

Starfall Street was a very good twist on the recent rebel-type evil teams. Generally, these people would just be rebelling against society, which is fine but rather nebulous. However, Team Star’s rebellion against ignorant school authorities and the bullies they enabled was very personal to the characters and easy to understand and relate to. The character writing really shone through here. Normally evil teams amount to nothing more than faceless goons, and their admins always seem to dislike each other and constantly bicker- when they interact at all. However, the interactions between Team Star’s leaders really sold their friendship. The short flashbacks demonstrated them trusting and supporting one another, with occasional friendly bickering but nothing malicious. Writing their bonds to be convincing was very important to selling the central conflict of this path, and the writers did a good job.

Penny was my favorite character, and not just because she has a team of Eeveelutions (although it is a factor). Hacker characters have a special place in my heart, so Penny was sort of a shoe in. She also reminded me a lot of Futaba from Persona 5- extremely skilled, extremely socially awkward hacker. Her determination to make her school a better place, rather than simply leaving and allowing the bullies to win, is very admirable. The final scenes of this arc were very cute and I enjoyed the conclusion.

The Path of Legends was the best path storywise, and not just because I’m happy angsty boi got his best friend back T^T. This plot was very tightly tied to Arven’s character and to the postgame plot. Of course, any story about a boy going to such lengths to save his fluffy family member will always feel satisfying. This is the path that most people cried at, and, honestly, I can’t blame them.

Arven is probably the most important character plotwise because of his connections with the professor and the legendary Pokemon. Due to this, they made him a rather solidly written character. His motivations are very relatable and easy to understand, and his reactions to the plot developments feel real and believable. Him gradually opening up to you during the main story makes the postgame plot feel more personal.

The Way Home is probably the best postgame plot I can recall (although I hesitate to call it postgame, as it felt very much like a core part of the story and happened before the credits rolled, but it’s the closest thing we have to a postgame story so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). The slow reveal of the Paradox forms was well-handled, and the small interactions between the three rivals who join you helps fill the space and makes them feel even more like actual people. The mystery of the Professor’s fate was also well paced, at least if you’re like me and interact with everything in a room before leaving. The twist even managed to actually somewhat surprise me, a rare occurrence in Pokemon. I know the games tend to have darker elements hidden in the details, but I didn’t expect the Professor to be straight up dead. I really enjoyed the AI Professor’s character, although the interaction was more brief than I would have preferred (but I’m a sucker for cool AI stuff, so maybe that’s a me thing). Allowing the player to figure out on their own to send out Miraidon/Koraidon in the final confrontation was very nice- normally Pokemon games are very hand-holdy, so figuring out the solution on your own was refreshing.

My one complaint is that there still seems to be missing pieces. There was no third legendary, despite an “egg Pokemon” being specifically referenced in the old book about Area 0. The potential trio legendary (legendary dogs or swords of justice) that is referenced in the book also does not make an appearance. I get that they’re probably holding that content for a DLC, but since this kind of content was never locked behind a paywall before, I find it somewhat frustrating.

Overall, though, I felt the plot and characters were very solid and enjoyed the game despite its (many, many) glitches.

#pokemon #pokemon sv #pokemon violet #spoilers #pokemon spoilers #star*speaks #overall very fun #do recommend #assuming glitchy gamelplay isn't an issue #saved this in drafts almost a month ago so i could spell check it and completely forgot about it lol #posting it anyway poor spelling and grammar be damned

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spindlewoed · 1 year

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You have to understand. I don't "ship" Harry with the smoker on the balcony, I think whatever they have going on canonically is way funnier and touching than anything anyone could come up with.

There is so much within the dynamic itself. It’s a middle aged man and a younger man who are nothing alike and everything like each other. It’s the smoker being the person that kickstarts Harry’s sexuality journey anew, seeing Harry’s fascination with him and being amused by it because (aside from Harry being probably the first man in a while who’s managed to leave him dumbfounded in a positive way) the smoker *knows* what’s happening in Harry’s mind and as he puts it, it’s beautiful.

Don't get me wrong, the mutual attraction is there. The smoker flirts with Harry every other two lines (girl why the fuck are you flirting with a cop you're insane. I'm obsessed with you) yet makes fun of him in the same breath while Harry is absolutely clueless the whole time because he's too busy staring at his abs. Couldn't come up with anything funnier if I tried.

I love this high drama check, this is exaclty what it feels like to speak to clueless boomers who have no idea what they're talking about. Still, once Harry admits that he might be part of the "underground" as he puts it, the smoker is immediately excited and encourages him to think about it. It's very sweet.

(I know everyone has probably seen this dialogue 100 times by now but I love the phrasing here. literally twink_boutta_pounce.jpeg)

And as a side note I really like this emphaty check in response to Harry's little breakdown after the failed suggestion check the first time you meet him. The smoker like damn he just like me fr.

I don't think more smoker interactions were needed at all or that they would ever talk again post-game but it's interesting to think about what other converations they could have, even just so we could learn a bit more about him. They both have an interest in art. They're both stuck in a place they can't leave if they wanted to and yet find beauty in it, they both have regrets about past relationships. They both find talking with the other a charming experience in a way or another. If I want to be indulgent, they both could benefit from learning about what being gay means for a younger/older generation, especially since they both have such different life experiences with their identities.

It's all fanfic talk, and obviously no cops at pride and so on but their interactions did make me think about community and recognition through the other. A flirt for the sake of a flirt, a “maybe in another lifetime” but this lifetime is good too because they did meet and leave an impression on each other before parting ways. That's *beautiful* too.

#disco elysium #smoker on the balcony #harry du bois #they can boink too if you want them to I support you. honestly good for them #but overall I do think about the greater scope of their dynamic it's just. it's nice.#de meta #don't know where else to put this other observation but it's fun to look at how the smoker is framed from Harry's POV #I can't give specific examples bc it's basically all over the pov narration when talking to him #but it feels very femme fatale in a noir detective novel. it’s very refreshing to see that portrayed as a twink idk. I liked that detail #I mean you could argue that klassje is more of the femme fatale of the game and I’d agree with you #but harry’s bi he can have two of them. as a treat

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