#/unfair/ to be upset that we don't see any in the trailer

[noveratus]

Alright, so after finishing playing through the pokemon DLC, here are my thoughts:

For the good parts: the DLC is fun to play and pleasantly challenging, which is new for a pokemon game. It feels great to just walk around catching pokemon to fill the pokedex. The characters are a mix bag with Kieran and Drayton being the highlights but still not quite meeting the greatness of Nemona and some of the Gym trainers. The other ones just disappear in the back as nothing but obstacles. I think that they lack a bit of the soul the gym trainers have even with less screen time. I also found Nemona to be a far more interesting rival than Kieran since you always get this sense she is better than you, even though you beat her. It feels like an older sibling letting their younger sib play with them and getting down on their level. Kieran is still pretty good and quite a plot twist considering the leaks and trailers. He never goes full villain, just kind of an ass out of jealousy, which I think is a pretty interesting concept. Kieran feels like what Hop should have been in Sword and Shield.

The environments are also really great and fun to explore, I love how much personality different pokemon have. I also prefer double battles over single battles as I found out. They do require more strategy.

The story also fits with the story of a DLC, that being you, the player, meet this shy kid who becomes filled with jealousy and tries to become the best by making things very unfun for everyone else only to be demonlished by the player. His desperation leads to him seeking an even more powerful pokemon that ends up being a threat and has to team up with the player to stop them (the pokemon should have been peacharunt, but alas.)

Now for the bad

While teal disk is really, really good, it also increases my disappointment when it comes to the actual main game.

Let's start with the features. Why is flying locked behind a pay wall? It doesn't even make any sense when you take into consideration the story of the game. One of the main missions is all about making the cover legendary better until it reaches its maximum power, and yet there it is, gaining another 'form.' The return of throwing balls and even BBQs are things that I think should have been in the base game. Also, couldn't they have added at least a few more clothing options to the main game?

I can understand the legendaries being behind the pay wall, that's fine. The new areas, new pokemon, all of that is alright. That is what you put in a DLC, but a whole mechanical gimmick in the form of the stellar type, it only goes to show just how unfinished the core games were at launch. At this point, it feels less like the DLCs are extra content and more so that they are what the actual game was meant to be, but due to time constraints, they were half assed and, instead, if you want to play the actual game you have to pay another 30 bucks on top of the 60 that you paid for the unfinished, unpolished mess of a half game that was the core games. Ironically, this almost makes me miss the 3rd games in the franchise because, if you waited a year, you could just pay for the game once.

The last hour of the DLC feels like it was the hour that was missing from the central story of the game. Just replace Kieran with Arven being upset that his parents cared more about the pokemon than him, replace Briar with Nemona, and be excited to meet a new pokemon and Carmine with Penny and you can have the exact same story. Hell, it would make more sense for Geeta to trust the player and trainers from paldea with the investigation of the crystals instead of complete strangers. What was Nemona up to in Indigo Disco anyway? Are you telling me that Geeta would ask for the help of Carmine instead of Nemona? Nemona, whose original team we have yet to see? Don't get me wrong, I like the plotline in the DLC. I just don't think that that last part deserves to be DLC. It simply feels incredibly unfair and greedy. The least you can do is put out one complete main story instead of half assing 3 of them.

That's my rant, anyway. Expect a rewrite of these games soon. For the record, I really, really like the dlc. I would give it a solid 8.5/10. However, seeing it and what the base game could have been makes the core games drop down quite a bit, from a 6.5/10 to a 4/10.

[scottstiles]

Well m offically pissed and disappointed well later is my constant state and now i totally understand that after waiting for 6 fucking years m not gonna get stydia instead m gonna be force fed SCALIA.

i’m sorry you’re disappointed about scalia :( i’m still not sure how i feel about that, especially since the spoilers said scott will be married but we won’t see to who...and that one of the hale’s dies...it’s making me nervous. HOWEVER the scenes with them in the trailer were eerily similar to certain other scenes which turned out to just be hallucinations, so idk if that helps you but it’s always a possibility that they’re tricking us.like i said, i have mixed feelings (mainly cuz of stiles and kira), but like i said in the past if they do it RIGHT i really feel like it could be incredible.as for not getting stydia, you’re freaking out over nothing. we’re gonna get plenty of it in the eps with stiles, i have no doubts about that so i’m not worried, you shouldn’t be either.

[nanamunath]

Okay but I'm back on my emotional Eddie bullshit again.

You guys can imagine how many times Wayne Munson probably had to listen while teachers, coworkers and parents of other kids in Hawkins tell him how his nephew is no good, how there's no way he's gonna have a good future, that Eddie's not a good kid with not place in society and that he's beyond the point of "fixing"... And that man defended and believed in the good heart of his nephew even when a whole town was accusing him of MURDER, multiple murders. Even after he found a dead girl in his trailer, a dead girl who happened to be one of Eddie's peers and Eddie is nowhere to be found. He still snapped at people who came to ask him things, fiercely defending his son cause he knew Eddie was incapable of such cruelty, he knew his boy would never.

And I think about that, and I think about Wayne Munson in the context of what he is, a white man in the 80s and how we never see any sign of him being ashamed or trying to change who Eddie is or what he likes, and again, the way he defended him, makes me think that he's actually very proud of his nephew: sure, he sells drugs and failed a couple school years but he's got a big heart, he's very smart and creative and he helps whoever he can despite the things he's gone through.

(Hell yeah, those things are actually the fucking most amazing things about Eddie, he's sweet and kind DESPITE all the cruelty)

In my mind i can see that Eddie probably stayed in highschool cause his uncle asked him to try one more time, Eddie could've very easily just drop out, take his shit, take his van and leave, but i think one of the things he wanted to do before fleeing that town was graduating as a way of giving Wayne a "real" reason to be proud of him.

Because for me, Eddie, despite of being so real and authentic and not being afraid to step on tables in the middle of a school cafeteria during lunch time to scream and complain about things he believes are unfair and upsetting, doesn't understand how someone else can be proud of him when he is a failure, someone who many have given up on, many times. His teachers don't believe in him, everyone in school makes fun of him, his parents didn't love him enough to choose to stay with him over whatever lives they carried that led him to be alone and go to live with his uncle... He wants to give a Wayne justification in his feelings, cause he doesn't understand where they come from, how all the shit he must hear of him on the daily doesn't affect or changes the way he sees Eddie, he thinks "it must be embarrassing for him" so he wants to do something that counts in the eyes of everyone else so his uncle has something to brag about. Not that Wayne actually needs that to feel proud of him, he wants him to finish school cause he doesn't want his nephew's life to be harder that it will be without a diploma you know?

I'm sure Eddie's diploma would've been framed and probably hanged in the living room and it would've made both of them very happy cause finally!!! There it is!!! He did it, eat shit Hawkins High school!!!

And it makes me unmeasurably sad that instead there's a guitar pick necklace being held close to a broken heart in the end.