#Pokémon dropped cool new trailer

[milkpumpkin96]

The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Review

Part II: The Indigo Disk

It took me a while, but I have finally completed the entirety of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC. This post is a continuation of my previous review regarding "The Teal Mask."

It is pleasing to say that I enjoyed part II just as much, if not more, than part I of the DLC. Despite all the flaws that remained unresolved, I had an enjoyable experience playing through "The Indigo Disk!"

As a longtime Pokémon fan, I have quite a lot to say (bear with it), which is why I have broken up this review into two parts, with this post being part two.

[MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING]

OVERALL SCORE: 7/10

As stated previously, I went into this DLC completely blind. I had not watched teasers, trailers, playthroughs, or promotional art. I had no clue about the existence of the new characters or what the story would entail!

When it comes to the content and character building of "The Indigo Disk" . . . wowzers. Stepping foot onto the grounds of Blueberry Academy for the first time was quite a treat--I am not sure as to what I was expecting, but it certainly was not a huge techy school floating in the middle of the ocean, where all the classrooms and dorms are under the water. How beautifully frightening! The academy also unleashed a fresh wave of Unovan nostalgia, for those fans of Generation V.

I was overall pleased with my playthrough. The DLC was longer and more jam-packed than I had thought, almost as if I were playing an entirely new game. "The Indigo Disk" had a hefty amount of new entries to the Pokédex and the battles were quite difficult (in a challenging yet manageable way).

However, I must talk about this again . . . "The Indigo Disk" features no performance upgrades. The DLC ran no smoother and no less buggy than the main game. There was atrocious lagging at times which bogged down the awe of the exploration and the impact of some cutscenes. I myself was lucky enough to not encounter any glitches, but other players were no so fortunate.

Part II of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero encapsulates some of the best components of Scarlet and Violet for sure, yet it fails to solve all the qualms Pokémon fans have had since the beginning.

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GAMEPLAY: 6/10

Once again, Game Freak has failed to solve the biggest issues plaguing the mainline games for years. Once again, fans must witness the same poor graphical output while Nintendo is still able to offer beauties like Super Mario Wonder and Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Pokémon Scarlet came out in November of 2022. "The Indigo Disk" rolled around just over a year later, and despite complaints of bugginess and a struggling FPS, it seems that the creators of Pokémon don't give a shit.

It is cool to see, at the very least, that Game Freak is experimenting with creative ideas when it comes to character development and dialogue/writing. But it is saddening to have this experimentation--which has been a high point for the series in recent years--to be undermined by its biggest problem . . . especially when there are so many graphically capable modern games in comparison.

Listen, I am a Nintendo fan, and as such my preferences for visuals are not too particular. I do not always want pristine or realistic graphics. I like the occasional retro throwback or cartoony charm or good, old cell-shading. But, seriously . . . Pokémon Scarlet and Violet look pretty bad. This is especially true knowing that Game Freak has the funds and capabilities to bring about so much more. Even Legends of Arceus was a big step up, and this achievement had to be diminished with the chibified Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

The performance issues become greatly apparent traveling through Blueberry Academy's biomes. Riding Koraidon/Miraidon is still too much for the game to handle apparently. The worst frame rate drop I had ever seen was in the Savannah Biome: anytime I was anywhere near pluff mud, it was as if the world was ending. My screen would freeze.

I am not trying to defend Game Freak at all when I say this, but in theory, the locations are charming. I was blown away by the concept and visual presentation of Blueberry Academy itself. It is a vibrant terrarium under the sea, the inverse of an aquarium above land. The school is in the middle of Unovan waters and it is colored a specific white and blueberry blue, giving off advanced techy vibes.

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My absolute favorite aspect about the DLC has to be the difficulty surge. Hooray for Pokémon fans, we finally have a challenging game again!

Of course, some people will continue to complain that it is not hard enough, particularly players with a full-level 90-100 party. I mean, sure. I do not think that there will ever be a mainline game where the difficulty is extraordinarily high, due to balancing the wants and capabilities of actual children, casual players, competitive players, adult fans, and insane people. For us casual fans and even some competitive players, however, "The Indigo Disk" offered a unique challenge.

In "The Teal Mask," if players had beaten the main story in Scarlet and Violet, the battling levels were in the 50s-70s. In "The Indigo Disk," there is now a jump to levels 70s-80s. This DLC has some of the highest-leveled trainers to be seen in mainline Pokémon games. I personally had many moments of struggle due to the fact I play casually, and my main team was within the level 75-85 range.

What makes the DLC even harder is the fact that the battle system was an homage to old Unova practices: double battling! If you as a player had already been comfortable with your set-in-stone team, you may have to change some Pokémon around or switch up strategy in order to survive these double onslaughts. Of course, wild battles are still in singles, but trainers will be sending out duos.

Blueberry Academy even offers its own student-led Elite Four and champion ranking. Unlike typical Pokémon plot progression, players do not have to grind through eight gym leaders in order to get to the elites. Through personalized recommendations from Elite Four members themselves, the MC is ranked up quite highly and can skip straight on to tackling the Elite Four in any order. But . . . you still may want to wait. Players should catch some new Pokémon within the terrarium and level up their team. The Elite Four are HARD. I cannot recall the last time I failed one of these matches in recent generations . . . but in "The Indigo Disk," I admittedly lost both Crispin and Amarys. My team was not ready for the flint and steel.

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So yes, there is Crispin, the first-year student who loves spicy foods and Pokémon battling. He is a fire-type specialist who doesn't care for petty drama. Then, there is the second-year student Lacey, the daughter of gym leader Clay, who is cute, resourceful, and loves fairy types. Next is Amarys who is cold on the outside but soft on the inside. She wields steel type and is seemingly concerned about time management. Finally, there is Elite Four member Drayton who specializes in dragon types. He is the grandson of Unova gym leader Draydon, and presents himself as cool yet slothful. You can battle these students in any order, and all of their Pokémon are within levels 76 to 80. Get ready.

Like "The Teal Mask," another beautiful aspect of battling is that the trainers are smarter; in that they understand a bit of strategic thinking and item usage. You'll get sick of the constant use of focus sashes! It makes it feel almost as if you are fighting a real person on the other side.

There is another great feat of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero: sorry, Cynthia, but a new, powerful trainer is in town.

The champion of Blueberry Academy is the strongest champion to ever appear in the Pokémon series. He plays competitively. He is busting out an Incineroar of all things . . . and to Pokémon fans, you know how that goes. Having a remarkably leveled 83-85 team, good old Kieran from Kitakami has earned the title as champion in vain of the MC's bitchery.

Kieran's VGC-inspired strats make for an incredibly dynamic and fun battle. He whips out Hydrapple, a new evolution to Dipplin, and unleashes fury with the move "fickle beam" that can absolutely destroy you if Hydrapple randomly desires to go "all out."

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"The Indigo Disk" provides a nice amount of new bonus features to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Some are more impressive than others, but I did enjoy my time with them.

I think that the coolest addition is being able to unlock the ability to fly with Koraidon/Miraidon (not just glide). Players can fly anywhere and everywhere, in both the DLC maps and the Paldea map too. This makes travel much quicker and easier, though it would be nice if Koraidon/Miraidon could fly just a tad faster.

The downside to this ability is that you cannot unlock it until after you beat the main storyline of "The Indigo Disk." In post-game, Amarys will give your legendary lizard a supplement that will give it the permanent ability to fly. By the time this happens players will have probably done most of what they needed to do, aside from catching paradox and legendary Pokémon.

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Also, yes . . . Perrin has returned! Why though, why is Perrin inside of a Unovan high school? I am unsure about that.

Once players register 200 or more Pokémon in their Pokédex, Perrin will then have a request for you. A bit cheeky for someone who was buddied with you back in Kitakami, but oh well.

She reports these legends of paradox Pokémon that look kind of like pre-existing legendaries, but certainly more strange. Perrin shows players two vague photos and asks you to go find and catch them. These paradox creatures are located within Area Zero of Paldea.

The paradox Pokémon include Raiku and Entei or Cobalion and Terrakian, and depending on whether you have Pokémon Scarlet or Violet, they will look either more prehistoric or futuristic respectively. They will be named Raging Bolt and Gouging Fire [Scarlet] or Iron Crown and Iron Boulder [Violet]. Once both are caught, Perrin will give you a sport ball. Not too rewarding on her part but at least you will have cool, new Pokémon.

I am unsure as to why Walking Wake (a.k.a. Suicune) and Iron Leaves (a.k.a. Virizion) are not a part of this quest, but players can catch these as well.

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One of the most important mechanics of "The Indigo Disk" is the "blueberry points" system, or BP. These points are crucial and work as in-game currency, displacing other means of payment. You can use BP to purchase items, challenge the BB Elite Four, as well as to access a bunch of new additional items and upgrades in the BB League clubroom.

With these points, players can buy a myriad of things: new Pokéball throwing styles, new camera functions, changes to the aesthetic of the BB League room, more additional Pokémon to catch (i.e., adding starter Pokémon to the biomes), among other things. In the post-game, BP can be used to call in special couches for you to battle and trade with.

However, some of the new functions are horribly expensive. It costs BP to change your throwing style or the look of the clubroom each and every single time you decide to do so. While it is not difficult to obtain BP per se, it can be a very tedious grind.

How do players get BP? Players have to complete "BBQs." There are several different tasks that will show up on the right side of the screen, ranging from quests to catch a certain type of Pokémon, taking a picture of a Pokémon in motion, walking a certain amount of steps, preparing a certain flavor of sandwich, et cetera. These quests will reward you with varying amounts of points, normally 20 or 30 BP at a time. After every 10 BBQs completed, players will receive a special quest that may be worth over 100 BP.

This can be an annoying process. I would spend hours grinding for BP just to afford anything, especially when trying to spend 200 BP per special coach recruitment.

Accruing BP can move along much faster when using the Union Circle. Playing with friends or strangers will allow you to grind for BP much more efficiently, and group-specific quests can award you loads of points. Group BBQs can be as simple as taking a group picture while wearing Kitakami masks, or as challenging as finding a certain number of hidden Ditto blocks. The most frustrating part of the Union Circle is that, like Ogre Oustin', you cannot randomly play with people online. Players must enter a group code. This is really only possible by going on a subreddit or something, hoping that other players are in the mood to grind for BP. While this is not a difficult process at the moment, it could be problematic for those who want to play the DLC in the future.

But yeah, I overall appreciate the ability to customize. I have my BB League clubroom in the "gorgeous" style at the moment. The DLC also allows players even more hairstyles to choose from, and offers a plethora of new outfits: seasonal BB uniforms and a track outfit, as well as Drayton's getup. They are much more fashionable than Uva/Naranja's school uniforms.

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A strange but seemingly anticipated feature that "The Indigo Disk" implements is called "Pokémon Synchronization." Wowzers!

In the center of Blueberry Academy's terrarium is the plaza, where players can encounter a scientist named Synclaire. She asks you to test out the Synchro Machine, which will allow you to metaphysically synchronize with your leading Pokémon.

Once activated with the L and R-buttons, you become your Pokémon. Like, if you have Ogerpon on hand, you become the ogre. Essentially, players walk around as normal but through the eyes and body of the Pokémon. You can still pick up items and battle in the method of an auto-battle.

It is quite cute and silly . . . but sort of pointless? You can only access the synchro machine inside of the terrarium and nowhere else. The mechanic is also rather slow, meaning that your Pokémon is usually slower than the speed of the MC (especially on Koraidon/Miraidon). However it is just a cute extra gimmick, and it is really cool when players synchronize with Gholdengo because the game essentially transforms into a Tony Hawk title.

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A final addition I will mention is the post-story content.

For one thing, players can now catch almost every single legendary Pokémon imaginable! They are located sporadically around Paldea, but can only be accessed after The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero storyline is fully completed. In the post-game, a weird man named Snackworth will want to talk to you outside of Blueberry Academy. After completing certain amounts of solo quests and group quests, Sanckworth will tell the MC old tales of his childhood where he seems to . . . have met with . . . 25 different legendary Pokémon!?

Snackworth will give vague hints on their whereabouts. In order to have access to all the legendaries, players will need to have completed 130 solo quests and 12 group quests. This side adventure may be sluggish sometimes but it is a high reward. Solo quests are abundant and easy to do but group quests may be harder to access.

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Aside from this, in the post-game, players also unlock the ability to call in special couches to the BB League clubroom. These coaches include Paldean gym leaders, Paldean teachers, and Paldean Elite Four members! The BB Elite Four will be in the clubroom automatically, rotating every now and then (there can only be 3 BB students at a time). The special coaches are expensive as hell, requiring 200 BP per call.

The coaches will have unique dialogue and may even interact with one another. Riku will converse with Tulip, and Hassel has a conversation with Drayton. This may be fanservice-y to some degree, but is in all honesty really cool and interesting. The characters are one of the biggest highlights for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet anyways.

Players can battle the coaches at Blueberry Academy. If you win, you receive special reward items, including a pair of Rhyme's shoes and Clavell's "Clive" wig. If players lose a battle, they are unable to rematch the coach until you call them in with 200 BP again. After recruiting a coach three times, you unlock the ability to trade Pokémon with them! This can also be done with Lacey, Amarys, Drayton, and Crispin.

After doing the epilogue/mythical event called "Mochi Madness," Kieran and Carmine will show up to the BB League room for free. Nemona, Arven, and Penny will also be unlocked as special coaches!

This mechanic is adorable, interesting, and kind of addicting. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the different dialogues with characters you may not expect to mingle with, like the heartwarming interaction between Nemona and Kieran.

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MUSIC: 10/10

I admit that I am a bit easy to please, but I love Pokémon's music. Scarlet and Violet does not miss, especially here in the DLC! "The Indigo Disk" also features the surprising return of Toby Fox's musical talent.

What Game Freak lacks in visuals they make up for in sound. Well . . . not quite literally but you get what I mean.

The DLC soundtrack is a homage to Pokémon Black and White. For fans of Generation V, and people with good taste, the nostalgia and fun will please the senses. It is different enough to be its own soundtrack but includes remixes and renditions of old Unovan beats. For example, the coastal biome's track has a Driftveil City leitmotif. The terrarium wild battle and trainer battle music purely resembles Black and White's soundtrack.

We may not be getting remakes of Generation V now . . . but at least Pokémon fans got a little taste here in the DLC.

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Again, I am a major fan of battle music. Some of my favorite tracks are battle-related, including:

Battle! BB League Elite Four

Battle! Terrarium Wild Pokémon (v.2)

Battle! BB League Champion Kieran

I generally enjoy all of the terrarium music. Black and White are personally my favorite Pokémon games, on the basis of pure nostalgic, love for its Pokémon designs, and continued enjoyment of its story arc.

The battle theme against Kieran, who is now the BB League champion, is a remix of his final battle music from "The Teal Mask." The music adds electric guitars and heavy percussion--it goes hard. The track still captures Kieran's inner turmoil and desperation but combines it with sudden intensity and feelings of megalomania. Players get the sense that Kieran has achieved where he wanted to be in theory, but still lacks fulfillment. He is trying hard, wants to take you down, and he's freaking mental.

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In the second half of the DLC, when traversing deeper into Area Zero, more new music is played. These tracks are cool as well, giving off a mystical yet ominous vibe for the secrets of the Area Zero depths. The Depths music incorporates this demonically angelic chorus that emits this tone suggesting that you are roaming this unexplored, potentially dangerous area.

My favorite entry in the soundtrack is the Battle! Terapagos theme. The ascending and descending piano scale; the sense of dread and awe; the Toby Fox-style insertion of previous leitmotifs; it truly felt like a final boss fight. Even though the battle itself was questionable, I could not help but feel the music. It made the emotional impact of Terapagos' destruction and Kieran's heel-face turn much more powerful.

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The only thing I have to say is, well, in the beautiful words of Kenneth Shepard from Kotaku,

"The real Treasure of Area Zero is this f*cking Ed Sheeran song showing up again."

Yeah . . . uh . . . the end credits theme was a jump scare. I am sorry to Ed Sheeran fans, but not even Toby Fox could save this one.

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STORY: 6/10

"The Indigo Disk" had so much potential.

Pokémon fans had a goldmine of questions because the base game brought about so much intrigue. What exactly is this terastal phenomenon? Was there even more to the story and research of Professor Sada/Turo? Why is there a giant crater in Paldea?

The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero initially presented itself as a key to these questions, delving deeper into why the hell a large ominous hole is in the middle of the continent. Why are Ms. Briar and her ancestor so interested in Terapagos and the Indigo Disk?

Unfortunately. . ."The Indigo Disk" left us with even MORE questions than answers. Leave it to Game Freak to circumvent their own ideas.

Obviously, the main focus for the Hidden Treasure of Area Zero seems to be the character building and interactions, especially regarding Florian/Julianna and his/her relations to the antiheroes Carmine and Kieran. More specifically, the DLC was truly about Kieran and his meta-awareness that he is indeed not the protagonist of the game. Kieran has this slow descend into a power craze and crazy obsessiveness over the MC.

This is fine. I love Carmine and Kieran and I am glad to see that Game Freak handled them well and gave them three-dimensionality. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's greatest strength is the writing and characters alone, and in this regard, Generation IX is one of the top ranks for this category.

Unfortunately, as it has been said, Game Freak has NO IDEA or just puts in zero effort to fix preexisting weaknesses. There are clear performance struggles, but another issue with the base game and the DLC is that the story is too big for its britches. The terastal phenomenon is a gimmick but had hints to great plot depth. You would think that the DLC, being named The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, would resolve this. But, no. I truly, honestly wanted to give the storyline a higher rating, especially since the first half of "The Indigo Disk' was super enjoyable. The plot unfortunately fell off in the second half, when it should have taken off.

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The story begins some time later after the events of "The Teal Mask." Director Cyrano of Unova's Blueberry Academy--sister school of Uva/Naranja--comes to Paldea with the given goal of enrolling the MC as an exchange student. Apparently, Carmine has put in a recommendation for Florian/Julianna.

I personally think that it is a bit odd that only the MC will be an exchange student. Are no other Paldean students in the running for the exchange program?

By the encouragement of Cyrano and Clavell, the MC travels to Unova and arrives at the academy, which is in the middle of Unovan waters. Cyrano gives you a brief tour alongside Lacey, a second-year student and the daughter of famous gym leader Clay. They introduce you to the terrarium, and at the top of the school rests a "terastal core" which was set up by Ms. Briar. She combined the soils and waters from Paldea and Kitakami's crystal pool to grant Pokémon within the terrarium the ability to terastalize. It seems that Ms. Briar is rather vague about her methods and explanations, and Director Cyrano doesn't seem to know what the hell is going on in the school.

Players get a small taste of Blueberry's class algorithm by attending a course in the coastal biome alongside Lacey. The MC then wanders to the central plaza and meets up with their old friend Carmine, who seems a bit more languish than usual. You battle her, and then she asks you if you've seen Kieran. She acts strangely regarding this topic.

Not too much later, Kieran does appear but not to which he can visibly see you or Carmine. You watch Kieran berate and belittle a random BB League member for "not training hard enough." The younger Kitakami sibling seems suddenly abashedly rude and vicious, with his leg vibrating violently (perhaps from anxiety), and he's sporting a new look with a tank top and hair bun. He tries to look intimidating and tall with his chin tilted up, but the little butthole still looks 90 lbs.

After witnessing that kerfuffle, a student named Drayton approaches you and asks if you're friends with Kieran. He then invites you to the BB League clubroom, stating that school will suck if you don't find a club to join. Drayton shows you how to use the room's computer and spend "blueberry points," and convinces you to join the BB League much to Carmine's bewilderment. Drayton is low-key kinda flirty, but in a platonic way, and then asks you out on a lunch date to talk further.

When Drayton leaves the room, Carmine takes you to your new dorm room and talks to you about Kieran and Drayton. She is worried about her brother: after the events of Kitakami, Kieran has grown aloof, mean, and power-hungry. He hardly eats and sleeps and overworks himself. Kieran triumphed through the ranks and became both the champion and the president of the BB League, acting as a huge debbie downer and enforcing super strict club rules. Drayton, who Carmine claims to despise, is potentially brewing up a scheme. She tells you not to trust him and she welcomes the MC to punch him.

Later, Florian/Julianna goes on their lunch date with Drayton, and at this point you can mostly ascertain as to why he wants you to join the league so badly. Drayton views Kieran as this little asshole who should be knocked down a few pegs. Drayton is the former champion, and I do not think that the man is particularly jealous or obsessed with such status, rather, Drayton seems concerned about Kieran's mental health yet he probably also harbors some ill feelings over Kieran's disgusting attitude.

Other club members enter the cafeteria, and Kieran finally spots the MC. Apparently Kieran had no idea that Florian/Julianna was coming as an exchange student. All the members vote on whether or not to let this random ass Paldean join the BB League (as it is against the rules). Amarys and Lacey reject you, but Drayton, Crispin, and Kieran allow you in as the majority. The boys got your back.

You are taken to be enrolled in the BB League, and due to the recommendations of the Elite Four and more importantly Kieran himself, the MC gets to bypass the lower rankings and is allowed to challenge the Elite Four directly. Even though Kieran gave you the go-ahead. . . I mean, damn. He worked so hard to get to his champion rank, and he insists that Florian/Julianna "shouldn't go losing" because HE has to be the one to kick your ass. That is so Zuko core. Perhaps it is more-so an inversion of Nemona's obsession with the MC.

The MC proceeds to get wrapped into the BB League drama and take on all Elite Four members. Both Drayton and Kieran keep an eye on you closely for different reasons. Once you defeat the Elite Four, Julianna/Florian can proceed to battle Champion Kieran. Kieran asserts that he is "no longer the little kid from Kitakami" and begins laying it on thick. Players can send out Ogerpon during the battle and Kieran will flip his shit.

Of course, Julianna/Florian must win because they are the MC, and once successful, Kieran has the ultimate mental breakdown and just stands there unable to speak or move correctly for a long time. Drayton immediately refers to him as "ex-Champion."

Before anyone can process the de-throning, both you, Kieran, Carmine, and Drayton are abruptly called to Ms. Briar's office. Quite bad timing. Lacey grows concerned because, since you are a temporary exchange student, you will eventually have to abandon your champion title. If Kieran is demoted to an Elite Four member, Crispin is pushed out of the ranks. But there is no time to solve this now.

You all go to Ms. Briar and she brings up the fact that Kieran is a big, fat loser. She gathered you all specifically because this quartet are the "strongest" trainers the academy has to offer. She informs you that she has been officially granted permission (after all these years) to delve into the depths of Area Zero. The room is then joined by the Paldean Champion Geeta and Elite Four member Riku, who talk more about the situation and adamantly pressure you into going with Ms. Briar. I mean, yeah, the MC has been there before, and you are considered "champion-ranked." Geeta expresses that all other Paldea league members are inadequate and inferior, so these four children must go instead . . . okay.

So, the MC will go, and Carmine wants to go, and Kieran agrees to join because he suddenly became unhealthily interested in catching Terapagos as means for a last-ditch power grab. Drayton volunteers to stay behind, because he is lazy as hell. Before departure, Geeta gives the player the indigo disk because she is unsure of its purpose despite research efforts. Alright Geeta, entrust a 14 year-old with this powerful unknown object.

The gang flies to Paldea and enters Area Zero once again. Carmine and Kieran are mesmerized . . . but I can infer that the MC must be quaking in their shoes (after what happened with Professor Sada/Turo). You descend down back into the laboratory and Briar finds all these private journal entries. You all get into the elevator after plopping the indigo disk drive into this machine, and the elevator redirects to deeper depths floors.

You exit the elevator and are greeted by these crystalline caves. The team finds even more entries from previous researchers and Professor Sada/Turo themself, talking about the whereabouts of Terapagos (aka the "key to/hidden treasure of Area Zero") and the existence of the "stellar tera type." Nobody had known that any human made it down this far into the depths. As you traverse onwards, the group frequently encounters these powerful Pokémon of the stellar tera type, which has not been seen outside of Area Zero.

After several Pokémon battles and slight bickering with Kieran, you eventually reach an ominous, open room with huge crystals. There is a little green gemstone lodged inside one of the bigger crystals, and Kieran rushes over to attempt to pull it out with his bone-thin arms. He ruminates and expresses frustration and grief over Florian/Julianna and their ability to ravel easily, ability to make friends quickly, their effortless strength, and their ownership of Ogerpon (and multiple legendaries at that). This is a pure expulsion of envy, loneliness, and desperation. Meanwhile, the socially unaware Carmine and MC finally understand what Kieran is so damn mad about. Ms. Briar, on the other hand, ignores this teenage display of angst and continues to obtusely egg Kieran on with his poor behavioral choices.

In a rage, Kieran successfully frees the gem. The gemstone levitates and out pops an adorable, babyish turtle Pokémon. Due to the direction it was facing when it popped out, Terapagos immediately imprinted on the MC due to him/her being in its line of vision. It cheerfully waddles towards the MC, but Kieran notices this immediately and becomes pissed and afraid. He cannot let another chance of bonding with a legendary slip out of his hands, so he whips out a master ball and catches Terapagos. Carmine is shocked and concerned, but Briar applauds him. Now that it is in captivity, Terapagos can be immediately researched upon.

With his new power, Kieran challenges the player to a battle. Kieran only uses Terapagos, which changes form during the fight. Briar encourages him to explore all of its capabilities.

The fight is not difficult at all, and Kieran becomes confused and depressed. He questions as to whether or not this Pokémon is actually the "treasure" of Area Zero. What's wrong with it?

Briar detects that Terapagos' terastal output is far too low. She tells Kieran to terastalize it so it can recognize its full potential. Naive Briar is commanding a mentally ill teenager to behave recklessly, yippee. So, Kieran terastalizes Terapagos . . . but it gets out of hand quickly. Terapagos absorbs so much terastal energy to that it becomes dangerous and uncontrollable. Terastal beams shoot everywhere creating a danger zone. Kieran tries to recall the Pokémon but the master ball freaking breaks. He is almost fatally struck in the head, but Koraidon/Miraidon shields him.

You and Carmine attempt to get Terapagos under control, to hardly any avail. The legendary keeps absorbing both trainers' terastal output. Briar's cowardly ass is over at the sidelines, and Kieran has another nervous breakdown and begins dissociating.

Carmine's Poltchageist quickly faints and the MC is left battling alone for a while. After multiple attempts at encouragement from you and Carmine, Kieran finally snaps back into reality and tries to help the situation. He realizes that he is kind of at fault and that he is not half bad at Pokémon battling. Eventually, you both tame Terapagos, and the MC catches/contains it in a ball.

Once things cool down, Kieran apologizes and bursts into sobs, followed by Carmine. Carmine also rips Briar a new one--Ms. Briar literally recruited mentally unstable children to descend into the most unknown, dangerous place in Paldea.

The gang returns to Unova where Kieran decides to fully apologize, and ask Florian/Julianna if they could start over and craft a friendship on a blank slate. The MC agrees, and the sky grows a romantic pink.

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As mentioned, the first half of the plot is pretty great. It is more surface level but still offers an entertaining depiction of [Pokémon] high school drama. The MC has returned to Kieran's surprise after having departed on a bitter note. While Florian/Julianna presumably carried on with their lives, Kieran has festered in envy and despair over the events of "The Teal Mask," devoting himself solely to getting stronger. You can even see the bags under Kieran's eyes, from the fact he has grown to be an insomniac.

The introductions of Lacey, Amarys, Crispin, and Drayton are executed wonderfully. They add a fun and unique flair to the plot that was largely absent in "The Teal Mask," and their interactions with each other are intriguing and charming. Sure, perhaps it crossed the lines of being "shippy" and dramatic at times . . . but these are all like 14 to 16-year-olds. Pokémon has never really dealt with shipping so upfront, but here you go. Though there is Drayton, who has been held back like three times, so he must be like 19 or 20 or something?

The rivalry between Drayton and the Kitakami siblings is quite amusing. It comes from a place of genuine concern on Drayton's side but it does not negate his cockiness (though to be fair, Kieran was presumably an asshole sore loser to him).

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I would say that the Blueberry Academy part of the game takes up most of players' time, due to the need to explore, catch new Pokémon, and complete trials and challenges. It is a chill adventure with a childishly dramatic story, which serves as an excellent buildup. Briar in the first portion of "The Indigo Disk" seems like a potential villain with more-than-meets-the-eye traits due to her vague explanations and questionable motive. Kieran's rampant self-destruction and callousness towards the League is worth a playthrough . . . players will want to kick his ass for sure.

However, following the defeat of Champion Kieran and the transition into the actual Area Zero parts of the story . . . oh boy, did it sure disappoint. For one thing, Geeta--knowing that her coworkers (like the gym leaders) do not seem to like her--remains weirdly auspicious yet does not seem willing to disclose key information to the people who are actually venturing down into the depths. Is Geeta hiding something? Does she know more about Terapgos and the indigo disk than she leads on? How did she obtain a Glimmora if they are only found in Area Zero? Why is she allowing mostly non-Paldean children over her fellow league members to go inside Area Zero? Game Freak will give zero answers to these questions.

The characterization of Briar became a big mess as well. Her presence in the story is mostly muted . . she could have been so much more. She served as more of a naive nuisance than an actual villain. Briar is a reckless, immature adult absorbed in her own world. She puts three kids in danger due to her erratic thirst for knowledge. She egged on a mentally unstable high schooler to do her own bidding. She was not a more-than-meets-the-eye villain, only an accidental enabler.

And why did Briar not get arrested? Why was she ever granted permission into Area Zero? Did she notice anything wrong with Carmine and Kieran? I feel like child endangerment charges should be filed. Of course, yet again, Game Freak will not answer nor solve any of these questions. In the post-game, Ms. Briar gives the player a book on the retelling of the Area Zero Depths event written by herself. She gives you a bloody book as an apology.

The saddest part about "The Indigo Disk" was how short it was. I had a playtime of 20 hours, in which maybe only two or three of those hours were actually in Area Zero. The depths were a cool concept that failed to actualize. As stated, the game left us with more questions than answers. What is Terapagos doing down there lying dormant in the depths? How is this Pokémon connected to terastalization? Still . . . why is there a huge crater in Paldea? Why does a random eastern town like Kitakami have terastal crystals in the water?

Ogerpon is much more fascinating lore-wise than Terapagos, and is also signifcantly better in combat than Terapagos' stellar tera type.

I mean, Terapagos being a turtle is neat, and so many religions in Asia and the Indigenous Americas focus on some sort of "world turtle" being the grounds for land and life itself. Why was this concept not explored in the Pokémon universe?

I don't know . . . the DLC was just much too short, and the depts were underwhelming. Game Freak could have dug even deeper. The final battle was exhilarating though, and I adored Kieran and Carmine's come-to . . . but still. It is also strange to note that Arven had nothing to do with these events. The old Paldea gang remains absent in both "The Teal Mask" and now "The Indigo Disk." As stated in my last review, these characters were pushed aside to allow the Kitakami siblings to shine. Though I think Area Zero is still really important for Arven . . . unless he is still grieving and traumatized, I do not know.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SETTING: 8/10

"The Indigo Disk" takes place in two major locations: Blueberry Academy and its terrarium, and the depths of Area Zero.

Graphics aside, the settings are quite stellar. My jaw dropped at the first encounter with the academy and its expansiveness. The layout is circular like a Pokéball, with a plaza in the center and four biomes all around. It is a nice size for a DLC I think; not too overwhelming in scale but full of varied geography. The good thing about a smaller-sized map is that there are significantly fewer instances of boring, barren stretches of land that could be found in the Paldea map. Most anywhere in the terrarium you can find at least something.

----------

The biomes include the polar, coastal, canyon, and savannah areas. I had the worst performance issues in the savannah biome, and the landscape is probably the most lackluster in my opinion. I mean, savannahs are flat grasslands in reality . . . so I cannot fully blame it in that regard.

I really liked the music and appearance of the coastal biome, and I appreciated the ruggedness of the canyon biome with its huge cave complex you can enter.

The strangest pieces of architecture are the rainbow blocks that loosely resemble structures. The small gazebo-like classrooms and the main central plaza are composed of these blocks. It is very ugly, but I suppose the coloration and brightness make it very visible.

----------

Inside the academy is neat. You can go to the cafeteria, your dorm room, and the school store, which all mostly looked like Naranja/Uva's interiror but alternately colored. Like in the base game, you can see some of the MC's friend's dorm rooms, like Carmine's and Kieran's (the latter is only accessed after the epilogue is completed). Carmine's room is neat but a bit weird, full of family portraits and Pokémon dolls. Kieran has a total depression room with loose candy wrappers and a dead plant.

The belle of the ball is the BB League clubroom, which can look different depending upon the player's will. With the computer, you can spend BP for the art club's services of remodeling the room. You have the options to make it look normal (wooden walls and a blue carpet), natural (green and full of plants), monochrome (greyscale, hexagonal), fancy (pink dollhouse-like), dark (like a vampire's dining room), classic (darker wood and cabin-like), futuristic (like a kid's rocket-inspired bedroom), and gorgeous (golden, east-Asian inspired). If players get sick of one look, BP can be spent to remodel it again. All the designs are quite charming with my favorites being natural and gorgeous.

----------

The look of the Depths is alright. It doesn't look radically different from before, but it certainly feels unusual. It looks more humid, cramped, and sparkly, with a foreboding vibe. I am not a fan with the strict linearity of the path from the Depths' start to finish, but at least it moves players along quickly.

The area with the big, crystallized tree surrounded by rainbow-ish water is beautiful. This scene was featured in the trailer. However, I am not quite sure of the significance of this location. Players engage in a stellar terastal battle here, but not much is noted about the tree itself. Stunning for Pokémon standards, but rather unimportant . . .

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

COMBAT: 9/10

The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero is definitely a step in the right direction for Pokémon, and "The Indigo Disk" itself is a step up from "The Teal Mask." The DLC is hard.

You are going to need Pokémon above level 75 to suffice through part two of the DLC. Players will also face the highest leveled champion of all time, Kieran, who has a team of level 85 Pokémon.

"The Indigo Disk" features callbacks to Unova, in which Blueberry Academy specializes in double battling. Aside from wild encounters, ALL trainer battles will be doubles. This makes challenging the Elite Four and champion even more difficult. Players are going to need to strategize a bit. Even Pokémon that do not appear to be threats can unabashedly use helping hand and other supporting moves for their partner to your demise.

Champion Kieran's team is notably different from who he battled with back in Kitakami. He has come equipped with the most notorious VGC Pokémon of all time, Incineroar, and also has powerhouses like Dragonite and Grimmsnarl, and Pokémon with powerful attacks like Porygon-Z's hyperbeam and Hydrapple's fickle beam. It is evident that Kieran has been studying up and wants to harness only his most capable team members (bye bye little Furret). Kieran, like other trainers, also have a better understanding of how to use berries and focus sashes . . . so watch out. The struggle may annoy some people but appeal to others' competitive edge. It kind of feels as if I am battling another actual person sometimes.

----------

Fighting and catching some of the new Pokémon in the terrarium's Pokédex is hard. The starter Pokémon in particular, which can be accessed after spending 3,000 BP per biome, are a tough catch. I spent countless Pokéballs to no success for a freaking Froakie or Cyndaquil.

----------

Instead of any gym challenges, the Blueberry Academy featured league challengers per Elite Four member. These varied in difficulty.

Lacey's trial was a mere Pokemon quiz, and Amarys' challenge was a timed flying trial for Koraidon/Miraidon. These trials were not too hard at all nor too long in length. Players may slip up on certain quiz questions (e.g., what body part does Venonat see out of) or if your flying controls are inverted, it may be tougher.

Crispin's trial required bargaining trainers for spicy ingredients to make a super spicy sandwich. Some of these trainers the player has to battle. It is kind of silly and fun, but certainly longer than Amarys' and Lacey's tests. Drayton has a very unique challenge. You battle three trainers but ONLY with Pokémon you caught in the terrarium itself. This may be simple for some but hard for others, particularly players who had gotten by with their carry-over party from Paldea or Kitakami. I appreciate the little challenge that forces you to actually explore the biomes and attempt to change up the player's team.

----------

The second half of the DLC has more inconsistent difficulty scaling. There is an addition to the terastalizing gimmick: the stellar tera type. Pokémon usually terastalize into one specific type that may or may not be unusual for the species, but the "stellar" type is like a combination of all types. Honestly, the stellar type is weird and kind of useless . . .

I am unsure as to why this type was added to the game. It seems cool and powerful in name but not in practice. The "stellar" tera type appears for certain Pokémon within the depths of Area Zero, but I had a ridiculously easy time destroying the onslaught of them.

Stellar terastlization is supposed to boost Pokémon moves of all types, but only once per type. The Pokémon will gain the abilities:

Become super effective against other Pokémon that are terastallized.

Keeps the base typing's defensive stats and properties.

Will have no weaknesses nor immunities.

So . . . yeah, kind of strange. Would players rather have a permanent boost on a specific tera type? Probably yes. Essentially, the stellar tera type does nothing for a Pokémon offensively, just defensively.

This made the newly revealed legendary Pokémon Terapagosmrather underwhelming. He is a stellar tera type, and while he looks cool, so what? The animation for Terapagos to terastalize is also awfully laggy and time-consuming. There is virtually no point in terastalizing him.

The boss battle against Terapagos however is unholy broken. It is a difficult fight . . . until it is not. The fight is impossible to get through if your Pokémon is not terastalized, in which Terapagos will be constantly absorbing the player's terastal energy for its own benefit, particularly after every third chunk of HP lost. Non-terastaslized Pokémon do insanely minimal damage.

The battle is actually story-guided. Despite the intensity and the epic soundtrack, the flow of the fight is hardly in the player's control. Carmine's only Pokémon will faint within the first third of the battle, and the MC will be left to his/her own devices in the middle third of the fight. In the final stretch, Kieran, regardless of anything, will come to his senses and help you out to defeat Terapagos.

Admittedly, I did die several times in this fight. Other people probably had no struggle at all. While Terapagos technically changes type every once in a while during the battle, it was hard to notice since it was so plot-oriented. The scariest part of the battle, which killed me, was the vehement spamming of the move "tera star storm."

So, the introduction of the stellar type is kind of a downside. It is simply irrelevant. It does not make too much sense for the player to actually use this mechanic. Once the story is completed, wild Pokémon may randomly develop the stellar tera type. It is not really worth the catch in my opinion; it is a gimmick pure and simple, unable to live up to its epic name.

----------

ENJOYMENT: 8/10

Overall, I enjoyed my experience with The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC. It has its serious flaws, and perhaps I am too content of a Pokémon fan, but I think my greatest attraction to this game was simply the characters and their development. The writing is humorous, emotional, and thoughtful, and Kieran and Carmine's arcs were refreshing and nicely done. It is great to have poorly adjusted, mentally ill rivals for a change, rather than the classic friendly competitor.

"The Indigo Disk" provided a fun challenge with its double battle system and high-leveled Pokémon, and I never got bored of fighting. I only was bogged down by the grinding for BP, but give or take it is an optional mechanic. I was thriving in my childhood memories of roaming around Pokémon Black and White, jamming out to the soundtrack reminiscent of Generation V.

Scarlet and Violet once again introduced visually and personality-appealing characters and Pokémon designs. Hydrapple has been a huge hit it seems, and I see some fans calling Applin the "new Eevee."

Of course, Game Freak must get itself together. There are no excuses for bugs, glitches, FPS drops, and graphical issues in 2022 onwards. Game Freak also needs to stop shying away from its own story questions they propose; the company is full of interesting ideas, they just need to figure out how to adequately implement them through and through. Yet, I just know the next mainline games are going to abandon and forget the concept of terastalization and all the power it holds in the Pokémon lore.

Regardless, I think that Pokémon fans will have a great time with this DLC and a gang of characters to remember and cherish.

TOTAL TIME SPENT: 40ish hours

OVERALL SCORE: 7/10

PLATFORM USED: Nintendo Switch

DATE OF COMPLETION: May 2024

[bmblboop]

Good thing I voted early bc too much is happening today

[cjcroen1393]

New Pokémon dropping soon!

It’s called “Grafaiai”. No word on exactly when we’ll see the announcement trailer, but based on what’s said, most likely VERY soon!

I’m actually pretty excited about this one cause most people are speculating, based on the name and the silhouette shown in the promo pictures, that it might be an aye-aye!

You know, one of these blursed little guys:

(Yes, that is a real animal, not a Jim Henson puppet)

It also seems to have a graffiti gimmick going on. It’ll be cool to have another “artist” Pokemon besides Smeargle for once!

[spooki-spaghets]

Dumb stuff that the creepypastas have done (any idrc)

Oooo-

Jeff convinced Sally she could paint her bedroom walls by herself and she didn't need to move anything to do it

Slender was pissed

Hoodie was on a sleeveless jean vest kick for a week, and decided to try iron on patches and insisted he didn't need any directions

How hard could it be, right?

He dropped the patches thing very fast after putting the iron settings too high and causing a fire at the dining room table

Hoodie burnt the table cloth, the patch, and part of his vest

He still wears the thing from time to time

Jeff and Toby squeezed orange and lemon juice into their eyes to see who would give first

Jeff was a dumbass who forgot that Toby wouldn't feel pain from it-

BEN was the asshat who watched and also forgot Toby wouldn't feel anything

Toby was a dipshit and knew they forgot but did it anyway just to say Jeff gave first

EJ could smell the citrus and found them

"TOBY!"

Jane was playing with Lost Silver's hair and BEN yelled for him saying the new Pokémon Scarlet and Violet trailer dropped and he got so excited he shocked the hell out of Jane

Helen was chilling out with EJ while he was playing around with some chemicals and didn't put his respirator on correctly and passed the fuck out from fumes

EJ fell asleep on the roof during his free time and rolled off

Slender saw him fall past his office window

He landed on top of Masky who was doing yard work

Jane and Clockwork were sitting in the living room floor trying to do the marble swirl stuff with nailpolish and BEN tripped over stuff and fell face first into it

Clock is pretty nifty and is good at patching stuff up but accidentally sewed Hobo Heart's pants to the table cloth

That table has been through some shit

Masky woke up early for work and accidentally put salt in his and Hoodie's coffee instead of sugar

Slender puts the salt and sugar in shakers then hides the sugar bag so SOME RESIDENTS LJ, Toby, Jane, Sally, BEN don't go ham with it

Other residents beg him to use a different method

Slender refuses

Jane snuck into LJ's room to grab some candy and satisfy her sweet tooth and grabbed the bad ones on accident

It was pieces that are meant to cause paralysis and LJ found her flat in his floor a few hours later

She ignored the sign on his door that says "DON'T TAKE CANDY FROM MY ROOM (you might die) -Your Favorite Clown, Laughing Jack"

Cody was mowing the lawn and got bored after a while and decided to try and make "cool lawn art"

He was actually really good at it

But he ruined the bushes

All the residents enjoy scaring BEN because he buffers and glitches out

Poor baby just wants peace-

Slender can sneeze

He gets these little tingling sensations and he kinda sneezes

When he does it's bursts of static and he occasionally teleports

He accidentally teleported in front of the TV when BEN and Silver were playing games in the living room

BEN lost his winning streak that day

Liu is the good baby that doesn't get involved in the shenanigans of the house

Although he was letting Sally put makeup stuff on his face and he fell asleep but she kept going

He walked around with a face full of maybe kinda not the best makeup and toughed through it for her because he promised

Sully didn't like it, but he tries not to be an asshat with kids so he toughed through it also

Jeff made fun of him but promptly stopped when Sally kicked his shin really hard

The residents said he looked nice after that

[dannyknowscomics]

Trailer 3 Just Dropped…..Some New Pokémon

Hey everyone we got the new trailer and now we got some never Pokémon for our teams and boy are they juicy

Klawf

Rock Type

Klawf can rotate its protruding eyeballs to see everything around it, eliminating all blind spots. It latches upside down onto cliffs to ambush its prey from above. However, Klawf eventually gets dizzy from the blood rushing to its head, so it can’t stay upside down too long.

Klawf’s claws can hold onto things very tightly, not letting prey go once within its grasp. It uses one claw to hold its opponent in place while using the other to break its guard and hit it where it hurts. Even if a Klawf loses a claw in battle or elsewhere, it will grow back after a while. In certain parts of the Paldea region, Klawf claws are considered a valuable cooking ingredient.

Klawf’s Anger Shell Ability is making its first appearance in the Pokémon series.

When Klawf’s HP drops to half or less, the Pokémon gets angry. This lowers its Defense and Sp. Def stats but boosts its Attack, Sp. Atk, and Speed stats.

Armarouge

Fire/Psychic Type

Armarouge’s set of armor belonged to a distinguished warrior, and is the source of the energy used for its Psychic-type moves. It also uses the psychic capabilities of this armor to control the fire energy within its body and unleash attacks.

Armarouge believes in a fair fight and will challenge an opponent head-on no matter how much stronger that opponent is. It specializes in using its sturdy armor to bolster its defenses and take down enemies with its high firepower.

Armor Cannon is a Fire-type special move in which Armarouge moves both its pauldrons to its hands and puts its arms together to form a cannon, allowing it to shoot its own armor out as blazing projectiles.

This is one of the more powerful moves that Armarouge can learn, but it lowers Armorouge’s Defense and Sp. Defense stats in exchange for that power.

Ceruledge

Fire/Ghost

Ceruledge dons an old set of armor steeped in grudges and wields blades made of fire and ghost energy. In battle, these blades transform into great swords to increase Ceruledge’s power. Cuts from these great swords leave wounds from which life energy will flow.

Ceruledge prefers close-quarters combat and isn’t above using tactics such as sneak attacks and surprise attacks to win a battle. It uses its quick movements to capitalize on its opponent’s blind spots, then closes the distance to slash its opponent with its large blades.

Bitter Blade is a Fire-type physical move that gathers the lingering regrets of the fallen into Ceruledge’s swords, allowing it to focus that bitterness into a slashing attack.

The swords then absorb life energy from wounds they made, and the user’s HP is restored by up to half the damage taken by the target.

Omg while I’m not really wowed by Klawf (sorry Mr.Krabs 😔)

Both Armarouge and Ceruledge are frickin cool as heck and I can’t wait for them to join my team, pretty sure there version exclusive (color coded and all 😝) but now gotta figure our a name for these two 🧐

[grismavessel]

NEW TRAILER DROPPED

HELLO SAILORS 💕💖💕

Also the rival looks cool!

4 PERSON OPEN WORLD GAMEPLAY?? YOO

The legendary Pokémon, I already love them more than sword and shield

A MIX OF CLASSIC AND LEGENDS GAMEPLAY LETS GO

LECHONK

I have a theory the new mechanic might be based on time or like changing a Pokémon’s typing because of the contrast between the two professors and box legendary Pokémon

GIVE ME MORE ALOLAN POKÉMON

(Gris and Ingo might take a vacation to the new region)

[stargirlfics]

idk if you're a big pokemon fan or not but the trailer for the new games that are dropping in a few months came out a few hours ago and it's so cute 🥺🥺🥺 like i'm literally vibrating at the speed of sound rn with the need to spend more of my money on these lmao

I’m not very well versed with Pokémon I only know like Pikachu and Bulbasaur fhsjsjjs but I’ve always wanted to know more and I’ve stuff of the new game on my dash and it honestly looks so cool and adorable like my interest is so piqued!!

[bearpillowmonster]

Neo: The World Ends With You

I'm invested in the original game and its characters, I'm invested in this game and its characters. I've had a lot of time for the original game to marinate and I can say that I enjoy pretty much every character and their arc and while I don't exactly feel the same with this one, that's not disappointing to me and this was my most anticipated game of 2021 so I mean that. This is a sequel, I expected as much and it didn't let me down, it's even better than I thought.

This is a NONSPOILER review because I think it's best experienced by actually experiencing it so I'll keep a lot of character, story, and even gameplay details out other than how the very VERY beginning of the game starts out with Rindo and Fret.

Let me give credit where credit is due, Rindo is voiced by Paul Castro Jr. who is a new voice actor and I was honestly impressed by his voice more than anyone else in the game, I love his voice and while Rindo has some pretty big shoes to fill as the main, I think he does it. Rindo seems to act pretty accordingly to the situation he's put in. He's not as edgy as Neku but he has enough push to him to where he would be considered the "negative" of the group but I would rather call it "rational" because he brings up some valid points, stuff that I myself was asking. Putting yourself in his shoes, that seems pretty accurate.

Fret on the other hand is a bit of the opposite, an optimist if you will. He's not really a "bad" character, just in comparison to the others, he's not my favorite. I think that there needs to be someone in his position who tries to uplift the team, but he's just a little annoying about it sometimes. Also get ready to hear "Galaxy Brain, ACTIVATE!!" literally hundreds of times, as much as he talks, you'd think he'd add more variety.

IMPROVEMENTS:

I'm not going to complain about certain gameplay elements or limitations that carried over from the last game except one. The camera. It's fixed to where you have no control over it in the city areas and therefore can't get a proper look at everything, whether that works in its favor, I'm not sure because you get used to it but it's just a small peeve you start out with.

The combat is pretty loyal to the first game which is surprising. I personally didn't like the original gameplay because it was so limited on the DS, a lot of room for error, but having it on console expands the system and lets you use buttons rather than mashing a touch screen, improving on almost, if not all, gameplay fronts. However, because it's based on a game from 2007, the system may seem a little outdated to some, it's really up to you, it made a fan out of me, making it more fun.

I played the original in bites, not because of lack of enjoyment but because I felt like it was a game I could only get into for so long at a time but with this game it's the complete opposite. Maybe it was the DS hardware that hampered the original but I say it's a decent success on this game's part. I also felt that Persona 5 seemed a bit formulaic in its story context and gameplay layout with each castle but this game, while having patterns, it changes before you get the chance to really catch on. I could predict P5 but I couldn't predict this, each day was a mystery, I knew you'd fight people but I didn't always know who or when which is crazy considering that P5 had all the choices!

A small improvement that I'll suggest for combat is having short rhythm based moves or even QTEs, like how in the original Shiki had the directional pad moves which were annoying but still varied from the rest of the gameplay. There are definitely new things that you can do, but there are a few aspects worth complaining about. You can unlock certain abilities and once you enable them, you can't disable them. The only one that it personally applies with is the ability to enable individual health bars for enemies, rather than an overall one. Which sounds good but-

I personally don't like that it's always floating above their heads, if it was on the side screen, that'd be one thing but constantly above their heads? No deal. I actually had to go back and load up an old save to get rid of it. But with unlocking certain abilities comes with quality of life aspects so if you're not in love with the gameplay at first, give it a little bit because you might be able to unlock whatever piece you're missing.

There's also "soundsurfing" that adds to your groove meter that you can use when running around and it said that you press (in my case "X" on PS4) to the beat of the song which is a cool concept but it really isn't clear how to use it because I try matching the beat and I get nothing and have more success just button mashing. The groove meter can drop when it's not supposed to, like when you literally can't attack during the buffering of a special or switching between battles in a chain (The "Get Ready" screen) And if you're in a proper boss battle, you HAVE to fight, it's like a trainer battle in Pokémon which is especially annoying when you accidentally press "retry". It has no reason to be there when I already know that I'm not prepared for the boss and can't back out.

Do the trailers spoil it?

Originally, I only saw the first and or second trailer and knew I wanted it so there was no reason to see any more but it was kind of overwhelming with all the characters they were showing off in just a single trailer. I don't think they needed to go that far but I understand why they did. I understand why they showed a lot of things that they did but I think it's a bit easier to SWALLOW when it's introduced in-game. I even found myself doing all the side-quests and being engaged in the side-stuff in-game. But I knew about people pointing out spoilers so after I finished it, I went back and looked at the other trailers and OH BOY. The final trailer shows some stuff and I'm SO glad I didn't watch it. They straight up show some out of context death scenes as well as different alliances and betrayals, not to mention parts of the freaking ending. The launch trailer is no better, it's just like that trailer but cut down. You may not have context but you can draw some hefty conclusions and that alone makes me question, why? I'm not sure if there are many reveals that they DIDN'T tease, it's like they went out of their way to hit every single one. Whether it's Square or Nintendo, they need to figure out how to cut a trailer, heck, hire me, I at least have the editing skills and know what's interesting enough to show and what's too spoilery not to show, come on!

Is it newcomer friendly?

I heard a lot of things like "it drops you in without mercy so pay very close attention" (in terms of story, that is) so only people who played the original game will be able to get it. But I beg to differ, I think it does a pretty good job of filling you in while putting you in the shoes of a new player (both in the game and out) AND keeping the mystery of whatever happened since the last game coming in small pieces. Most of the dialogue text boxes are voice acted so it's not really a slog to read. To prove my point further, the premise starts out very similar so it should be easy to clue in what exactly happened in the last game. Of course you're going to get more enjoyment out of it if you played the original but I don't think you'd be totally lost if you started with this one and played to right before the ending because then it kinda has to do stuff without preface, so you're going to be confused by much of the emotional weight that it carries. But it still gives you plenty of time to catch up on the original, whether through the game, videos, or lore, this game has you ask the questions, so fill in the blank. It has a nice length to it so you'll have until the ending to figure it out. Also, Final Remix teased stuff that this game makes clarity on but I wouldn't call FR mandatory. (Except maybe no numbers on the hand? Maybe even I missed something there.)

[scaramoon]

hello hello!! stream recap anon reporting for duty! :D our hosts are albedo, gorou and aether!! stop khoi is so excited i can’t he’s so cute

the trailer begins! GOROU AAAAHHH WAIT IM GONNA CRY…EHAT?? BIG DRAGON?? HELLO?? WHAT STOP.. ITTO YES RAWR STOP ITTO SAID “LITTLE ONE” I HAVE ASCENDED- ooh, very drastic change of pace, now we’re listening to albedo and eula in dragonspine!! STOP SNOWMAN BUILDING?? omg albedo got ROBBED!? SOMEONE ROBBED HIS CAMP?? AN AVALANCHE ?? HELLO?? OMG BENNETT ISPART OF IT TOO???? HELLO

FIRST CODE: KB6DKDNM7H49

ooh and now we’re seeing some more itto footage!! his little bull i’m gonna sob HE PLAYS TRADING CARD GAMES??? OMG ITTO POKÉMON FAN CONFIRMED…stop khoi is in love with itto i love it..itto is an oni!! he has his own little crew called “arataki gang” stop omg…he won a ramen eating contest against yae i’m gonna scream STOP THEY INVITED ITTO’s VA AS A SPECIAL GUEST…HIS E SKILL SOUNDS SO COOL BUT THERE IS SO MUCH STUFF TO IT I CAN’T KEEP UP IM SORRY OMG HE THROWS HIS BULL AT HIS OPPONENTS STOP IT’S SO CUTE HE’S CALLED USHI- after triggering his ult, all his attacks are turned into geo and his attack will be increased depending on his def (his resistance drops though!)…as for his passive, he grants a wood collecting bonus!

ON TO MY PRETTY FOX BOY GOROUU AAAAH HE’S SO CUTE I LOVE HIM SO MUCH BYE I CAN’T BYE GRGEGEHEHSHDJ- “top-dog gorou” STOP BOSSBABE GOROU WE LOVE IT- apparently he often doesn’t know how to give the best advice but he always does his best and gives general pointers!! he’s also still young and inexperienced so he sometimes can’t control his temper i- his e plants that little paw flag and grants everyone in the aoe bonuses! the more geo characters, the more buffs you gain from gorou’s e! his burst also grants buffs and deals geo damage!! the field moves with your active character!! his passive is called seeker of shinies i can’t HE’S SO ADORABLE

THE BANNERS ARE DIFFERENT! ALBEDO AND EULA WILL BE RUNNING TOGETHER AT THE SAME TIME! ITTO + GOROU will be the second banner! REGARDING THE RERUNS: THE PULLS ARE COUNTED TOGETHER FOR BOTH RERUN BANNERS! apparently there will be more double reruns in the future, if it fits the update (probably when they only have one new 5 star!)

itto is getting his story quest, too! beidou and gorou will get hangouts!

there is a new 5 star claymore as well as two new artifact sets, which will come with a new domain on seirai island!!

NEW BOSS! “GOLDEN WOLFLORD”. big scary dog dragon!! bro looks like rex lapis’ cousin what is this- he is the king of the rift hounds!!

SECOND CODE: BSNDJC747Z7D

THE EVENTS! first, “Shadows amidst snowstorms” with albedo, amber and eula! - it’s the guild’s winter training in dragonspine, and we get event currency and can exchange for rewards! there are different training challenges, the first one is the agility one! the second one is tracker training! and the last one is combat training! we can also build the snowmen and find components during the tracker and combat trainings! we can also get a new sword, cinnabar spindle! also, the snowmen stay after the event! there apparently also is a special boss in the event story 👀

Second Event, “Bantan Sango Case Files: The Warrior Dog” in Inazuma - animals have been disappearing and the traveller wants to find them! there is like a dog that keeps them and we have to free them?? stop it’s all so cute i can’t WHAT- also, we can get a new gadget from this with which we can catch (“recreate”) animals from open world and take them to our teapot!

Third Event, Energy Amplifier! it’s pretty similar to the first one!

Fourth Event: Misty Dungeon! it’s that one event with the runes we had before? it’s also pretty similar to the last one, but there are new characters we can trial!

also, the marvellous merchandise event is back as well!

TEA POT UPDATE! we can put paimon into our teapot now!! :D

THIRD CODE: AS7CJDP4NG7H

and that’s all for the stream!

THANK YOU BELOVED IM SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO ANSWER, IVE BEEN IN SCHOOL ALL DAY SOBS

LITTLE ONE THOUGHWJWJX man,, i know i said i’d cry if i lose my pity to itto bc i was pulling for gorou but i,, would not be disappointed. also his passive would be really helpful even if i don’t use geo chars that much 😭 GOROU IS SO CUTE THOUGH WTF??? HIS LITTLE PAW PRINTS???? SEEKER OF SHINIES??? TOP DOG GOROU??? IM SOBBING

ooh the double banner thing sounds interesting :0 i said they probably wouldn’t put two geo beside each other so i guess that’s why they added eula in there; i’m not complaining though, i’ve played her on a friend’s account she’s a really good character when you use her correctly

AHH IM SUPER EXCITED FOR THE HANGOUT QUESTS THOUGH :((( i’m uh ✨limp wristed✨ but i honestly think beidou’s is gonna be fun, i wanna be captain of the crux for a day 😤

omg and the new events seem fun too. i hope we can put those little ferret lookin mfs in our teapot theyre adorable :( and i’m glad misty dungeon is back, i loved that event sm

TSYM AGAIN MY BELOVED UR DOING GODS WORK

[mrslittletall]

I want to hear your thoughts in Pokemon Fandom pls

This is for the salt meme, right?

You know, I am in the Pokémon fandom since 20 years. I have seen this series from the very beginning, when I was a meager 13 years old.  And starting with Ruby/Sapphire it has been the same each new game announcement. “OMG, what is that?! They ruined Pokémon! That game looks horrible, I hate it I hate it, they ruined the franchise!”  Look, I agree that Pokémon is in a dark spot right now. I wouldn’t say their games are bad, but they could have been so much better. I see a lot of wasted potential in SwSh for example and it is clear for me the game suffers from having been rushed. I want to see Gamefreak make a creative pause and rethink their franchise for a while.  So, yesterday the Sinnoh remakes dropped. Cool, I am glad for people who have never played the games or lost their copies and little kids who just got into the franchise with SwSh to relive my favourite generation.  But what do I have to see today? People complaining about how ugly the remakes look. I actually breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the chibi art style, because that meant that they probably will not rebuild the routes in 3D and that means the routes stay as interesting and varied as they have been in the DS games.  Also, the game only comes out in late 2021. Let them some time to finish the game. Let them show what kind of features they put into it. Don’t hate the game before it came out, please. I don’t have a reason to buy the games with the current trailer, but that is why I decided to wait for new information before I decide. So yeah, that is my main salt about the fandom at the moment. It wouldn’t be so tiring if I wouldn’t have seen this for like... 5 generations already. 

[sniffing]

Tbh it kinda annoys me that people will resort to the ‘Game footage not final’ quote when defending the ways the pokémon games look, because it’s not a defence you’d ever have to use for any other Nintendo game.

Like when Nintendo announced Odyssey, or Paper Mario or Splatoon 3 they all looked amazing right from the get go. Nobody complained about poor graphics when their reveal trailers dropped.

But when Pokémon drops a reveal trailer and the graphics and performance rate is under whelming it’s all ‘well it will improve before it comes out so it doesn’t matter’

And I’m like yeah well I hope so but I’m questioning why they’re willing to show case a game that hasn’t received the same level of polish that other Nintendo games have had before their reveals.

And IDK I guess the way the games look aren’t bothering me that much personally. I’m willing to forgive Legends just because the concept is so cool and breaking innovate new ground for the series. And whilst I was put off by BD/ SP originally it’s starting to grow on me the more I see it. If it’s about on par with Links awakening and the Let’s go games when it comes out I think it might be really pretty.

But I just think people should be able to express their concerns for the way it looks with out having ‘game footage not final’ thrown back in their face as a gotcha.

[danwhobrowses]

Pokémon Direct 26th Feb 21 Thoughts (Happy Pokémon Day)

Happy Pokémon Day everyone! 25 Years since Red and Green hit stores and would change gaming for so many people.

Yesterday though, Pokémon dropped a special Direct revealing new info and titles, which compared to the Nintendo Direct and Playstation State of Play had a lot more hype towards it, at least for me. So I’m gonna run down the contents - a combination of stuff learned from the video and the website

Spoilers for the Direct below if you haven’t watched it yet

Part 1: Pokémon New Snap - New Information

More information about the New Snap game came up first, revealing that it’ll be releasing on 30th April and available for Pre-Order.

On top of throwing apples to encourage new behaviour, there is also the possibility to play tunes. Most unique though is the ‘Illumina Orb’, this item when thrown at Pokémon will cause a glowing aesthetic either on the Pokémon or any elements they may summon, the Illumina phenomenon seems to be a core part of the game’s story alongside getting the Photodex (each Pokémon having 1-4 Star photo slots).

You can also upload your photos via Switch Online, though that’s not really for me so I’ll probably just use an SD to transfer pics or something.

The characters include Professor Mirror (missed chance to use an adult Todd Snap), Phil - you seems to be your rival and Rita - who seems to be the tutorial guide character. The environment of some expeditions will vary by level as well so there will be cause for repeatability.

The New Snap is more of a ‘does what it says on the tin’ kinda game, you’re there to take photos. But the new stuff does look to entice players to play around with it all and see how good they can get out of the photos, it is definitely something that will live to expectations.

Part 2: Pokémon Day Commemorative Events

Afterwards we got some info on the events happening around today. Pokémon Café Mix is having a login promotion for Golden Acorns, Pokémon GO is doing Kanto Legendary raids and in Masters EX Leon is in the game with Charizard

For SwSh G-Max Pikachu is back until the 28th, there are chances for a Shiny. If 1 million are beaten you’ll also get 100 of Dynite and Armorite ore.

These Pikachu are not that easy though in Solo raiding, AI is usually awful but this Pikachu will know a combination of Surf, Disarming Voice, Volt Tackle (and a special G-Max variation that paralyzes Neighboring Pokémon), Discharge, Brick Break, Iron Tail and its usual spamming of either Nasty Plot or Double Team. So be careful of accuracy issues or your AI failing you...a lot

On top of this if you use  P25MUS1C as a code you’ll get a Pikachu that knows Sing.

Part 3: DP Remake

Years of People demanding and you got this. Perhaps a lesson to be constructive in criticism since the remakes have already drawn its own controversy for being different to the other games fans criticized and even boycotted for a short while.

Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl brings the old DS games to a new form with the same top-down camera from the games of old, blending an old-Final Fantasy and Animal Crossing-esque chibi type overworld character that has received mixed reviews and, along with the next part, comparisons with the Legend of Zelda series, particularly for this one Link’s Awakening.

Other than the new graphics, the trailers haven’t revealed any new content that is genuinely new to the series, but the website suggests ‘player-friendly conveniences’ which may help in reducing the grind. Of course, this is only the first taste, there still can be plenty more.

I must confess, but DP was always a bit of a Red-Headed Stepchild for me in terms of the series, I certainly didn’t hate it, I just felt like the main story lacked a bit. It could simply be because Cyrus’ story only really peaks for Platinum but most of it is due to the fact that I was able to get through the whole game within 24 hours of play. I am also in the party that’s not too thrilled about the chibi design, I had always feared that Pokémon Player and NPC models would fall into Mii territory and this does feel like a step in that direction, I also love customization (though male characters do not get as much choice) so it always feels a bit of a let down when we remove that. Also I think that the shaders could’ve been upped because you look at these 3D artworks and they are magnificent.

Also the names are a bit, uninspired. I mean we usually get dichotomy in the new names too: Fire and Leaf, Heart and Soul, Alpha and Omega, so going to Brilliant and Shining seems weird. What about Hope Diamond and Faith Pearl? Stone Diamond and Sea Pearl? Time Diamond and Space Pearl? I felt like there were more options.

On the positive side though, Underground is back with will be fun, maybe they’ll update bases too. They might add the Platinum stuff in there too, revamped Distortion World sounds cool, and I hope the Pokétch comes back, it was a handy tool especially the Day Care app

Part 4: Pokémon Legends - Arceus

Now this, is more like it.

Sticking with Sinnoh comes a prequel story of ancient times, where humans are only slowly settling into the region and the landscape is vast with free roaming Pokémon. The series takes its RPG-style deeper with the open world as players go on to complete the first ever Sinnoh Pokédex.

Battle or sneak up on Pokémon by using ancient steampunk-esque Pokéballs, this becomes a pure capturing adventure light but not completely devoid of being a ‘trainer’. No Elite 4 or Pokémon League, this is all about exploration leading all the way to Arceus.

Coming in 2022, the art and landscape is beautiful drawing parallels to Breath of the Wild, the UI is clean and simplistic and we get a new shift in our starters being different to the generation’s 3, instead you pick between Oshawott, Rowlet and Cyndaquil, but with sightings of Piplup in game you can be sure that the Sinnoh starters will be catchable.

The idea of going into the past is fresh for Pokémon fans, it’s something that looks very promising as a new recurring title for the series, the character design of old clan robes is also a nice touch. I do hope that future main series titles adopts this more open world environment and art style, the piano music is also very Ghibli esque which is a huge plus for me. I am keen to see how the journey develops as we go up to face god itself.

Part 5: Conclusion

The direct was good, even though there was stuff I’m not thrilled about it continues to reiterate my love for this series, which has been a core part of my life ever since getting a Game Boy Color & Pokémon Blue bundle for Christmas as a kid. I may still hold out on getting the DP remakes just yet but Snap and Legends will definitely be something I intend on buying, Pokémon continues to develop and evolve which has kept it going for 2 and a half decades, and I look forward to more evolutions to come.

[alric-usami]

Pokémon Sword & Shield; Crown Tundra DLC (Thoughts)

After months of finally waiting Nintendo has blessed us in the Pokemon community with a release announcement for Pokemon Sword’s and Pokemon Shield’s Crown Tundra DLC

If you haven’t seen the video and want to keep yourself spoiler free consider this your ✨ spoiler warning! ✨

If you haven’t seen the video and want to learn more just click on the link below to watch! There’s this freaking awesome animated music video at the end that I really recommend! 😁

At first glance the video doesn’t tell us much new information that we didn’t already know. We got see more of the Crown Tundra’s beautiful landscape, quick cutscenes of the Legendary Bird’s Galarian Forms, Slowking’s full design reveal, and we got to see a couple new Pokemon that will make a return! Like my boy Dragonite! 😤👀

I’ll try to keep my thoughts brief as there isn’t really too much to talk about and I’ll break down my thoughts with each topic.

Let’s do this!

Galarian Slowking

After the original teaser of the DLCs as a whole, Pokemon showcased part of the designs for Galarian Slowbro and Galarian Slowking, which got some of the community very much excited.

While we were able to obtain Galarian Slowbro in the Isle of Armor, showcasing its unique design and moves, we now look forward to seeing what this new Galarian Slowking that will be featured in the Crown Tundra can do.

I’ve never really had a chance to or the initiative to use a Slowking before in any way, but I think this looks cool. It has a mysterious, shaman-like vibe further exemplified by its purples and pink colorations and its single green gem. It’s always cool to appreciate a ‘new look’ in a Pokemon with these regional forms.

It’s now a Poison/Psychic and has the ‘Curious Medicine’ ability which, if I read that correctly, nullifies the effects of an ally Pokémon’s status drops. So, if your Pokemon gets hit with Intimidate, Galarian Slowking’s Curious Medicine will change that -1 Attack back to a neutral 0. From the looks of it, this will be a real advantageous ability to use in double battles currently popular.

Furthermore, it gets a cool new move called ‘Eerie Spell’, a powerful move that both inflicts damage and reduces the opponent’s last used move by 3 PP. All I can say is that this Pokemon has a high probability of appearing often in online battles, so ready yourselves for it!

I think it’s awesome that Pokemon is now targeting Status and Hacks within battles this generation. Introduction of Pokémon and moves that target these specific mechanics really heighten the unpredictability of your opponent (unless you’re me XD) to create new battle experiences where any fun combination of moves and battle styles are possible. Even previous Pokemon not normally brought to online battles often are making appearances.

What do you think about this new Galarian Slowking? Would you add it to your team?

Landscape

I want to take a quick moment and appreciate the landscape that the Crown Tundra will offer. It’s a beautiful snowy mountains where we’ll go on expeditions, the amazing , but there’s also color to it, particularly with that giant pink tree we often see in the trailers revolving around it.

It’s hard to say what this beautiful tree and it’s fruitful bounty will be used for, maybe for Galarian Slowbro’s evolutionary method or have to do with the Legendary Bird’s Lore but thats just speculation in my part. I really think it’s nice to appreciate a landmark that a lot of players will probably go and admire.

But my favorite part about this is the temple, or castle in the snowy mountains here!

For some reason, while the design is not the same by any means, my first thought when I saw this was that it somewhat reminded me of the Lengend of Zelda’s Temple of Time a little! Haha 😄

Regardless of what it may bring, I’m sure we’ll have a good time simply exploring the whole place alongside our walking pokemon.

Galarian Star Tournament

This is one of the features I’m very excited for!

You’ll be able to partner off with gym leaders, rivals, and all around people you’ve met around your journey to participate in multi battles against other famous trainers you’ve encountered in your journey! 🤩

You’ll face against teams involving Nessa and Milo, Leon and Hop, Mustard and Klara or Avery (Depending on tour version) among many more in these coming tag battles!

I’m hoping this one has online connectivity, if it hasn’t been confirmed, so I can tackle these battles alongside my friends! I’m sure these’ll be super intense!

Rounding off my Thoughts

I realize that there isn’t much to say from what we already know and overall, I personally, was satisfied. Or more like my anxiousness for this DLC’s release is somewhat appeased at the moment ���

The release date for the Crown Tundra is coming in October 22 of this year, and while I wish we had a bit more to go on I think we can expect pretty good things from this installment.

While I’m still not too keen on having every legendary Pokémon available in one place, it’s fair to acknowledge that because of Max Raid Battles these legendary Pokémon won’t be as easy to catch as before (not that they ever were to begin with). And many players who like these amazing Pokémon, whether for their design, battle prowess, memories etc., will get a chance to hopefully obtain these powerful mons on their teams. It’ll be interesting at least to see their following/walking animations XD

Sadly, there wasn’t any lore revealed either for the Legendary Bird’s or the Regis aside from what’s already been given ;-;. BUT! I think the mystery allures me to them even more and I can’t wait to find out about it •_•

There’s more good news though! If you’re a fan of special cap Pikachus that were previously distributed in Gen 7, then you have the chance to get them again for your Pokémon Sword and Shield games! They’ll be holding distributions for them throughout the coming weeks!

You can get your first one, Original Kanto Cap Pikachu, by imputing the code P1KACHUGET in Mystery Gift for your games!

That’s all for now everyone! ✌🏼

What are your hopes and thoughts for this DLC? What Pokémon do you hope to encounter alongside the already revealed ones?

[kob131]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XgKp9jj4Is

*sigh* Great, yet ANOTHER ‘Let’s rewrite Adam’ argument made by miss ‘It’s hard to keep track of RWBY characters like Zwei.’

“Degredation of Adam’s character from Blake’s mentor to an abusive ex to a whiny incel who makes insults like it’s his Pokémon name.”

A. “Blake’s mentor” is not a character. It is a description and not even a bare bones one.

B. What is the difference between an abusive ex and an incel exactly? They’re both used to describe despicable people in relation to romance.

C. That is not what incel. You’re using it as a generic insult and thus that last description may as well say ‘Adam bad’ for all the substance it has.

D. Adam always made stupid insults. People laughed at his voice in the Black Trailer and in Volume 3 for fuck’s sake.

And E. What WOULD you make Adam that wouldn’t just make him every generic freedom fighter?

“We’re gonna drop the abusive angel completely and go with Monty’s original plan-”

Done.

You just killed your own video by assuming a dead man’s intention with no fucking reason other than ‘mouthpiece.’

I have no reason to accept anything you say in good faith after this. Before you say that you wanted to change as little as possible then change a massive aspect while using a corpse as a meat shield from criticism.

You are owed nothing from this point on.

‘You don’t doodle your abuser in your notebook-”

Unless, you know, think about them. But hey, why use your brain when you can rely on the inevitable RWBY haters to drown out all criticism?

‘The abuse angle is the worst explored in the show-”

Proof?

No?

Considering your history, I HIGHLY doubt that.

“*Insert Adam into the Volume 2 train fight instead of the WF Lieutennat because he was an out of nowhere threta*”

...

So the Black Trailer and the Volume 2 finale never happened...or you’re an incompetent idiot.

“It gives the scene more weight because we know who Adam is-”

We also know who the WF lieutenant is AND we don’t waste an important character for a worthless fight that amounts to nothing as the train fights ultimately mean NOTHING.

Congrats, you made Adam worse because his first in series fight had him giving a good performance. Here, he can’t even kill Weiss (and in fact, as I am about to explain, he’d get CURB STOMPED by Weiss.)

Just as well, you’ll need to completely change his weakness. Adam is a glass cannon, he can dish out a lot of damage and move quickly but one good hit knocks him down. Makes sense since he’s not exactly big and buff and he can’t fight back when someone isn’t intimidated by him. It also makes him dangerous to Yang as she relies on taking hits at first which she can’t do with Adam because she often flings herself in ways that make dodging impossible. It also makes sense why Blake can fuck him over and why she can get fucked over: she’s also fragile but evasive which connects her with Adam too.

But say he fights, I dunno, someone who can zip around quickly in a manner that he can’t block the attacks and would logically get fucked over quickly by. Like say, a Semblance that zips you from spot to spot like WEISS’. 

Yeah, he’d lose in an instant against Weiss because he’s never seen to be able to block attacks moving that fast and he’d get fucked over quick. So you’d need to up his durability and suddenly he loses a logical weakness that is represented by his personality, connecting him to Blake, basically making him a Yang clone and now you need a NEW weakness. Suddenly a lot of Adam’s interesting elements SHATTER.

This is why Adam rewrites suck. None of you think through your writing. You make the same mistakes that Miles and Kerry made but with less experience, less insight and less care and then pile on EVEN MORE flaws.

Worst of all, the bullshit you give about ‘knowing his threat level’ ignores other factors like appearance, attitude and fighting style. Oh wait, I know why. If we include those, the WF Lieutennat suddenly becomes a clear threat. His appearance is distinctly different from the WF goons, with his tall and thick frame indicating he’s strong and durable while his choice of weapon shows he would have a strong but slow fighting style and his attitude shows that if Weiss loses she could very well die a PAINFUL death by a sadist chainsaw wielding terrorist. (’More tension’ my ass.)

You throw out so much just for ONE point that was accomplished in the original anyway. What the fuck else are you gonna muck up?

“Have adam be there to show Adam working with Torchwick-”

Which Blake would already assume since the WF is working with Torchwick and Adam LEADS the WF. But I guess Blake is too stupid to do basic math.

“Then have Adam let Blake run away-”

WHAT THE FUCK?!

Run to where?! They are in an enclosed space! Adam should be chasing after her! He has every reason to chase after her, both personal and professional!

“Then we can have dialogue that goes something like this in Volume 3: Adam: “I don’t want to have to fight you but I will if I have to. Blake: No no, Humans aren’t bad people! Adam: I have seen what they can do. Your family kept you safe. I wasn’t so lucky-”

Cool, so he’s every generic ‘sympathetic’ freedom fighter now.

Instead of being a deconstruction of the noble wounded freedom fighter, showing how such a person would be impossible for such a situation from the extremity of the harm done to him, the manipulation by his superiors for their own ends and his own faults, he’s just a generic pity bag now.

No wait, a SHITTY generic pity bag now because in the Black Trailer, he explictedly tried to blow up innocent people on a train. Blake even questioned him on it and he said ‘So?’. That isn’t the reaction of some noble but misguided person, that’s the reaction of someone so far off the deep end they’ve lost basic sympathy.

Trying to make him out to be noble here would be like trying to make me believe Raven is this secret loving mother or this protector: their actions in the past CONTRADICT this.

‘But Twiinks never said that-’

Her choice of words did. The words you choose your characters to say speaks about how we are suppose to view them. Adam’s word choice in the original communicates a dangerous sadism and madness built from pain and a lack of emotional maturity. This version communicates a sadness stemming from a supposed kindness that Adam SHOULDN’T have.

‘But it tells us what they’re stances on humans are-’

So did the original while also why we should route for Blake over Adam (i.e. she’s still sane and tries to be kind while Adam has lost it and is being cruel and vindictive.)

We literally lost something here.

“He truly feels like this is the only way to help Fanaus-”

So we're now working off the assumption he cares about the Fanaus and not just himself and his own pain, deconstructing how real life movements become corrupted from their original purpose by focusing on their own personal pain than a universal kindness.

Cool, so Adam isn’t Adam anymore.

“Adam still stabs Sienna but it’s about the orgnazation instead of a lame power grab-”

*rolls eyes*

I really hate these rewrites. Why do you even bother with Adam if you tear out the character and insert someone completely different? 

“Adam is remorseful, Sienna says something like ‘I would rather die than give you the organization’, and Adam apologizes. Perfect scene.”

A cheesy line that rings hollow and more OOC. Wonder-fucking-ful. I also looked ahead and saw that you are changing Adam’s character short to be about getting his scar. (More on that mess when we get to it.) So Adam being used by Sienna to push for her more violent agenda over Ghira’s peaceful one, something used by the show to show we shouldn’t be shitty to each other (AKA A core theme) still exists. Meaning that what should be Sienna paying for her sins by having the very person she used to push her agenda take it to its logical extreme, kill her in turn and destroy her work is just nonsensical pity begging.

I also assume Adam declaring his idea of Fanaus Supremacy and basically quoting Mein Kampf is still in the show since you never address that. Cool, so either I pity a woman who screwed this man’s life or I pity Furry Hitler. *slow claps*

“During the Volume 5 fight, his breaks and we see his scar-”

...

I’m not even surprised by how dumb this shit is. 

Adam’s scarf reveal in Volume 6 was wonderful and one of the best moments in the show. For so long, we saw Adam as someone who was destructive and hateful for no reason and right there, the audience is forced to see that while his actions are inexcusable, his reasons are very human and very real. He’s not a monster, he’s a person whose consumed by pain. At the very end of his life, Adam wasn’t a monster: he was a sorrowful reminder of what pain does to a person.

What does the scar reveal do here? ... Nothing. Seeing his face in full means nothing. Twiinks doesn’t even say anything about it. It’s just there because she wants a look of remorse and thinks that can’t be accomplished with the mask. Even though we could see him cry or have a look of sorrowful anguish. Adam can emote fine without his mask.

I just-I can’t believe this.

”The Adam short is now instead of a bunch of emotionless fight scenes now about how Adam got his scar-”

...

Just more pissing on what makes Adam good. Yeah yeah...

The Adam short is not just a bunch of emotionless fight scenes. The fight scene you show (of Adam protecting Ghira) shows so much. It shows the struggles of the peaceful White Fang, it shows Adam being shocked at killing a human as he hadn’t fallen yet, it shows Sienna using Adam to push her violence without concern for his well being and it shows how he got it into his head killing was fine.

That was ONE scene. ONE. Your scar replacement as a whole would have less impact (as we can tell how got it from context clues) than ONE scene.

Are you guys getting WHY I hate rewrites of RWBY so much?

“Adam finds Oscar-”

If this doesn’t end with “and then he kills Oscar” I don’t care. Even this version of Adam would jump at killing a human and would have no idea Oscar knows Blake.

And it doesn’t. Great. BTW, Oscar wouldn’t know about the plan at this point so him showing up at the CCT tower isn’t explained and this scene is pointless.

“Adam would show up at the CCT tower, killing the CCT guards while ranting about equality and justice. Blake jumps in, leading him away to the waterfall. She says ‘Adam, you’ve gone too far! You’re just as bad as the people who hurt you!’“

Gee, that wasn’t clear when he tried BLOWING UP A TRAIN FULL OF INNOCENT PEOPLE?!

Also, Twiinks tries to push this idea that Blake wants to reconnect with Adam (which makes no sense as she LEFT Adam).

“Now we have the decapitation scene-”

We know she’s not gonna die, the fear came from the destruction of beacon and Yang being injuried. Of course Blake isn’t gonna die here.

“-moved to a thematically appreciate moment in the story-”

Considering you didn’t give two shits about thematic before, why the fuck would I care now?

“-Yang isn’t involved as to not muddy how if it was self defense.-”

So Yang’s arc is just scrapped and instead of having someone around who went through similar shit as Adam with a similar mindset and personality to dislay how wrong he is, we have a far shittier version that doesn’t even serve it’s purpose as protecting friends and family is covered by self defense and the people who bitched now would still bitch because Adam dying is the issue, not self defense.

“We see regret in Adam’s eyes-”

Means nothing because he was just a loon at this point out of nowhere and he’s still a terrible person. See, the thing is you can give a pitiable side to characters like Adam but you have to accept there is still good reason to hate him. Trying to hammer sympathy at us is just gonna make him less sympathetic.

“We shouldn’t be developing the budding relationship-”

It wasn’t.

That wasn’t a fucking romantic scene, it was an emotional breakdown after a stressful 

“By making Adam an understandable character-”

This is perhaps the most insulting part.

Adam IS understandable. Just because you don’t sympathize with him doesn’t mean you can’t see how he became this way. He was enslaved at a young age, branded in a way that robbed him of so much, he tried to make things better but because of forces outside of his control and his own issues, he lost his way and became what made him: someone cruel and uncaring of others. And yet, even as he does terrible things, we can still see that even he is a victim of the world, lamenting his fall and who he could have been.

That is something that fits the tone of RWBY so much better than a generic freedom fighter turned crazy person. Not to mention all the brilliant details you scrapped for shallow and boring details that any run of the mill show could do.

You improved NOTHING here. You just turned Adam from an interesting deconstruction and a cautionary tale of what we can become to every revolutionary in western media which, considering America’s origins, are a dime a dozen.

I’ll say it again: This is why I hate rewrites. You didn’t put nearly as much thought and effort into the show as the creators did and yet you stand on their work, rot it from the inside and try pedaling a worse version because it fits some people’s delusions.

Every time I look into you Twiinks, you become worse. How far will YOU fall?

[nautiscarader]

Pokémon Sword and Shield, Dexit, and why something good may be sometimes bad.

For the last month or so I have played SwSh extensively, finally being able to play it in a decent way. In mid-april yuzu, a phenomenal Switch emulator finally  fixed the Sword/Shield softlock issue, (ironically with a single line of code, without which the title would be playable on day 1-ish), and then at the start of May a multi-core support was added, which gave on my machine stable 30 fps.

And having played the game extensively, I can say this... it’s a pretty good game! And that is a bit unfortunate. I was gonna write a review, but I have to first gather my thoughts about the most controversial part of these games, so it doesn’t clutter it too much.    

It is impossible to talk about SwSh without addressing its biggest controversy: limited Pokédex, called by fans “Dexit”, which never happened in the main line of games before. When it was announced, we raged, and some people mocked us, calling us “entitled”, for feeling we deserve something we deserve. Again, there were actual people out there thinking you are not entitled to something you own.... yeah.  

Here is, once again, why those counter-arguments were bullshit. Or maybe bullshite, since it’s British.

Pokémon is a franchise for kids. Yes, we may be old pricks, caring about IVs and EVs, but these are games for children. As a very sporadic gamer, I have been observing the gaming industry from distance with rising worries, as it has been slowly poisoned by corporate greed for at least a decade and a half if not longer: microtransactions, bullshit cut-content DLCs, broken early access, draconic DRMs, etc.

Most of the above problems can be consolidated into two issues: whether you own the game and its content you’ve paid for, and whether you need to pay a second time for something that is already yours. 

And the collective rage of Pokémon fans was born from the simple fact that this trend has finally reached one of the most popular children franchises ever, and it is dangerous. 

Sword and Shield was not the first case of it, though; Pokébank forced you to pay ransom to transfer your Pokémon from your game into another of your games. But, at the very least it was also a Battle Point mine, so I begrudgingly gave it a pass. 

And then the news hit that Switch will follow Microsoft’s and Sony’s asinine model of online play, forcing you to pay for the privilege of connecting to the internet you are already paying for. 

And I can already hear people saying “Oh, bUt iT’s OnLy X pEr mOntT!”. yeah, but that X > 0. The notion that you HAVE to pay for something you already had is a dangerous one, and the fact that it now exists in a family console that is Switch is blood-boiling. And if you still think you need to pay to maintain servers and whatnot: make the game more expensive. But you will have to pay for it once.

And then, in the Pokémon E3 demo, we got the disastrous information that not all Pokémon will be available in the game (and what’s worse, that it was already planned but dropped in gen 7). Pokemon Home would be a Bank 2.0, and will point-blank refuse to transfer non-Galar Pokémon up, holding them hostage indefinitely. This was strike 2, a metal-gear-like alarm if I have ever heard one. 

The Pokémon we have trained, even if they are just strings of data, ethically belong to us. The fact that some of them would be treated as worse was disgusting. And again, I can already hear “Hurr, durr, the updates add more of them and are free!”. But again, it’s the idea that is dangerous. The idea that to suddenly lose, temporarily or not, something that was yours is now normalised. Can you see the problem? 

And as for the updates that will coincide with the DLC coming in around 24h - who knows if they were going to be free? You can try to gamefreaksplain to me all you want, but we do not know if it wasn’t our rage that pushed that decision forward. 

And besides, the updates only prove dexit was a BS move to begin with - the games could have handled more Pokémon, animations, moves, etc., so that was a lie designed to lure you into the DLCs.

Oh, and speaking of DLCs themselves - again, it’s impossible to say for sure if they really made it in the two months since release (trailers for DLCs dropped in January), or if it was a case of cut content... 

Oh, who am I kidding, it IS cut content, plain and simple. Again, it’s the concept of selling you one thing in pieces, slowly seeping into children’s mind that is the problem here.

Because Sword and Shield is a fun, cool, addicting game, and sadly it will lure many people into buying it, giving in to the cancer that destroys the gaming industry. I feel the pain of gamers, even though as I said, I only play occasionally.   

And... paradoxically the solution to all of the above problems is given in every Pokémon game ever by the first NPC you meet:

Because it is technology, a fan-made, counter-culture one that allows me to play it the way I want. 

Pokebank? I stopped paying for it the moment I installed Homebrew on my 3Ds, which allowed me to backup and edits saves and transfer pokémon for free, as I should have been able to. If I had Switch, I’d install it there in a heart-beat there. But I don’t have to own it, since as I said, yuzu got me covered. As for the cut Pokémon, modders have already fixed that, since, spoilers, animations from 3ds games can be utilised on Switch, which says a lot of about them (though those mods will be obsolete with the patches, thank Arceus). But I still use BSoD’s texture pack which fixes incredibly low-res ones of the vanilla game (those trees still give me nightmares).  

And it is thanks to fans that this game, and many others have been changed or fixed, and are better, whether the companies that created them wanted it, or not. 

And you know - that is incredible. 

[dannyknowscomics]

Trailer 4 Just Dropped and WOW!!!

Hi all so Trailer 4 just dropped and it’s a big one!

We got to see more about Teralization, and we learned that every Pokémon can get a Tera type of the 18 available types!! Dude! Imma try to get a Water Tera Type Fuecoco! And a Fire Tera Type Quaxly 🤩

Be pretty cool, but that’s not all we learned we discovered the PokeAmi/Camp replacement for this Gen

We get to go on picnics with our team and can even find eggs!!

But also we were shown 7 (possibly) new Pokémon in the trailer

A white mouse Pokémon (most likely Normal Type)

A small rock cube Pokémon (obviously rock type)

A small parakeet Pokémon (Grass/Flying?)

Along with a pre-evo of Armarouge and Ceruledge (I’m guessing here)

BUT!

Finally we got a new evo of a Gen2 Pokémon that needs some love

Meet….

Farigiraf

Apparently the tail of Girafarig takes over the head and enhances there psychic powers!

But don’t think the tail doesn’t have a mind of its own

Look at how cool this is! I’m thinking this might be a version exclusive evo line as we were shown in the trailer Girafarig was traded before it LV up and evolved

Well besides the news we can customize ourselves and take selfies with our Pokémon that’s about it guys!

Hope to see ya when/if we get Trailer 5