#Pokemon Review

[milkpumpkin96]

The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Review

Part I: The Teal Mask

I have a lot to say about Pokémon Scarlet & Violet as a whole . . . but damn, this game is ginormous. I have recently completed "The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero" DLC in its entirety, but since it is absolutely stuffed with new content, I am going to divide up my review.

It is quite clear that Gen IX has . . . its flaws. But nonetheless, I adored this DLC like you cannot imagine (graphical concerns aside).

Pokémon has always been a huge part of my life and I am eager to talk about it. I think that the DLC could have been cheaper to purchase, but it is definitely worth it for Pokémon fans.

I know I am late to the party because "The Teal Mask" came out like half a year ago, but oh well!

[ MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING ]

OVERALL SCORE: 7/10

For the most part, I went into the DLC blind. I did not view posts or trailers or anything about it beforehand. As such, I was in for a nice surprise!

Overall, "The Teal Mask" featured definite improvements from the base game. I consider myself lucky in that I never experienced the hoards of bizarre or game-breaking glitches that other players dealt with in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. The DLC had some slight upgrades in this regard. Slight.

That being said, the fact that performance issues remain present only highlights the indolence of Game Freak. Since, on the other hand, Nintendo has Tears of the Kingdom and Pikmin 4 pushing the Nintendo Switch's capabilities to the max and can run fine and look stunning in its own right.

Otherwise, the soundtrack, the storyline, the characters, and the aesthetic of the DLC are phenomenal and feature some of my favorite elements compared to the main game. Also, "The Teal Mask" certainly offered quite a fresh challenge (at least for casual players).

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GAMEPLAY: 6/10

As stated, the biggest disappointment with the DLC is its failure to properly fine-tune the performance issues. Cutscenes still lag; and holy hell, the cutscene of the MC and Carmine gazing at the Crystal Pool is egregiously choppy. The game tried sooo hard to feature the sparkling beauty of the pool but to no avail. It seems that this severe lag happened to everyone, which made the already underwhelming Milotic jump scare even more underwhelming.

The game does not look awful, but still pretty bad. Game Freak totally is not a billion-dollar franchise capable of more, right?

Players still have instances of sudden FPS drops, especially when Koraidon/Miraidon tries to run and jump (this is most apparent during the Ogre Oustin' minigame).

The smallness of the map will be this DLC's savior, which I will discuss under my "setting" review category. But, in regards to the graphics, I think if the map were any larger, "The Teal Mask" and its areas would be sooo sluggish and lackluster compared to many places in the base game. This is due to the lack of NPC density and really anything going on outside of the three major locations of Kitakami.

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I still believe that Pokémon has its own charm though. At the very least, the land of Kitakami is enticing and pretty.

I did not experience any glitches in "The Teal Mask." The performance ran smoother on my own copy compared to other players, because I have heard the other people had more prominent performance errors in their DLC.

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Moving on, I will say that the difficult scaling of the DLC surprised me in a good way. This is especially true for casual players like myself!

The game is not hard, but it is not easy either. If you choose to begin part one of the DLC after beating the base game and post-game, the Pokémon in "The Teal Mask" are between levels 60s-70s. This shocked me as being a fairly difficult starting point (especially since this is only part one of the DLC, and it is kind of its own game).

I am a fully casual player. Say what you will, but by the time I completed the post-game of Pokémon Scarlet, my highest level Pokémon (my Skeledirge) was about level 71. Most of my main party were between levels 50-70, so the DLC being at this level was amazing for me. A perfect blend of enjoyment and challenge.

Even for competitive players and heedless grinders, there is still some difficulty to be had. This is particularly the case with the optional ogre clan members you can battle--which their Pokémon are level 75--and also even some battles against Kieran can come as a surprise. If your team is all maxed at level 100 . . . then of course you can blast your way through.

Personally, I lost to several ogre clan members, and nearly to Kieran as well.

Some other people might want to start from scratch and foster a brand new team in the land of Kitakami. I actually recommend doing so if you want to experiment with the new entries in the Pokedex and have a nice and fun challenge.

If you start the DLC before you finish the main game (which is possible), "The Teal Mask" will try to scale down to your own level.

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Aside from battling, there are other extra features players can engage with. At the "Festival of Masks," you can try a minigame called "Ogre Oustin,'" in which your MC rides on Koraidon/Miraidon and attempts to pop ogre-themed balloons and retrieve berries of certain colors (red, grey, green, and blue). These colorations match the masks held by Ogerpon, hence the name. Since the inhabitants of Kitakami initially view Ogerpon as unfavorable, the point of the minigame is to mimic hunting down the ogre to avenge The Loyal Three.

This minigame starts off fairly easy at first: run around and pop like four blue balloons and three green ones. Players must play "Ogre-Oustin'" at least one time due to story reasons, and stick it to Carmine who's ego is more inflated than the balloons themselves.

As you progress through the levels, it becomes alarmingly difficult. You go from popping 10 balloons in total to around 60 or 70! There are also Skwovets and Munchlaxes actively trying to steal your berries. Players can try this minigame alone or play online or local multiplayer. Trust me . . . playing the game with others is superior. I cannot get through the harder levels solo, like at all.

This minigame is weird but kind of fun. I feel a blend of anger and joy when I play . . . "Ogre Oustin'" will incite peoples' competitive streaks.

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Another side option players can do is engage with the character named Perrin, who . . . you know . . . is 100% a descendant from Hisui's famous Adaman.

She will not regard you until you have completed 150 Kitakami Pokedex entries in full. Once you begin Perrin's side mission, she asks you to assist her with capturing a photo of the "blood moon beast," who is rumored to be lurking in the woods of Kitakami. Throughout this quest, players camp with Perrin and take various photos of Pokémon at night. Perrin's strange camera device has to filter out all non-"blood moon beast" species in order to autonomously detect the location of the beast.

So, I mean, if you like Pokémon Snap or just enjoy using Scarlet & Violet's camera function, then wahoo! However, I wish all the new camera functions were available at this point in the game, as they are not accessible until part two of the DLC.

You ultimately get to battle and capture the "blood moon beast" (which is a special coloration of Ursaluna), and Perrin takes a horrifically blurry photo of it. This side quest is silly and fun, but ultimately just kind of meh. Perrin herself and Ursaluna are cool, though!

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A third side quest you can engage in is with the characters Billy and O'Nare, who are adorning sparkly outfits and can be found standing on the edges of Kitakami's apple orchard. The two are members of "The Glitterati" and are very flamboyantly wealthy.

Their side quest is kind of tedious and annoying in my opinion. After each conversation with these guys, they travel vehemently to random landmarks either in Kitakami itself or back in Paldea. It is a fetch quest where you find the same duo over and over rather than an object. The hints to their whereabouts are kind of vague, which is made worse because Paldea's map can be redundant. Billy and O'Nare are looking for a famous waterfall? There are so many damn waterfalls in Paldea!

After each find, they give you daffy advice and some items. Occasionally players must battle O'Nare, but all she has is a rather weak Persian and eventually an Arbolivia.

Once the side quest is completed, players will have enough valuable items to bulk sell for a hefty amount of money. Players should sell these items and get the 10-ish grand. If you return back to Kitakami and talk to the caretaker, he will be asking for donations to repair the disassembled statues of The Loyal Three in Loyalty Plaza. Sure, the caretaker only wants to repair them for tourism purposes, and sure, the caretaker is kind of a greedy asshole, but if you donate 100,000 to the cause, you will receive a flashy jinbei to wear!

There is a fandom debate on the identities of Billy and O'Nare, in which some fans suspect that these two may be Nemona's parents. After all, O'Nare specifically resembles Nemona in the face, and players know that Nemona grew up quite lavishly. Her parents are never home and Nemona had been primarily taken care of by housekeepers . . . and Billy and O'Nare are always recklessly on the go . . . hmmm.

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MUSIC: 8/10

Pokémon has never blown my mind with its soundtrack, but damn, these games have some bangers!

The music in "The Teal Mask" is very fitting, giving off a warm, seasonal vibe and incorporates the sounds present in traditional Japanese folk music. Overall, the DLC's soundtrack contains some of my favorite works in all of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, and I am very happy that Game Freak decided to change up the wild battle and trainer battle themes to distinguish it from the base game.

Also, wow, I am still very happy that Toby Fox contributed to the soundtracks of "The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero" DLC!

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The music is funky, upbeat, and irresistibly hard not to dance to. It pairs splendidly well with the visual setting, and I feel as if I am roaming rural Japan.

I am always a fan of battle themes. So, some of my favorite tracks include:

Battle! Vs Carmine

Final Battle! Vs Kieran

Battle! Vs Okidogi, Munkidori, & Fezandipiti

Battle! Vs Ogrepon

Carmine's battle theme is bouncy and light-hearted, reflecting her humorously volatile nature yet her slow-growing friendliness towards the MC. The battle theme against The Loyal Three starts off sounding intimidating but then becomes super funky and whimsical. This gives it a de-escalating feel, as in that these Pokémon are actually not that much of a threat after all.

Ogerpon's theme is awesome! It is super folky and happy-sounding, and it made the final battle feel and sound emotionally significant in a positive way. And damn, I love Kieran's battle music, particularly the final version. His theme begins as light-hearted as Carmine's but becomes more intense the worse Kieran's mental state becomes. The final battle music sounds desperate. It sounds sad. It sounds vengeful. It sounds passionate. All of these strange, edgy, teenage hormones unleashed into an awesome tune.

Evidently I love battle music, but there are several other tracks I adore as well:

Mossui Town

Kitakami Hall

Get Stronger

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STORY: 7/10

I do genuinely believe that Generation IX is pretty top-tier when it comes to writing, next to Gen V and VI. At least when it comes to mainline Pokémon game standards.

I had a great time playing through the story and was invested in each line of dialogue. The story itself is about 8 hours, and it offers a pleasing mix of silliness and emotional investment. The star of the show was the friendship/rivalry between the player and Kieran, which the latter stumbled down a childish version of the joker pipeline.

As many people say, Scarlet & Violet's companion characters are some of the best. Nemona, Arven, and Penny are packed with personality, and especially when it comes to their post-game interactions, their similarities and differences bounce off of each other well. Including the MC, they all are outcasted children (and have parental issues) to varying degrees, united by a love for Pokémon and a desire for friendship.

Then, we have the new sibling duo from Kitakami: Kieran and Carmine, who also harbor [potentially] parental issues, and host of other problems.

Carmine and Kieran are natives of Kitakami, and strangely it seems there are not too many other NPCs of their age around. They live with their grandparents Hideko and Yukito in a pale yellow home, and like other locals, are majorly disconnected from a technological standpoint. Carmine has a phone, but Kieran does not, and the only other devices (a television and a game system) are located in the community center for tourists to stay at. Kieran and Carmine are battle maniacs; apparently, according to the "caretaker" of Kitakami, the two tend to cause some disturbances around the place. I am not quite sure if he is referring to their youthful boisterousness, craving for battle, or simply their short tempers (especially Carmine).

But, I was not bothered by them in the least. I was quite entertained.

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The story begins when the MC--Julianna or Florian--alongside some other random Uva/Naranja students are "randomly" selected by Professor Jacq to take a school trip to the little local town of Kitakami. The reasoning for this seemingly obscure location is that the trip is hosted by an affiliate sister school, Blueberry Academy. Blueberry is a new Unovan school that aims to strengthen its bonds with Uva/Naranja.

Kitakami is a small village located near the Kanto and Johto regions. Of course, the MC has no choice but to agree to go on the trip!

The group boards an airplane and takes a long bus ride, eventually making it to Kitakami. The class is led by Ms. Briar, a faculty member of Blueberry: Ms. Briar states that she is a descendant of Heath, the author of the Scarlet/Violet Book. In the uncensored book she possesses, Heath vaguely describes a legendary creature named Terapagos that has some sort of connection to the terastal phenomenon. She is on the hunt for this mysterious creature and wants to ultimately gain access to Area Zero in Paldea (which apparently she has been denied many times). The primary reason why Ms. Briar is hosting this trip is because the Crystal Pool located in Kitakami possesses terastal crystals akin to Area Zero. This could help with her research.

Anyways, the kids leave the bus and one of the students becomes car sick, so Briar sends the MC to Mossui Town, the one and only little village in the area, to get some help. The player then encounters Carmine and Kieran, two locals awaiting the arrival of the Paldean students, and Carmine immediately becomes hostile and xenophobic towards you. She challenges you to your first battle while Kieran quietly watches. They are eventually shooed off by the "caretaker," who properly greets you.

You all are cared for and fed and housed in the community center, and when players wake up the next day, the "school" part of the trip begins. You all gather outside of the community center and Briar, Carmine, and Kieran officially introduce themselves. Carmine and Kieran, while born in Kitakami, actually attend Blueberry Academy (which is in the Unova region), I suppose because they are notable for their battling skills. Blueberry is known to specialize teaching the art of Pokémon battling.

As a part of a school task, the "caretaker" instructs each student to pair up and visit three signboards across Kitakami that detail its history . . . or rather historically-based folktales. Briar encourages intermingling between the Uva/Naranja kids and the Blueberry kids. The MC talks to the Kitakami siblings and Carmine asserts that her little brother has been ogling at you, much to Kieran's embarrassment. She then encourages a battle between you two, which is conducted. Depending on your play style, this fight can be kind of easy or surprisingly a struggle. The outcome of the battle regardless makes Kieran even more fascinated with Julianna/Florian.

As such, the MC ends up pairing with Kieran. Kieran is very timid so he kind of avoids actually walking with you to the signboards. First, players traverse through the apple orchards and make it to Loyalty Plaza, where the first signboard talks about the tale of The Loyal Three sacrificing their lives to protect Kitakami from the monstrous ogre. There are statues of these honored Pokémon in the plaza; and Kieran opens up a bit and claims that he finds the ogre actually pretty cool and powerful. After all, the ogre, who is a grass type, murdered three Pokémon with a type advantage. Kieran mentions that he used to go to the ogre's hiding spot as a kid at night and would be yelled at by the adult villagers.

The MC and Kieran then head towards the Festival Hall where the second signboard is. This board continues to talk about the tale, and references the ogre's four masks: the cornerstone mask, the hearthflame mask, the wellspring mask, and the teal mask. Kieran opens up to the MC even more and talks about his fascination with the ogre, and how it doesn't care about what anyone else thinks, and it can hold its ground and is strong and willful. He then invites you to come check out the "Dreaded Den" on Oni Mountain, where the ogre is said to be. The MC agrees and travels there.

Here, Kieran and the MC battle again, because Kieran hopes a display of strength will draw out the ogre. It does not . . . to their knowledge. The two go inside the den and look around the cramped area. Sunset arrives, and then Kieran invites Florian/Julianna to attend the Festival of Masks with him that begins that night.

Later, you are given a green jinbei and attend the festival alongside Kieran and Carmine. You hang with Kieran for a bit until Carmine has a little blowup episode, and while you are off on your own, you see Ogerpon walking around alone. Thinking it to be a masked child at first, the MC approaches it. Then, Carmine finds you and calls out to you. The ogre runs away, accidentally dropping and chipping its teal mask. When Kieran catches up to you guys, you lie to him and say you saw nothing. Kieran thinks you and Carmine were talking about him behind his back.

The next day, Yukito reveals to Carmine and the MC about the true story of the tale of Ogerpon and The Loyal Three. It turns out, the roles were reversed. Ogerpon has been defending itself from the three Pokémon and went on a rampage after finding all of its masks stolen and its original companion human presumably dead. The "Loyal" Three were greedy, murderous thieves all along.

Kieran overhears this conversation, after having been vehemently shooed away by Carmine. He becomes upset, especially since he is a superfan of the ogre, and his entire life he had believed Ogerpon to be the "good guy" where nobody else in Kitakami believed this to be true.

You go to the last signboard with Kieran, and the latter noticeably seems more tense and withdrawn than before. The MC battles Kieran, and Kieran loses, lamenting privately that he is too weak. The last signboard gets a little wild and says that if you encounter the ogre without a mask, it will steal your soul. Kieran asserts that there is no way that is true, and then begins talking about how his great great great great great grandfather was a mask maker (in which the mask maker is responsible for making Ogerpon's mask). The MC just says that's cool, and via body language, one can tell that Kieran is pissed by this because he subtly tried to incite the player to tell him the truth. Kieran then leaves.

Yukito tells the player that he cannot fix up the mask without a terastal crystal, so the MC and Carmine head up to the Crystal Pool to retrieve one. They are met by Ms. Briar, and Carmine angrily questions why she is there because the Crystal Pool is considered a sacred space. Briar claims that she got permission from the "caretaker" and needs to look at the pool for research purposes.

The duo then tries to give Yukito the crystal, but the grandpa says that Kieran ran off with the teal mask. Carmine wonders how in the hell Kieran figured out the truth, so you two chase after him to Loyalty Plaza. Kieran is violently upset, challenges the MC to a battle, loses, and then edgily punches the statue of The Loyal Three while holding the teal mask. He begrudgingly returns the teal mask to you and runs away. Carmine wonders if he is becoming hormonal or something.

Then, suddenly, the statue of The Loyal Three explodes into a purple fume . . . and The Loyal Three are found standing on top of the wreckage, alive. It is theorized that Kieran may have accidentally revived those fools because he touched the monument holding the teal mask, which according to the signboards, is said to have revival/restorative properties. The three thieves run off and you follow them to the Festival Hall. There, the "caretaker" and other townspeople admit that they were fascinated with their return, and thus fed the Pokémon nutritional mochi (perhaps with herba mystical or something) and had returned their stolen masks to them. Carmine becomes outraged and dubs them The "Lousy" Three. She tells the MC to go rescue Ogerpon from their clutches while she quickly goes to retrieve the fixed teal mask from Yukito.

The player finds Ogerpon surrounded and defenseless without its masks and fights Munkidori. Carmine and Kieran show up eventually, scaring the Pokémon away. Kieran apologizes to the player. He expresses that he wants to return the teal mask to Ogerpon himself. However, the ogre gets flustered around unfamiliar people and does not accept it. The MC then tries and Ogerpon happily receives the mask . . . much to Kieran's annoyance.

The three "friends" then develop a little mask retrieval squad, which they will seek out each of The Loyal Three, defeat them, and return each mask to Ogerpon. The ogre begins to follow the MC around, and eventually Kieran backs out of the task force, mysteriously saying that he has something else to do.

After Carmine and Florian/Julianna defeat the titan-ized Loyal Three, Kieran request them to return to Mossui with Ogerpon. Everyone feels reluctant, since the townspeople believe Ogerpon to be a violent gremlin, but Kieran assures them that it is going to be okay. The quartet returns to Mossui, and much to Carmine and the MC's surprise, the townsfolk welcome Ogerpon with sorrow and joy. They apologize to the ogre, expressing that they had misunderstood history, not even realizing that any of the tales were actually true in the first place. I guess it helps that the inaccurate story of Ogerpon is so many generations old, that the people of Kitakami lacked extreme emotional connections to it. The townsfolk just like to celebrate and wear masks.

Yukito says that Kieran shouted at everyone about the true story of The "Lousy Three," breaking out of his socially anxious character temporarily. Kieran had good intentions to help Ogerpon, but ultimately he avoided any chance to actually bond with her as she roamed around with Florian/Julianna.

Carmine, Kieran, and the MC set off back to the "Dreaded Den" to return the ogre to her home. However, as Ogerpon approaches the den, she turns around and runs up to the player, expressing the desire to tag along with him/her. Ogerpon had been seeking a companion like she did so long ago, and I suppose the MC fit the bill. Kieran, at this point, undergoes a tantrum and tells that player that they should battle to see who gets Ogerpon. Carmine tells him that it is not his choice, and the ogre can make her own choices. Kieran does not give a shit (well, he kind of does, but he is having a mental breakdown), and the two of you battle. Kieran fights for his life but is no match against the MC's determination (and ability to terastalize). He falls to the ground, punches the soil, and dies on the inside.

Then, the MC fights Ogerpon, because he/she has to prove their strength to the ogre. Ultimately you succeed and proceed to catch Ogerpon in a pokeball. Carmine cheers, and Kieran brokenly tries to congratulate you, before he runs away crying.

The next day, another class meeting is held in front of the community center. Everyone is there except Kieran, who "does not feel well." Each pair had finished seeing all the signboards, and then Ms. Briar expressed that a sudden development occurred in Area Zero, and she must leave--which means taking Carmine and Kieran back with her. The kids wave them all goodbye, and Carmine tells everyone that she is super sorry about her initial xenophobia, and that she had so much fun with the MC and wishes to see him/her again in the future.

The Blueberry goers then leave. Before "The Teal Mask" concludes, there is a brief scene of Kieran losing his shit in his bedroom. He is shaking his head, grabbing his hair, talking about a deep desire to grow stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger. He creepily smiles, and then a "to be continued" screen appears.

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The story is full of positives for the most part. Though, I find it disappointing and strange that the other Paldean students are full-on nobodies. These kids do not even have proper names or anything remarkably unique about them. It just felt unusually random. I have heard complaints/questions wondering why the other students could have not just been characters we already know and love, like Arven and Nemona? Why could they not have tagged along? In fact, our Paldea friends are entirely absent from "The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero" DLC (which is especially weird because Arven is so connected with the terastal case).

While this is kind of sad, it is actually very much understandable. "The Teal Mask" is Kieran's story if anything. The plot was high-key focused on the relationship between Kieran and you; a wicked plot progression as Kieran goes from a sweet, shy, timid child who is absolutely fascinated with the MC, to a jealous, egotistical, confused, edgy asshole who wants to destroy you.

This plot highlighted something that most Pokémon games fail to emphasize: you have it all. Kieran can try so hard and give everything he has, but will never be the main character. Florian/Julianna is the MC. Kieran is programmed, story-wise, into having to lose to you. Every time. Kieran's reactions to his failures are quite realistic--he's bitter, jealous, and upset with himself. It is not "oh ha ha you win AGAIN wow you are so cool!" Well, it began that way, up until the MC repeatedly batted him down.

So, I think that having our character's old happy-go-lucky friends would very much get in the way of the development of this dynamic. Kieran and Carmine needed their time to shine. Plus, who knows how it works chronologically? You can activate the DLC almost at any point. So . . . what if the MC met Kieran before he met Penny or became friends with Arven?

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I appreciate the length of "The Teal Mask." It is about eight hours story-wise, but I invested significantly more than that doing everything. I thought the plot would end earlier . . . I did not expect Kieran's mental breakdown.

The game is not too deep nor dramatic, but highly enjoyable. As mentioned, there are great fleshed-out characters like Carmine and Kieran, and then the story of Ogerpon herself is fascinating.

The folklore is based off of Momotarō, or "Peach Boy," a popular Japanese folktale. This allusion becomes more apparent with the mythical prologue story available after beating the entire DLC.

Ogerpon's tale has some dark elements to it. She killed The Loyal Three (and tried to kill Pecharunt) to avenge her deceased companion and get her masks back. I adore the way in which the story was animated too: in the game, Yukito talks about the true historical events and there are little wood-block-like clips that demonstrate these events. On YouTube, Pokémon uploaded an epic video about Pecharunt's story, and I find the animation to be super enticing with a storybook aesthetic.

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Having such intriguing folklore for the legendary Pokémon is such a huge plus. I also liked the toned-down plotline of "The Teal Mask":

No, the end of the world was not happening (yet). It was simply a story of some teenagers having drama and miscommunication . . . . but with flare. All the characters are actually interesting, and it is cool to see how a foreign, "city" boy/girl interacts with two emotionally volatile rural kids, one of which is obsessed with the "bad guy" of a folktale.

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SETTING: 7/10

If you can look beyond the janky graphics, I find that the land of Kitakami to be quite pretty. To my knowledge, it may be based on a place of the same name in the Iwate prefecture of Japan. This is further evidenced by the way the townspeople speak, particularly Kieran. He harbors a bit of a Tōhoku dialect which is considered the "typical" rural Japanese accent.

And poor Kieran. In "The Indigo Disk" following the epilogue, Kieran can be found in the BB clubroom stating that he used to be embarrassed by the way he spoke. You can kind of tell that he attempted to ditch his dialect in part 2 of the DLC, but it would surface during his shy or geeky moments. I am not sure as to why Carmine's Tōhoku dialect is not very prominent.

---------- Some players might have wanted a larger DLC map, but I believe that Kitakami is a perfect size. It is actually kind of big, hosting only one town of Mossui and several other staple areas like Oni Mountain, Loyalty Plaza, and the Festival Hall. There are several other locations that players can travel to and catch or battle Pokémon and trainers there. This includes the Mossfell Confluence, Paradise Barren, and Wistful Fields, among others. Some of these places do have signboards that are a part of the main plot, and other areas--like the Timeless Woods--are where Perrin and the "blood moon beast" side quest occurs.

There are very few shops here: Peachy's, located in Mossui Town, sells pretty much anything you need as well as brand new glove and sock options. The stands at the Festival Hall allow players to purchase a variety of masks (e.g., Pikachu, Eevee, Ogerpon, and each of The Loyal Three) as well as food options, like candied apples.

I say the size of the map is good because, for one, I think that an overly massive Pokémon DLC would be very time-consuming and overwhelming. Paldea is big enough as is. Secondly, as can be seen with the performance issues, I am not sure if the Nintendo Switch could handle that much more. The Crystal Pool, as small as it is, lags horrifically. Thirdly, which is probably one of the biggest critiques I have with then main game as well, is that too many areas are otherwise kind of . . . lifeless.

In the Paldea map, there is a surplus of areas of just nothing. The open world is novel at first, but there are a host of spots that lack NPC density and any remarkable geological or architectural standout points. Paldea is too open for its own good. Game Freak has yet to master this.

Lucky for Kitakami, it is just small enough so that the pockets of barrenness are not too noticeable. Sure, there is an unnecessary amount of mini cave entrances and completely pointless islets, but most of the significant locations are memorable enough. The lack of NPCs is not too bad either because Kitakami is supposed to be an incredibly small village. It helps that there are ogre clan members scattered throughout the map so you can find and challenge these lunatics.

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The Festival Hall would be my favorite location. Sure, it was kind of sparse with the vendors, but this is rural Kanto/Johto. The hall has its charm: the music, the colors, the twinkling night sky, and the masks adorned by all the villagers . . . it really appealed to me.

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My only other complaint is that players still cannot enter people's houses. I know it is culturally rude, but you were able to do so in older Pokémon games!

This was a major disappointment for Pokémon Scarlet & Violet as a whole; and another indicator that the open-world system was to big for Game Freak to handle. In the base game, you could enter the MC's own house as well as Nemona's (and kind of Arven's), but in the DLC you cannot go into Kieran and Carmine's home, even though Kieran invites you there!

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COMBAT: 8/10

As mentioned, the difficulty of the game was a wonderful surprise in my humble opinion. The battle system is not any different from the main game of course. Players still conduct single battles, but alas in Kitakami, nobody is going to terastalize. That gimmick is absent in battling despite the presence of terastal crystals--in that case you as the player can still terastalize your Pokémon.

Though . . . how? Terastalization is majorly a Paldean thing, and despite the presence terastal crystals, only Ogerpon terastalizes. Why does some "land in the east" have the same phenomenon happening in theory?

The details are vague and unexplained. You would think these story elements could be solved in "The Indigo Disk." Here is a link that suggests some theories:

You know, with Pokémon, each generation is going to have a gimmick that is abandoned. At least there is some degree of lore behind terastalization in Scarlet & Violet.

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The hardest battles of the DLC are the seven ogre clan members. The ogre clan leader, who is standing in front of the Festival Hall, will give you riddles and clues on their whereabouts. These trainers fight at level 75, and I found them to be quite challenging and satisfying to win.

Carmine's battles are easy, especially the first fight in which she sends out Poochyena. Seriously! Her Sinistcha (which is a new Pokémon introduced in "The Teal Mask") however can be a tough one with that "matcha gotcha" move. Though, I would say Carmine's Sinistcha works better as a support Pokémon during double battles.

Kieran on the other hand . . . players may struggle with him, especially if you beginning the DLC with a fresh and new team or are at the same level as these trainers. The more you battle Kieran, the tougher he gets, especially in the final fight where Kieran goes psycho mode. Although, poor buddy cannot terastalize like you can.

I appreciate how the Kitakami siblings are not stagnant with their lineup, and despite the hefty amount of battles you have to do with them, the party and dynamics change every time. Kieran's Yanma, Nuzleaf, and Sentret all evolve, and he catches a Gliscor and Probopass eventually. His ace is his Dipplin (another new Pokémon), which looks cool and cute but fights mediocre. Kieran also attempts to use items in battle, like focus sashes and berries, in desperate attempts to beat the MC. So yes, Kieran is pulling out the strats, and has a degree of intelligent/predictive AI. Some might find this challenging in a positive way, or rather annoying.

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The battles with the DLC's new legendary Pokémon were pretty great. Not necessarily hard, but still fun.

Battling against The Loyal Three for the first time demonstrates the consequences of the naive townsfolk nourishing them back to health with all of their best mochi. Munkidori, Okidogi, and Fezandipiti all become titan Pokémon that you and Carmine must face against (minus Kieran who abandoned the squad). Holy hell, these guys are huge! When I saw the titanic Munkidori for the first time, I wanted to cringe and laugh and cry. His big head made him appear rather funny-looking.

The purpose of the double battles against the titan Pokémon are perhaps there to give you a taste on what is to come in part two of the DLC (which takes place in Unova, where everyone engages in double battles only).

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The final battle against Ogerpon herself was a wonderful experience. However, she is shiny-locked (bummer) and has a 100% catch rate, so it eliminates some tediousness.

Ogerpon will go through four stages of battle, and is the only Pokémon to terastalize in "The Teal Mask." Players fight all four masks, which changes Ogerpon's type from pure grass to grass and rock, fire, or water type. Ogerpon terastalizes all four times which showcases the immense power of Ogerpon, and how each mask themselves are the ones that terastalize (the ogre is just chilling behind it). This fight feels incredibly rewarding. The fight is also tough to get through with the changing types, combined with the overpowered cudgel move.

I am certain the most players sent out that friend ball to catch the ogre, right?

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I do not have many complaints when it comes to the combat, but I would have not minded an even greater challenge. I am sure that players with all level 100 Pokémon would agree!

The lag also made some of the battles (and the buildup to them) a bit more cringe. The Milotic fight . . . I don't even understand it.

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

ENJOYMENT: 8/10

In all, I had a wonderful time playing through "The Teal Mask." Scarlet & Violet has its ups and downs, but there is no denying that Kieran and Carmine are wonderfully complex and amusing characters, and that the writing and music are exemplary.

Part one of the DLC offers a nice challenge to even more competitive players, and I can appreciate the bonus introductions of new minigames, side quests, and even new Pokémon in the Kitakami dex. Is it worth over $30 (which includes "The Indigo Disk")? I am unsure about that . . . but you know, Pokémon fans do torture themselves.

The lack of an attempt to fix the FPS and other graphical issues is not excusable, however. I am not always too concerned about these topics, and I do not think that these issues fully detracted from the actual enjoyment of the game, but it is certainly embarrassing for Game Freak.

But yeah. So I guess what I'm trying to say is . . . I had fun!

TOTAL TIME SPENT: 20 hours (an estimate. I am slow af)

OVERALL SCORE: 7/10

PLATFORM USED: Nintendo Switch

DATE OF COMPLETION: April 2024

[supertrainstationh]

Why I Quit “Pokémon Violet”.

I'm officially done with playing "Pokémon Violet".

No, I didn’t complete it.

Sadly I found my enjoyment of it so deeply sabotaged by lack of basic quality control, that I gave up on the game fairly early on, though I did put in a number of gameplay hours.

In terms of total concrete plot progress, I completed a single gym, and then briefly went into a Team Star base just to see what it was like.

The gym was by orders of magnitude the most easily completed first gym I ever encountered in a Pokémon game in terms of field-based challenges and Pokémon battles.

From what I heard, the gyms in this game can be approached in any order, but that they don't actually scale with your team's levels, or based on how many badges you already have.

If this is true, this is laughably lazy design for what is supposed to be an open world game in which you can approach challenges in any order, but if this is not true, then pardon me on not knowing in advance whether or not this is true, as I went into the game as spoiler-free as possible in the hopes of experiencing this game without outside bias coloring my experience.

The concept that gym leaders choose to face challenging trainers using a team selected based on the challenger’s current experience level is something that had already been explored in official Pokemon material more than a decade ago, so the failure to deploy it here when the game’s open structure obviously calls for it is inexplicable.

I did the Cortondo Gym first. My levels were similar to the Gym Leader's own Pokémon, but I effortlessly crushed them, and had more difficult encounters with ordinary Trainers out in the overworld in the areas I had been exploring near the city hosting that gym.

I'm someone who will ALWAYS peruse "easy mode" options if they are available. I am completely illiterate in regards to competitive Pokémon battles, and don't even have the full type advantage chart memorized. But even for me, Cortondo Gym was disappointingly lacking in difficulty.

I also want to comment on the pre-gym minigame, which was set outside the gym itself in an area on the outskirts of the town.

The olive roll maze was a neat way to tie in some of the cultural elements of the actual locations the games setting, the Galar Region, is inspired by, but the mechanic of moving the inflatable olive ball felt lame.

Though it is only a minigame which is supposed to be inconsequential, I am harsh on it because it seemed like minimal effort was put into it, regardless of its overall importance to the game.

The playable character's in-game model does not act as though they are interacting with the olive ball, and I would go as far as to say that it appears that they are unaware that the ball even exists within their universe.

Compare this to "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker", released decades earlier on far less advanced hardware of the standard definition Nintendo GameCube, in which the player character automatically looks toward objects of interest in the immediate area that can be interacted with, and the characters arms and face actually change to reflect the effort and intention of moving that object as the player makes this action happen.

But in this olive roll minigame in “Pokémon Violet”, you just walk at the ball to make it move in the direction you want, while the character mindlessly gazes forward as though nothing is happening. It doesn't feel like a minigame meant to entertain or challenge the player, it looks and feels like a collision detection demonstration assembled with minimal care or game design theory put into it.

And even so, the minigame was completely effortless to win, and I didn't even realize it was over, and that I won, until it took me to the result screen.

There wasn't even an on-screen timer to add any sense of urgency to the minigame, and I have no idea if being penalized for taking too long was even a possibility.

I've been interested in Pokémon since I first read a blurb in a gaming magazine in the mid-90's about a monster collecting and battling RPG for Game Boy that was becoming popular in Japan, and I was enchanted by its world and characters since the video games and anime first hit North American shores.

This franchise shaped my life for the better in ways too extensive and detailed to discuss here, so I'm not happy to be in a situation where even after counting down the days till release and roaming from store-to-store to find a copy, that my interest in "Pokémon Scarlet and Violet" has deflated.

In spite of how much I wanted to give this game a full playthrough, in spite of mounting frustrations, my final straw was when I actually stopped looking forward to streaming on the days I announced I was to play “Pokémon Violet”, and felt regret that I "had" to play it on my show in order to fulfill the schedule I promised to my Twitch viewers to stream the game.

The mere complexities of modern games already made me feel a slight disconnect from this title.

Going from traditional 3D Zelda games like "Wind Waker" and "Twilight Princess" to the new style introduced in "Breath of the Wild" was an extreme learning curve for me, especially in regards to operating the more sophisticated interface, though over time I was able to get the hang of it and enjoy the game.

I never imagined that I'd be in a situation where a Pokémon game of all things had a more complex user interface than the latest major Zelda release, and that I'd be mashing one button after another trying to activate nested and cryptic functions that were accessed in very simple menus even as recently as the Nintendo 3DS era.

In addition to that, this game forces the player into tutorials for the simplest of things universal to most modern games of even the mildest complexity, yet leaves tutorials for mechanics newly introduced to the Pokémon series restricted to completely optional and easy-to-miss places tied to special events.

The real killer for me is the extreme lack of polish in almost every aspect of the experience. Characters even just a single body-length away from the player's character are frequently animated with frame rates resembling a flip-book in which half the pages have been torn away.

Obvious shortfalls in the timing and pacing of Game Freak's cutscene animations lead to thinly veiled shortcuts such as cutscene text scrolling unreasonably fast even for a literate adult with an above average reading speed.

Static screenshots are sometimes used during otherwise fully animated cutscenes, and at other points cutscenes loop clumsily and unconvincingly on a particular moment as the scene waits for a player prompt to continue the narrative

Other times the graphics fail to accurately depict things that players are expected to believe are taking place within the game world. Important details essential to gameplay or story beats are sometimes not shown on screen, are mentioned only in interface or character dialog, or are rendered in outstandingly unconvincing ways.

In the first decade of the 21st Century, I owned Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube, and enjoyed games on all three systems.

Since then, I have focused my gaming habits on Nintendo systems.

I chose Nintendo DS over PlayStation Portable.

I chose Wii over PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360,

I chose Nintendo 3DS over PlayStation Vita.

I chose Wii U over PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

And today, I own Nintendo Switch, but not PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S.

If I was concerned with enjoying ultra high-resolution visuals and maxed-out frames-per-second, I would not have been choosing Nintendo systems in spite of them being the lowest performance hardware options on the market.

But even within the limitations of the Nintendo Switch, which is running a low-power-consumption mobile chipset that was arguably already out-of-date when it first hit the market six entire years ago, “Pokémon Scarlet and Violet” completely fail at taking reasonable advantage of what the system is capable of.

"Pokémon Scarlet and Violet" are 2022 releases, published exclusively on Nintendo Switch, the same system that launched in 2017 with "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild."

"Breath of the Wild" was was a game designed with the intention of being launched as an exclusive for Wii U, an even less powerful console released closing in on five years earlier than the Switch, and more than a full decade ago as of the time I'm writing this, with Wii U itself having been widely considered under-powered at the time of its 2012 release, being in the performance range of high definition consoles that entered the market as far back as 2005.

"Breath of the Wild" had its technical shortcomings, but even the Wii U version of "Breath of the Wild" completely annihilates "Pokémon Scarlet and Violet" in terms of rudimentary technical proficiency, and when examining "Breath of the Wild" in terms of overall presentation in comparison to " Pokémon Scarlet and Violet", the comparison is such that I'm amazed that Nintendo, who founded their brand as a video game manufacturer and publisher on industry-leading high quality, would allow their name to be associated with the latest Pokémon entries.

I can not overstate the extent to which “Pokémon Scarlet and Violet” fails to deliver on the promise of basic quality control. Games with far fewer technical problems than this game have been criticized severely by review outlets and the gaming community, and I am convinced that these new Pokémon titles are being excused for their incompetence based on good will alone in ways that no other franchise would be permitted to get away with.

In-game tutorial screens featuring screenshots for illustrative purposes are from the Japanese versions of the game, and had this text censored out with a very crudely applied distortion filter in an embarrassing and ineffective attempt hide this fact. This is something appropriate for a work-in-progress demonstration build of the game, not the final product.

The first time I caught a Pokémon, the Pokéball animation froze in mid air, leaving me to think that this was the game's way of depicting Pokemon catching, and that these new Pokéballs hovered in the air rather than falling to the ground as Pokéballs in previous games did.

No matter how good this game is, when malfunctioning animations are mistaken by an experienced player to be representations of what is actually taking place in the game world, that is a serious problem, and anyone paying money for this game deserves better.

Shadows of environmental objects regularly flicker in and out of existence in a way that's not only unconvincing and an obvious malfunction of the graphics system, but in specific instances may pose an actual safety hazard to players susceptible to seizures triggered by blinking lights, which is something a product in the Pokémon franchise in particular should have been exceptionally aware of after similar light patterns in an early episode of the Pokémon animated series triggered seizures in children, which became an international news event, but a cause of widespread condemnation and ridicule aimed toward the franchise and the companies behind it.

The seizure incident caused by the Pokémon anime so impacted the culture of the franchise’s brand management that a particular Pokémon creature featured in that episode was never again depicted in animated form to avoid even the slightest association with the public safety disaster, and references to that particular character have been kept to an absolute minimum in the decades since, so the fact that glitches which cause blinking and flickering patterns being permitted to exist within the newest Pokemon game is mind-boggling.

Characters and objects within immediate sight of the player character frequently vanish and re-appear without warning.

The player character is liable to sometimes phase through the ground, or pass through what are meant to be solid walls, breaking immersion and sometimes causing the game itself to become impossible to play.

It's been amazing to watch Nintendo fans point and laugh for years at slipping quality standards for headline games on competing systems that were significantly more powerful than Nintendo's, using them as proof that more powerful hardware and better graphics alone don't make for better games, only to see them now accuse those who point out the shortcomings and fundamental deficiencies of the newest Pokémon games of being "haters" who are holding Game Freak, The Pokemon Company, and Nintendo, to unfair and unreasonable standards.

The more extreme and irrational defenders of the state of the game have gone so far as accuse critics of lying about quality control issues to make Game Freak look bad, and claim that that the ample footage of these easy to encounter malfunctions was either manipulated by hoaxers using video editing software, or even filmed using deliberately altered copies of the game that were made to suffer glitches.

I feel I am being generous to Game Freak in saying that everyone working on the game had the best intentions, but should have spent (or been allowed to have spent) at least another year on this title.

My already stated observations of the elements of this game which are obviously struggling to function properly don't even begin to address the parts that are simply reflections of either laziness, a rushed development cycle, or both.

When exploring the game's world, I encountered  multiple duplicates of the same stores selling the same items within eye-shot of each other within the same city, or even directly next door to one another.

This was so blatant that it made me speculate if these choices were cheekily made by rebellious lower level Game Freak employees to see how far they could push the limits of corners they were instructed by their superiors to cut, before they were actually confronted over them by their employers.

What's worse, the interiors of most shops are represented in the game only as text based menu interfaces, which pull me out of the game world just as much as laughably bad character animations that resemble fan-made parody cartoons posted to the internet.

Poorly rendered, poorly applied, and obviously repetitive surface textures that make certain objects such as cliff faces and buildings resemble assets lifted from a Nintendo 64 game are just the cherry on top.

"Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon", itself a Nintendo 64 title, has every single shop in the game rendered as a location with an interior that can be entered and explored. No matter how inconsequential those store interiors were, they helped to convincingly portray a living world that is real to the characters within the game.

Menu based shops do NOT do that.

My continued fascination with the Pokémon world, and its creatures, locations, lore, and characters, can not overcome the fundamental incompetence demonstrated by "Pokémon Scarlet and Violet", which completely demolishes my ability to enjoy it, which is a shame, because the intent to create an imaginative world thriving with lively creatures, memorable locations, and characters worth helping or fighting against, is clearly present, and in some cases the heights of care put into these elements match the lows of the bad quality control.

Unless an obvious revolution in The Pokémon Company's standards of ambition and quality is reflected by the next generation of Pokemon games, it breaks my heart to say that "Pokémon Scarlet and Violet" will be the last mainline entries in the series that I will be excited for, or interested in.

I pushed myself to play "Pokémon Violet" in spite of all its bad points.

I'm regretfully ending my time with "Pokémon Violet" in spite of all of its good points.

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This was written LIVE during Episode 1 of my gaming and writing Twitch show!

If you liked this, check out my SCHEDULE and join me live next time!

[Twitch] [VOD Channel] [Writing FA] [Ko-fi]

[keresacheron]

Polished Crystal Review and First Playthrough

I did a catch'em all first playthrought. It was great!

Despite being still in development, this Romhack is great. Is Pokemon Crystal with so many quality of life enhancements it's not funny. There is tons of bonus content, later series game mechanics, anime cameos and enhanced difficulty boss battles.

There loads of bonus areas and extra trainers, largely solving the level curve problems of crystal at the expense of making the game slightly more linear. The spritework is incredible, with the new areas looking great and the in-team sprites and future generation move animations looking both great and like they belong. There are even custom shinies.

This is HGSS+ using the Crystal game engine, and it's great. I have unlocked the new game plus, and I intend to use it sometime.

Kyoko, my trust Sturdy Donphan who I meet as a level 2 Phanphy on Route 46. Sturdy works as a focus band, and with rollout and defense curl she was great early on and several early gyms need her help as my Chikorita starter was still even with the changes. Sturdy was great, as being able to ensure a knock off or earthquake was the key to several battles. She enabled me to beat the surprise level 80 Giovanni Mewtwo by heal spamming until it ran out of PP. I always wanted to use a Donphan in a playthrough of gen 2, and now I have.

Meet Sayaka, a Guts Ursaring and Sayakas partner, caught in dark cave as a level 2 Tediursa. She too was great early game, hitting hard with strong physical type moves and doing great damage. After falling behind she evolved and spent the entire game hitting hard for massive damage. While sadly a bit slow and rarely getting in multiple attacks, when she hit she hit hard. Flame Orb is an item you get prior to E4 in game, and while she only got Facade in Kanto her friendship powered return hit hard. Ursaring was another Gen 2 pokemon I wanted to use in a playthrough, and she did fine.

Originally Pearlshine, the egg Togepi with Serene Grace whose sing proved invaluable in catching mons and stunning bosses. After becoming the Johto Champion, I battled Cynthia and got a Shiny Togepi egg with Superluck, Aeroblast and Moonblast. Since regular Togekiss can't get Moonblast in this game, I swapped them and trained up Evanescence with an exp share. Both of them were great team mates, with Pearlshine being very bulky early on while Evanescence was far more offensive.

Hatched from daycare couple egg, was Pikablue the shiny blue Pichu who soon evolved into a blue Pikachu. Equipped with a Light Ball, I decided to evolve Pikablue into an Alolan Riachu as beating gen two with an Alolan Riachu seemed sweet. This took till after beating the elite four to find the item, but it was worth it. Rename Pancake, now with Motor Drive as the hidden ability and holding a focus sash, Pancakes was my fastest team member and could on rare occasion gets off a nasty plot to do massive damage.

Mastema, the Snow Cloak Glaceon was the Eevee I got from Bill. Needing to level up in Ice Path he spent a long time unevolved and doing poorly in my team. Upon evolving though he crushed Team Rocket and became a strong special attacker who spammed high power special moves. Using a Glaceon in Johto was fun, and with a choice band to actually outspeed late game opponents he was great.

Last, but certainly not least is Suicune, a pokemon I always wanted to use in a playthrought and my originally planned team member. She originally held an assault vest which worked well with Pressure, and was an extremely specially bulky team member whose final move was mirror coat. And then I beat Sabrina, got Calm Mind and she became my Ace Mon whose ability to set calm minds sweep is the only reason I was able to beat Red and Green, and was a key part of my rematch with Lance.

[vixivulpixel]

Review of Roaring Moon!

[radleysgamereviews]

Honest Review of Teal Mask DLC 3/10

I know I might get some hate for this but... underwhelming would be an understatement for The Teal Mask DLC.

Yes, there were a few new variant Pokémon and even a few new Pokémon that were introduced during the storyline of the DLC but that can't make up for the lack of storyline. To start on your new adventure, you head to the school where you meet the new professor, Briar, and are paired with three random NPCs to go off to a new region called Kitikami. Those NPCs you maybe see a handful of times, but they have no real purpose other than to be the randomly selected few to go on a new adventure. When you arrive, you meet the siblings Kieran and Carmine, and are immediately faced with a Pokémon battle with barely any time to explore or set up a proper team for this new region. That should have been my first clue that this DLC was going to lack content.

After the battles and some talking you finally get to set off on your new adventure and have one main storyline quest to follow. Without spoiling anything you are basically set free to explore the region with no clear direction on how to get to your first quest other than a pinpoint location on your map. I spent most of my time rock climbing to find these locations because pathways were very unclear. Continuing on the storyline you find out about the history of the region and about the Pokémon Ogerpon which is the main Pokémon of the DLC. Honestly the backstory of Ogerpon was the one and only interesting part of the storyline. While finding out about this history you battle the same two NPCs over and over again until the final battle where you get to catch Ogerpon and then you battle those NPCs some more. I was so bored of battling the NPCs that my team was made up of my highest level Pokémon so I could get through the battles as quickly as possible. Once you have Ogerpon the main story line of the DLC ends and you can either head back home or stay longer to complete Kitikami pokedex and receive a few more side quests to complete. In the end I chose to shiny hunt where I actually ended up finding a shiny Morpeko but the shiny hunting quickly ended because I was extremely frustrated with continuously running into small Pokémon because you couldn't see them over the tall grass.

So would I recommend the DLC… no. I think I wasted my money on it for only receiving a few new pairs of clothes, a few new Pokémon, and a crap storyline. Hopefully Part 2 of the DLC can redeem Part 1: The Teal Mask because so far, I give this DLC a 3/10.

[rikalovesrice]

Rika’s Wittle Review of Pokemon Violet (Spoilers ahead!!!)

I’ll go ahead and say that, aside from the atrocious framerate and occasional glitchiness, I had a blast playing this. It’s beautiful to see how far Pokemon has come in terms of immersion. With such a rich variety of Pokemon wherever you go in this vast landscape with different habitats, all interacting and exhibiting behaviors specific to their species (and even their natures!), I genuinely feel like I’m in the world of Pokemon. I love it so much >w< I quite enjoyed the three stories and the CHARACTERS. Ahhh the characteeersss I love them all so much lol

Now for the more spoilery bits in good old bulletins. These aren’t in any particular order but in general I’ll start with stuff I loved and things that were kinda eh. Let’s goooo~

There’s now a canon Pokemon character named Rika aaaayyyeee XD Feels a little weird, ngl

Unpopular opinion, but I actually love Meowscarada lol At first I was like, “Uuuggghhh of course they made it stand up” but the more I understodd what it was, the more it grew on me. She’s a jester, magician, dramatic sort of character and she’s a kitty........all things I adore lol

Arven is a precious bean who must be protected at all costs. Seriously, I adore him so much and his story was so saaaad T_T My poor baby...And then it turns out his dad not only wasn’t around but he freaking DIED.

AND YOOOOO SPEAKING OF WHICH I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING. Like bro, Pokemon actually went there. At first I thought Turo was stuck in the future or something and that’s why his transmission got all wonky. BUT NAH. HOMEBOY STRAIGHT UP GOT DEAD AND UPLOADED HIS CONSCIOUSNESS INTO A ROBOT LIKE???? Every time I saw his face on the screen I was like, “Why is his face so...stiff?” Oh. That’s why. AND MY POOR BOY ARVEN.

Also that final battle was legitimately a little terrifying. I loved it haha

Miraidon is electric Toothless and I loved him and we’re best friends forever uwu

I know some people may be bummed that Team Star didn’t turn out to be a bunch of hardcore criminals. But the fact that Pokemon decided to tackle a subject as serious as bullying in school? Big, big claps. And in my opinion, it was really well done and heartfelt. By the end of game I adored Team Star and little Penny. Seeing them go back to school and bumble their way back into society, awkward, shy, but being true to themselves, was so precious. (Giacomo is literally like, “Let’s yell at everyone so they know we’re friendly” and for that I cherish him)

I’d join Team Star in a heartbeat, facts.

Penny being Cassiopeia wasn’t immediately obvious to me but as soon as she mentioned her hacking skills I went, “....Waaait a second...” Might I add that when “Clive” first showed up I physically buried my face into my hands lol

Okay and then when Clavell “revealed himself” as Cassiopeia I went, “Huh?? That...How??? Makes no sense but ok...????” And then was like “just kidding” and I just...wtf dude XD 

Can I just say I love Clavell’s character? He genuinely cares about every student with all his heart and shows compassion towards Team Star. He turned out to be such a good-hearted man who wants to do right by his students and I love that.

While I do love Nemona (what’s the girl version of a himbo? lol), I will say her character felt the least fleshed out, in my opinion. But I guess it could be all that energy conceals more subtle character traits? I liked how she mentioned that people mistunderstand her because she comes from a wealthly family and assume she was born with her battle prowess. When if fact, she’s just super passionate about battling and so became really good at it. Wish the game had leaned a little more into that but Nemona still cool lol Paradox Pokemon are gonna destroy the world and she’s just like, “ Can battle? :D”

While I loved Path of Legends and Starfall Street, Victory Road was the most....meh storyline for me lol There wasn’t much to it, really. And the Elite Four and Geeta were so easy. After the nightmare that was the BDSP League I was fearing for the worst but they were about as easy as the Kalos League. But that’s overall neither here nor there for me.

Picnics were fun but I wish I could get closer to my Pokemon like I could in SWSD and pet them like the Switch has a touchscreen whyyyy T__T Or just use the same format as the washing bit but with a hand :(

Welp, following Pokemon didn’t improve all that much rip Same issue of some Pokemon just being too dang slow. Or too dang fast to the point that they look unnatural cause they keep slowing down and speeding up so rapidly. I always have to ride Neon (my Miraidon) when I let Jellica (my Meowscarada) out cause otherwise she’s just constantly startin’ and stoppin’. Still a lovely feature but I just wish it was better. The Pokemons’ mannerisms are still adorable tho <3

This game removed a lot of little shortcuts (like using items on Pokemon, certain buttons when using the Boxes, switching Pokemon around, etc.) and I gotta say, not a fan lol

Customizatiooooon. I get it, we’re students. BUT WHY DOES PENNY GET TO WEAR HER LITTLE CUTE FIT HMMMMM?????

Socks, gloves, and shoes are fine, I suppose...I just wish there were more ways to customize the uniform at least. It would be cool if the school sold jackets, sweaters, t-shirts, skirts, scarves, ties, etc. Freaking Atticus’ little compadre bought NINJA OUTFITS from the school store. Where’s my ninja outfit huh????

Also Clavell said we shouldn’t let our Pokemon out inside the school and then there are Pokemon in the school at all times for the entire game lol Plus Arven, Nemona, and Penny get to have their Pokemon out in their rooms so why can’t I??? D:<

Side note MC, Arven, Nemona, and Penny gotta be my favorite Pokemon friend group besides the SWSD squad ^^ (That shot of all of us climbing aboard Miraidon before plummeting into the Crater was so precious holy Arceus my fwieeeends)

Ehhhh what else?

Sad to say that a lot of the Pokemon designs this gen weren’t really my taste. It was hard for me to put together a Paldean team cause I just...didn’t like how so many of them looked lol

Grusha has no right being that pretty. Also poor thing ;__; Would’ve loved to know more about him.

Larry. That is all.

All the Gym Leaders were so much fun. Wish we could battle them over and over like in BDSP.

History Class was my fav because looore.

I actually riverted back to a student mentality for a bit playing lol I was like, “M’kay, I’ll take my level 2 classes, explore, then move on to my level 3 classes before dark. Lemme fight this Gym and then I’ll take my midterms. What’s that, I gotta go the Great Crater and finish the story? I should finish my finals and graduate first.” Lol

The music in Area Zero o__o

Ummmmmm

I mean yeah, the framerate is awful but we all know this probably lol The game’s performance ain’t it, sis. Like I said, this would probably be my favorite Pokemon game to date if it ran the way it should.

Looking forward to patches and whatever new updates and shenanigans will ensue in the DLC hehehe

Those are the biggest things, me guesses. Loving the game and will definitely keep playing it~

[lunzoic]

After finally beating the game...

Big spoilers for Scalet/Violet ending!...

I think I'm echoing a lot of other people's sentiments when I say 'Huh, so that's where half the budget went'. I don't even mean that in a salty way, I'm just kind of baffled that there's such a strong contrast between the effort that went into this final area and the rest of the game. I seriously underestimated how much there was going to be too since the Pokemon tradition is that post Elite-Four content is kinda lacking, and the only hint that Area Zero was not 'postgame' was that credits had not rolled yet. I was really expecting Area Zero to just be an afterthought, similar to the usual optional postgame dungeons. Or like Ultraspace, in which: you go there, leave after having one big fight, and optionally come back later to find more ultrabeasts. And instead we got a fairly expansive dungeon that both contains the really cool paradox pokemon as well as like, the game's entire narrative weight, interesting character interactions, a big fight I was definitely not expecting, and all the actual intriguing plot elements in one ultra-concentrated dose. I actually prefer a fantastic ending to mediocre game rather than the other way around, it's just very surprising to see it happen when the opposite is so common. And yeah some of that perception is filtered by the bar of expectations being set so low by the rest of the game, and of course it was by no means a perfect ending. The jank still allows you to accidentally skip if you jump off certain cliffs, the scripted encounters with paradox Pokemon are just ok, and navigating Area Zero without Ko/Miraidon can be a pain if you take a wrong turn. But the pacing, the dialogue, the way the characters play off each other, the gradual reveals, and the whole final fight was actually incredibly well done. And it makes me feel a little sad to see that the dev team was clearly capable of making great story-driven game segments, but that it was only at the very ending of the game that they really got to flex those creative muscles. I feel like it's also created a weird dichotomy of people who could not abide the jank and put the game down or decided not to buy it in the first place/refunded it and the people who stuck it out to the end and got an unexpectedly quality finish. Good for us I guess? I definitely would have lost interest a lot sooner had friends who finished the game not given clues that they really enjoyed the ending...

More specific ending spoilers and commentary: Having an AI character being aware of having their own will being overridden was equal parts fucked up, heartbreaking, terrifying, and really effective. The way they're clearly fighting against it even as they taunt you, their whole speech about freedom and treasure, that moment when they seem to intentionally succumb to the programmed will in order to sincerely tell Arven that the original professor loved him (oh my FUCKING god)... Now THAT'S how you break the mold in terms of creating a different narrative hook than the usual formula! For me it really did retroactively change the feeling of the entire game, knowing that the 'professor' who started you on your whole journey was actually patiently waiting for you to become strong enough to venture into area zero and do what but their programming did not allow them to do. That they were vicariously enjoying every step of your adventure along the way, because their very nature as an area zero anomaly meant they could never leave themselves. Their final decision to send themselves to the past/future in order to disable the time machine, while kind of cheesy and nonsensical, was something that they willed with their own heart and wholly defied the original professor's wishes. That in their vast intellect they decided to stake the future on a bunch of teenagers is still pretty goofy but hey, it's Pokemon. Like a lot of people I did suspect that there would be some sort twist with the professor, but I did not expect THIS, nor did I expect a Pokemon game to handle a sympathetic AI character in a really emotional and interesting way. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised given that Pokemon as a franchise has had various created/artificial beings who are treated sympathetically? But it does also kind of highlight once again that the game feels kind of hodge-podge in regards to what audience it's catering to, due to the entire game feeling hand-holdy and kid-friendly in its appeal and then... that entire ending happens. I can imagine some kids not even being able to finish the game, not even due to difficulty spike but because of finding the Arven and robo professor story too scary and sad. On the other hand, Pokemon at its roots has always some pretty damn heavy themes, so I guess this could also just be considered a return to form? Pokemon themselves being fully sentient creatures forced to serve their masters no matter what, the entire arc of Mewtwo being created and then destroying its own lab... I remember finding those too sad to contemplate as a kid so I kind of just. Didn't. But those aspects were never really explored to the depth they could have been within the main game's stories (I do know the movies/anime/comics have darker storylines, but those are all 'extended lore' as far as the games are concerned). So this is the first time where elements like the death of a main character and having the villain be a human (in appearance) ally with explicitly programmed loss of will who doesn't want to turn against you are THIS front and center in the story of a main series game. And it was actually done pretty emotionally and effectively, so I do applaud the decision to take a risk and make a more mature storyline happen at all.

And yes, it is not lost on me that both a reluctant final boss and the subtle use of the menu interface in the finale are reminiscent of ah... a certain other game? I might be seeing stronger connections than I should due the killer music contribution by Toby, and I don't really care if it was intentional or not, but I'm just really happy to see any game make use of those tropes to great effect.

[pinchraccoon]

I think I'm gonna write an actual like, real review of it, but here's my mini review of Pokemon Violet to get my thoughts summarized.

The latest entries to pokemon, while a bold step in a new direction, may be a step into Alaskan snow in flip-flops. The game has some great ideas and lofty ambitions, and for what it does accomplish, there's clearly a lot of fun to be had with the product that was delivered, however, the preparation given to bring these ideas into fruition was far under prioritized.

To speak kindly of the game before speaking ill, I have always, and will always, love pokemon. It's a series that is very near and dear to me, and there's a certain magic that comes with learning all about the new creatures that have been added to the growing roster of canonized monster designs I've come to love, especially on a semi-blind playthrough, the magic of learning about and hunting down as many new pokemon is unmatched. SV does deliver on this, as I feel that this generation has a series of lovely pokemon designs that I have fallen in love with in my short time with them. (Tinkaton, Revavroom, Ceruledge, Meowscarada, and Chi-Yu are all new favorites)

Additionally, the story of SV is quite well done, easily one of the best-executed stories in pokemon in a while, and while I don't think I'm comfortable calling it "better than" the story of BW/BW2, I feel that it's comparable in quality. Characters, themes, and plot points all feel surprisingly natural in a game that theoretically allows you to go off and challenge its many hurdles in any order, utilizing the scripted events that it does have cleverly, and to great effect. I particularly enjoyed the Team Star narrative, and how it takes the "evil team" formula that pokemon has had for a long time, and juxtaposes the idea of a group of bullies onto it, only to learn over time that they're just bullied people sticking together, and aren't bad, just misrepresented.

On the basis of the typical gameplay loop, SV delivers Very well. The incorporation of overworld encounters and optional trainer battles allows the player to feel free and uninhibited by the game itself, and free to engage with exactly as much content as they would like to, whether this be picking and choosing what pokemon to battle in the wild, or which trainers if any, they feel the need to battle. SV's design philosophy seems to be prioritizing freedom as much as possible, while also meaningfully rewarding progression, and I feel that the game flow comes off as organic.

This is to say, that this game has more team-building potential out of the gate than just about any other pokemon game, with countless pokemon accessible to the player even moments from starting the game, appealing to collection freaks and competitive fans alike.

Then, what's the problem?

In short, the game is unfinished. The game, at launch, would routinely dip to what I could ascertain to be 12-17 FPS regularly, and while steps have been taken already to make the drops in framerate far less drastic, the time to do that incredibly important work is before release, not after. The framerate, the chief among issues, and generally its lack of optimization for switch hardware, sometimes spoils the other wonderful parts of the game. Finding pokemon is less intriguing when extreme pop-in only allows you to look at pokemon less than 20 feet away from you, and somewhat harms the immersion of the experience. And while updated models and style of the pokemon have been made, and they're quite impressive, it's hard to say that the pokemon "look good" when after 4 appear on screen at once, or even two pokemon with some attacks, their frames drop far below what they should.

Additionally, while this game loads quickly traveling between areas, smaller, more subtle, but similarly important loading times feel far, far too long. The boxes take far too long to load the images of your pokemon in each individual box, which somewhat harms the collection fantasy, and upon starting a battle with a wild pokemon, their "low poly open world" model will still be loaded long into the first turn. Additionally, menuing remains rather clunky and sluggish, which quickly becomes annoying when things like Wonder Trade or other such "quick" menuing activities take a minimum of 45 seconds due to their lack of optimization.

The issues I'm listing sound comparatively minor, however, in an experience as dependent on a lack of obstruction as SV are clearly trying to be, the failure to deliver on a product that runs consistently and reasonably is a major slight against it.

These issues are not deliberate design choices that simply do not work, these larger issues are a product of the dev teams' inability to put out the product that wouldn't have these problems, and the issues with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are by and large issues with management, not the dev team themselves. The worrying pace at which Pokemon games are released, especially considering that SV is not even our first major open-world Pokemon release this year, is clearly harming Game Freak's ability to provide a product that will meet the expectations of both fans AND the artists themselves.

SV is in many ways, an extremely fun game that has been weighed down by the weight of the industry, and as much as I loved the time and fun that I had with it, its issues cannot be overlooked. I can't say that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, in their current state, are "good" games. Violet is a game that I enjoyed, it's a game that perhaps will be good in the future following patches and performance updates, but at current, the development issues that are so apparent and the clear lack of optimization for switch hardware made by these issues genuinely harm my perception of the game quite a bit.

Is it fun? Yeah. Is it good? No.

[retardeddyke]

shiny hunting pokemon with various randos on Reddit is so fun especially since this game is so buggy its hilarious.

One guy placed a pickle when we were making a sandwich together and it somehow made the physics engine freak out and fling the other ingredients everywhere so I had to reset so I didn't waste anything.

For some reason no matter who hosted or how many times we tried changing things none of us could see each other in the area we were shiny hunting in (area zero.) At some point I did actually appear for one person for a few seconds and he excitedly DMd me this picture

(I'm on the miriadon)

But I couldn't see any of the other people I played with and none of them saw me at any other point.

I caught two shiny Pokemon and then the game crashed completely and for some reason unlike with every other online service there's no automated failsafe so it completely erased them (rip hawlucha and slither wing no. 1)

I spent like three hours shiny hunting and ended with only one Slither Wing since every other shiny I found I let the people I was playing with catch.

It was a lot of fun but half of it felt like it was fun in spite of the game rather than because of it.

[thefcguy]

Pokemon: Journeys – Review of the Saga

Inspired by @natedogx15 ‘s reviews, I decided to make this review.

Many of you might not you, but I really like Pokemon! I love the franchise, specially the anime.

For a long time, though, I stopped watching it for some complicated reasons. However, I returned watching it in Journeys! I haven’t watched all of the chapters yet, but I have seen reviews and scenes of future chapters, so, I know basically everything that happened on it.

Since I am such a big fan, I decided to give my review and PERSONAL opinion on it (it’s just my opinion, don’t judge).

(There are some spoilers below, but I don’t think they are that big)

 1- The Structure:

 The pokemon anime from gen 1 to 6 had the same formula. Ash with a group of friends would travel through a new region so that they could achieve their dreams.

Ash would fight the gyms, catch at least six pokemons, and help a lot of people along the way, usually having a rival that would be his opposite in some way.

His teammates would usually be gym leaders, monotype trainers, a coordinator/performer, and sometimes a little sibling.

They would usually have less pokemon than Ash, and arcs that would be solved in the saga they were a part of, returning on the next one showing how much they had grown after solving their issues.

This formula was pretty good and interesting, because it allowed us to get attached to the region and show us many different places with detail.

Besides, the camping scenes would usually give the pokemons time to interact with one another and have their own arcs.

However, Alola… broke this whole formula. Ash started going to school, had lots of companions, there were no gyms to challenge because Alola has the kahunas and trials systems, and there were no contests or showcases.

It was not bad, but it didn’t interest me that much back in the day. Nowadays, if I could, I would probably try to rewatch it, but, there is no easy way to doing it in my country, so… I know my judgement of Alola probably isn’t fair.

Now, on Journeys, I will be honest, there probably wouldn’t be an easy way to go back to the old formula, and there was no school in Galar so that they could use the same formula as in Sun and Moon.

So, that’s why I think that the idea of making Ash and Goh the assistants of Professor Cerise was a good solution, and I understand why they did that.

We need to remember that the original formula was created in 1997, and, back in the day, when kids stayed less time at home and actually went out to play more, the idea of Ash travelling with friends world-wide was more relatable than nowadays.

Nowadays, with technology, kids leave their houses less, and play mostly on smartphones.

To appeal to the new public, this idea of sporadic travels and always returning to the institute and the ending of the day probably makes things more relatable.

This was also probably the reason they changed how the friendships are shown here

I will be honest, I am not from the generation of those who started watching from gen 1, because I am not that old (I started on BW and then watched all the old seasons), but narratively speaking, the original formula was better at showing and presenting new regions.

Reason why Galar is the region with the most wasted potential (BW didn’t show Unova that well, but, at least we saw all of the Gym Leaders and Ash battled them all).  

As for the World Championship thing… I think it was a pretty good idea actually. It was an interesting way of finishing Ash’s arc… and a quicker one than making him rechallenge all of the past leagues and defeating the champions.

I will talk more about Ash on his section.

 The new formula isn’t perfect, but had it’s good points, and allowed us to see a lot of past characters. So… I give it 3,5 points out of 5.  

 2- Characters

 2,1- Ash Ketchum:

Before anything, I have to say, I feel bad for the writers that had to develop the new Ash for journeys, because it was a hard job. You guys probably didn’t understand what I meant, so, allow me to elaborate.

This Ash we accompany nowadays isn’t the same of when the show started. No, this isn’t one of those creepy theories. He is the same boy, but not the same character.

Gens 1 to 4 had the same Ash from beginning to end. The Ash that started as a childish and slightly arrogant boy, that became more and more mature until the point of entering the Sinnoh league with many strong pokemons. An Ash that had fun and silly moments, but also had experience and cared for those around him.

Then, we have Gen 5 Ash, who was… softly rebooted, lets be honest. I don’t hate BW like many, but I recognize that this Ash doesn’t feel the same as Sinnoh Ash (my personal favorite).

When Gen 6 came, they tried to bring Sinnoh Ash back… but they made him a bit too mature. He is not a bad character, but he is a 10 year-old that act like he is 15. He is not bad, but needed a more mature context of Ash growing up to reach its highest potential.

The writers noticed that, and tried to make him more childish in Gen 7… but they were a bit too extreme, and the character lose most of his seriousness. Again, he is not bad, but he was clearly reseted.

So, the writers in Gen 8 definitely had a hard time deciding on the new Ash.

He could be the continuation of Gen 1-4 Ash, but, it has been so long, that they probably wouldn’t know how to write for him anymore.

Making him a continuation of Gen 5 would be an awful idea, considering how much he was hated.

Gen 6 Ash wouldn’t fit in the new context, and Gen 7 Ash also wasn’t that beloved.

That’s why they combined what worked from each Ash, and made Journey!Ash.

And, I have to say, the result was pretty good too. He is not that great like Sinnoh!Ash, but he has Ash’s silly side and he remembers his experiences.

He also has lots of good moments, like his bond and story with Riolu, the fact that he remembered the pokemons in the lab, and all of the support he gave his friends.

He also had lots of interesting battles during the World Championship.

The biggest issue with Ash this season were his new pokemon and the lack of screen time.

The fact that the old formula is gone, and that they don’t camp anymore, made that Ash’s pokemon didn’t have much of an arc this saga, and not much individuality or personality.

They aren’t bad but could be better.

As for the lack of screen time, this is a result of the writers not being able of balancing the attention on Ash and Goh.

Goh’s captures had a lot more of focus than Ash’s battles and arcs.

In the end, I give Journey’s Ash 4 stars. He is not perfect, but I am happy with what we got.

2,2- Goh:

What I am going to say about Goh might seen contradictory, but it makes sense. I like Goh’s personality, arc, and concept… but I hate his role.

I really like characters like Goh, characters that are smart, always had few to no friends, and through a new friend, they learn to open up and be more confident.

It’s also really nice how he is so smart and so interested in researching pokemon, basically being a better version of Tracey.

Even his goal is interesting: Catching Mew!

The problem is how he manages to achieve his goal. As I said before, the pokemons of the trainers are also characters.

That’s why they need focus, arcs, stories, specific personalities and moments on the spotlight!

The fact Goh captures so many pokemons makes harder for them all to have great arcs or be interesting, which, combined with the new form, make them all more forgettable than the rest of Ash’s companion’s pokemons.

I think that if they made Goh be more like a trainer that wanted to be a researcher/professor in the future, it would have been better.

Like, instead of capturing every pokemon, Goh would travel to places, study their behavior, draw them, make notes, and them verify if the info on the pokedex is right about them. Perhaps, he could even discover new things!

And, during his travels, he could catch pokemon that he developed a bond with, or that would be useful in future research!

Or, I don’t know, he could have been a coordinator. A male protagonist being a coordinator would have been a nice addition, considering it never happened before.

Anyway, I just think they could have done more with Goh and his arc. I know that he was just advertisement of Pokemon Go, but he could have been better.

In the end, I also give him 3,75 stars. He is great but could have done more.

 2,3 – Chloe Cerise:

 This character is the definition of wasted potential.

Chloe could have been so much more than she ended up being.

First, her personality is kind of unique compared to the other girls. She is not overly girly (like Serena and even Dawn) nor a hot headed tomboy (like Misty and Iris).

She is a kind, shy person, but not defenseless. She is smart and sassy.

Besides, her whole plot with Eevee and wanting to understand what she wants to become is really good.

Sadly, she got just a few chapters to shine, and just two pokemon to use (and Yamper wasn’t even technically hers).

I think that if she joined Ash and Goh earlier on their adventures, she could have had a better development.

Maybe catching some more Pokemon that also feel confused like her. Like Oddish, Poliwhril, Slowpoke or Kirlia!

And the end of her character being that she still doesn’t know what to do, but continues researching, would be great, showing how there is no hurry to find your dream!

I just think that they could have shown her more and keeping her ending the same.

Her interactions with the pokegirls were also great, and I wish we could have seen more of that too. Maybe Misty or Iris could have helped (sadly, I know May couldn’t appear).

In the end, I give Chloe 4 stars, because of what she could have been.

 3- The Interactions and Character Dynamics:

This was definitely the best part of journeys. Goh, Ash, and Chloe had such good chemistry with each other!

Remember when I said about the new formula being more relatable for kids nowadays! Well, I say the same about the friendships.

Ash and Goh’s friendship of supporting each other, teasing each other and arguing with each other was a lot alike real friendships we see in our day to day lives!

Like the scene on the train where ethey compare their drawings.

They care about each other and talk to each other about how they feel.

And Chloe being so done at the two, but keeping on hanging out with them, is also a great example of friendship.

Friendship isn’t this magical perfect thing were we never get annoyed at someone, there are times there are arguments, and differences, but we all solve that in the end.

I feel like the friendship that the three have is a lot closer to real friendships nowadays than those in the past sagas.

And I also like how there was no forced shipping between Chloe and the boys. The three were friends and nothing more than that (but I don’t judge the shippers though, everyone is free to have their opinions. So, if you guys like AshxGoh, AshxChloe or GohxChloe, don’t worry, because I don’t judge).

So, for the interactions, I give it 5 stars! The three have amazing interactions with one another.

 4- Team Rocket:

 Okay… this is probably the weakest part of the season.

Team Rocket in this season was… terrible.

Usually, Team Rocket had great comedic moments, and good episodes were they bond with their pokemon.

But the biggest issue this season is that they don’t have pokemon of their own, and neither an arc.

Their highest moment this saga was the radio episode, which, to be fair, was good, but… it was just that.

There is so little to talk about them, that their section is just that.

In the end, I give them… 2 stars. Not entirely bad, cause they are Team Rocket, but this is probably the worse they have ever been.

 5- The Cameos:

Other good thing that they did this season was showing us lots of characters from the past sagas.

Not all of their returns were perfect, but they still were really good at its majority.

I really like the return of Alola’s gang episode. Now, you are probably wondering why, because I haven’t watched Sun and Moon. I just really like the idea of introvert guy becomes best friend with extrovert guy, and now he needs to handle all of the thousands of friends that his bestfriend has.

Iris’s return made her character a lot better. Again, even if I don’t hate BW, I know that it has problems. And it was great to see that they made Iris less annoying, made her more mature, and actually have powerful Dragon Types! They also made her the champion which is also great!

It's amazing to see what they have done with the character.

Dawn’s return, though, it’s complicated for me. I always say that DP is my favorite saga, and that Dawn is my favorite companion. But… I don’t think Journeys gave her all that she deserved.

I loved her interactions with Chloe and how her friendship with Ash is recognized by the writers, but the fact that they gave her no new pokemon, and didn’t update her outfit, makes it seems like she didn’t have much development.

The episodes she appears are far from bad, some being really good, but I think she deserved more, considering how great she was in DP.

Serena’s return for me was both good and bad. I loved how they made her more mature and confident on herself, her new design, how supportive she is of Chloe, and how she became more than “The girl who openly likes Ash”.

The bad thing about the chapter is how they made Contests so boring. Contests on gens 3 and 4 were amazing! The appeal stage being limited to one or two pokemons at a time gave them the chance to shine.

And the battle stage was amazing! The combinations, the strategies, the tensions, the unpredictability, and a lot more!

Now… Contests are basically Showcases 2.0. Not bad, but I really prefer how they were before.

Lillie’s return and the ending of her story was done flawlessly. I really liked Lillie’s character on the games, and it was great seeing her finally achieving happiness.

Clemont and Bonnie’s return was also good. They weren’t amazingly great characters on the XY saga, and their episode followed the same pattern. I like Clemont, Bonnie, and their return, but it was not that special.

Gary’s return was also fun, honestly. I always though him to be annoying, but enjoyed what happened to him in DP. And it was great seeing Gary motivating Goh to be better, like he did with Ash. It was great seeing him finally return.

Paul’s return was also fantastic! Seeing Paul and Ash battling was nostalgic. This time, though, he is less villainous than he used to be, but it’s great to see him as this weird source of advice. He is also a Gym Leader now, which is cool.

Cyntia’s return was also amazing, and I loved that she and Ash finally had an official battle.

It’s sad Cilan didn’t have an official return, because that could have been a way to redeem his character, like they did with Iris, but, considering how much he is hated, maybe it was for the best he didn’t return.

I already talked about the May situation, so, I won’t repeat.

And Tracey… well, no one cares that much about him, so, it’s not worth it to talk about him.

In the end, I give 4,5 stars out of 5 for the cameos. It was almost flawless.

 6- The Pokemons:

I will be quick on this one, since I already talked too much.

The good part is that they gave Ash a lot of pokemon that he should have had back in Kanto, like Dragonite and Gengar.

The bad part is the whole thing of pokemon not having that deep character arcs because of the new formula.

But, Chloe’s Eevee was good, Gengar’s backstory was sad but also interesting, and the episode of Goh and his Floette was pretty emotional.

I also like Sirfetched.

So, I guess I am going to give… 3 stars out of five. Not bad, but not that good.

 7- Conclusion:

Pokemon Journeys wasn’t perfect. In its majority, it was pretty good, but some problems ended up appearing, and it didn’t reach its highest potential.

In the end, I give Journey on its entirely… 3.85 stars out of 5. It was a good saga, but not one of my favorites.

[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.

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

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.

----------

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

[scarlett-ethel]

First Decisions and Final Impressions:

A Post-Game Look Back at: Identity and Starter

Welcome to Pokemon Scarlet, which begins like customizing a Sim all the way down to the eye shape and mouth shape. Definitely confusing hairstyle to begin with but luckily you can change it immediately.

All of the starters here are so cute. I love them here. But to be honest, Pokemon with similar types can be easily replaced quickly in the game. I guess, just have fun with it? I chose Fuecoco. I didn't have any sort of strategy here. Now that I've finished the game, I can say that my starter has been in a box for a while. I also found that their final evolutions are not that exciting. Reasons why this is not my favorite generation:

The final evolution of the grass choice, the cat, stands on two legs. What a great opportunity to see a grass version of Persian!

In contrast, the fire choice, the one that looks like a fire version of Totodile, which you think would end up looking like a fire version of Feraligatr, remains flat on the ground. Like a crocodile should, but it doesn't look nearly aggressive enough.

And then there is...a duck. Which again, one might assume its evolutionary pattern but you would be wrong unless you assume that it will end up as a larger dancing duck.

Before you make your choice, you get to run around with them outside. You have a general path to follow but it's an adorable moment that players have not been able to experience before.

[alexissara]

Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Review - Layers Of Greed

On November 19th, 1493 Christopher Columbus claims Puerto Rico for the kingdom of Spain. The man would go on to start the North Atlantic Slave Trade by taking the Taino Natives and sending several back to Spain. He's terrible reign would be the foundation in which the Spanish would colonize South America along with many other nations.

November 18th, 2022 Japanese company Game Freak releases Pokémon Scarlet and Violet based on Spain, a country whose dark history can be felt across the world to this day, the scars deep across all of Latin America and Caribbean.

While Gamefreak could never capture the terror of one of the states nations to ever have existed, it appears they have tried in some ways to make this region as miserable as possible to spend time in, perhaps as a tribute to this history.

However, if it is not in reference to this historical context it is more likely that this game is simply a buggy, terrible, rushed messed which show the depths of The Pokémon companies greed and the horrors of capitalism manifested as a game with cute lil monsters I like.

The Terrible World Of Palada

The streets seem to be in broken time, nobody speaks, nobody sings, they tell you to express yourself but they accept so few bodies, they bind you to the coffin they call a uniform then they taunt you showing what you could have. This hell shows it is a puppet show, the world breaking, you can see the seems bursting and yet it draws you in further as if your a simple fly about to get eaten by a Venus Fly Trap.

This is to say the games a fucking mess. The game lacks most basic accessibility features including rolling back some previous features. The lack of Voice Acting is dreadful both for accessibility and for those who just want a game at modern standards. It's utterly dreadful and pathetic frankly given that it's the largest franchise in the world.

The bugs and glitches are unbearable. While they might be better for some in my over 90 hours of play I experienced 12 Hard Crashes. It's fair to say that a decent chunk of this play time was redoing content I had already done.

Most improvements to the game feel like downgrades to Pokémon Legends Arceus grom the soul crushing lack of clothing options giving you the 4 most ugly outfits in the whole series as your only options to the way movement flows to the way throwing a ball feels, there is some improvements but many more steps backwards.

Many will say this game is taking the right steps, that their on the right path and those people are wrong. There is no right path, why is open world even desirable, why are 3D models? This game makes steps sure but in every direction, this does not feel like what I want from Pokémon, I'd rather play a fan game but at any chance they get Gamefreak sends those people cease and desists meaning the more popular a fan game gets the more likely it is to vanish.

There is things I like, movements feels nice expect in the air or water or if you run into Pokémon or if you look too long at the wires of the world breaking around you as you run. Online co-op is nice but severally lacking in features, it's basically just you can exploit Systems together or like see where the other is. Still it feels legitimately like a step forward even if that step forward was matched by like Phantasy Star Online on the GameCube. I'll talk more about the characters soon but their cool.

The Fantastic Folks in The Freakish Land

The story of this game employees extremely common techniques to manipulate a players emotion into caring about the story. Legends focuses on sick animals and bad relationships to parents, Starfall focuses on Bullying and Found Family, Gym focuses on flattering the player making them feel like the most special person.

All these things are effective, I felt them but their also cheap. Literally get a sick dog trope, obviously I want to save the dog. Of course I like Pokémon's Goku flattering me and everyone saying I'm the most special girl. Of course I want the gang of misfits to get together. I liked the characters, laughed at a few bits, loved so many of the designs, had feelings but also like it isn't hard to make me feel those ways.

There is so little risk taken, Team Star's story leans into implying some queerness through design but never ever confirms it. There is a dead person in the game which ya know is not majorly risky given children read/watch stories where people die all the time but it's kinda new for Pokémon. There isn't a moment as emotionally striking as Lillie calling out her abusive move in Pokémon Sun And Moon.

What little politics this game engages in are always attempting to skirt a line. It gives empathy for outcast but the game rail roads you into fighting them into compliance. It degneders everything for trainers appearance but removes skirts as an option so that young kids don't really have the option to explore gender and presentation even in the limits of a school uniform. The game still uses binary genders locked to you by picking a random face when Animal Crossing removed gendering all together

While the story isn't brave isn't bold or particularly innovative I enjoyed it. Like I said it worked on me, I like the characters and would be tempted to buy a shiny full art card or roll on a gacha for several of these characters and the big end fight is probably the series best end boss fight in terms of presention even if the motive feels paper thin. If they say Professor Sada is gonna be in a DLC I'd be mega curious and wannna buy it or whatever. It's good, not great, and good being closer to ok then like above average.

Catch Um All

Terastlization adds one of the most deep and high level mechanics to competitive Pokémon, a shame the game has nothing close to high level Pokémon play inside of it. It's also a shame it's the ugliest and most boring conceptual mechanics since gen 6 started the annual gimmick.

I'd say the core roster of Pokémon this generation are some of the best in the series, really stunning designs. There is a ton of new favorites for me and tons of Pokémon that will be in my dream world of Pokémon. There is so many bangers which is why it's a shame a large chunk of the roster also sucks and is some of the series lowest points in design.

Ultimately there is very high highs and pretty low lows. Still I think in this case the high highs majorly outweigh the low lows since you can simply not use Pokémon you don't like. So ultimately this is the factor I think more than anything carries this game.

What I do find frustrating is that so many shiny Pokémon in this gen are such nothing shinnies and that is paired with the total downgrade in Shiny hunting in the game. Auto Battle shiny hunts could in theory maybe be fun but this game runs like ass, sometimes mass outbreaks straight up down spawn, sometimes they spawn in a way, sometimes they spawn but in areas you need to constantly climb up and jump down to access, it's not really fun and a huge step back from PLA.

Mechanically, this game brings a lot of good moves, neat abilities and fun type combinations to the table. There is a lot of really good stuff inside the roster even in Pokémon I don't particularly like, there is cool exclusive moves for so much of the roster and expanding on previous Pokémon's evolution line will always be welcome. While I don't play VGC I used to play high level singles and I do think there is a lot of cool stuff here even if it looks like there is several highly centralizing new Pokémon for that format.

The large roster of cut Pokémon is not something I will stan though. Would it be a lot of work to bring back every Pokémon, yes but do they use the same models and animations frequently so it shouldn't be much an issue, also yes. I wouldn't mind as much but seeing the list of transfer Pokémon it feels weird to have two games released months before this game, especially PLA be cut from the roster here. It feels cynical like a means to make sure to sub to Pokémon Home for more than one month, have to pay again when they add DLC to expand the roster.

Post Game

To Me, post game is one of my favorite parts of a Pokémon game. What I can do after I am done with the main story is normally where I'd spend most my time in a Pokémon game. The post game is your cozy home when your playing competitive you spend a lot of time breeding, EV training, farming items, shiny hunting, and generally having fun with the game.

There is side game content, versions of gym test challenges you can redo for rewards, all of those gym test challenge things are really badly done though, I didn't enjoy doing them the first time. Their all really basic and run really badly. None of these are like Pokémon contests or The pokeathlon where you had a more in depth little side game to play. It doesn't even reach the movie making side content of Black and White 2 but this kind of side game stuff has basically left the series since it's move to 3D made the idea of doing these things much harder.

The game features a little post game gym rematch story, it's fun to see the Gym leaders going all out but their going all out teams are mostly pathetic and all are under leveled compared to the last battle you did, in addition to being monotype. All of them were extremally easy click one button to win type battles with the exception of Iono who continued to have a team that actually did Monotype well. Still the little interactions were at least cute.

The proceeding Academy Ace Tournament also felt like it sat around the same level of what I had just done beating the Elite Four. Levels were slightly higher but it doesn't present a super fun replay experience. Redoing it gives some decent rewards and it is an improve to Elite Four grinding of the far past but I am not even sure it reaches Sword and Shields post game rematch grind.

The game has a big raid system much like Sword and Shield but it's not really an upgrade. It is a little bit faster but in exchange for that it's super buggy, it's a lot harder, and it pushes you to build highly competitive Pokémon, it's online stays just as bad as before but a little worse because they stopped people from RNGing shinnies. Playing this online with one of my girlfriends, I would see her enemy Pokemon's health and mine would be at different levels, we would see HP healing up, we would see Pokémon one shotted and then moving back up to half HP with a shield, Pokémon at 0 HP still sticking around, it's super buggy. Then sometimes when you lose a raid, you get greeted with a long white screen that lasts minutes to get out of. Going online with randos is still a frustrating afar of not getting into rooms, not finding raids you want to do, etc. It's maybe slightly more fun then Sword and Shields raids but it's still so far from where it should be.

The game lacks even the battle tower so the competitive Pokémon you might build for raids really only have use in two modes, online competitive battling and the raids themself. Everything else having the strong EV trained, max IV, great move set Pokémon just make everything else in the game more mindless and not in a fun way. I love a warriors game where I just mash buttons and see things get knocked out but there just isn't that satisfaction in a strategy battle when you know you could also win like 40 levels lower just clicking one button. The lack of The Battle Frontier has been felt in the series since X and Y and now there isn't even a Battle Tower so there just isn't a real solo way to play that doesn't require you to build stronger Pokémon. You can technically solo raids but that's it, you also miss out on raid events if you don't have online.

The post game feels like it's on par with base Sword and Shield just because of mass outbreaks and the higher narrative polish but my breath isn't taken away either. It does not reach the series high peaks of BW2 or HGSS or Platinum nor does it hit exciting loop of self direction of like PLA. If your into VGC you'll likely have a blast with the post game content but I personally don't see myself playing this game much anymore now that I have the shiny charm and beat all the things once.

Money, Money Money

I saved this for last but it is by no means the least important thing. This game is a peak of the pillar that shows the absolute greed of the Pokémon company. People often call Pokémon fans entitled but why shouldn't they be when the company makes over a billion dollars a year, that's all on offical merch, when you add the the tons and tons of money from fan merch, commissions, etc people spend sooo much on Pokémon a year it's ridiculous. The Pokémon Video games would be profitable if they were totally free to play with 0 DLC and Microtransactions. The games add new characters to their world and add new Pokémon to sell merch of, it gives them attention, will let them sell ads for the anime, sell cards, the core games are simply fuel to the fire that keeps this money train running.

The production model of this game series with TWO games released by Gamefreak this year is ridiculous and likely the reason this game is a big unfinished mess. Instead of doubling down on Hasui they basically decided it should be a minor footnote with like one set in the TCG and a special episode of the anime. While we don't know how it was for the workers it is likely made by crunch but then again Game Freak has a lot of support making these games and they now have a 4 day work week so we would need a testimony to say. What we can say is it seems like the games are coming out unfinished with cut content to sell back to people.

That is just one terrible thing they do for money. The two version model is unethical and increasingly I see people buying both versions. With nostalgic attachment and the long tail of the secondary market having shown how expensive it is to get a Pokémon game after they go out of print being driving factors. Even more sinister though is it is the only means for people with no internet to get everything and it this model prays on people who feel the need to complete things. Owning only one version of a game knowing their set is incomplete is torture for a lot of Neurodiverse people.

Yet, that is not everything attached to just this game. This game has of course, Pokémon Home attached to it, except it doesn't yet. Pokémon Home is not here during release. It won't be around for months, meaning there is months between then and now that people will have to pay to keep their Pokémon stored in the monthly service that may be able to be transferred to Scarlet and Violet but not any other game currently on switch. Also we all know a big draw for companies for monthly services are just using bad memory to make passive money with people who forget to unsub.

All of this is just talking about the stuff relevant to this game, I could go on about Masters EX, Pokémon Unite and and the trading card game all of which will use these characters and things in order to sell the bounds and attachments to these creatures and characters to sell gambling and other shady business' practice's to people and even children. This is all to say that Gamefreak is in fact, not our friend and there is no reason to stand, you a little piggy brank and they'll pull money out of you even if they gotta smash you.

Conclusion

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are a failure in nearly every sense. While it does in fact manage to create some good Pokémon they kinda have to make good Pokémon and compelling character designs, that is where the money is. for mech and gachas. Everything else in the game is just batting below average. It's the minimum acceptable game. Everything seems just okay enough to have you not complain too much but baked in with the most buggy game I have ever played. I've played other open world games but I've never had so many crashed, I've never played another open world game with no voice acting, I've never played another open world game that gave me so many glitches. Like this is bad by the terrible standards of Open World games is what I am saying.

The game doesn't really match it's peers either without the weird but interesting new features of the recent Dragon Quest Monsters, the engaging more mature story of Digimon Cyber Sluthe nor the exciting spectacle of Monster Hunter Stories 2.

This game will likely improve with DLC and patches but frankly it shouldn't be legal for a game that is this much of a mess to sell additional content to us. I feel like we're all owed collectively the patches and DLC as free upgrades for the terrible experince of this game.

I think the question that a lot of people will have is, did you have fun? Ya, I did, sometimes but I think if I wasn't playing with my girlfriend I likely would have quit the game around the 5th hard crash. I'd have blazed through the game, thought, that was ok, and never played it again if somehow It didn't crash on me as much. It's tragic this game sold as much copies as it did because the highest hights are kinda mid.

4/10

This game is a below average experience, a bad one, this is a kind score for the game that runs so badly. It doesn't mean there isn't fun to be had, there is 4 points of fun out of 10 to be had. It's a midly game with an okay cast failing to hit the average of a series that is not at it's best reached some of the heights of other monster tamer games. I might play it some more, for like building a competitive set and going online but for me, that is something I could also do on Pokémon showdown with similar satisfaction. It's honestly, a tragic affair. This honestly feels like a kind score given the business model.

I probably won't write other reviews here, I have long ago left writing reviews in the past but I had such strong feelings about this game I had to exercise the demons. If I feel compelled to write another review I hope it's a positive one. I hope I love Fire Emblem Engage or Super Lesbian Animal RPG or something so much that I need to let people know about it and write all about but we'll see.

If you enjoyed this review you can follow me here and see my TTRPG chat and my work when it goes up. I also have a patreon https://www.patreon.com/AlexisSara where you could give me money and demand I review games more or like post videos of me dancing in little skirts or whatever you want, I just want money, please.

[vixivulpixel]

Review of Chi-Yu!

[destiny-smasher]

Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is a Damn Mess

Strap in lasses, lads, nonbinary finery, and everyone around and inbetween. This one's a doozy. I won't be describing any post-game/end-game details specifically, but I *will* be mentioning in vague terms some of the late game stuff, in case you're sensitive to spoilers.

This rant starts with things I liked (which it does have!), then goes full tilt into spicy rage. So avoid it if you're for whatever reason sensitive about an unfinished game being talked about like it's an unfinished game. Do not try starting some argument with me, these are my personal opinions and not a scored/professional review. Enjoy your game if you're enjoying it and ignore this grumpy 90's era gamer.

TLDR bullet points at the tail end for those that benefits.

So I've put in 16 hours into Pokemon Scarlet. Did like, 2/3 of the main story badge quests, I would say, caught a bunch of mons. Aaaaand I'm done with this game. I am not of the opinion that without the tech performance issues, it would magically be this super amazing Pokemon game. Personally, I'm just not impressed with it. And we'll get into why I just don't think it's a well designed or well made product or RPG.

But first, the things I liked, or even loved. Because there are definitely some things I did like and love about it, especially after checking out the story (I recently watched all of the main story scenes from where I'd gotten to the end credits).

Opponents have never had this amount of personality put into them. When stacked against other peers in the gaming landscape, it's still kind of laughable how limited these characters are in a lot of ways, but SV goes to further lengths than any previous game in giving opponent trainers and story characters specific designs, bits of life in their animation, and even some mid-battle dialogue, on top of some of them even having…more than single note to their personality! Crazy, I know. It does still feel a bit flat without voice acting (we'll touch on that later) but it is SOMETHING. Character models look much improved from Arceus, and they do much better and more interesting things with what story there is, for the most part -- the one area I will concede I think this game clearly beats Arceus in, objectively.

The music is inconsistent imo BUT the songs that are bops are great, and naturally they're reserved for fights. I blame Toby Fox for this and Sw/Sh having some truly fun tunes, but I'm sure the other people working on music are doing work. Pokemon has never had TERRIBLE music, it's always been at least good if not awesome, and at least the Switch games are pushing things somewhat forward. My favorite tracks in the game are probably the Gym Fight (the opening part with the brass, before the vocals kick in), the Star boss fights, Nemona's Battle Theme, which I love that we get a few variants of (reminds me of Marnie's theme, my fav from SwSh). And speaking of Nemona…

Nemona is probably the best character in the entire Pokemon franchise at this point, at least to me. I mostly write YA fiction, sometimes from a perspective of trying to sift through the silt of my youth and identify who I 'truly was' as a youth given how like half of my personality was stifled and suppressed. And Nemona's the first time a Pokemon character has felt like someone I would write myself, felt like someone who reminds me of why I like the things I like. She captures the essence of the gameplay of Pokemon into a passionate youth who walks a fine line between teaching the player the ropes while alluding to her being much better at fighting than she's letting on, all because she just loves doing it, loves growing and learning and being impressed by others doing the same. Pokemon games struggle with their rivals usually, and even their gym leaders, because they honestly aren't that great at Pokemon battling, usually? But with Nemona, they've found a clever solution to that issue: they can allude to her experience, but her context with your character is that she's 'senpai,' she's the older student teaching you, so naturally she's going to go easy on you. It's a shockingly elegant solution to a problem the franchise has basically always had.

Beyond this, she just has a cute, cool character design that's pretty recognizable despite wearing the generic school uniform (she at least squeezes some bits of uniqueness with her green highlights and arm guard). She's a bit of a one-track mind but within the world of Pokemon that honestly fits right in. I have some personal bias here that I tweeted about already, but I just really like her, and I love seeing a character so overtly passionate about battling and looking to your player character to grow to be a fitting rival to her. She specifically says this, but it's clear enough before that point -- and it's also funny how ironically BAD people in this world are at Pokemon battling, so honestly, can you blame her for being desperate for some real competish? She does still lay flatly on the side of being fully supportive of your character and not truly feeling like an actual rival, something the series seems honestly afraid of at this point for some reason. But at least there's context. She's adorable and I like her a lot, she reminds me of my younger self. And as someone whose favorite genre is fighting games? Her motivations totally speak to me. Even her intro animation to a battle feels like something out of a fighting game.

Nemona represents pursuing your passion and letting yourself LOVE the things you love, letting yourself get EXCITED about having new people in your life to share those things with, and I just love her so much for it. I didn't expect going into this game that I'd end up having such a strong emotional reaction to any of its characters but Nemona made me cry tears of happiness (literally right now, thinking about and writing this up after watching the ending of the Victory Road path) because I GET IT, girl. And she's going to help kids out there feel OK with pursuing their passions, pursuing bonds with others, pursuing mutual growth and self improvement, and that makes me extremely happy.

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Arven's story takes that well-tested shortcut of 'make audience feel sad for a dog,' but it's a plotline we've not really seen in the games, and it's great to have here even if it's a bit on the nose. It also gives his rough exterior at first some depth when you realize what he's trying to accomplish, and why, once you learn about his backstory. It's a sweet side story and I also liked how it tied into your movement abilities out in the field. And Penny's side plot…well, it's a little convoluted and undercooked but it is something different, as well, brushing against a pretty meaningful topic without ever diving deep enough to do much with it. And Penny herself is fun, with a great character design, with the Team Star members being certainly recognizable and just wacky in their very high-school-esque, over-the-top premises and personas.

The Star gang is amusing enough, Penny's role was not at all a surprise but that's fine because it just made sense and added up nicely. Penny as a character is great, too, it's actually refreshing having someone prominent in a Pokemon game who...just doesn't seem to love Pokemon the same way everyone else does? Who's jaded and cynical. I like that. Honestly, she looks a lot like my wife and shares a lot in common? (her name is even Jenny so, funny coincidence)

I also loved Car- I MEAN CLINT. What a fantastic character design/concept (yet again), just awesome and fun. Pokemon needs more of that -- just embracing the goofiness. And also just older characters who persist in the narrative without staying back in your home town or whatever. Moreso than any other Pokemon game before it, SV actually has what I'd say is the best cast of human characters. Now, without getting full on into the negatives just yet, bear in mind…this is still Pokemon as you know it. Very limited interactions, very basic scenes, bare minimum animations, no voice acting, barely any character development. It's still clearly going for the designs first and foremost, and they are varied and appealing, for sure. The 'Normal' type gym leader with his Nick Cage ass businessman schtick had me chuckling in a way no Pokemon game has made me react to an opponent trainer. Just seeing Gym Leaders being presented as PEOPLE who have…LIVES…and JOBS, with the Pokemon battling being like a side thing, or like a new job, that's such a huge change and it's refreshing.

There's only a handful of truly animated cutscenes in the game, which have that weird hollow feeling to them with literally no voice acting, but it's more than Pokemon games have really done before. The human characters actually look pretty good even up close, too, and do many of the Pokemon -- and touching on that, I think a lot of the new mon designs are great. GameFreak seems to have figured out hair physics, and HOO BOI do they make sure you know it with the many overdone, strange, wacky hairstyles in this game. And they also seem to have actually figured out mocap, from the looks of it -- during the brief actual cutscenes, the characters actually animated naturally and look pretty good (even if there's still a lotta rough edges in the presentation otherwise).

As for the story itself, it's again, pretty barebones, super basic, but still a noticeable step up than previous games. Like some degree of effort beyond the norm has gone into story this time, which I can appreciate, even if none of it reaches what is standard for other high profile JRPGs these days. Having multiple threads you progress at your own pace, and then tying them together is nice - and they do weave the main characters of all three together in a way that's simple but effective and organic. I have to wonder what they might have been able to do had they focused their energy into telling ONE story instead of three. Like having them more tightly threaded together to form one plotline, I mean. But what's here is at least more interesting than previous games I've played (I skipped the DS era but I hear people liked that era's worldbuilding). Even when I felt done with the game, I still looked up the story scenes I missed as I was just enough invested and curious to see what they did with them. Pokemon is, for better and for worse, squarely targeted at kids in its design and presentation, and I think what's here is certainly more substantial than what the series has done before, both in visual representation and the basic but relevant to kids plots it has going on.

I will say that after looking up the final hour of the game, I do get what all of the hub-bub around it is. My wife and I were literally talking about how a Pokemon game could be so awesome if it functioned more like a traditional RPG with actual party members, inter-party dialogue, that whole shebang, and while it's…extremely ROUGH in its execution due to the technical problems and lack of presentation, you can totally see a glimmer of this in Area Zero, and even what little is here is honestly pretty cool, interesting, and has a complete mini-story-arc going on. I want to play a full Pokemon game that has something more like this all the time, with multiple humans, each with their own teams to manage, even -- it'd make for a great spinoff imo, but what's here is…at least different, trying new things that actually have good ideas. GameFreak certainly seems to have lots of good ideas they are struggling to implement, yet they clearly are in over their heads on how to do it.

And on that note, that's it for the positives. You may have noticed I have barely talked about the gameplay, and predominantly have been talking about the characters, what bits of world-building there are, and story. That's because as a video game, I just found it really boring. Time to get nitty gritty on why I personally didn't even find a very engaging video game buried beneath all of the tech issues.

I will not dedicate much time to this game's inexcuseably poor optimization and tech issues. For a first party Nintendo game, this is a new low. I have never seen a Nintendo published game look and run this awfully, and I'm sure many have been startled, shocked, and disappointed by this. By now, if you're reading this, I'm sure you're well aware of these issues. I personally don't expect most of the problems to improve even with patches, in part because a lot of this stuff just isn't 'fixable' in a post-release sense, generally speaking, AND the companies involved have like zero incentive to meaningfully address or even explicitly acknowledge them. But it's a big deal, and I'm glad it's been talked about. Let's move on to the gameplay.

This is an "open world" game, yes. In a technical sense. In a barely functioning sense. But it is a far cry from understanding what makes for a compelling open world game, or even a modern, by-the-numbers one. It at least is attempting something, but bleh. It's so hollow. There's basically two types of open world games at this point. ones like Breath of the Wild or Outer Wilds that basically leave everything up to the player to decide where to go, what to do, and give them a vast array of unique locations, landmarks, and the like to pique their curiosity, with baked in interwoven systems that can be learned and mastered over time. Then, there are by-the-books open world games, with vast maps populated with a bajillion icons, a giant checklist of tasks to do with a trickle feed of rewards and a linear story to complete, where player experience/strength is measured more with numbers than knowledge. Pokemon Scar/Vi is neither of these types of games, really, but is trying/pretending to be both, and fails at capturing what either does well.

All it really has going for it, in my opinion, is the same old song and dance we've been doing for decades: the core Pokemon formula of discovering, catching, and raising teams of creatures to fight. It sure does do that, and in a more traditional way that Arceus, with the more traditional trappings and mechanics all accounted for, plus the obligatory time-consuming gimmicks. Even just some level balancing could've gone a LONG way to making the experience really feel more open-ended, and giving opponent trainers, especially gym leaders, some more bite, especially if they scaled their teams to how many badges you had (like the actual Pokemon lore) would have been awesome. But it wouldn't save a lifeless, boring husk of a world map from being oddly unpleasant to navigate back to the world, though, while it IS very good that they have opened up that world for us to explore more at our own pace, it's got major problems imo. Let's start with the map…'design?'

The world doesn't really have much design TO it, really. It's a series of pathways with hella empty space in-between, with lots of artificial divides that discourage exploration, locked behind the movement unlocks you complete in Arven's story (or maybe jumping backwards up a fucking hill because lol game's unfinished). It doesn't feel like one giant level laid out in themed zones, with environmental 'puzzles' to work through. It's just…a big mess of shapes. A giant circle of places to go to accomplish tasks -- and while you CAN technically do them in any order, you are basically punished for trying to do them outside of an intended order, due to the strict, linear levelling nature of Pokemon. Shit isn't designed or balanced around numbers-based combat in an open-ended scenario. Nothing seems to scale, at all, in any way. In Elden Ring or BOTW this is fine because you can use cleverness, strategy, items, summons, friends, WHATEVER, to tailor the experience, and when things are too easy it's usually still fun because it's a great measure of your character's growth, often due to overcoming things balanced against you to get that extra edge. You can summon your friends into Paldea which IS cool but what can you DO together? Those raid things? Which are boring, slow, and easy as fuck and the screens before/after take longer than actually playing them (which usually is just spamming your Super Effective move repeatedly when it's even functioning correctly). Trainers don't stop you in your tracks but what is the damn POINT of them, even? Everyone's got like one, MAYBE two monsters, and gym leaders don't seem to put up much of a fight at all, either. I GET hella kids will play this but that was true on GB and they had SOME more there.

In fact, backtrack to the GB games. I still distinctly remember exploring Mt. Moon for the first time. It was a maze. It was full of fucking Zubats and Geodudes, and trainers who had Pokemon my Fire starter and normal types struggled against. It was memorable as a challenge, as an environment to work through. Most Pokemon games have locations like that, at least in older gens. This game seems to be lacking in any of that despite the open world format being ripe for putting things like that in. I don't remember locations really, apart from a handful of small landmarks shrouded in buildings in the towns. I, uh, stumbled upon a neat cave tunnel one time, which had…some of the usual Pokemon you'd expect, maybe a TM or something, and that was basically it? Nowhere else in my 16 hours of playing felt like I had DISCOVERED anything, save for the single ominous glowy nail stuck in the ground I saw. And yet multiple times in Arceus I experienced at least a sense of discovery when I found a unique patch of land with a wisp to collect or an Alpha Pokemon tucked in a cranny somewhere you couldn't see from a distance, or a nice place to stock up on certain items, or a shiny Pokemon that made its presence VERY VISUALLY APPARENT the second it was on screen, from at least some amount of distance (rather than you tripped over it when it pops in three feet in front of you with a color so barely different from the norm you don't even recognize it as a shiny). I'm sorry, this world is mostly hollow, vapid, and boring for me to navigate, worsened by the performance issues really hampering things.

There are giant arrow signs pointing to where you can actually go because the world design doesn't make much sense. Ladders stuck into the side of rock faces because…no reason? They're just…there. They make no sense with the design of the landscape. Doesn't feel like a world. You can't rely on the map to figure out where to go sometimes due to the way things are laid out, too, with entrances to some of the northern regions being really obtuse. Towns stutter and chug as NPCs pop in and out and flicker, they don't really have anything interesting to say, anyway. Houses can't be entered, trainers aren't deliberately in wait for you but just…standing aimlessly around, waiting to be talked to - and of course they almost always have a single mon and that's it. There's barely any landmarks to get you curious to check something out, and on the rare occasion when something visually looks…"interesting" (read: different but ugly because this game can't render for shit), when you go to check it out, it's usually just…a big blah, nothing exciting. I will say that at least there DOES seem to be some kind of neat sidequest involving glowy nails stuck in the ground (presumably to unlock a mysterious Pokemon, I assume). THAT is something! Give us more of that! That is actually using your open world and Pokemon formatting to do something fun and interesting the old style of games wouldn't be able to do the same.

Even Arceus did this way better, with all kinds of little nooks and crannies with specific Pokemon hiding in wait, motivating you to check out the parts of the map you haven't been to. It wasn't super advanced, but it was something. Here, everything feels fucking RANDOM. Even items feel absolutely random, and near as I can tell, many of them literally are. There's some TMs that do seem "deliberately" placed but not in a way that generally feels rewarding to get to, and every other item literally feels randomly scattershot around, and often seems laggy to get picked up for some reason. Also, why is everything you pick up in a pokeball again? We finally ditched this shit in Arceus, where items are actually recognizeable out in the field, and make SENSE, and you combine them and use them in organic ways. The only crafting we have now is for TMs, which IS a cool idea, but I don't really like the execution since it entails 'parts' from specific Pokemon, whereas I think it'd have been better to give you a few options per TM, and/or types, or…something less finite and rigid, given just how many Pokemon exist. That's a minor complaint, it's really fine I suppose, but I already miss the much more beneficial item crafting of Arceus, which meant I valued every healing item and pokeball I used and stockpiled until the late game, where I felt rewarded for having made so much progress so as to not even worry about that stuff.

Not to mention from a tech spec the game can't even render an open world that functions properly. Shit pops in SO close to you. And it's not just a visual thing, it directly impacts the gameplay in a negative way. Your big dragonbike will trip on the smallest mon that popped in ten feet in front of you and whoops, you're stuck in a battle now. See a Pokemon you wanna fight but overshot where it is slightly? It despawns and guess what? It ain't comin' back because when something disappears it doesn't necessarily mean it's still there, it's probably just fuckin' gone now if it's a wild mon.

Briefly, let's touch on Tera types. Fun idea, on paper. In practice...just more nonsense than it's worth, tbh. And it's patently clear they wanted a fancy new visual gimmick without needing to actually render new mon designs so hey, slap a wonky texture and a hat on their head that makes things easily interchangeable. I will admit the idea of being able to swap a Pokemon's type temporarily is a great one, though, especially given just how pivotal type matchups are to the strategy and success of the mainline games, but the implementation here is...just kinda half-baked, in my mind. Not to mention the raids somehow being even worse than before, despite having some more interesting ideas. Like they're just WAY too difficult, or WAY too easy, and/or way too buggy/laggy.

There's a new cooking system, and unlike the curry system it's less engaging to do, much more finnicky, AND is just plain unclear. Like. Someone explain to me how the cooking system even functions, why it's useful, HOW and WHERE you can even see what food effects you currently have active and for how long. Big waste of time, not to mention how comically bad the foot eating animation is, on top of how finnicky the sandwich minigame itself is (psst, GameFreak, just…just add a SHADOW, you know? so we can see where the heck objects are going to land?)

Oh and there's a day-night cycle, but it's terrible. There's no in-game clock (just a vague symbol that changes, on your map, which is easy to miss to begin with). It's not based on real-world time. Lighting will SUDDENLY change from night to day, no inbetween, seemingly. This happens during big battles, cutscenes -- you'll start a boss fight in the day, end it at night, watch a cutscene in the day, and then suddenly it's night time when you're out of the cutscene. You cannot seem to fast-forward it or change it in any way, so if you want to catch something during a certain time of day, sucks to be you, I guess. Arceus did not have these problems, not any of them as I recall.

Which brings me to probably my biggest gripe with the gameplay: it's back to being pointlessly slow, boring to look at, and generally a terribly clunky sense of flow. Arceus was laughable amidst other AAA franchise peers but it at least got lots of quality of life things improved to make game flow FASTER and more seamlessly. In ScarVi, basically EVERYTHING Arceus did to somehow address Pokemon's awful pacing has been undone. Practically all of the same bullshit is here and accounted for when it comes to battles, using items, buying things, it's all clunky as hell. Want to buy multiple lemonades at a vending machine? Have fun scrolling the text and waiting for it every single time. A mon changes stats in a fight? Watch every single individual stat change animation in sequence, every time. Using an attack that hits multiple times? Watch the dinky little animation, then the HP decrease, every single time, and of course with pointless text boxes slowing things further. ANY time HP changes in any way, you have to sit and wait a second for the bar to change. Except, actually, not always -- seemingly at fucking random it just…won't show it sometimes?

Did a move miss? Cool, just don't bother animating it! Did a Pokemon dodge? No animation for that either. Can you run away? No animation for that, either, just an arbitrary "dunno, you couldn't escape for SOME REASON" Why. Why is this shit still a thing in a top selling RPG in 2022? Arceus also did most of this shit, too, and it's pretty dumb, to be frank. Just a QUICK little jump and rotation of a Pokemon model as the text tells you it missed, SOMETHING. And Arceus actually let you RUN AWAY by just…literally running. Not to mention how seamlessly it allowed you to switch Pokemon and use items, even out in the field, by letting you sort things and use item bars. Like modern video games do? None of that here. Hope you like sifting through like ten pockets of random shit to get whatever specific thing you need, then click on a mon, play a glaring sound effect they refuse to get rid of, then wait arbitrarily for it to do its thing, and get a text prompt telling you it did its thing. I know there's an 'auto heal' function on the menu, which IS something, at least? And you are picking up healing items a lot, which does show some degree of foresight (though again, feels more random than anything). But the clunky UI and beeping and booping and ALL of this fucking waiting for plain text scrolls to describe things that don't need describing and could be SHOWN with just super basic, quick animations…this isn't charming at this point, it doesn't feel deliberate -- it feels lazy.

Oh, hey, by the way, remember how an exciting addition to the past few entries has been customizing your character with different outfits and hairstyles? WELL FUCK YOU you don't GET to customize your character as much now. No new outfits to find. Nearly every damn store sells like 10 color variations of ONE thing, maybe two, and almost all of them are so boring and bland! Want to change your hair? Hope you don't like wearing hats, then, because for no good reason the game just DOESN'T let you wear hats with certain hairstyles! At all! Just can't be done I guess! They've never been EXTRA with the cosmetics but this is devolved BACKWARDS, not even from Arceus but from games BEFORE that one.

The game is just awfully inconsistent, all around. The feel, the presentation, the animation, the MUSIC, even just the textures on things…it all feels so hodgepodge. Arceus was light and muddy and didn't look very great usually but it was at least somehow consistent. And I get it, they're clearly commissioning and outsourcing a lot of stuff, but then if that's the case, why does so much still feel so shoddy? If you're gonna outsource, fucking OUTSOURCE -- you're POKEMON, the highest grossing media franchise on the planet. Hire voice actors, hire animators, hire people who know how to make games actually run on the Switch, hire people who know how to make these potentially cool building look GOOD, hire people who know how to apply natural looking textures and polygons to natural environments.

This lack of consistency just gets jarring, especially when stacked with camera wonkiness, framerate dips, etc. And of course you can't edit options anywhere for this shit. Find the loud 8-bit chimes every time you scroll text or use items annoying? Find some songs too repetitious? Too bad. You could completely turn the sound off, I guess?

And YES, I will bring up voice acting, because YES, a series THIS huge should fucking have SOMETHING, somewhere. Not literally everything needs VO, even though just some basic sounds would go a long way. But the CUTSCENES? With named characters who even by now actually somewhat animate? Why are they all muted? It was kind of cute on the Wii when they did it with Twilight Princess, a game that was actually oozing with detail and production (by Nintendo's standards then), and characters who animated in ways that made them genuinely interesting to look at. But here, it's like…I dunno? It just feels EMPTY. Like it feels like voiceover is missing, because...it literally is. If other RPGs that sell a FRACTION of the copies Pokemon does can have two or even MORE voiced languages, why are we getting literally nothing here? It's not a "stylistic choice," it's just boring. And if people don't want the VO then hey maybe let us mute JUST the VO -- that is, if you're capable of getting that to work. Arceus had its issues. It absolutely did. When that game released, I thought it was a new low for the series, production wise. How ironic, given how much worse this game is in that department. But Arceus had a strong sense of FLOW. It was so organic and fast-paced compared to other Pokemon games, filling out the dex was more enriching and involved, side quests contributed to an overall theme and focus, everything was streamlined, sped up and improved -- even the holy battle system was CHANGED in ways that made it faster and more interesting imo. I'm not saying you need to ditch this entire classic style formula, Legends can easily be its own side series, but DANG did ya'll drop the ball on picking up what inherent improvements it made and reverting back to the slower, boring stuff, INCLUDING releasing two versions.

And lastly, why in the fuck ARE we still doing this double version bullshit? It's not cute anymore. You're not doing anything meaningful with it. It's just there to boost sales. Cut it out. Another thing Arceus addressed, by the way, and ditched. Because it's pretty dumb. Give us meaningful choices, yes -- like our starters. Remember back in the day when that wasn't the ONLY choice you'd get that would limit what Pokemon you'd have? Give us more of that, if your real goal is to encourage players to trade. But it's not -- it's to arbitrarily sell more copies to the people who will double down JUST to…own the same fucking game twice. And we still fall for it.

And in the end, isn't that how we ended up here? Because we keep collectively giving GameFreak the benefit of the doubt. We keep cutting The Pokemon Company slack. We keep letting Nintendo off the hook when it comes to Pokemon, specifically, in a way no other franchise except KIND OF Sonic gets away with. Pokemon means the world to me. I got into writing fiction because of Pokemon. I treasure those early days of the franchise, and I still treasure the POTENTIAL it is brimming with, as new kids get into it in numbers untold of, and as kids who grew up with it are adults, hungry for more -- and yet does GameFreak acknowledge that a DECENT PORTION of its audience are adults? Nah.

"But it's made for kids." Miss me. Miss me with that tired ass excuse. It's old and stale and not applicable anymore. Kids don't deserve games that run like ass, held together by tape and string, with bare minimum presentation yet a premium price tag -- oh, and make that price tag DOUBLE for lots of folks due to the unnecesary dual-release thing. You know what other games came out this year that were made for kids, and even specifically on the Switch? Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Splatoon 3. Some recent TV shows made for kids? The Owl House, She-Ra, CentaurWorld. And they're all fucking great, well produced, well made, and all pieces of media adults can easily pick up and enjoy even if they're not the target audience. And at the end of the day, people of EVERY age deserve to enjoy things they love, and deserve GOOD, well made things that money is getting spent on.

This would be an entirely different conversation -- a non-existant one, really -- if GameFreak was actually an indie team, making actual indie games. You may have blinked and missed it, but they HAVE made indie games -- multiple by now. And they never seem to take off. Just throwing that out there. GameFreak seems to want to cling to some fantasy of being a plucky indie developer, yet insistent on trying to stretch their too few workers too thinly rushing out multiple things out the door (ScarVi and Arceus absolutely did not need to release in the SAME CALENDER YEAR). I'm sorry but when you're an "indie team" operating under the highest grossing media franchise on the planet, AND you want to be producing multiple games simultaneously, AND you want to try doing ambitious things, AND you don't want to (or more likely, don't GET to) take your time on them, AND you don't want to allocate the people, experience, resources necessary to get things to actually function properly, much less look and feel good? Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is what you get.

And it's not some anomaly. This was to be expected. We could all pretty much see this was where the franchise was going when Sword and Shield happened. And there's no reason for this trend not to continue at this rate, with record setting sale numbers in its opening days.

I love the potential of this world, and other franchises that have found success have been able to BLOSSOM in beautiful ways from that success, in this past decade specifically (even just the past 5 years). I really like many of the individual characters in this specific video game. I love seeing Pokemon games try to FINALLY mix things up in meaningful ways, it's long overdue.

But I'm probably just "too old" and "too grumpy" to appreciate the shoddy quality, repetitious and boring pacing, and overall lack of foresight or game design present in modern Pokemon games. Many will gobble this game up and enjoy it, and I am honestly really happy that can still happen even with the state this game is in. I was likewise able to enjoy Arceus more than any mainline Pokemon since Gen 2, even though the game felt like a glorified tech demo. The Pokemon formula just isn't enough for me anymore, and The Pokemon Company absolutely has all of the time, money, and resources they could want to make the games elevate to the standard of quality you'd expect from a brand that performs like Splatoon, like Mario, like Zelda, like Animal Crossing -- and a franchise that reels in adults to a kid's game in ways essentially no other franchise does. It's fucking weird how scared of quality production values the Pokemon games are in a lot of ways. Meanwhile, look at what Bandai Namco has been able to pull off when given the reigns: games that look and feel like actual modern video games, still kid-friendly, but also aware that adults like Pokemon, too. Why do actual Pokemon games seem terrified of this?

Dear GameFreak: Get over your indie complex. You don't get to pretend to be indie while selling more copies of a single game than every other indie game combined, and then do it AGAIN like 8 months later. Also? A Iot of the people who put you on the map -- people who were kids years ago -- aren't kids anymore. Stop pretending your entire audience is literal children, because many of them are not, and I'm sure you know it. But even if all of them were, you used to treat kids with more respect in how you designed and balanced stuff. Stop being afraid of that, I feel like most anyone picking up a damn Pokemon game in 2022 has some idea of what they're getting into.

Dear Pokemon Company: Let GameFreak fucking have TIME to make quality games. Give them proper resources, experienced programmers and artists, hire some actual writers maybe, voice actors. YOU HAVE SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY. Stop being greedy shits rushing more and more out the door just to keep growing when you are already so huge. Your games are suffering from it and it's embarrassing given how successful you are. You invest SO MUCH into animation, marketing, cards, merchandise, and the actual GAMES -- the part the MOST amount of your audience engages with the most deeply -- are getting starved for time and resources. What the fuck.

Dear Nintendo: Ya'll are fucking better than this. You may not always make smart business choices, or even MODERN game design choices (though you're starting to get your heads on with that, small steps at a time), but at LEAST you've always been known for QUALITY. This messy product is a notable low for you. You should be embarrassed that a game this ugly, buggy, stuttery, rushed, and unfinished got your stamp of approval. If I was you, I'd be rushing people in to help patch the issues, and sitting down with all parties involved to make sure this doesn't happen again.

I know the ownership/management of Pokemon games is this weird mishmash in a way no other Nintendo property quite deals with so I'm sure there's stuff going on behind the scenes we don't know. I'm just mad, I'm tired, I'm fed up of seeing a franchise SO FULL OF POTENTIAL get this treatment. Unless something substantially improves, I'm done with Pokemon -- and that doesn't matter to the corporations involved. But it sure makes me upset, personally, and I'm certain I can't be the only one.

I did not get to the end of Pokemon Scarlet.

GameFreak did not finish their damn game, so I don't see why I should, either.

TLDR;

+ Great character designs and new Mon designs + Actual splashes of genuine worldbuilding and personality + We are technically allowed to do what we want + Pokemon formula/numbers game is addictive -That addictive formula is like 25 years old ya'll, gotten stale -Technical issues are HELLA BAD but you know this -Game is just overall kinda ugly already, WITH terrible optimization -World is flat and empty, devoid of life or anything interesting -Gameplay is slow, repetitious, mind-numbing -Basically everything Arceus addressed/improved, this walks back on

[jellierose]

It's not that bad - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Casual Game Review

I don’t think it’s that bad.... Come on. LOL