#and it's not like. a “Real” pokémon game. which. is fair. i also got a lot of shinies in scarlet/violet but you can see those in the overwo

[front-facing-pokemon]

[sillygoblinantics]

Click her for the first four generations!!!

Gobbo’s Semi-Complete Pokémon Retrospective!!

Pt 2.

The previous post wasn’t able to save the rest of the draft that contained the layout of Gen five and so I will be continuing my retrospective starting with Gen five, here! Please know this is based primarily on personal experience as well as some bits of bias but I’ll try to not let my word take away from experiencing these games from you! With new advancements of technology it’s now possible to enjoy if not through a not entirely exact structure and gameplay of the originals to replay these older games without a DS or cartridge via emulators! So if you can I highly suggest trying them out! Alright let’s get to it!

Heads up this will be quite long of a read so take breaks if need be

Gen V (halfway there!!)

My memories of this game is very limited as this was a very sad time where my brother and i’s pokemon journey would end after the 3ds came out. But I will share what I do remember and then go over some interesting findings of this game!

My mom usually took both of us to GameStop to get the newest pokemon games only this time when black and white came out, my mom took me to get the game I wanted (I personally wish I goth pokemon black because I personally loved the design of reshiram more and its symbolism/ties to daoism representing Yin) on our way home my mother kept reminding me to not let my brother see me playing the game to which I followed! Up until my brother saw me playing while I was chilling in my parents room to which he gasped and exclaimed no fair before racing downstairs yelling for our mom to take him to GameStop, I all wide eyed would race to advance further in the game before he got back only to lose the race! XD I had made it to the third or second town from the starting town when he caught me! Oh and my starter was a female oshawott I named Shelly! I also had a massive crush on N. And didn’t need to fight him four times to get further in the game.

Now for the trivia part:

The biggest addition that sadly didn’t make it out of Gen five was the changing seasons that would change whenever you next opened the game if my memory is correct? This was also a sort of reintroduction of the pokemon franchise! The small roster of new pokemon shaked things up for long time fans especially with the exclusion of older pokemon but in post as well as the sequels you could still get some of your favorites without having to hack them in like a certain ralts enthusiast has done to paint a biased narrative. LILY.

Unova being the first region not based on a specific area of Japan like the first four games were, unova took place in a ingame version of the Empire State, New York, NY! In an interview the unique meaning behind the region’s Japanese name truly illustrated the very common experience one has to traveling to a new country.

The Japanese name roughly translates to: “From afar there is one” if we take this in the context of the region’s real world inspiration and the perspective of someone who’s never left their home country and is travelling to a country they’ve only had a very limited understanding or experience with only going by caricatures or stereotypes. From afar they believe where they’re traveling has only one type of people but as they get closer they learn and realize that there is a much broader and diverse picture of a multitude of combinations of people of many different backgrounds and ethnicities!

New York cities Ellis island was the birth place and port that welcomed many different families of many different backgrounds that would disperse across the city and the states.

It’s no wonder that in gen five we are given not the standard eight gym leaders instead we have ten! Each one being a representation if not stand in for the different kinds of people you meet in NYC. And outside of trainers and characters the Pokémon themselves even reflect the diversity found in NYC and the states as a whole. From elgyem and beehyeem being the greys and flatwoods monster, the Gothitelle line being based on well goths but also Lolita-goth fashion, braviary being the national bird the bald eagle (and a continuous scientific paradoxical mystery that rattles my mind to this day XD), several exotic pets that get brought to the states, and something very interesting I learned given new information that I find is an example of GameFreaks’ attention to detail when it comes to making new regions:

Golett and Golurk

As I’m sure we are all aware of, these Pokémon are suppose to be the golem from ancient Jewish mythology. For those unfamiliar: the golem was a humanoid creature made of a special clay adorn with special ornament and prayers. The golem would only move when given a task that would be written on a scroll or parchment that would then be placed in its mouth, once active the golem would then fulfill this task and once complete return to a dormant state awaiting its next task.

But something that stood out to me has always been the arm bands and head spike golurk seemed to have apart of its design. When talking with someone who has given me insight of his culture I learned of a prayer that stood out in how familiar the concept was! This (below) is a

Tefillin. The way the belt on the arm is wrapped can mean a multitude of things when in prayer the box on the forehead also holds different prayers as well!

Keep in mind I’m just speculating this but the implied detail of this in a pokemon that debuted in a game based on New York City which has been a starting for many Jewish families who immigrated to the US while still looking for refuge in thousands of years of exile. Sorry I got sidetracked on the cultural history!

Please remember that I in no means intend to discuss or promote a political stance on my page and this is all I’m going to say on the matter, my only intent is to share information and insight into the making of these games and elements of the story and concept process.

Back to Pokémon! Outside of cultures that were brought into the use there’s a lot of native or indigenous influence as well!

But Unova has more than just the Pokémon and influences in design, there’s the mechanics and worldbuilding still left to address!

From the subway battles to the musicals and even the studio in the sequels there’s the secret world that varies based on game exclusives. But out of all of this there was a new battle mechanic that gets overlooked, I’m of course talking about rotation battles which involved three of your pokemon out in the battle where you could rotate and decide not only what move to use but which of your pokemon attacks first as the your opponent could easily rotate their pokemon to easily avoid or minimize damage from the move type. Essentially it was a triple battle with finesse!

Of course the story continues after the first games in the sequels unfortunately I wouldn’t get a chance to play them as my brother would end his journey one fateful day when his friend was over, taking all his ds games and ds lite into the garage and to my childish horror smashed all of them with a hammer beyond repair! I had no time but only to cry out “no not twiggy!!” Twiggy being the name of my brother’s starter in Gen four, turtwig. It would be after this where I began buying both games to keep the spirit of our tradition alive. We can now move on to…

———————————

Gen VI

Yes this is the generation where my oc Ripley came from as well as the backstory for Brid.

I also love Gen six however one gripe I had with the game was the exclusion of contests which if you remember the anime, was a thing for one of the characters and in universe something Diantha had done too! I’m still bitter about it but my enthusiasm and anticipation for PLZA is tenfold as now we get to see the possible era of French history known as the rebuild of France! Which lines up with some of the most impactful artistic historic movements in art, writing, science and fashion! I’m getting ahead of myself as this game is almost out! And this’ll have to this post into the second part of probably three or four.

Kalos is gorgeous with how bright and vibrant the world is with delicate touches of detail. Being the first of three games to be on the newest console that had the gimmick of being 3d, it also brought some controversy in regards to the transition from the top down 2d sprites to the jarring switch to 3d models. Of course the way the game opened was a way to transition that change from a restricting aerial or birdseye camera angle to a freeing and semi limited 360° camera movement. I chose fennekin as my starter and was sad when I didn’t get a girl but I didn’t let that stop me.

I nearly forgot to mention the big pull that Gen six brought to the battle mechanics of the competitive scene: Mega Evolution, the next step and true show of synchrony between a Pokémon and their trainer. And no Lily it’s not a sexual thing, we know what you wrote.

We also got introduced to what has to be one of my favorite types on a conceptual level: Fairy types!

It made more sense to add this type especially in a region based in Europe as many countries there have many variations of faeries or fey. And the added bonus of its type advantage being a reference to many children’s fairytales while the disadvantages being a call back to the Gaelic or Celtic origins of the faerie world! I.e. the weakness to iron which was used to protect children from being stolen by the fey. I also as of writing this had an epiphany as to where the poison weakness came from: the poison apple from Snow White or many other Grimm fairytales involving the use of poison! I just realized that!

This would be the last region where we would get a new eevee evolution that would not come back since the release of X and Y.

The fact these games are so heavily intertwined with such a rich usage of mythos and legends of Europe fills such a warmth for world building inside my heart. From the Nordic mythology the legendary trio of this region have ties to, to the dark ages of sickness and pain the black plague brought to even Arthurian mythology! With my personal thoughts of legends arceus’s art already set my excitement as of now calmed radiates as we get closer to the release of the legends ZA game’s art direction!

———————————

For now I think I’ll end here and continue when I’m more awake to finish off with the last three generations! Let’s hope I can get through the three games in one last post but I can already tell I’m gonna be going on about Gen nine so that’ll be fun!

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 44- Part 1

First thing's first, gotta get the usual party back in order, here we go-

Also, I decided to swap out Kirin's Odd Incense with the Twisted Spoon- not sure if it'll make any difference with her Psychic damage output, but I'm doing it anyways. 

Now, Noel and explosions both made it very clear we need to go back and investigate Tanzan Mountain some more, in order to confirm Saphira's life or death. So let's get going!

And it's still raining, okay, fair enough, in-universe this all is probably happening on the same day sooo-

Alright, looking normal so far…what about heading back to where the Meteor base was?

Oh! Not sure what I was expecting, honestly, but- yeah, it sure did get destroyed, can't go back in there now. But still no sign of Saphira…maybe we need to check outside somewhere?

No clues out here either…where could Saphira have ended up? Where do I go now? Did I miss something…?

Hmmm…no, hold on, there is something else. Wasn't there a gate on the left side of that big chamber? Just like the one blocking the Meteor base?

Aha, there we go, that's new! Even if we don't find Saphira, it'll still be nice to see what's behind this gate finally.

So far, it's the usual affair- but that X Sp. Atk could be helpful, we'll have to see. Speaking of seeing, this more open area up here makes me wonder if-

Saphira! There she is! I knew it, she's immortal!

Oh absolutely not, I think we all knew she'd be back. Impeccable timing on that N’s Bridge remix again, I'll never be able to hear this remix without thinking of this game again-

Also, I know she probably just used one of her Pokémon to break down the wall, but the way it's framed it's just really funny for me to imagine Saphira just burst through the stone wall by herself-

So it was Saphira who destroyed the base, okay…so then where did Charlotte go? And to a lesser extent, did the giant Steelix get to partake in the vengeance too?

Oh?? A present?? Just for Xera?? I am looking??

AH-!? AAAAAAH!! THE RING! THE PENDANT! SHE GOT THEM! SAPHIRA OH MY GOSH I LOVE YOU!! (and I mean love in the general “I am so happy you exist and have done this” way, not the “thirsting for a fictional character” way)

Oh don’t worry, Xera and the kids are already on top of that, we should really get back to them so they can explain the lore to you, too.

Wha…? Wait, Xera’s gotta leave? But she only got to sleep in an actual real bed, like…twice! I mean keeping the keys away from the kids for their protection makes enough sense, sure, but…

THERE’S A FOURTH REGION NOW??

Was…Saphira being a Gym Leader herself established earlier? I can’t remember if it was, I only remember Charlotte being a Gym Leader and Laura an Elite Four. Well, given she has a Dragonite, I think it’s obvious which type Saphira here specializes in…

But wait, I assumed Charlotte's Gym situation was a lot like Noel’s, where the arena was at the Orphanage- but she has an actual Gym? How’s she been able to maintain it if she’s been living at the Orphanage? When was the last time it was dusted??

Also also, if Labradorra and Calcenon are confirmed part of this Carnelia Region, then…one moment.

I know I’ve been assuming the desert is part of Aventurine, but if Carnelia is up north there, the layout seems less awkward if the desert isn’t stapled to the side of Aventurine with those grayer mountains in the way. Although, at this point, I’m starting to suspect the desert is its own thing entirely…or it’s a part of Reborn after all, could go either way.

Next

[scrunkore]

Scunkore Media "Thread" 2023: Part 3

welcome back to the scrunko core

25) OneShot (PC, 2016)

It's not often that you fall in love with a videogame protagonist immediately, but I did just that with Niko - the little cat creature is possibly the most adorable kid I've ever seen and I did not want a single bad thing to happen to them ever. Though that's enough about them, the rest of the cast is really nice too, and the actual game itself is REALLY good. The relatively simple item-combining puzzles aren't that special, but the story and world have such a particular vibe to them that I enjoy, especially with the kinda huge extra stuff they added sometime after the initial release of this version. And that's not to mention the extra twists that do very interesting things with the medium, and I do not really want to spoil that if you don't already know about it, so go play it if that's the case. This game is honestly beautiful and I love it, and do play it on PC if you can. [5★]

26) VVVVVV (3DS, 2012)

This game's pretty simple, but it's also kind of a classic little indie joint, and it's really cool that it got a 3DS port that actually makes (admittedly not very interesting) use of the 3D effect, probably due to how early it came out. The core gameplay is just solving puzzles by rapidly flipping gravity up and down and swooping around the world map rescuing your friends, which can be done in basically any order, and it's really quite fun for the most part. Not a whole lot to it beyond that, but its simple graphics are cute and I enjoyed it a fair bit, although I did have to use the available options to make it easier when it was its most difficult - not cheating if the options are there, come on now. Anyway, it's a decent game. [3.5★]

27) Yume Nikki (PC, 2004)

Here it is, perhaps the single most well-known RPG Maker game, as well as one of the most bizarre and cryptic even to this very day. The creator is equally cryptic, and infamously elusive, only giving an interview to Toby Fox with just yes and no answers. Nobody really knows what the game is even about other than the pretty obvious yet not very descriptive answer of "shut-in girl explores a strange and often scary dream world", and it's not like it has a plot aside from the ending that was added at some point for when you get all the collectibles, which I do recommend you try to do for a somewhat complete experience. All you do in it is explore the various weird dream worlds, each one uniquely atmospheric, intricately designed and full of secrets in the most unusual of ways. I don't think it's something you can really assign a numbered score to, it's just a surreal and unsettling experience that's worth having at least once, even if you don't enjoy it. It's fuckin' Yume Nikki, you probably already know how influential it is. [?★]

28-31) BOXBOY! Series (3DS/Switch, 2015-2019)

HAL knows their stuff when it comes to puzzle games, believe it or not, and this really shows with the adventures of Qbby the funny little cube guy. In this consistently solid series, you solve a wide range of puzzles based around creating and destroying cubes to make it to the exit, with each new game introducing its own gimmick to shake up the basic formula and make it more interesting. It's kind of a deceptively simple game, as the puzzles ramp up in difficulty and end up becoming some real head-scratchers, and I appreciate that. The presentation is also charmingly simple, with pleasant audiovisuals, and even a simply story that eventually gets surprisingly interesting in the later entries. Give these games a try to finally see what that one sticker in Kirby: Planet Robobot was all about. [4★]

32) Pokémon Picross (3DS, 2015)

Pokémon and Picross feels like a pretty effortlessly winning formula for a crossover, and this one is... well, it's okay. The puzzles are decent Picross, and the gimmick of catching and using Pokémon to help you out in the trickier stages is pretty good too, but the area where it suffers is in the actual design of the game - it's one of those 3DS titles that is basically a mobile game, with stamina cooldowns and microtransactions to speed up wait times, though like Kirby Clash it does have a cap on how much money you can spend. But that spending cap doesn't make up for the core way in which it's designed. I don't find Picross too repetitive, so I want to be able to play it for hours at a time, but the damn game doesn't let me, and it just feels kinda poorly designed in general. But when I get to play the game properly, it's solid Picross. Maybe the unreleased but eventually leaked Game Boy Color game of the same name is better just for that. [3★]

33) Learn With Pokémon! Typing Adventure (DS, 2012)

This game is such a gimmick but god, I kinda really like it. It's a typing game on the DS, and so to facilitate that they made every copy come with a small Bluetooth keyboard that was pretty good for the original price at the time but of course isn't that good nowadays. But it works quite well, it's responsive enough to play this game, even if it can be kind of awkward sometimes just because of positioning. And the game is quite fun too, it's not very long but it can pose a pretty tough challenge if you're not that good at typing fast, and the typing action is actually quite intense as you get into the harder levels. It's marketed as an educational title to help you learn typing, but I don't think it really does that so much. But it's a fun game, with pretty good music and a funny computer voice reading everything you type out loud, and I am actually glad I shelled out for a complete copy of this obscure Pokémon gem. [4★]

34) Undertale (Switch, 2018)

Yeah, I didn't actually play this one until 2023 despite being a fan of it and Deltarune for quite a while, sue me. There's not much new that I can say about it, but this indie smash hit really does hold up even now that there's a similar game from the same guy that does a lot of gameplay things better. It's filled with unique and charming characters who you can either kill or spare (the latter is what you should do, but the former can be tempting), a really good and somewhat meta storyline particularly if you go for the "true" ending, and some pretty fun bullet-dodging gameplay that can be pretty difficult - though there is an option to grind for several hours and get an item that makes it much easier, no shame in doing that if you can be bothered. You probably already know everything that one should know about this game, but yeah, I liked all those things about it that much more after playing it for myself. It's definitely something you should play if you have interest in it, and I just know Deltarune is going to be way bigger and even better. [5★]

35) Animal Crossing Movie (Anime, 2006)

It's kind of an anomaly that this movie even exists at all, Nintendo rarely makes anime adaptations of their games and they're almost never full movies, plus it's based on Animal Crossing, a game series that doesn't really have much of a story and certainly didn't back in 2006. What they actually end up doing with this one is kinda fun, it's a fairly standard slice of life anime condensed into a movie decently enough, with a very comfortable atmosphere and nice interpretations of some of the characters from the games, and the narrative follows a young girl making friends and taking part in a few of the events from the earliest entries in the series - about what you would expect from it, really. It's not anything special or even particularly good, but it's really nice to see them replicate the vibe and characters of Animal Crossing in anime-movie form, and I do wonder if they'd try something like this again. [3.5★]

36) Tunic (Switch, 2022)

I don't really play very many games that aren't in a language that I understand - it's easy to find stuff in English most of the time - but this game technically counts, because it's specifically aiming for the vibe of playing a game like that, with almost all the text in a totally new language the devs came up with entirely by themselves. And honestly, I kind of love it for that, it combines with the lonely and mysterious vibe that the whole game has. Because the game doesn't tell you much, you kinda have to feel it out as you explore the top-down Zelda-like world fighting monsters and collecting pages of the literal manual while figuring out what's going on with everything. It's filled with cryptic (sometimes too cryptic) puzzles and secrets, with one even leading to a pseudo-ARG that helped people decode its language, and it's clear a lot of love went into this project. Towards the end I did look things up about it, but as it stands, this game is a wonderful adventure that might not be to everyone's tastes, but I certainly really liked it for what it does. [4.5★]

37) Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S (Switch, 2021)

Yes, another Picross game, and this time everyone's best friend Hatsune Miku is there, along with her other Vocaloid friends for good measure. And... that's about it. It's super barebones, only offering puzzles and unlockable music, but that is basically all it needs to be. It's cute, it's Picross with Miku, it does what it says on the tin. I just don't have much more to say about it other than that, it's just an average Picross game that does average Picross things, just without using the actual name Picross. It's fine, it kept me occupied for a few hours. [3★]

Next post

Last post

[sid-is-a-gym-leader]

* pesters you back because rotomblr etiquette *

- @fairymime

I need to know, what are the supposed occupational hazards of being a trainer? It's usually your pokémon getting blasted, not you, so what makes it 'dangerous' to become one? I think you're the person who I've seen get a pokémon the latest, too, what did you do when someone looked at you in the eyes until you got your klefki?

Also, private school? What school doesn't teach battle studies? + if you're still indecisive between steel and fairy, have you ever thought of getting a tinkatink/tinkaton to raise? It'd give you a bit more time to think, and it's a small pokémon if you ignore the. Hammer. It's quite a wonderful paldean fairy, and if I wasn't allergic to most metal I would try to get my hands on an egg : }

Hellooo :D

My parents both have "normal" jobs, aka not pokemon related, and actually do not have any companions. It's a personal choice, but it's also due to bad experiences in their past. My mother in particular tragically lost her starter pokemon back when she was journeying.

I didn't grow up surrounded with pokemons, which is the reason why they intrigued me so much. I just wanted to know what is was like to live with them... to be fair i wasnt "forbidden" to get one, but i would have to do so once i was out of the house, so very late compared to most kids.

My mom always told me that pokemons were very powerful and could hurt me if i wasnt careful, and that it was unreasonable for a young child to get one. Pokemon-related accidents are not unheard of, but i think deep down what she's really scared of is that i would go through the same thing she did and lose my pokemon. I know for how she talks about him that she really loved her fennekin.

About battles... x) I'm a little ashamed of it but i didnt use to go out a lot when i was younger. With my super protective parents it was better for me to just stay at home...where i could play pokemon games allll day on my ds :v If i couldnt get the real thing at least I could have the closest equivalent lol. I also spent a lot of time on pokemon showdown virtually battling people, so i could still "train" in a way.

On the occasion when ppl did look me in the eyes i would just sheepishly tell them i didnt have one... trainers are very enthusiastic but once the shock wore off they would leave me alone x) or i would just walk with friends who had mons and watch them battle. I actually have a school friend who is quite good at battling, moreso because she likes to be good at everything than out of any interest in being a trainer.

My school is specialized in teaching what i call "boring" jobs : aka ones that involve no pokemon. Basically a lot of theoritical stuff like math, laws, physics.... we do touch on pokemon but we rarely interact with them for example. And all the faculty staff pokemon are either meant to help do certain task (my math teacher has an adorable Elgyem that helps us with calculus) or for companionship, no battle pokemon. Battles are actually forbidden on campus. Not that we actually follow that rule...

It's a pretty strange way to operate compared to most schools, hence why it's private. I know a lot of people whose parents are also freaked out about pokemon... or they think that pokemon battling is not a "real" job.

Your school sounds awesome tho. You should tell me about it. I'd love to hear what battle studies classes are like x)

Also you had a great idea with Tinkaton. Well my parents would not be happy abt the Hammer(tm) but hey im 18 ! Almost out of there. Actually since I was looking for a pokemon that deals a lot of damage that would just be perfect. Finally someone to blast the ppl that hurt my klefki into the stratosphere !!! Do you know where i can find eggs ? I thought my only option was to trek to Paldea lol.

Sorry if I talked too much, but tysm for the questions :D

[gospelaccordingtosuperheroes]

Review for Pokémon Scarlet/Violet:

After all these years, we finally have a new Pokémon generation of games that is open-world with Scarlet and Violet, which is super exciting! Now you can travel a world, gliding and climbing around, and hunt for Pokémon as if you were in the real world.

Except this world just looks so terrible. As I was climbing mountains and looking out to the wild blue yonder, I was expecting a tranquil scene, such as those from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild which would make me feel calm and at peace. Instead, I got something far less magnificent that reminded me of playing games from over a decade ago.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that the game could have looked better. Even with all the discussion of repeating trees, Pokémon Sword/Shield looked great, especially in comparison. Those games had a terrible storyline, but the open-world aspect of the Wild Area with the Dynamax dens were actually really fun, and the only thing that kept me going in those games. Even Pokémon Legends: Arceus with all its bugs was still fun to play and look at, and while I am still finishing it up, it is still my favorite Pokémon game to date. Scarlet/Violet could have been the same. It should have been really.

It really is a shame the visuals of this game aren’t better because while it is lacking behind Sword/Shield in that department, it is far superior when it comes to its storyline. In fact, the storyline is truly worthy of Gospel according to Superheroes. There were a lot of emotions going through the story, and unlike Sword/Shield, your character doesn’t get looked down on just because your character’s a kid. The only thing that marred the story, in my opinion, was the lack, at times, of good boundaries with the teachers at your school (though to be fair, the game is still rated E, so nothing illegal happens).

Scarlet/Violet also improve on the Dynamax gameplay in Sword/Shield with Terastallizing. While I personally hate the visuals (they make me feel like I’m getting a migraine), having your Pokémon get stronger and take on different types is a lot of fun, and the game improves on a lot of the issues with Dynamax dens.

Pokémon Scarlet/Violet had the potential to be the greatest Pokémon game of all time. Instead, it feels unfinished, like it was rushed through before they could make it perfect. While the storyline is great, the visuals are atrocious. I didn’t even get to the bugs and the lack of creativity in adding the Paradox Pokémon as separate entries to the Pokédex. I’m not sad I played this game. I just wish it had been made a little bit better.

Review:

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

Gospel: ✝️✝️✝️✝️/5

[kitspindles]

Okay

The whole “Ingo has a receding hairline” thing has been, like, beaten to death by this point so I’m not gonna address that fullly. I for one don’t mind. However. Understandably, as a result of the hair reveal, people want to know when he got eeby-deebied into Hisui (immediately after the events of BW and BW2? A few years later?), and how long he’s actually been there (a few months? A year? Over a decade?). Everyone has been talking about it ever since the art book page was shown, and a lot of people have brought up really good points-- aaaand some people are just off the fucking tracks about it. So I’m just putting together what I’ve heard and what I’ve noticed myself. Here we go. Speculation for why Ingo has NOT been in Hisui for 10+ years:

1). Based on their appearances alone, we’re lead to believe that the player character is Dawn/Lucas from DPPt, but a couple years down the line. They’re not 10 like they were in Diamond and Pearl: Cyllene says right away that they’re “around 15 or so.” So right away we can assume that the events of Legends Arceus occur shortly after BW2 (which is set roughly 3 years after DPPt and 2 years after BW).

2). When characters like Irida mention Ingo and his origins, they talk about it as if it’s a more recent occurrence. If it had been 10+ years the dialogue would most likely come across differently to imply that he appeared in Hisui some time ago. Heck, they might even bring it up if that were the case-- yet we don’t see anyone saying “long ago” or “some number of years ago” in reference to Ingo spawning in. But again, see point one: if we’re to believe that the player character is Dawn/Lucas, who is said to only be 15, then the 10+ years timeline just doesn’t line up.

3). This one might be a toss away, but it’s been said before elsewhere so I’ll just throw it in: the art book states “XX years” or something like that which is ultimately what led people to believe that it’s been 10+ years since Ingo dropped in Hisui. Fair assumption. However, Xs are almost always used to state a vague and unspecified year (obviously) because people don’t want to date their concept in real world measurements, or they simply just don’t have an exact time period set. And given that this is a Pokémon game where the years and flow of time for the whole series is outside our own, we can assume that they’ve done the same here. Also, XX is arguably more visibly pleasing than just putting X. I mean, it just looks weird imo. I wouldn’t put much stock in any years or dates that Pokémon throws out.

4). Ingo’s memories. Yeah, we’re the main character and everything so it’s our job as the player character to go around helping people and progressing the story blah blah. But if Ingo had been in Hisui for 10+ years one would think he would’ve recovered some memories by now, right? I mean, all it took was him walking through the cave with us and having a Pokémon battle to jog some things loose-- surely he’s done both of those things numerous times before our arrival? It makes more sense that he’s only been in Hisui for maybe a year, maybe a couple months, and he’s only just now beginning to think about his past more since his memories obviously aren’t returning smoothly on their own.

5). The receding hairline from the book. I’ll just say it here: it’s not a bad thing if it’s canon-- men lose their hair, lol. That’s life. Even video game life. And Ingo has to be at least in his early to mid 30s (like in BW the Subway Bosses never came across to me as, like, super young or anything. Late 20s, early 30s for sure there). However, as some people have pointed out before, some of the things pictured in the artbook don’t exactly line up with what’s in the game. For instance, the picture of Ingo face down on the ground by the clan member doesn’t line up with what he and Irida say in the game (correct me if I’m wrong on this, though. I’ve seen it said by a lot of other posts). So it’s entirely possible the hairline is false (if you care about this. I don’t really. It adds character. And anyway, he always has his hat on so we never see it to know. Some people on Tumblr are just thirsty for twink men with a full head of hair or something like that). Anyway, it’s concept art. It’s job is to pan things out and plan, but not necessarily everything is set in stone. I think people are seeing the receding hairline and assuming this means Ingo is, like, old now. But who knows? I don’t think we’ve never seen his or Emmett’s hair before this. And I believe it’s the first time we’ve gotten a more detailed art page about one of them? Maybe it’s always been this way.

6). Again I make mention of point one. Because if we’re really to assume that the player character is the same one from DPPt but older (and I mean c’mon, with their appearances they just have to be), then there’s really just no feasible way for Ingo to have been in Hisui for more than 10 years. BW takes place about a year after DPPt at most. BW2 takes place, canonically, stated in game, two years after BW. And Ingo was still in BW2 (ignoring the fact that this game came out like 10 years ago and they had no notion of Arceus then, okay). So it’s safe to assume that Ingo fell sometime after the events of BW2. Say about a year or so after that. Two at most. Because that would land Dawn/Lucas at roughly 15, their given age in Arceus when they fall through the rift.

7). Grimsley. Remember him? He looked pretty young in BW, BW2. But then cut to Sun and Moon-- he was there on the beach right before Po Town, and boy did he look rough. Yet only about 2-3 years had passed since the events of BW, as stated in the game. So if we follow this logic, a lot can apparently happen to a person in two years. Ingo looks so disgruntled compared to his former art from BW and BW2, but so would we all if we had gone from living in modern day Unova to suddenly being dropped into a late 1800s era Sinnoh without any of our usual modern care products (probably why he has a cool little goatee now. Not enough opportunities to shave regularly) and constant stress and threats from a hostile world. This being said, he doesn’t look that much different from his og art, just really tired. He’s the epitome of “I don’t look older, I just look worse.”

8). Volo. Okay, so I’m sure we’re all aware by now that it’s Volo’s fault that Ingo is even in Hisui to begin with, not Arceus’s. As a direct result of him meddling with space-time and trying to get Girantina, the rift opened (and ultimately led to all of those smaller rifts/distortions that open up across Hisui from time to time where modern Pokémon and items are found). And this is all a recent development in the last year or so, as stated in game. As Laventon tells us, Jubilife Village has only existed for two years, and the big rift wasn’t there when they settled-- would you settle so close to a big disaster just waiting to happen? Probably not. especially not Komado, either. Like we learn in-game, he wants no issues-- he tells us about all his hardships in another land. The whole reason why they moved to Hisui and built a new village to begin with. In short, the rifts have only been cropping up in the last few months to a year in game, and we know that’s how Ingo got here. So it couldn’t be that he’s been around for 10+ years if the rifts are a fairly new development.

9). There’s just no way that Gamefreak would separate Ingo and Emmett like that, for so long, with no clear reason or wrap-up.

10). His shoes and dress pants from Unova are still intact. They for sure wouldn’t be after 10 years, especially walking around in Hisui. His coat and hat are actually more beat up than anything else, but still wearable and identifiable as his old uniform. Probably from his spin through time-space and just Pokémon battles and the climate in general. But also, they had to make him look disgruntled somehow but still be Ingo— and Ingo isn’t Ingo without his jacket and cap.

Did any of this make sense? Probably not. Did anyone read this far? Also no. I just really don’t believe that he’s been in Hisui for longer than a year based on a lot of in-game stuff and just based on what the games have done in the past with characters. In reality we just don’t know yet. I could be totally wrong! But until we get more DLC for Arceus, or until another Pokémon game comes out that makes mention of it, we just won’t have any clear answers about Ingo’s time in Hisui.

[mlmvoreconfessionals]

you know what I find hot? When Grunts/Minions eat their leader. So can we some of that with Guzma? Some random Team Skull Grunt downing him? (preferably Oral + Samesize)

You know, you're right. That is very hot. Probably a power dynamic/role reversal thing.

G.uzma had only one real rule for the other S.kull G.runts, and it was simple—you win, you eat. Anyone you beat in battle was total fair game, including your fellow grunts. So if anyone ended up getting particularly hungry, they could just offer the tastiest looking guy a battle to decide who was eating that day. It was never treated with real seriousness, those who ended up losing usually just whining like a kid before they were so carelessly devoured. And of course, big shots liked to challenge G.uzma, too. And they usually lost, beaten down and devoured by their boss. Shown off to all the other grunts as they gurgled and churned away. That is, until, the day one of them came in with an actual strategy against the infamous B.ug type team. Ans it ended up getting a large crowd as it came down to the last of G.uzma’’a Pokémon falling. All the leader could do was watch in complete shock as he was defeated, just as the grunt pulled down his mask and opened his maw wide to begin devouring his lunch. G.uzma got a rather embarrassing end, devoured by one of his grunts to in front of the rest, left to stew and slosh around as the guy showed off to everyone else with glee and gluttony at how he got to be the lucky guy to gurgle up their chubby leader. If things went well, he might even bug bug enough to fill the man’s throne as take his place. He’s sure he wouldn’t lose to any of these grunts…

G.uzma was treating a handful of the grunts to a day at the beach, after they had also finished terrorizing it enough to get it cleared out. Lucky for them, it was one made for M.antine surfing, which he knew a couple of the grunts were really into. Of course, it also became an opportunity to show some of them up. He went off with another three of them to race to the next island over, just to see who was really the best. Things had been going well, with one washing out and another two struggling to keep up with G.uzma, who was handling the whole thing a lot better. One of the two grunts was catching on though and starting to gain on their boss. At least until one of the S.harpedo around rammed right into the M.antine and knocked him right off. He cried out as he went flying forward, G.uzma looking back just in time for the grunt to crash into him and send them both into the water. Back at the beach, the first grunt to have wiped out was getting helped up by some of the others. By the time he was dying off, the second washed up as well, getting some sympathetic congratulations from the rest. His gut sloshed and bounced around heavily as he got up, stuffed full of their now-former boss, who didn’t hold up in the stomach well through the crashing and spinning of the waves. Everyone was pretty confused about where he’d gone, not noticing the washed up grunt belching up some familiar sunglasses, which were rather quickly washed away by the tide.

There was very little respect for the island challenge in T.eam S.kull. If they wanted to get their hands on one of the crystals, they simply went in and did it by force. That was the plan for G.uzma and the grunts he brought along when they went charging into the cave where the N.penal type crystal would be. The T.otem P.okemon had leapt out so suddenly and ferociously, none of them had been prepared for it. Only G.uzma and one other grunt actually made it out of the cave, and they didn’t get out unscathed. Only issue is, now the local law informant was after them for harassing and upsetting the P.okemon. They had to spend the a couple hours running and hiding, and at some point, G.uzma simply gave out. Without much choice and wanting to save his boss, the grunt opened wide and quickly snarfed the leader down before going back on the run, hoping to get on a boat and ditch the island. He was really hoping G.uzma would survive the chase and the trip back to their base, but all the sloshing in his gut wasn’t a good sign. Or how round it was looking when he finally got to sit on the boat. Maybe the others would believe him if he said the T.otem P.okemon for the boss, too…

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: F Boy (again)

Debut: Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins

It feels so strange to look back on my very first post for this blog! It’s so... dry! Where’s the passion? Back then I really had no idea what I was doing and was just kind of imitating Mod Chikako hoping nobody would notice... but thanks to all the love this blog has received, I think I can write with a lot more confidence now! Not to get all sappy on the first paragraph, but I really appreciate everyone who reads this blog with all of my heart. And that includes You!

But if I’d known I’d spend several years using the moniker “Mod F Boy”, I probably would’ve put more thought into the name I picked, huh? I’m not even sure I’m a boy anymore! I just thought the name was funny and that was that! But given how indecisive I can be, maybe it’s a good thing it was so spontaneous... Like it or not though, I am more attached to the concept of “F Boy” then I was three and a half years ago, so it’s only fair I give F Boy the post he deserves and write a whole lot more about him! 

Believe it or not, F Boy is a fire enemy! A single flame with dot eyes, the classic design they’ve been using since Fire! I’ve expressed love for them in the past, but this little dude is a little different... it isn’t found in a lava or castle stage like you might expect, but the spoooky scaaary stages, AKA Pumpkin Zone! Why’s that?

Enter the hitodama! Literally using the characters for “human soul”, these ghostly wisps of fire from Japanese folklore are probably something you’re familiar with even if you don’t know it! The Litwick Pokémon line, the flames on Jibanyan’s tail, the little flames around the boy from the toilet anime, or even the Embers from Paper Mario... that’s really just a couple of specific examples off the top of my head, but they are in basically anything associated with Japanese ghosts! 

Though... all this time I’ve always called them hitodama, but I should probably specify they aren’t the only kind of ghostly fireballs! Onibi (demon fire) are often described similarly, and I’m not totally sure what the difference is! I suppose they would be more demonic hence the name, and probably less of a good idea to get close to. Also, if they're made by fox demons, they’re kitsunebi (fox fire)! Isn’t that neat! But there are no foxes to be found here, so F Boy definitely isn’t that (Unless it stands for Fox Boy...?).

However, you might be more familiar with the concept of will-o’-the-wisps, a similiar kind of legend from Europe- in fact, a whole number of cultures around the world have stories of ghostly lights and flames! There’s two explanations for this, either that it is a misunderstanding caused by some chemical reaction (boring, lame) or that hitodama are real and really exist for real (fun, exciting)! I encourage everyone to go outside with a net and catch as many as they can. 

Even though hitodama can be red or orange in some traditional accounts, they’re mostly described as blue and most modern media sticks with that! Which makes it quite weird that F Boy... isn’t! He is a rather fetching orange of course, and without the added context of spooky old Pumpkin Land you wouldn’t be mistaken for thinking he is a lava enemy that just got lost or something! 

Now, moving on to a completely different topic, something else that is great about F Boy is his little cheeks. Have you seen them? Here is the picture one more time in case you forgot after all that. He doesn’t have one in the sprite, so isn’t it quite weird to give a fireball enemy such distinct little cheeks? I want to squeeze them, even if they are probably intangible. 

And finally, we come to the part we’ve all been waiting for- the name! You were thinking it, I was thinking it, it’s probably the only reason I chose to write about him in the first place! Because F Boy is a funny name for an enemy! I think it’s just quite silly to describe a fireball as a “boy” in the first place, as a term of endearment. It is just a boy! A little guy! He’s not hurting anyone! 

But then they add to that name- one letter. That one letter, F. It changes everything. All of a sudden, there’s a question floating in the air- what, pray tell, does the F in F Boy stand for? 

If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you might remember we added an addendum to the original F Boy post, saying the mystery had finally been solved- the English version of the Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia lists his name as Fireball Boy, which is a pretty definitive answer right?

But since then, it’s been more or less exposed that this translation took a bunch of unsourced and conjectural names from the Mario Wiki, leading to something of a controversy and a Mario Wiki page that is essentially just roasting the whole thing! If even the Wiki doesn’t accept this book as an official source, I wonder if there’s any merit to the name Fireball Boy at all! Either way it’s odd how this is the ONLY name they changed... do they know something we don’t? I dunno! 

My next evidence to present to the court is something that isn’t really related to F Boy at all! Rather, in Super Paper Mario, the Lava Bubble enemy has a tattle that reads the following:

It's a Lava Bubble. This fiery magma boy loves the heat... Max HP is 1 and Attack is 4. Obviously, it's quite immune to fire... It pops out from below when people approach, so take care when jumping over lava...

Fiery magma boy! The chances of this bit of text being intended as a reference are very very slim, but what if, you see? What if? It’s still a fun coincidence, but what if though??

But of course, my favourite possibility is that it isn’t a word related to fire at all and is actually something completely different! I looked up a list of adjectives beginning with F and I’d like to highlight ones I want F Boy to have. Fabulous! Friendly! Faithful. Fantastic. Fascinating! French? Fresh! Fun, and Funky! Faultless. Fetching. Feminist! Festive. Formidable. All these and more describe the complex soul that is F Boy. 

After all is said and done, that is F Boy! Who would’ve thought that a little monochrome fireball enemy from a Game Boy game could have kicked off so many months of writing for this blog? I said in the first paragraph that I would not get too sappy, but now we are in the last one I can be as sappy as I dang well please! This blog has brought me such incredible joy and friendship that you can’t even imagine, and my only hope is that I can convey these feelings to even one person who reads these silly posts. If you are reading this? I hope you have a wonderful day! I hope you have a wonderful life! I hope you never forget to be passionate about the things that really don’t matter at all, because no one else can decide for you what is worth caring about! Mwah! A kiss goodbye. I’m not sure how to end this post. 

[antialiasis]

Pokémon Legends: Arceus, first impressions

Got the game today and played for about five hours, stopping after getting the Kleavor quest.

It more or less bears out what I expected in that it's a different kind of game than regular Pokémon, and that kind of game doesn't vibe with me as much as regular Pokémon. Wide open spaces in games mostly give me the persistent annoying feeling I've probably missed something somewhere all the time, and having to worry about button timings and dexterity and aim (God, I hate aiming) is mostly frustrating to me. These things are obviously not objectively bad qualities, just things I personally don't really enjoy, that I knew I wouldn't enjoy when I started.

On the other hand, despite this and that I have various actual gripes and complaints below the cut, I'm kind of enjoying it overall more than expected so far? There is a fun dynamism to having to watch out for Pokémon literally attacking you, being able to actually walk up hills and mountainsides is kind of magical, and the characters are more emotive than usual and I really appreciate that. Pokémon just existing in the field and behaving differently adds a lot of life. Most of all I like that there actually seems to be a fair amount of breathing room for different ways of playing the game. You can sneak up on Pokémon and try to aim a Pokéball at them, but you can also just engage them in battle and throw balls without the aim bit. You can catch a dozen of the same Pokémon to complete research, but you can also just battle a bunch of them to do it, or just catch one and have it use certain moves in battle - I appreciate that and it makes it a lot less annoying to do research tasks. I definitely all in all find myself wanting to play more of the game, which I wasn't sure about beforehand.

Also, somehow I already found and caught a shiny Bidoof? I thought Ultra Moon was the one game where I'd miraculously catch a shiny at like level 7 but no, apparently this is just a thing that happens to me now. (Reminder that like, I played my Gen II games and Sapphire for hundreds of hours each without ever seeing a single non-Red Gyarados shiny. I learned about shinies on the internet but for all I knew everyone could just be pranking me with rumours.)

Complaining below.

I find the controls a lot more obtuse than they had to be even for a game with a more real-time bent than usual. It's theoretically a cute idea to have the same button for throwing empty and occupied Pokéballs, but gameplay-wise these are simply two fundamentally different actions and it's a bit maddening how easy it is to accidentally do the one you didn't want when they're mapped to the same trigger and have to be swapped between - absolutely no part of my game experience is better for the ability to waste my Pokéballs by throwing them at trees. (And why is X, a face button, something you use to swap between Pokémon and items, while the right trigger, something other parts of the game's own interface use to flip between different things, throws the ball?)

Also, I don't know if it's just me but the whole function to use the left trigger to focus on a Pokémon and see what research tasks you have for it seems so fiddly as to be useless and I pretty much gave up trying it? Which is already annoying me a fair amount because there are different research tasks for every Pokémon and remembering what they are or if you've completed the research for this species without manually checking every time you encounter a Pokémon is largely impossible. Wish you could at least like, toggle on/off the automatic display of a little bubble that'd appear above any Pokémon species in clear view, telling you whether you have outstanding research to complete on it.

Meanwhile, the process of initiating a simple battle with a wild Pokémon takes significantly more finesse and mental effort here than in a regular Pokémon game, which I'm sure is fun for many people but for me it's mainly just friction that makes it a little fiddlier and more annoying to get things done in the game. You even need to aim and make sure you have a Pokémon selected in order to collect resources in the field. It's not that much friction but it is friction. I do kind of enjoy the fact you actually use your Pokémon to get stuff, but heck, they could've done that for flavor while still making it happen when you just press A, you know? Godddd I just don't want to have to aim at things, aiming with a controller is the worst.

There are a lot of mechanics the game has sort of told me about but not really well enough for them to make any sense. Like, it's told me about throwing berries into the field to distract Pokémon, but when I throw a berry it seems to be giving off some sort of noxious odor and the Pokémon ignore it and then it disappears? I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. A guy enthusiastically told me a recipe for cake that's supposed to attract Dragon Pokémon, but what does that mean - like, do I have to throw it out in front of a Dragon Pokémon I already see, or does it cause them to spawn? Is it also going to disappear in like ten seconds like the berry? Very unclear.

Also I never really thought the game looked as terrible as people said from the previews but actually playing it on the TV, it does look pretty rough and I wish the graphics had at least a bit more polish.

[byakuyasdarling]

Ah yes, Pokémon rivals; my favourite topic

Warning: this list is massively biased. I (kinda jokingly) rag on every ‘Awful’ tier rival, so if you don’t want to here that, feel free to skip that explanation. I am pretty harsh with Marnie, I know a lot of people like her, so if you do like her PLEASE don’t read her section because I do not want to upset anyone. 

Also, I do ramble a bit how I like SWSH but they are my personal least favourite games (which is a hot take, I know), so if that would upset you please skip. Take care of yourselves <33

I created the politically correct ranking of Pokémon rivals (/j)

Anyway, epic explanation under the cut:

*if N was on this list he would fall under “Amazing”. Breath-taking story, breath-taking development, great theme songs, awesome character, fantastic team.

Why Blue is in S rank (very long explanation compared to the rest)

You cannot tell me Blue (or Green, or Gary, whatever you want to call the main Kanto rival) isn’t THE BEST RIVAL EVER. They got it SO RIGHT. He inspires hatred, AND sympathy. Literally, his grandad, the only living relative aside from his sister we even know about, loves you (the player) more than him and it’s kind of sad. 

Blue is great, he has a crappy pronunciation of ‘Bonjour’ (see Pokémon Masters), he says ‘smell ya later!’ he has class, swag, and is by no doubt the most challenging rival character. He is the only rival I never swept on a normal run. He is always demeaning you; he is always one step ahead all the way up until the champion battle where you finally beat him. AND HIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT OMG.

He still is arrogant and prideful, but respects people and wants to guide people to be better at Pokémon battling and thrives when he sees others succeeding - he doesn’t mind being ‘a former champion’. HECK HE’S SO COOL AND AMAZING. 

Also he has the best champion theme and encounter theme ever. Yes, he was a previous F/O so I am super biased; but so were 3 others on this list. 

Silver and Gladion

These two were my F/Os when I was much younger (around 12). They are great rivals with great development and story arcs. Plus, they have bopper encounter themes and battle themes. Gladion was my real introduction to the oc x canon community and inspired me to take drawing on as a hobby (as well as Lillie but I did not end up drawing her as much). 

Brendan, Cheren, Hugh, and Barry

When I was 10 playing Omega Ruby, I liked Brendan a lot (so... another past F/O... he’s the final one though). I dunno, he genuinely had a good friendship with that extra spice of rivalry with our character, May. I do not like friendly rivals (if my listing wasn’t obvious), but Brendan did it right. There was a lot of touching scenes with him and May *cough*cough* Delta Chapter *cough*cough* which really made me connect with him when I was 10. Now, Brendan and May are interchangeable depending on which one of them you pick to play as, so why have I ranked Bredan far above May? Better encounter and battle theme (yes, they have different instrumentation) and he gets the childhood crush pass.

Cheren is cool, I just really like his character and his attempts to create a good strategy. He is really dedicated to what he loves and becomes a gym leader (like BLUE DID. Blue has it all, really). Plus, glasses are cute :) (he is the same age as me, I can legally say that even though that was an obvious nod to Byakuya but you never know what people will take out of context). 

Hugh is cool becomes he somewhat feels like an asshole rival, but at the same time, has a really soft side. Like, his whole motivation to be a good trainer is to save his sister’s Purrloin that was stolen by Team Plasma. He is a hero y’all. Also GREAT encounter and battle theme; huge thumbs up. 

Barry! My man! Overall, cool rival with a great team. He is the second hardest rival to me (but Blue is harder than him by a landslide still). He is really funny in both the games and the anime and despite being a bit more friendly, he still sparks a lot of rivalry with you. Plus, his dad is battle frontier brain Palmer! How awesome! He was also my first rival, so that’s something special to me too. 

Average Tier

I like Hau as a character, he feels like a genuine friend and how he develops with the main character and Lillie is really wholesome. It’s just - I dislike him as a rival, a lot. Easy fights, not the best encounter theme... just kind of there. I get why people consider Gladion as ‘the true rival’ of S and M because he really is. Hau is also a rival that chooses the starter WEAK to your starter like the gen 6 rivals (who I hate with my entire being). 

Wally had a bad-ass final battle theme song and moment. That’s literally the only reason he makes the average tier. If this was a ranking disregarding ORAS he is easily down in the ‘Awful’ tier. 

I like Pokémon Sword and Shield... except I just don’t like them as much as every other game (yes. I did play Pokémon Yellow and enjoyed it more, thank you). I know you all HATE that, but that is just my opinion - I think I have earned the right to say that after my almost 12 years of playing these games and being a VGC player for a few years. It has good characters and some cool Pokémon and yeah... gameplay? Lacklustre. I really do not know what went wrong outside of story. Somehow the competitive battle scene is not the fun it used to be. Dynamax bugs me, the lack of megas bugs me, the dex cut REALLY bugs me. I know I am not the only one who thought this game lacked the charm other Pokemon games have. Graphically though, it’s very nice for the most part.

I have gone way off-topic, but anyway, yeah. SWSH rivals make average because I like their characters (especially Hop’s development). Outside of that, not the best rivals.

May is cool for a lot of the reasons I discussed with Brendan.

Lacking Tier

I like Bianca’s whole deal with her dad and how Elesa has a nice moment to shine too - and that’s it. I know the whole theme of her team is friendship but I die inside every time I watch a Chandelure uses RETURN. It was cool she returned in BW2 I guess? I like how her battle theme matches her personality, but it isn’t anything to write home about. 

I like Calem a bit more than Serena but I do not want to pull another Brendan and May (even though I had some good reason to do that) and I’m going to put them here. Bad teams and not memorable in the slightest, Calem and Serena belong in this tier. 

Awful Tier

X and Y rivals amirite??? They just suck. They are annoying and they suck. They have 3 Pokémon in all final fights, really? At least Shauna is likeable in the anime. 

I hate Trace. But, he has one funny memory I have with my dad that makes him slightly better. We both named him ‘Blue’ since Blue is the actual Kanto rival, but then Blue showed up in LGPE... And then the two ‘Blues’ talked to each other and it was mildly amusing at the time. Anyway, he didn’t deserve Blue’s champion theme (which is even used for Blue in later games outside of his champion battle (BW2), THAT IS NOT TRACE’S THEME. Anyway, he is the gross friendly rival that attempted to fulfil the best rival’s shoes. Sorry Trace, bad luck my dude. 

I just never attached to Marnie I suppose, but I can understand that she is important to those who are invested in her. I am about to fully rag on Marnie, so please skip if that makes you upset. 

 I am going to hurt a lot of people when I said I never liked Marnie. She was always just... like why do people like her so much?? I feel like most people like her because she is ‘funny haha goth gf’ which, fair I suppose. I just think she is super lacking as a rival, she makes no real impression as an actual character, and I think if you removed her from the game it wouldn’t make a difference. Don’t want to be that guy, but I AM that guy right now. I suppose she has a cute design?? and that’s it. Again, I am really biased when it comes to SWSH and rivals, so I suppose she really got the short end of the stick with me.

[hiddennerdworld]

My Hero Academia Class 1-A and Their Pokemon Starters

(For funsies) sorry it’s kinda confusing bc I’m talking as if they were real trainers but still have their quirks.

Fair Warning: a lot of rambling. Kinda messy tbh. I just like the idea and thought it was fun. Includes all students of 1-A so it’s a bit long

Katsuki- Cyndaquil

Loud explosion boi with smol shy explosion boi

Bakugou can’t help but pick a pokemon similar to him.

It helps him to relate to them and especially likes seeing a power similar to his.

Unlike how he talks to everyone else, Bakugou would never scream at his Pokémon

HIS Pokémon tho. Will not hesitate to scream at a weedle in his way

Cyndaquil helps him become more patient with others.

Will have to hold him back sometimes

Bakugou will squirm and try to get free. Only time he’ll insult them. “YOU STUPID OVERGROWN RAT!! LET ME GO I GOTTA KICK THIS EXTRA’S ASS!!!”

Apologizes after he cools off

Bonus: With the games, I either picture him meticulously planning out moves and stats of his pokemon OR just brute forces the entire thing

Kirishima- Chespin

Chespin is an adorable rock rolling Pokémon who then becomes a strong beast with spikes.

I don’t think there’s a Pokémon more suited for Kiri.

Cute is manly, okay?

The only downside is that they aren’t red but Kiri loves them anyway.

They are an official hype man team

If they’re both in dumbass mode, they may have a contest to see who can hit their head against the most rocks

Koda- Turtwig

You would think Koda would choose Scorbunny because of his pet rabbit, but it’s very high energy and that kinda scares him tbh.

So the perfect Pokémon for Koda is Turtwig! A chill, laidback Pokémon who’s also very sweet and a little timid.

But Koda loves them all tbh.

Also Turtwig would comfort Koda when he gets nervous and that would encourage him to be strong.

Turtwig and Koda’s bunny are friends. No idk how there are real animals and Pokémon in the same world so shhhhhh

Once Turtwig evolves, Koda may hide behind them when nervous. They’ll move out of the way and make him face his fears

If the situation is actually dangerous tho they’ll protect Koda and everyone else

Ida- Charmander

When you wanna be the very best, you have to go with a classic.

He thinks Charizard has got it all. They can fly, breath fire, and just fucking step on everyone if they wanted to (but not encouraged)

Charizard also has a similar rule follower/enforcer attitude that Ida has

They’ll cross their arms and nod while standing behind Ida as he lectures the others on how they’re not being model students

They will belly laugh tho when the others pull a prank on Ida

Both kinda scared of Aizawa

Ida is always very conscious about the flame on their tail

Aoyama- Popplio

He has to be the trainer of the most showstopping Pokémon.

Have you seen Primarina??!! They can battle and sing!

Part of training is practice poses together

They also have a skin care routine

Primarina helps when Aoyama gets tummy aches

They encourage Aoyama to shine brighter (literally)

Tsu -Froakie

Okay it’s because they’re both frogs

BUT also froakie is a water type and Tsu works best in water... which I guess has to do with frogs

Also both seem loyal and badass and caring as hell. The older siblings of the group

They go on daily swims together

High fives all the time

Best friends with Uraraka’s Pokémon

Greninja will slap Mineta on Tsu’s behalf when he’s acting up

Todoroki- Mudkip

This is basically off of vibes but there’s two ways this can go

So Todoroki never thought about getting a Pokémon bc he was too focused on his quirk training

He wasn’t introduced to the idea until everyone was in the common area talking about their favorites

They had a picture up of all the starters and he just walked up, pointed at Mudkip and went “I like this one”

He doesn’t really know what it’s supposed to be but it’s cute and cool looking and blue

That OR it was originally his mom’s and when she went to the hospital they decided to look out for one another

Either way, they’re both super powerful and love each other very much

Mudkip will spray water at Endeavor’s flames to make Shoto laugh

They always eat together, often having soba

Shoto will make sure they’re not cold in the winter

Mudkip LOVES Fuyumi. She’ll take such good care of him when they’re all home. It makes Shoto jealous a little bit

While they’re still a baby, Shoto will take one side of his bed and allow them to curl up on the pillow of the other side. Has been doing this since he was a toddler (depending on the backstory chosen)

Ojiro- Chimchar

Cute lil monkeys (even tho Ojiro’s tail reminds me of a lion)

When taking breaks from training they will often hang (literally or metaphorically) in some trees

While they’re still small, Chimchar lays in Ojiro’s lap while taking a nap or might sit on his tail or shoulder instead of walking. Hagakure will be sure to get pictures

Both Kaminari and his Pokémon will play with Ojiro’s tail

I feel like Chimchar would watch Ojiro’s karate skills and try to mimic him.

Adorable, and Ojiro would think so too. Also they evolve to be a fighting type as well as fire. Perfect match!

Random tail high fives once Chimchar gets a tail that’s not on fire

They train with Hagakure and her Pokémon a lot

Sero- Squirtle

I was going to pick Chimchar for him, but they suited Ojiro much more.

Then I pictured Sero hanging out with Squirtle and wearing sunglasses and there was no goin back

Any time they aren’t working hard, they are absolutely chillin out. Both have drinks with lil umbrellas.

Will pull pranks on classmates together (poor Kaminari)

Sometimes you can walk into a room and find them crying laughing on the ground like a bunch of dorks

Calls them cute nicknames like “lil squirt” which may or may not get Sero blasted with water

Coolest Pokémon for the coolest dude.

Both kinda underrated imo

Mina- Scorbunny

Thinks bunnies are adorable.

Plus she would love its high energy which matches hers.

Both are very supportive and encouraging to everyone

And they can both kick your ass

Even tho the two are very fun loving people, Cinderace may have to get Mina to calm down and focus on her work. This makes Mina pout but she knows it’s for the best

Definitely have to always be matching somehow. Mayhaps friendship bracelets

They’re best friends

Tokoyami- Rowlett

Bird bois. You know what they say right? Birds of a feather flock together (I’m sorry this is so stupid)

Would prefer a dark type, but at least it’s Decidueye is part ghost type that’s pretty dope

Tokoyami thinks its final evolution is badass but embarrassed of the middle ones looks

Usually no fuckboys allowed in his party, but he’ll make an exception for the baby owl

Will still roast their haircut 24/7

Decidueye and dark shadow are besties btw

Listen to emo music together while looking at the moon

Uraraka- Piplup

Both have adorable round faces.

Also I associate both with bubbles for some reason. Bubble beam?? Floating??

A stretch but I still see them together

Both cute, secretly badass, and very determined

Uraraka learns over time how to talk to them (like Groot in GOTG). They bicker a lot, in a good way

They have a cheer for when they work together. Also probably a secret handshake

Momo- Fennekin

Fennekin is cute and elegant

Momo would be impressed that its final evolution is basically a sorcerer.

Both end up learning from each other

Delphox helps Momo gain confidence in her abilities

Do tea time a lot

Momo combs their fur

Hagakure- Sobble

STEALTH MASTERS!

In my head I see Hagakure being very sweet towards Sobble, who freaks out over the fact they can’t see her.

But over time they get used to it and find Hagakure to be the only one they trust

As they train and evolve, Hagakure will be so supportive and proud of her Sobble

When first training with Ojiro, Ojiro or Chimchar may sneak up on Sobble and scare the living daylights out of them

They’ll start crying and Hagakure will have to hold them. Ojiro apologizes profusely. Will get back at him once they evolve

Shoji- Treecko

One word: Aloofness

Shoji just finds Treecko to be very cool

They both look up to each other somehow. Thinks the other is the perfect example of a good friend, teammate, hero, etc

Admire their classmates and their Pokémon too

Also both sweet and incredibly strong

Shoji will try the grass in mouth thing and Treecko (or any evolution) will try to wear a mask

Shoji wears a lot of camo and Treecko is camo (bc they’re a gecko)

Pros at taking naps anywhere and everywhere

Having Treecko with him makes Shoji feel like people will be less scared of him (people pls stop being mean to him)

Both sit back and watch during the usual class antics but will step in if they think someone is gonna get hurt

Other times they both walk into a room of chaos and look at each other to see if either of them knows what the fuck is going on

Might turn around and walk away if they’re fed up for the day, very rare tho

Jirou- Torchic

You see it too right?

Idk why but it makes perfect sense to me? Maybe bc I associate Torchic with cool women (May and JaidenAnimations).

They have very similar vibes.

Will give each other a look when the others are being ridiculous or stupid (which is often)

Jirou would try to teach them drums once they become a Blaziken

When Jirou plays new music for them they cheer and clap. They might dance around

From the start Torchic encourages Jirou to come out of her shell

They’ll just run to their classmates and Jirou will freak out “what the hell are you doing??? Get back here.” Whisper yelling

Forced to talk to her friends and have a good time

Later Jirou will be salty but Torchic will ignore her. They have a smug ass grin on their face (if possible) bc they know they did something good for her. Jirou knows it to

Mineta- Totodile

Chaos mode activate

I like to believe totodile would know better, even if he’s Mineta’s Pokémon, and stop his trainer’s pervy tendencies

Can overpower Mineta in an instant, especially when evolved

Will either hold him back or just pick him up and walk away

Can sometimes sense that Mineta is thinking about doing something and stops before he actually does it

Imagine if they also put him in time out lmaooooo

Mineta just lets them have free reign. Totodile will waddle all over the place. They’re usually good but may cause trouble

Ex: they want a certain food on the counter but can’t reach (still a baby) so they attempt to climb up and just knocks everything on the floor. Mineta hears dishes breaking in the distance and thinks to himself “shit.... oh well”

Sato- Litten

This mans. I picture it very vividly in my head

Sato would be baking and see a little stray kitty on his balcony so he opens the door to see if it’s okay

The litten is scared at first and Sato feels bad. But then he offers a little piece of freshly baked bread

Litten reluctantly comes inside and they’ve been best friends ever since

His new official taste tester

Will take a little while for Litten to get used to him. Until then Sato tries to be as gentile as possible

They’ll sometimes act like they’re in a bad mood to get extra treats

Once it becomes an Incineroar, they’re gym buddies for life too. Idk if Incineroar would work out but they may spot Sato and makes sure he doesn’t hurt himself or wear himself out too much

Kaminari- Pikachu

Pikachu

Okay fine

I wanted to leave it at that bc duh but I have other thoughts

They are smart but 80% of the time they share one braincell

Will be lazy and eat snacks together until they end up in food comas

But at the same time have the inability to relax when Sero invites them to

Have caused the power to go out at the dorms multiple times. They’ll both point the finger at the other

Pikachu chuckles a little at Kaminari when he short circuits but will pull him to the side and get him some water

Kaminari dresses them up with like little hoodies. Everything he picks looks exactly like his room

Pikachu will not hesitate to shock Denki and Mineta if they’re being idiots

They both make a lot of noise. It drives Bakugou insane

Like Uraraka, Denki learned how to talk to Pikachu, but for him it was like an instinct? He knew how right away?

Last but not least is Midorya

Spent so long trying going over the strengths and weaknesses of each possible starter that he never left his moms house

I’m sorry but I can’t know his favorite if he doesn’t even know

Has two notebooks: one for quirks and one for Pokémon

He likes observing how they work together

May get lucky if a Pokémon finds and chooses him while he’s out observing heroes at work

Will still take forever on deciding where to go from there based on their type and stats and level and personality and-

I do know his least favorite tho: Never give him an Eevee. His brain will implode from all the possibilities.

Bonus: Inko has a Pokémon who helps around the house like mom in all the games. Maybe like a Roselia

Also no offense to the ones I didn’t include. Bulbasaur is my fav. They just didn’t fit with them imo

[shinyacademy]

Pokémon Go: Shinies in Raids

A lot of people say that raids in Pokémon Go are a good way to farm legendary shinies. This is a bit misleading because whether or not you encounter a shiny is based on luck and luck alone. There is no way to guarantee that any given raid will produce a shiny and in fact people who are in the same raid will sometimes encounter a shiny while everyone else doesn’t.

Please note that anyone who says they can guarantee you a shiny is doing so from a hacked raid and you should NOT participate! Pokémon Go and Pokémon Company International have been banning these players permanently. It’s not worth the risk to involve yourself!

You can’t tell if a Pokémon is shiny until you defeat it and get to the screen to catch it. Now, there is a rumor that all you need to do to catch a shiny legendary or mythic Pokémon found in a raid is hit it with the ball once. I have a lot of strong anecdotal evidence for this but I also don’t like to take risks! Gold berry that Pokémon up until you’ve caught it.

The only way to increase your odds of finding a shiny in a raid is to repeat the raid and often. I got lucky and found my shiny about 4 raids in. My wife found hers about 20 raids in. If you’re really bent on getting one this is often going to mean a monetary investment in raid passes. Can you get a legendary without paying? Absolutely. Will it be shiny? Probably not. If you’re not comfortable paying into the game I recommend dropping your Pokémon off in gyms to collect your 50 coins daily. That way when the legendary you really want to invest in comes along, you’ll have amassed a fair amount of coins.

Also don’t forget to help your friends and to let your friends help you! Many people (myself included) run remote raids for people who can’t access gyms, whether they can’t get out that day or they’re locked down for health reasons. Let the community help you!

If you are blessed enough to get two shinies, hang on to the extra for trading or if you’re feeling generous, give it to someone who missed out. If you get a shiny but it’s two stars or less, remember to send it to Pokémon Home and don’t release it! There’s no such thing as a bad shiny!

Having a legendary will gain you some admiration amongst your PoGo peers. If you’re trying to get into a raid with a group of people you don’t know and your level is a little low (right now people consider anyone under level 35 to be suspect), having a shiny legendary as your partner Pokémon might earn you some extra cred because it shows that not only have you successfully completed a raid before but probably MANY times!

Lastly remember good raid etiquette! If you’re outside with real people remember to social distance and wear a mask out of respect for the people around you. If you’re playing with people who are joining you remotely, never leave the raid if there are four people or more present! Not only are four people generally sufficient to take down most 5 star raids but you could accidentally waste someone’s raid pass by bailing on them, which is super rude! Note that Mega Evolution raids often require upwards of 8 people to complete so it’s best to plan ahead for those.

Do you have any shiny PoGo legendaries? Show them off in the comments! Happy hunting!✨

[shnowbilicat]

Why Overwatch 2 will be just fine

Before we begin I wanna say that all of this are my own perspectives and thoughts, so take it with a grain of salt ... but tbh yall should sit down and chill until the game drops, kay? Kay.

Soo, there was another OW2 livestream not so long ago and people started freaking out and boycotting the devs. Why? 5v5 and there will be only one tank now.

I'm hearing left and right how much of a problem this will be and I can't stop getting annoyed about the fact that people really are SO upset that there will be no 'off tank' in their games and how the devs 'refuse to balance their game' instead and how there will be smurfing and- you get the point.

Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm not into the 'meta' cuz my competitive rank is a 'metal' one, OR MAYBE I'm just this guy who says 'it just game, why u have to be mad??'.

I personally really look forward to OW2, mostly for the PvE part of the game as it sounds so massive and seeing how much they've done with the very first mission they've shown us and the fact that we can level up our heroes and equip unique abilities just makes me giggle and excited about the final release and future events and updates!

So many cutscenes, so many new animations and skins, so many new maps to play X33

And 5v5?? I'm looking forward to that too!

No, for real, one tank does not make or break anything for me, mostly for one single tiny reason alone.

A Tank is still a Tank.

I dunno if you ever played other games where there are Tank, DPS and Healing roles, like LoL, Dota, heck even Pokémon and Fire Emblem.

Tank roles have one single purpose; be the literal meat shield for their team.

I dunno about you, but I've never played a Tank in my life that wasn't completely about taking the attention from my squishies and jump in to protect them. And according to my ranking I'm a Tank main, sure my highest Rank is Platinium, but just because I don't grind my way up like any other madmen.

Tanks are SUPPOSED to be in the front lines taking the damage, making a way through the crowd, mess up the other team's formation. I also believe I'm not the end all be all for my squishies, I trust in them that they can protect themselves when I go in for a kill, which they can with their several abilities like a sleeping dart, climbing walls or building up a wall to hide behind.

Here we have Pro Tank players freaking out and complaining that 'they lack a tank' that there won't be any strategy involved cuz they are missing another meat shield that has their back etc. etc.

Again, I'm just a noob playing my Quickplay and Arcade games for lootboxes ... but god am I sick and tired of hearing these excuses from one trick pro players who have been stuck in their metas and comps.

SURE they are up there for a reason, but the fact of the matter is that I don't care if you do not want a 'dive comp' if I wanna play D.Va to get myself a 6 stack Ult kill, kay??

I don't care if we have a Zarya and Roady, they gonna wreck our enemy team and I'm gonna pump up their asses with as much healing as they want, kay???

The standarts OW pro players have been setting time and time again has muddied the waters of normal play. Because of them Symmetra and Bastion have been thrown into the corner of the back room and will never be seen in normal play because 'they ain't meta'.

Bro, I've been a Bastion main since Comp Season 3 and I've been wrecking my games left and right whenever I play him. I do not need your meta to succed, I don't need a Mercy pocket or a Rein shield because people like the pros set the standart that Bastion is ONLY useful when these criteria are met.

Not only that, BECAUSE of their standarts I forced myself into being able to switch to any roles with heroes that do just as much good as my Bastion. And that was actually a very good thing! Now I'm a solid Gold-Plat rank player that can play pretty much every hero in Mystery Heroes.

... and then I see our current pros. Who are scared shitless that their off tank players gonna play ... DPS?? Or Healing?? Like, weren't you guys moaning about one tricks? About people not being able to switch?

You ... you do know how OW started, right? OW was a game the devs SPECIFICALLY made to be open gameplay, they WANTED people to switch to heroes and experiment with new combos.

But lately we had buffs, nerfs, change in ques and all you can do is complain about it.

YOU put the standart 2-2-2 because people started to go tank-healers only, or Genji-healing only, or some shit because that was OP.

YOU were the ones forcing in a role que system because other people could not or refused to switch their roles.

YOU forced the devs to rework ALL HEROES to your standarts. Granted, here you got the devs to make Symmetra interesting to play, Bastion and Torb more viable and Brig to be more fair ... for you, because I cannot play Brig to safe my life, she's such a squishy and I die the second the round starts.

If you cannot handle what pro players dished out years ago, then please do me the favor and stay with your Rein-Zayra combo for the rest of eternity thxx

And we haven't talked about the OW2 hero reworks and new maps with more things to hide behind yet! Making each Tank more viable and more enjoyable to play. And guess what? THEY AIN'T DONE YET! I've seen alot of players moarn that the game will be SO unfair ... but we haven't seen anything yet. Espacially since they haven't told us any DPS or Healing ability changes either.

'But BUT 3 years of development!!!' so?? 3 years could mean anything. Not to mention that the EXACT SAME DEVS are working on OW2 are ALSO STILL working on OW 1 at the same time. And it's a pandemic. Sure they are a huge team, but they have a huge goal; aka THE STORY MODE WITH HUNDRETS OF HOURS OF PLAYTIME AND ANIMATED CUTSCENES.

They still have a long ass way to go, so chill out and give em some time. There are over 30 heroes they have to rework, remodel, give a part in the Story. Multiple new Maps to work, maybe even rework, test and make sure everything is as polished as possible for the general player base; which ain't the pros btw.

So, with pretty much mostly everything said, what's my final stand?

I would say to everybody worrying that the game won't be good; trust me, it'll be just fine.

If you don't enjoy the 5v5, there will still be Arcade and Story to keep ya company, like, I've been playing Quickplay and Arcade 99% of the time, you gonna be fine fam.

And if you're a pro player who JUST CANNOT handle 5v5 without their off tank puppy jumping after them then here's a tip:

Don't play Overwatch 2.

Nobody will force you to it, Overwatch will still exist with it's 6v6 2 tanks, 2 DPS, 2 healing boringness and it's frozen metas and comps and the same ass people in the Top 100 you play against each and every day with tiny buffs and nerfs every other day.

Meanwhile me and my squad will enjoy more shenanigans in OW2.

I'll gladly play momma Orisa and keep my friends save and sound, while also hooking every evil doer who dares come close to em ewe

Overwatch 2 is for us, the players who play the game like the devs intended; play the heroes you want, no matter if you lose or fail and have to pick yourself up again to grow and become stronger.

Overwatch 2 will be just fine.

[moved-to-void-kissed]

💫 for Luna and her game? I Know she's from a fangame, so I'd like to learn more about the game & why you like it ✨💗

Clover @tex-treasures

Clover you have opened up a treasure trove (hehehe) of rambling here, I apologise profusely in advance, but also thank you very much for sending this in and giving me this opportunity!!

(source: this post by pandapup)

send me a 💫 and I’ll tell you something about my F/O’s source or character! - Okay, this got long, so let's go under a readmore.

So, you are indeed correct in saying that Luna is from a fanmade Pokémon game, specifically Pokémon Reborn. However, her character (and.. I think almost all the others, except some of Team Meteor?) actually originates from a real online league of Pokémon which was set up by Amethyst, the same person who went on to create the game version of Reborn after the online league ended! Many of the events and things in the game (for example, Shelly nicknaming her Pokémon after her friends) are actually based on interactions that were acted out by the people roleplaying as the various Gym Leaders in the online league. I think it's really neat that the stories and characters created in that kind of setting, which went on for a pretty long time (at least up to early 2014 because of Adrienn), were able to be retold in this new format!

But! Anyway! About the game itself now because that's what you're here to hear! Reborn is still technically in-development, and has been for a long time - it's currently at Episode 18, Void-Kissed (the updates have been called episodes, for.. some reason). However, the next update to come will be the last one, with Episode 19 adding everything that's left in the game (the 18th and final Gym Badge, the Elite "Four" and Champion, and apparently lots of postgame stuff) and making a fair few changes earlier on too. And if memory serves me correctly then that's coming in May of this year, which is very exciting!! It's a game set in the run-down Reborn City and its surroundings that all serve as the setting for the Reborn Pokémon League, featuring a gym for each type - as well as the evil Team Meteor who seem to be trying to destroy the city even moreso than it already is. You play as a Trainer who was just coming to the league to challenge it, but end up getting caught up in the story along the way as you try and collect all the Gym Badges. If you want to know more information (or even download the game itself!!), it has its own website here!

I really enjoy playing the game (even if I haven't actually played it for a while) because, although it is definitely difficult - many competitively powerful TMs and Pokémon are not available right away, or even at all yet in some cases, and many gyms and bosses have teams with near-perfect IVs and EVs - it's tricky in a very satisfying way. The way things are structured encourages a lot of strategy through the variety of Pokémon available at different points of the game, as well as the fields and terrains system in general (which is super well-thought-out and also adds a lot more immersion - if you're battling on water for example, it makes sense that Water- and Electric-type moves will be stronger because of that!). You can work with the environment, bringing Electric-types to light up abandoned factories for instance, or try and destroy or overwrite it, for example by breaking the mirror arena by using Magnitude or setting up Grassy Terrain to temporarily change the field in your favour.

There are also a lot of other small details that make the game really neat, like having it so all wild Pokémon have a chance of having their Hidden Abilities, or that all of the shiny colourations are custom and also much more common in Reborn compared to other regions, or that most of the music is GlitchxCity remixes and her stuff is really good. Plus, since the characters had a kind of real basis from being RPed as in the league, I feel like they all are very engaging in their own ways. Those are the reasons why I enjoy the game as much as I do.

..Oops, it's nearly half past midnight. I hope that all that was alright - thank you very much again for sending this in, as it was very fun to write!! ^-^

[itsbenedict]

I didn’t post about everything I played this year, so here’s my opinions on the stuff I played that I didn’t make a rec post for:

Raging Loop 

Raging Loop is one of them twisty meta Zero Escape-y branching-path visual novels where an ensemble cast is trapped in a mysterious circumstance where people are dying gruesomely, and you have to find out what’s happening and stop it by looping a bunch. 

I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it, because... it tries to have its cake and eat it too with the supernatural elements. Clearly magic is real and has important impacts on the scenario, but then other parts are trickery you’re supposed to see through, and it��s entirely uninterested in cluing you in to how that trickery was accomplished. Not exactly a fair play mystery, in that regard- you have to kind of just be along for the ride, rather than try to figure it out.

That said, it’s a good ride- pretty strong character writing, and the central conceit of the Werewolf/Mafia-style murder scenario creates really interesting drama. It’s more concerned with making itself feel clever than letting the player feel clever, but it’s still well-paced and gripping and has a pretty decent resolution.

Detective Grimoire

I recommended Tangle Tower, the sequel, pretty strongly- and this one, while obviously a little rougher around the edges with the art and mechanics (the suspicion tracker system is a total dud; I didn’t even realize it existed until I realized I was missing an achievement for using it), it’s still pretty darn good. Really fun character designs and animations, fully-voiced, and a solid whodunit backing it all. Plus- while the two are more or less self-contained, the continuity threads with Tangle Tower raised some really interesting questions.

Contradiction - the all-video murder mystery

This one was pretty fun, largely on the strength of the actors. The main mechanic of interrogating people on evidence and using their own statements against each other was some good stuff, too. Definitely had that Phoenix Wright quality to the deductions, and Jenks is a really fun character. (Had a few points where progression was just linked to standing in a certain previously-abandoned area of the map where a clue was suddenly there for no reason, there- good thing it had a hint system.)

As a mystery, it could use a little work- most of what you end up finding out is sequel bait (for a sequel that never actually came together, unfortunately), and the actual whodunit is just sort of hiding in the cracks of all that. And... cornering the culprit just sort of happens out of nowhere once you’ve got your hands on the right piece of evidence, without much fanfare. You’re following up on leads like usual, you find a little lie in someone’s testimony, and then- oh, shit, they’re just confessing everything! Unlike all the previous times you questioned them and they were super evasive like everyone else! And then the game is over. 

All in all, it’s pretty meaty and entertaining and I’d recommend it, but unfortunately the creators have moved on to other things, so there’s not going to be any follow-up on the stuff it left unresolved.

Ikenfell

Ikenfell is a tightly-designed RPG about kids at a magic school, with Paper Mario-style action command mechanics and a battle system that makes a big deal out of careful positioning and movement, which was really enjoyable. The difficulty’s a little high (I recommend always always always speccing into max damage because killing things before they kill you is worth more than any amount of defense, speed doesn’t work, and healing is cheap), but I found it really satisfying.

There’s... something... off? About... I don’t know how to put it, it’s... doing that “yes, everyone is queer and mentally ill, deal with it” thing, which, sure, okay. But for a lot of them it’s such a background thing, like... half the playable cast is unambiguously nonbinary, but like... I don’t know if it’s trying to make some statement on how there are no rules to being NB and you can 100% perform a particular binary gender presentation but still count, or if they wrote the whole story and then changed the pronouns of some of the characters for Representation Points, or what. Probably the former? I dunno, it just feels weird. Maybe I’m just not woke enough to Get It.

(unrelatedly: why the heck is the official art they use everywhere so... off-model? none of them look like they do in-game- they look like the creator commissioned someone to draw a group shot with one reference image each and didn’t tell them anything about the characters. how much you wanna bet they commissioned a friend and it came out wrong but they were too polite to say “sorry, no, this is wrong, can you do it over?”)

Trails of Cold Steel IV

Hoo boy. It’s... not great, and it’s not great in a pretty predictable way for an even-numbered entry in the Trails series. It happens every time- first there’s a game in a new engine with new characters and a new world to explore, and it’s really nice and does interesting things... and then it ends on a cliffhanger, and then there’s a sequel game in the same engine with the same characters and the same world, reusing as many assets as possible. Also the League Of Generically Evil Anime Supervillains is there causing trouble for reasons they refuse to explain, and the plot is a storm of magicbabble and macguffin-chasing that makes little to no sense. 

Cold Steel IV is that for Cold Steel III, full stop. Welcome back to all the same places you visited last game, except this time there’s some stupid magic apocalypse happening (not that it stops you from taking the time to do random sidequests constantly, of course). The whole “oh, the evil curse mind controls people and that’s why they do stupid bullshit that’s in no one’s interest” plot point is leaned on super hard, and it’s just a big yawn the whole way through.

It’s still really fun, though, because the battle system remains really well-designed. (The same battle system that was just as fun in Cold Steel III, mind you, but it hasn’t gotten old.) And- though they’re struggling to square it with the dumb mind control apocalypse plot, the NPC dialogue continues to make the world feel believable and lived-in. They don’t slack on the parts that make Trails good- it’s just the parts that make Trails bad are making themselves more evident than ever.

did finally get to date Towa though so that’s a win

One Step From Eden

OSFE is... uh. It’s fucking hard is what it is. It’s sort of a deckbuilding roguelike, and there’s this combat that takes place on a grid, and- wait, it’s like Mega Man Battle Network, it’s exactly like Mega Man Battle Network. Man, I forgot about that, but the mechanical influence is extremely obvious. It’s MMBN meets Slay the Spire.

Except it’s super duper hard as hell, because unlike MMBN you can’t pause and swap out chips or anything- everything is just always happening so much, all at once, everywhere, and you have no recourse but to git gud and learn all the enemy patterns and the behavior of your own spells and develop the twitch reflexes necessary to not fucking die from all the shit that’s on the screen always.

(What’s the story? Uhhhh, there was some kind of magic apocalypse, and some anime girls are trying to reach a city for some reason that doesn’t really get explained ever. The game doesn’t really care to build its world at all- it’s all mechanics plus a little token character dialogue that doesn’t say much.)

The point is it’s really frickin’ hard but I am an epic pro gamer and I got ALL THE ACHIEVEMENTS, MOTHERFUCKER. If you’ve played it, I expect you to be really god damn impressed with me, okay???

A Short Hike

This one was really relaxing! It’s a platformer where you explore an Animal Crossing-y island of cartoon animal people, collecting mobility upgrades- but like, mainly it’s about straight chillin’. The flight controls are fun and there’s lots of little secrets to find and it’s just a nice time that doesn’t drag on too long. Not too much to say about this one.

Pokémon Sword

Ehhhhh.

I’m not here for the hot takes about how Dexit is good actually. Development hell happened, they had to make cuts for time, I get it. It’s disappointing and makes the game a little bit worse, but it’s not the end of the world.

Apart from that... perfectly serviceable? The Wild Area could’ve used a little more technical polish (as could most things in the game, really) but was a step in the right direction, giving the player a wider array of early-game team-building options than ever before. No HMs is good. Story and characters were kind of nothing, but that’s par for the course. “At least this time they’re not shoehorning in some kind of stupid evil-team-wants-legendary-pokemon-to-destroy-the-world apocalypse plot”, I thought to myself before they managed to shoehorn one in at the last minute with zero buildup- but, hey, beats wasting half the game on it.

It’s nothing special and it’s missing a lot of polish, but its problems are mainly due to being rushed, and presumably next gen they’ll be able to reuse a lot of the models and animations (maybe even improve the animations so they’re not so boring??? a man can dream) and make something interesting. SwSh seem like they were testing the waters for something else, and not taking too many chances in the meantime. 

(yo why would you sell all these cosmetic items and then turn them all off during gym battles, though) 

Hades

Hades is- oh, who am I kidding? Everyone knows Hades, it’s the game of the year, greatest thing since sliced bread, Supergiant are heroes, yada yada yada. I’ve played almost 300 hours of it and I’ve completed everything except all the Resources Director levels (currently a Sigma Wraith), it’s extremely fun and you don’t need me to tell you that.

Petal Crash

It was that thing the Paranatural creator helped on? It’s, uh. It’s a block-sliding puzzle game thing, sort of in a Puyo Puyo vein. It has fun character designs and some good dialogue, like you’d expect from Zack’s involvement, but it didn’t really leave an impression otherwise (besides how got dang infuriating some of its Turn Trial puzzles can be.) The story is... kinda heartwarming, kinda didactic, kinda childish, not especially deep or interesting. Hard for it to be, when it’s told through little bits of fluffy character dialogue that exist to set up a puzzle battle as quickly as possible. Not super recommended unless you really really like block-sliding puzzles.

Hollow Knight

Man, why’d I sleep on this for so long? It’s a metroidvania platformer with heavy Dark Souls inspiration, in terms of tone and difficulty and death mechanics and environmental storytelling. And it’s... apart from all that, just really good as a game, with tight controls and juicy movement and great animation. Progression is linked as much to mastery as it is to upgrades collected- I found myself in lategame areas facing down things that would’ve killed me ten times over at the start- not because I had the best gear, but because I’d learned the game’s language and understood how to move in ways that wouldn’t get me killed.

(Usually. Sometimes I’d walk into a room and sit on a bench and suddenly there’d be a boss fight and I’d get slaughtered. Ain’t that just the way it goes?)

Anyway, on top of all that it’s just charming as hell, with a really unique and well-realized world full of little bug people. I love how, like, your character is clearly some kind of eldritch abomination, but it’s small and cute and so everyone (besides enemies that attack you on sight because they’re possessed by some kinda evil mold) is like “awww, who’s this little guy? want some help, little guy?”

(except Zote, who is just an ass hole. i love him.)