#but I think the gameplay was the biggest controversy more than the way the story was heading..?

[uinre]

CONGRATS! THE FOUND FAMILY POWER IS REALL

So basically most people prefer the first game bc of the characters, their development, and their relationship with each other throughout the journey, and the second game bc how enjoyable the gameplay is.

I guess LR will always be the least one huh.. It's been controversial since its release until now for fans of the trilogy.

I really want to know the reason for ur answered, so feel free to let us know in the tags/comments because talking about it is the goal of this poll!

[aquatark]

Can I ask your opinion on Endless Ocean Luminous?

Thanks for the ask anon! :D

I've been trying to get my thoughts on this game together into something that makes sense for a while now, but no better time than the present!

tldr: I seem to like it more than most people! I think this game is alright though it's still very flawed, and I'm still enjoying myself with it, but it seems very clearly rushed and it shows. I'm still very happy that the series has a third entry at all, and am looking forward to the future of the series after this game!

...okay, now I'm gonna aimlessly ramble for wayyy too long lmao (spoilers under the cut if you haven't played)

So, to get a few of my biggest gripes out of the way:

Having completed it... the plot is god awful (esp the ending, iykyk). I think I would have preferred having none at all, but Daniel is cool

The English voice of Sera isn't ideal, though this is an issue other languages (like Japanese, French) don't seem to have

The setting, character development, and lore is much more shallow, uninteresting, and poorly-explored through gameplay than any other diving game Arika has made, which is saying a lot bc EO1's plot was invented pretty close to release, and is known for also not being great

The game doesn't run as smoothly as I'd like. maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I remember a time when devs didn't feel like they could release their game if it crashes as often online as this game does

Some of this game's creature textures are far less polished than they ought to be for a Switch game. Surprisingly, most of the ones ported from Arika's defunct mobile fishing game are fine! It's stuff like the megamouth shark and bigfin reef squid that really stand out to me as sub-par

I'm not as bothered about this as some ppl seem to be, but I would have liked a little more customization freedom, ala EO2's suit cuts

Many creature descriptions are copied verbatim from EO2, which I really dislike. wasted a perfect opportunity to highlight different aspects of creatures, not rehash the same tired and basic facts

Though I love the concept of dynamic time of day underwater, it's executed very poorly imo. Could have done with some more fine-tuning (something that could be said abt... a lot of this game lol)

All of this however only detracts a little from my enjoyment of the game overall.

The fact that something like the story can be shipped in the final product with a dev team that shares many many people with the original EO games (seriously, compare the staff lists on the wiki, I genuinely teared up seeing so many familiar faces again)... suggests to me that this game was subjected to crazy time constraints, though I don't have any concrete proof. Nintendo has been known recently to be anti-crunch with some of its biggest IPs, so maybe an Arika problem? Regardless, this game shouldn't have released in the condition it's in, and definitely should not be the price it is.

I really don't like being too negative though, so I won't be! After all, and this may be controversial coming from an EO blog... but the various flaws of Arika's previous diving games made this not be the biggest surprise to me. I mean, I 100%ed EO1, including collecting every salvage and getting all gear/hairstyles! Do you have any idea how hellish that is? I eat slop for breakfast!!

I've still been playing a lot of this game with my dear friend MDB (us pictured below), and there are a lot of things I like about it!

I will, for example, drool all over this game's sound design till the day my son "dies" in a tragic submarine accident. Ayako Saso (main talent behind Everblue 1/2, EO1/2, and Luminous' original compositions and sound in general) knocked it out of the park as usual, with the menu sfx feeling really Everblue reminiscent in a way I adore, and the music easily being some of the best in the series. I know many fans are disappointed by there being no vocal tracks, but honestly? While I like the fact EO1 and 2 had them, they simply wouldn't have fit in this game. So I'm chill about it.

I think the random generation and focus on multiplayer are fun and fresh for the series! I have EO1 and 2 when I want polished singleplayer gameplay, and this game when I feel like something else. EO1 and 2's multiplayer objectively sucked, so it's a really interesting angle to take. The gameplay loop is entertaining enough for me - I like salvaging, scanning creatures, collecting tags, and hunting orbs, both in solo and shared dives. The framework is solid, but could use a little more meat.

The fact they were finally able to realize the "Ancient Sea" concept that had been thrown around during development since EO1 is lovely. Despite having been a dinosaur kid, I'm not really knowledgeable on any of the species depicted in-game, so their designs don't bother me... I'm just a sucker for human ruins overrun by prehistoric life!

Though there are some categories of sea creature that I'm a little sad not to see anymore, like seadragons, sea slugs, and many marine mammals... I don't mind this game's different roster. I like the creature variety, because imo, it would have been a little boring and predictable to have the roster just be every creature that was previously in EO, plus some new ones. This system avoids the kind of problem Pokémon games are currently having, where they have so many critters that they can't possibly put them all in one game, but fans are upset not to have the entire dex ported, y'know? It's like playing EO for the first time again!

I've seen several people theorize that the series was "intentionally sabotaged with a bad new game, so that they have an excuse not to make any more EO games", and... I mean... all I'll say about that is that there's no use killing something that's already dead lol. There'd been no games for over a decade, and very little demand for one - why would a game company looking to make money put so much effort and money into marketing, development, pre-order bonuses, and My Nintendo rewards in order to create hype for a game that's bad on purpose... when they could have kept the series dead for free? Nintendo clearly believe the concept of diving games has legs (or fins ig), with a staff team who love the ocean and dive irl, and are trying new things to see if it sticks better than the previous four games they've made, which collectively sold worse than Luminous did.

It may not all be great, or even good, but experimentation and trying unconventional things is what made EO such a special series in the first place baybee! We just remember the parts of it we liked, and forget the really dumb stuff. The EO team has never been perfect, and I can see their smudgy fingerprints all over this game... I mean, these are the same devs who didn't notice a crash so bad it had their game recalled, and repeatedly yoinked copyrighted material without permission to use in their games... but that's a long post for another day lol.

Soooo yeah! Those are some of my thoughts! Feel free to express your own thoughts on the game here - I'd be curious what other people think, and I'd be more than happy to answer more asks on specific elements of the game, or just getting me talkin' about this game, or any other game in the series for that matter! Any EO questions at all, ask away~!

Thanks for reading, hehe! >( ')

[sol-consort]

Okay, me again. I was watching more of those modded gameplays again this time it was Tali's and OMG SHE TAKES OFF HER MASK?!?!?!?! That's so crazy!

(P.S. Also idk if this is true or not and I'm too lazy to check rn but I saw in the comments of that video that the game was gonna allow more same sex relationships but then Fox News threatened to get the game banned and also the whole commotion about femshep and Liara? Like, I'm sorry?? Can queer people have one fucking thing, please?)

(P.P.S. I think Tali was gonna be one of the characters that both male and female shep were allowed to romance, and that's why I think there's like romantic dialog left over even as femshep)

Sadly the Fox News controversy is true

ME1 released in 2007 and this segment aired in 2008, it contained a lot of false information about how explicit the sex scenes were, causing a massive backlash from the general public. Liara's romance was especially demonised.

Bioware had done queer characters and romance before, but it was more on the subtle side with games that never got much publicity to begin with. So to put a lesbian romance on the same level and seriousness as the other two straight romance options was blasphemous in people's eyes at the time.

There were rumours about ME1 Kaidan being bi but then scrapped because of maleshep romance dialogue lines people found in the gamefiles, but bioware claims that it wasn't cut content, just a mixed up script that got sent to his voice actor.

Notably, in ME2, there is a huge lack of main queer relationships. Liara wasn't added until the DLC, Kelly is an npc that doesn't have a route. Sleeping with Mornith causes a game over screen and she is an optional recruit that you've very discouraged to pick by the game.

All the main relationships were gutted and scrubbed from any hint of queerness. Thanks to Fox News, Jack, Tali, Thane, Miranda, and Jacob had dialogue lines and romance flags for same-gender Shep.

Jack took the biggest hit, however, as she was meant to be THE bi rep, but the fox news segment made Bioware pull the plug and turn her straight last minute. Her femshep romance was practically done.

In ME3, they did listen to the community, and Kaidan was turned bi thanks to the mix-up lines accidentally recorded in ME1. Plus getting an exclusively gay/lesbian romance option.

Steve and Samantha are more well-rounded characters than Kelly, they contain more depth and actual personality...but, they do fall short in comparison to the rest of the romance-able characters. The game considered their romance a main route unlike Kelly who still let you go have other relationships, you could "Lock in" with both of them.

A huge part of why they don't feel as important is because you can't take them on missions with you, they're stationary set pieces almost. The crew fighting alongside you helps create a special bond, why even EDI feels closer to the player than both of them despite her being in a relationship with Joker.

So besides Steve and Samantha, Liara and Kaidan remain the only gay romance options in the Mass Effect Trilogy.

-

Final note: I really like how Thane—a deeply spiritual and religious character—was supposed to be queer without it creating conflict within his belief system. It helps resonate how different the aliens' culture is, how homophobia could be a man–human–made concept in the Mass Effect world. How it's only us who used religion as an excuse way to shun queer people, while the rest of the galaxy didn't even consider it.

In ME3, there is an overhead dialogue about a human soldier talking to the asari embassy about finding refugee for her asari daughter, maybe send her back home. She mentions how all her human family basically abandoned her the day she married her asari wife, homophobia heavily implied.

You don't hear a story like that from any other alien who married an asari, I really think homophobia is exclusive to humans. It's both shameful but also a relief that at least the rest of the galaxy have their priorities sorted right. We could learn a thing or two.

[freakattack]

Thoughts on the Paper Mario series?

PAPER MARIO 64

Cute. I think it's a solid introduction to the series and while the story is simpler than the ones that follow it, its characters and writing were lots of fun and it did a lot to flesh out Mario's world and set the stage (metaphorically and literally) for future entries. As an adult I think that some things aged pretty poorly (namely, Dry Dry Outpost and Yoshi Village), which is an unfortunate black mark against an otherwise charming game. Also introduced the indomitable Kammy Koopa everybody say hi Kammy Koopa

BEST TRACK: Ghost Gulping

PAPER MARIO: THE THOUSAND YEAR DOOR

This is the zenith of mario games we may never see another like this again I thought I would be able to type a coherent paragraph about this but I think I might instead have to be put down. It is the perfect balance of humor, drama, and sentimentality. It is also in my opinion the most exciting adventure in the series, right off the bat your hub world is a legendary city full of thieves and gangsters with a noose in the middle, and then you get to ride a BOAT and a TRAIN and a BLIMP to get to the most grandiose locations your 10-year-old brain can handle. One of them is the moon. All of your partners are lovable and well-written, and even the NPCs have a surprising amount of depth despite the ambient wackiness of the game. One thing I will say though is that I don't like Pennington much, I think I would have liked him more if I met him earlier in the game but right off the heels of the blast that was Chapter 5 he just feels like a store-brand Flavio. Also, this game has a giant supercomputer in it that falls in love with you and likes Chopin so obviously I'm going to like it anyway moving on

BEST TRACK: The song that plays at the beginning of the game when you're on the boat

SUPER PAPER MARIO

Simultaneously the funniest and most melodramatic Paper Mario game, Super Paper Mario is so far out to sea from your standard Mario Game that I wouldn't be surprised if it's what made Nintendo reel the paper marios following it way in. The shift from turn-based combat to exclusively platforming was controversial at the time but I thought it was perfect, the 3D flipping was unique but not so gimmicky that it ground the gameplay to a halt. I'm not the biggest fan of the art style shift and compared to Rogueport the hub world(s) here are pretty depressing but I respect it. I do think that the melodrama gets laid on a little thick at times for what it is, I think that where TTYD had the perfect balance between humor and drama, SPM swings like a pendulum between looking at the camera and very making fun of itself or taking itself so intensely seriously that you feel like you're reading a fanfiction, with very little in-between. Where the serious parts of TTYD are pretty down-to-earth (Bobbery moving on from his dead wife, Vivian escaping a transphobic home life), SPM's are definitely not (A guy can't find his girlfriend so he tries to destroy the multiverse and Mario and Luigi go to hell and stop Armageddon and an evil clown also tries to destroy the multiverse because he wants to be God), so it all feels a little goofy. But in a way that is part of its charm, so I forgive it.

BEST TRACK: You already know what it is. I'm not conceding this to him.

PAPER MARIO: STICKER STAR

OK so right off the bat I don't have a weirdly sexual image to put here so that's how you know it's bad. Jokes aside, I have a confession to make: I never actually played this game. I actually got laughed at for this last week but I don't care god dammit i LIKE going on message boards and complaining about games I've never played, and I have hatewatched enough playthroughs to feel entitled to talk about it. This fucking sucks man. The writing sucks, the stickers suck, the 1 original character sucks, I can't even say the hub world sucks because they don't even have a hub world. Bowser doesn't even say anything. That's fucked up to do in a series where the glowing highlight of every game is the shit that Bowser says. He says nothing. What is there to say? The only thing I will concede is that the soundtrack is delightful, and I do enjoy the glaring prominence of Kamek in the absence of any actual characters. That being said, it's been long enough and talked about enough that I'm beating a decomposing horse here. I have no unique opinions on Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

BEST TRACK: Malevolent Magikoopa

PAPER MARIO: COLOR SPLASH

I didn't play this one either, blow me. I did watch all the koopaling boss battles though, obviously, so all I can really speak on are the little snippets of dialogue they give you before and after each fight. And I only have two things to say: number one, I hate that this series has reduced Morton Koopa Jr. to a caveman-talking meathead, that's such a shitty thing to do to the only dark-skinned Koopaling who wasn't even portrayed like that in the fucking nineties. He deserved better than this. And number two, Ludwig makes a joke about a "prelude in Sea-major" because he's on a battleship but while his boss music could have been an epic melodramatic number like he deserves, not only is it completely underwhelming but it isn't even in C-major this game sucks

BEST TRACK: Wendy's battle theme

PAPER MARIO: ORIGAMI KING

If you thought my commentary on each Paper Mario game was getting increasingly more inane, you're gonna LOVE this one: I actually did start playing this game, but I dropped it mid-playthrough because I didn't think the dragon was cool enough. Moral of the story is don't ever let me become a game reviewer, goodnight and goodbye

[scrunkore]

Scrunkore Media "Thread" 2023: Part 2

welcome back to the scrunko core

14) Ib (Switch, 2023)

One of the real classics of RPG Maker horror games, upgraded for the modern age in just a few little ways that manage to keep the experience feeling as it should. Ib has a perfectly bizarre and creepy atmosphere, making really good use out of its excellent concept of being trapped in a living art gallery, with decent enough puzzles to keep you engaged throughout. I'm a big fan of its vibes and its exploration of loneliness and art in general, and it has a really strong trio of characters and various different endings that I found myself liking a lot. Now's as good a time as any to check this game out. [4.5★]

15) Everything Everywhere All At Once (Movie, 2022)

Kind of a critical darling as well as an audience favourite around when it came out, and yeah, I agree with everyone else - this movie is fantastic. Really good and creative direction in an absolutely wild ride through parallel universes, family and generational trauma that I'm told can hit really hard for the Chinese-American demographic and others like it but can be enjoyed by just about anyone. It uses its ideas pretty much perfectly, and it has a whole multiverse of them to play with; I was fully engaged throughout the whole experience. It deserved those awards. [5★]

16) Fire Punch (Manga, 2016-2018)

Tatsuki Fujimoto's earlier manga series, wrapping up just before his biggest claim to fame began, really can feel like Chainsaw Man's fucked up older brother - and it kind of is, really. It does touch on some of the same things, but the world is even harsher and the suffering even greater, and the overall mood can seem a lot more nihilistic, but there is hope in there still. It's also a harder read than Chainsaw Man, but it stands alone as a rough tale of struggling through an apocalyptic world, and it gets bonus points from me for its heartbreaking trans character I don't want to spoil. I'm not sure how much I'd recommend it, with the particular kinds of misery involved feeling gratuitous at times, but I am glad I read it. [4★]

17) Super Lesbian Animal RPG (PC, 2022)

The title kind of says it all here, this is a superb RPG about anthro animal girls in lesbian relationships, and it does an excellent job at delivering exactly that with a lot more besides. The whole cast is likeable, even the asshole characters, and the story is a mix of really good fun and powerful emotional beats, naturally being queer as hell to boot. I really appreciate the gameplay too, it's by default a fairly easy game until pretty late, but it's quite well-balanced and goes out of its way to ensure you'll never even think about grinding (levels cap at 30, even), plus a lot of the fights are just really fun. Excellent visuals and incredible soundtrack too, just a perfectly well-rounded super lesbian animal RPG that I have no real complaints with at all. [5★]

18) Tembo the Badass Elephant (PC, 2015)

A little controversial back when it released for daring to be a Game Freak game not on either of the Nintendo consoles in circulation at the time, this game is... well, it's fine. Just a decent enough 2D action platformer that feels like if you modded Wario into a Sonic game with how you can speed through levels smashing up everything in your way, but the level design and even the odd boss fight reminds me of some of the worst parts of Sonic games at times, so I'm not super fond of it. It does have plenty of charm though, with a fun cartoony artstyle and some 3D setpieces that do make one wonder why it wasn't on 3DS. Controlling a badass action hero elephant saving as many people as possible is a neat idea, too. [3★]

19) Picross 3D (DS, 2009)

There have been many different takes on Picross over the years, under many different names as well, but almost nobody has done it quite like HAL did with Picross 3D. It feels like a whole different breed of puzzle, and it is indeed nothing like regular 2D Picross - the transformation into cube-based puzzles makes things far more advanced, often more difficult, and a lot more rewarding. There's not much more to this game other than the massive amount of puzzles to solve and the option to create your own, but it doesn't really need anything else. Some puzzles are extremely hard, but that's alright, and the game is the perfect fit for the DS hardware. [4★]

20) Picross 3D Round 2 (3DS, 2015)

I technically played this a bit later, but I think it makes sense to put this next to the first game. HAL managed to do it again, innovating further on the 3D Picross concept with different shapes that you can turn blocks into - a simple change, but one that goes surprisingly far towards making the game more enjoyable. It's a lot comfier with its presentation too, and there's even some surprisingly great music in there. Not much more to it than that, but it's still filled to the brim with a huge amount of puzzles, including bonus special Amiibo unlocks (there is a homebrew program to bypass this), and that's all I can ask of it once again. I'd hope for a third round, but I don't know that I'd like it as much without stylus controls... [4.5★]

21) The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (PC, 2023)

Sonic coming out of nowhere on April Fool's with a shockingly high-effort "joke" project was unexpected, but that blue hedgehog does have a way of blindsiding you. The game is a small but lovingly made point-and-click revolving around a murder mystery party with a few fun twists happening towards the end, and it's pretty funny for the most part, so that's the "joke" part down. On top of that, it has a really solid grasp of the characters and how to write them, seemingly on par with the IDW comics, which is more than we've seen from most of the games until fairly recently. It's something of a breath of fresh air, with plenty of fanservice, and my only real complaint is the "THINK!" segments being kind of... not very good. But as a whole, this game is really nice, and I hope they do more creative projects like this in the future. They even got the "self-insert" protagonist right, because they're such a weird and silly one. They should murder Sonic more often! [4★]

22-23) Escaped Chasm/Dweller's Empty Path (PC, 2019/2020)

I'd like to group these together, because they're kind of part of the same interesting project from Temmie Chang (yes, the Undertale Temmie). Both very short RPG Maker games with zero combat and a focus on exploring all the dialogue and plot you can get out of them. Both games have their dark elements, but Escaped Chasm definitely has the most - it's got some upsetting bits, and the ending is rather bittersweet, but I did enjoy the short tale of the lonely girl. It kind of serves as a prequel to Dweller's Empty Path, though you won't know it until you see a certain part. Speaking of which, that game is pretty nice, mostly just being a walking simulator that you can end at any time by going to bed, but there is quite a bit of dialogue for you to see that fleshes out the world and characters, with hints at what might be to come in the future. Both games adopt a Game Boy style pixel art look with minimal colour palettes and I kind of like that about them, and the developer managed to rope in Toby Fox and Camellia for musical contributions, which is awesome. Overall, the games feel like they're setting up something rather interesting, also being rather interesting in themselves, and I hope Temmie is able to do more with this in the future. [3.5★]

24) OFF (PC, 2008)

Another certified RPG Maker classic that has somehow never been re-released in any form, unless you count the official English translation from 2011, and it's certainly an odd one. The vibes are deeply unsettling throughout, the morality of the protagonist is dubious at best, and it has all kinds of strange setpieces showcasing the utterly bizarre lore of its equally bizarre world. It's kind of hard to tell what it's even really about, but it contains themes relating to religion, illness, capitalism and more besides. There are even multiple endings, including a random joke one serving as a "reward" for beating a strange and lengthy secret boss, and honestly I think the game is more of a weird French art piece than anything else. The puzzles and battle system do kind of suck in several areas, so it's all about the feeling of the game in the end, and it certainly made me feel... something. I don't think anyone completely understands this game, but I do like what it tries to do, and I respect it. [3.5★]

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[chandelierslayer]

Finished Tri Force Heroes and Oracle of Ages today. Now there are only four Zelda games I haven't completed yet. I'm taking a break before I work on any of them though, because the only one I'm really looking forward to is FSA, and I'm probably saving that for last.

I DID say we would talk about Echoes of Wisdom, didn't I?

I... I love it. It is definitely the best Zelda game that's come out for... MANY years now. I was overrun by hype at first, but now that my hype has subsided, I'm able to form more sincere opinions. Some spoilers below the cut...

I love the world, first and foremost. I absolutely adore it. A Link to the Past is the Zelda I spent most of my childhood playing, and its world is sacred to me, and I will always hold it dear to my heart. So to not only bring that world into a larger scale, make it pop the way they did, but to EXPAND on that world, show us some stuff to the West and East of its boundaries, is truly a gift I have the utmost appreciation for, and will cherish for a long time to come, if not forever. It hurts to see some things different, but of course things are going to be different. I would have LOVED to go inside the Desert Palace, for instance, or to have the Tower of Hera still exist. Though I love that Turtle Rock is just a yeti's house, like, excellent usage for that. But there are so many nods to ALttP (and the classic series as a whole) in this game, and I've squee'd with joy more times than I can count!

As for the characters: I love Tri, I love this Zelda, I love all the non-binary Deku Scrubs, they make my heart happy. I love the NPCs in general, they're cute and it's wonderful to get a feeling for their personalities. I absolutely adore the main NPCs! Dohna is my number-one favorite! But they're all so wonderful!

The gameplay is super fun, I love creating armies of monsters. I wish there were Dodongos, but sadly, no... But at least I have Keese and Wolfos and all kinds of other wonderful monsters! I love how powerful Swordfighter Mode can become! The clockwork mechs are really cool, but I gotta confess, I very rarely used any of them. Much more effective to just use a monster. I love the dungeons in this game, the puzzles are super fun (for the most part) and there were some really cool bosses! The dungeons were mostly a lot less complex than I had originally thought, and it's kind of a letdown, but when you consider all the new kinds of puzzles, or new solutions to old puzzle types, it pretty much evens out.

The story was... well, a story. I loved getting to interact directly with the three Goddesses! And like I mentioned, the main NPCs are wonderful - they really made this game's story shine. But there was one thing I really, really disliked. And if you've finished the game, I'm sure you saw this coming.

When we finally reunite with Link and are about to start the final gauntlet, we just... give him his weapons back. Just like that. He gets his weapons back, and we get... nothing. I felt like this was the biggest failure of the game. A huge missed opportunity. I seriously thought that there was going to be an anime-like scene where Zelda awakened the true power inside her and got her own version of swordfighter mode that didn't rely on weapons (or something!). But the time went on and... nothing.

I've... seen a lot of arguments lately on whether or not this is sexist. IS it sexist to take away a woman's power and give it to a man without giving her anything in return? ...Yes. I don't think that's a controversial statement. But whether or not you think it's sexist, you've got to admit that it's messed up to treat Zelda this way, in the one game where she gets to be the main character.

I honestly had such a bad time of the final boss, because I felt like the wind was taken out of my sails. I got the impression that I could've just stood there and done nothing but dodge, and we'd still win. That's so ridiculous. The ending of this game could have been done so much better.

*siiiiigh*

With that one huge thing out of the way, here's my verdict: Echoes of Wisdom is a great game. I recommend it to everyone. I don't appreciate the final part of the game (other than the Lost Woods, that was really great), but the rest of it is a lot of fun. I can definitely see myself replaying it sometime this year. Does it go in my top five...? Eh... Not really. Probably in the top ten, though. And I'm really hoping we get more Zelda games with Zelda as the main character. She deserves the spotlight. More than anything, though, I want a Zelda that feels like classic Zelda, even more than this did. If that means more remakes, bring it on! I would love Oracles remakes. And I've said it before, but I'll say it again: Zelda II needs a remake more than anything else does.

[tomsonwalston]

The Last of US Part II Game Download

When Ellie meet her emaciated enemy hanging from the survey and, rather than thinking gleeful satisfaction, feels only horror and shame, she measured with prayer and mercy next, during which instant, became those we expected she would become. It was on Ellie finding her own redemption. Abby is not a sympathetic makeup then zero the game tries do us like the woman, although I want to like Ellie.

Even Abby showed mercy—not once, but twice—to Ellie, after all. Depending about how people enjoy, people also sneak or blast your way through the Resort area until you free some hostages then they explain to Abby has also been selected with penalized for attempting to break. And so people visit the sand as the prisoners go to where i could download the last people part ii battle with their former captors (or what’s left of them with Ellie cut her soft journey throughout the positions). But the moment again we have a different grouping of wicked bastards to contend with. The Rattlers aren’t as psycho as the Scars, but they’re end. They go on servants and crucify troublemakers down with the beach.

It is in this particular instant in which Ellie is confronted with an option to both side the adventure of retribution and experience the life she has developed with Dina and JJ -- or practice Abby. Something we do know remains to increases could possibly demand to accompany new from the infected when The End of Us returns. "That entirely potential to there will be a lot more infected later," Mazin told Variety.

Ellie maintains the upper hand in the dispute in the emaciated and agreed Abby. Into what would take happened Abby's last minutes being died in Ellie, she is given mercy after Ellie holds a image of Joel peacefully remaining about their porch enjoying their guitar. In the last times on the Preceding People Part 2, Abby gets escaped just about everybody she fears about. Joel destroyed her dad now several days earlier, and now Owen, Nora, and Mel (and Owen and Mel's unborn baby) hold most become eliminated on the offer of Ellie. Abby has been exiled by the WLF for helping Owen like he remained blamed with neglect, and she's witnessed Yara offer her time on her and Lev to escape.

The Last of US Part II Download PC Made clear with Less than 140 Characters

They return to the outpost worked as a temporary hideout by Abby's group, former Fireflies now part of the Washington Liberation Front (WLF), a militia company established in Seattle, California. The knot attack Joel and Tommy; Abby seeks revenge against Joel for killing her daddy, the Firefly surgeon (Derek Phillips) who was to accomplish the surgery with Ellie. Meanwhile, Ellie with the girl lover, Dina the last people part 2 download pc (Shannon Woodward), hunt for the brothers. Ellie writes the WLF station and watches Abby beat Joel near ruin. Abby spares Ellie and Tommy, who claim revenge. Relatedly, if the tip on the Final people was controversial for the right reasons, Part 2's doesn't quite area with because significantly subversive tact, still does absolutely nothing to help undo the hint on the journey run around the ultimate scene.

Elements of Ellie's story, and even Abby's, are scattered throughout the gameplay with the complete picture not fully visible until the conclusion. One of the biggest shows, about halfway from the competition, becomes which Joel and Ellie had become estranged when she restored to Salt Lake Location with worked out he keep toward the girl at the end on the opening The Last people. The final bit of the puzzle doesn't occur pending the point from the ready, after Ellie relents on her search to destroy Abby and in fact allows her living. Upset with top, Ellie recalls the last conversation the girl owned with Joel, in which they started to reconcile then the girl instructed him which she would forgive him, that happened the night or he became killed.

She’s going to cut and cut her some while then allowed the girl get over. Their moral that we’re every so incredibly, same dead before today. A new new hell packed in 30 times of grimdark violence, atrocity and betrayal. A powerful instant to had to come much, much earlier. exactly The Last of (Honestly, they will get slipped California completely then included Ellie find Abby strung up from the Wounds in Seattle). Abby and Lev, along with countless others, are holding by places, basically crucified also within the margin of dying, skeletal from starvation.

(That’s the biggest increase for an HBO original drama in history.) Suffice to say individuals live also wait spent in the edition of the PlayStation series, that itself has gone millions of copies around two sports. Prepare for more of the clicker sounds The Last people Part 2 Download PC jumping near the head. With putting HBO viewership records, zombie apocalypse thriller The Last people is advanced for an additional term, bringing Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal ago while emotionally disturbed psuedo-father-daughter duo Ellie and Joel.

There were a little quite critical populations within the new Last Individuals, however I never turned our taste how I did with the Scars. I earn to happy as to me, the memorial attack became the most effective piece of storytelling from the whole activity. In the flashback, Joel takes Ellie to a surprise. The Last people Part II Download PC She strives to help deduce what it is along the way, with the two banter fund then on like the great other period. The physicians that chose to place not in their own full moral with proper values by giving up a news daughter from the off-chance they can produce a treatment were wrong.

[kanohivolitakk]

Is it just me or does Three Hopes feel like an official fix-it fic on Three Houses in a weird way?

A lot of Three Hopes feels..fanservicy, for a lack of a better term. Im not talking about the T&A type of fanservice (unless fem!Shez counts haha) but more things the games fans want to see/wish were different. Things like every character getting a beautiful redesign, a playable Monica who (most likely) isn't slithered, Jeralt being alive, us finally seeing Holst and Caspars dad not to mention the game having better graphics than Three Houses did. All of those are things that the fans wished in one way or another. Heck, even things like Byleth being an antagonist or Shetz being their own character rather than a silent vessel could be seen as a way to fix “PC is a silent protagonist with next to no characterization” as well as a way to give Byleth actual character and agency rather than having them be Fodlans instant fix-it button like they were in Three Houses.

And Im really mixed on this since on onehand this is a perfect opportunity to fix out things of the original game that didnt work, whether it be things like storybeats, characterizations, streamlining/explaining/retconning the lore or even gameplay aspects. As much as I love Three Houses, its far from a perfect game, and Three Hopes could seek to iron out some of its parent games bigger issues. There’s a lot they could coursecorrect from the weirder plotpoints to gameplay hiccups. Heck, we could get more gay S-supports if we are lucky, since Intsys is aware of the controversy and said they would try to give us more gay supports in future installments, so there’s a possibilitythat Dimitri and Claude could be romanceable to male player as well, among other things.

But at the same time, as much as I’m happy Intsys and Koei are listening to the fans (or at least giving us what we want). There’s lot of good criticism to be had about Three Houses, but just as much as there’s good criticism there’s things that I’d call...shallow criticism for lack of a better word. Things that are less genuine issues and more..nitpicks or someone being unhappy with the story. Just because you didn’t like Ferdinand’s hairstyle post-timeskip or one or two supports doesn’t mean they’re inherently bad writing. That sort of thing, that comes from personal complaints, rather than actual issues with the game.

Probably the biggest example of this is the possibility of Three Hopes being a “golden ending” of Three Houses. While the most recent trailer put some doubts into that, there’s still the possibility, given how we see the three lords teaming up and working together in the trailers.

And as happy as the fangirl side of me is on the concept of the three lords setting apart their differences to fight against a common good, the more analytical side of me is somewhat nervous on this. Because the whole point of Three Houses was that no lord was completely in the right or in the wrong, that they were too stubborn to come to a compromise and that no ending was completely happy, because the idea of a “good outcome” varied wildly from lord to lord. That was the point of the game and part of the message I feel Koei TECMO and Intelligent Systems wanted to send with Three Houses.

And people didn’t like that. They wanted their happy ending, an ending where the lords just sit back, talked down and joined together. Even if that does go against the core idea behind the game, the core message. People really want a golden ending no matter what.

So what if Intsys decides to double it down and make a Golden Ending for no other reason than so they can have a Golden Ending. While it can work, at worst it will ring hollow and go against the core ideas of the game.

I don’t know just...while the idea of Three Hopes being an “fix-it” of Three Houses makes me excited and nervous. Because it can act as a good way to fix core issues Three Houses had or just be a shallow fanservice that makes fans happy without thinking if that goes against what Three Houses tried to set to do.

[cassimopeia]

Historical Simblr Tag Game

I've seen this tag game floating around my dash a lot lately! So I decided to give it a try. Answers below the cut! 💖

1. What has been your favorite time period to play in or which one are you most excited for?

If you can't tell from my story, I love love love the aesthetic of the 1920s. In my first attempt at a legacy, the 20s was the most fun to play, and I can't wait to make it there in my new legacy!!

2. Do you have a favorite piece of historical cc? (CAS or BB)

So much. Basically everything by @gilded-ghosts and @happylifesims.

3. Who is your favorite sim currently?

My new legacy starter, Ottilia. I love the story I created for her so far and I can't wait to share it!

4. What is your favorite world?

Windenburg for sure. I love the style of old town, I love the countryside, I love the island (which is where I'm building my school of magic), and the bluffs is probably one of my favorite lots ever, just for the view. Henford and Brindleton Bay come in close second though!

5. Are you more gameplay or story focused?

Since I'm a writer I tend to gravitate more toward stories; I do like keeping it simple with gameplay sometimes, but I also feel like it's missing a lot of the drama and depth that I crave, so I like to take gameplay and either direct it or embellish it.

6. Do you like to play with pets in your historical saves?

I try but dying pets makes me so so sad! Way more sad than when my sims die lmao.

7. What's your biggest immersion breaking pet peeve with the game?

Anything to do with their cell phone. I have a mod that disables them from playing with it randomly, but I hate the calls and texts they get!

8. What's your favorite in-game historical item? (CAS or BB)

The laundry washbasin for sure (and the clothesline). Laundry Day is already one of my fave packs and I love that they incorporated non-electric ways of washing/drying clothes.

9. What would you like to see as a new pack or asset to the game?

This is silly but. A freakin teapot that's not an appliance. Even just the tea set already in game made functional (I swear there used to be a mod for this but I've searched high and low and can't find it anymore). Let my fancy Victorian ladies drink tea!!!!

10. What pack do you think is invaluable as a historical simmer?

Definitely Cottage Living. Before that I would have said Get Together, just for the world and the build/buy objects.

11. Do you have a favorite mod to enhance historical gameplay?

The Timeless mod. I know it hasn't been updated in a while, but the reason my favorite lot is the bluffs in Windenburg is because the Timeless mod makes it SO perfect by removing all the DJ stuff. It's just a cliff and a bonfire and an old pond and a view of the sea ♥

12. What's your ideal family size for playing?

Probably 4-5. I've had a couple 1 sim families recently and they bore me to tears without fail every time. For a legacy, 1-3 kids is a sweet spot.

13. Do you use poses?

I used to not use poses in my legacy but I'm trying to use them more now to integrate more storytelling!

14. Do you use any overrides in your game?

The override for books that @moon-simmers just put out is *CHEF'S KISS*. I also use a clothesline clothes override, and default skin/eyes of course.

15. Do you, or did you, play off-the-grid during your game?

I didn't in my first legacy, but I never tried it before so I'm doing it in my new legacy! It's surprisingly difficult but really fun!

16. What lifespan do you play on?

Okay this is gonna be controversial but I used to play on short, because I was afraid I would get bored with the legacy before I could get very far. The downside was that I never felt like any of my sims were very well developed before I had to say goodbye to them. So for my new legacy I'm going to play on normal and see where that takes me.

17. What inspired you to start playing historically?

I started playing a historical legacy back in my TS3 days because I liked the cc clothes and the architecture and I wanted to challenge myself. Also because someone released a Riverview edit called Jefferson that was empty and historical-themed, so I thought it would be fun to start a farm/historical legacy there. Then when I bought TS4, I found the Upgrowth Challenge, then decided to make a tumblr, and now seeing all the decades challenges on my dash has inspired me to start my own!

I'm not sure who on my dash hasn't done this meme yet... @nexility-sims @p1x1e-sims...? Regardless, if you haven't done this yet and want to, consider yourself tagged!

[ganon-binary]

Overwatch Heroes Ranking & Honest Opinions part 3

Part 3 of my ranking and opinions of the playable characters of Overwatch. Last one started a bit negatively but i'll make up for it with this one. Parts 1, 2 and 4.

Mako "Roadhog" Rutledge: 8/10

A great contrast to his best buddy, Junkrat. Rich backstory and great personality, He is the grumpy and cool uncle of this group. Really interested to see what they decide to do with his story, especially if the Junker Queen will actually be in the game. His design is very iconic, from the scary hog mask to his cute pig tattoo. He is my least favorite character gameplay wise, but i'll excuse that bc he is so cool. 8/10, i should eat less pork.

Siebren "Sigma" de Kuiper: 3/10

I'll admit to first liking his origin story, which was beautifully produced. Cosmic horror was something that we didn't have in Overwatch yet so his reveal was super exciting. However as a character, Sigma's design is so problematic. Stigmatizing mentally ill people in 2019 was so low. I think they will "fix" his character in OW2 due to backlash so I'll be looking forward to that. Personality wise, he seems like a lovely man, but I am not happy with his personality in his origin story video. Big scary mentally ill villain? Ugh. In game he can be a bit frustrating. 3/10, put those feet away.

Jack "Soldier: 76" Morrison: 6-/10

He is the generic vigilante character. I really like his backstory involving Ana and Gabriel, those 3 have a really good dynamic. Personality wise he is so generic but i think that was the point? Oh and he is gay i guess.. they could have explored that a bit more even though it's not a really big and important part of his character. Kinda bland in the game, i never play him. 6-/10, good on you, gramps.

Sombra: 9+/10

I don't like her fanon portrayal. I get that she has really funny lines but can we stop acting like she is a gremlin and not an actual threat. I really like her personality and her snarky and belittling comments, she clearly sees herself so much superior than everyone else. She is unapologetically a bastard. That being said, I truly think she cares for other people, maybe not many people, but still some people. Was not a big fan of her "portrayal in the "Searching" comic. I really love her OW1 design, a stealth character being covered in neon LED lights is so funny. Not that big of a fan of her OW2 design though. She is my 3rd most played character and i love her kit, and i am anxiously waiting for her rework. 9+/10, never change you magnificent bastard

Satya "Symmetra" Vaswani: 10/10

This character is so important to me, and i love her a lot. She is the character that got me into Overwatch, so she kinda changed my life lmao. She is such a multi dimensional character and i am eagerly awaiting for her storyline in OW2. She is a really beautiful character, but i think her design could be improved in OW2. She is my 2nd most played character and my controversial opinion is that she deserves another rework, she feels so clunky to play compared to other characters. 10/10, you deserve way more love.

Torbjörn Lindholm: 8/10

The meme man himself, Torbjörn is a surprisingly well written character. Being one of the creators of the omnics, his viewpoint of this whole charade is super interesting. He is a hilarious and nasty old man, with the most memeable voice lines in the game. His OW2 design has such nordic dad vibes, i appreciate it a lot. I almost never play him, but he is very fun. 8/10, don't get caught with your beard in the letterbox.

Lena "Tracer" Oxton: 7/10

Culturally a very iconic character, seeing a lesbian character being the poster girl for one of the biggest games in the world was so cool. She is such a energetic ray of sunshine. She just makes me happy. Really dig her design, they really nailed her vibe. The "London Calling" comics were a waste of comics imo. Nothing else to say, she is funky in and out of the game. 7/10, her death screams sound like Link from The Legend Of Zelda.

Amélie "Widowmaker" Lacroix: 9+/10

Widowmaker really is held back by being called "emotionless", because she is not. Detached of her sentiment is much more accurate way of describing her. She is a really proud and boastful lady with an ego the size of Reinhardt. In my opinion her design fits her, because she is so prideful and she definitely thinks herself as the sexiest being in the world. Nobody can tell her shit. Really interested to see what they will do with her in OW2, but personally i don't think she needs a redemption. She is my most played character with almost 500 hours for her. 9+/10, je ne parle pas français.

Winston: 8/10

A scientist. Everyone loves Winston Overwatch. He is such a really cool dude and he really pulls you into the story in every animated short he is in. Can't believe his siblings killed his dad.. that's brutal, man. I never play him. 8/10, no monkey business.

Hammond "Wrecking Ball": 0/10

Literally such a pointless character, he doesn't need to exist. They could have released Sojourn instead of him. Convinced the only reason he exists is because of the plushies. I hope he gets eaten by a snake in OW2. He is so annoying in the game and i love ruining people's day who play him by playing Sombra. 0/10, go away, snake food.

[belliesandburps]

Followup with MGS4 Peace Walker and 5?

History has a funny way of repeating itself. :P

This one's actually gonna be long, so I'll cap it here to spare those uninterested in non-kink posts the burden of having to scroll past this fanboy rant. 'XD

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

3. It's Okay

Soooooo...not a controversial opinion to say that I don't think MGS4 is GREAT. I adored it when it first game out, and I still enjoy replaying it from time to time. But good lord, so many of the interviews shed light on a LOT of this games problems.

Some backstory is required. Hideo Kojima was done with MGS by this point. He planned to move on and leave the series to the younger generation. But then, there was a lot of internal conflict and struggle to determine what MGS4 should be after Fukushima quit (AND was rumored to have been murdered by the Yakuza...how that rumor started...and became a SERIOUS rumor that millions believe, I do not know...). So Kojima came back, course corrected, and the end result was kind of a giant mess.

I'm not talking story because, there's just way too much to unpack. But as a game, MGS4 can't decide what sort of video game it wants to be. It had a brilliant idea that had never been done before with its Battlefield Stealth, which were the best parts of the game. And then they get dropped two acts in, and what gets replaced in their stead is not nearly as fun.

The game had substantially less boss fights than its predecessor, and a lot of them were mechanically simplistic or just didn't let you get creative with how you fought them. And we later learned there were a lot more bosses planned, more gameplay sequences planned, and an entire other PMC group that got canned in favor of the Scarabs so Shadow Moses could be guarded by machines instead.

There's a lot about MGS4 that I love. I think the first two acts are amazing, ESPECIALLY Act 2. I think the mechanics are great. REX vs RAY is criminally fun. The sheer buffet of insane weapons gives the game a good amount of replay value. And the graphics still hold up to this day!

But what I finally realized is that the game juggles way too many ideas and doesn't give any idea the time they deserve to flourish. Battlefield Stealth could've CARRIED MGS4. But it gets dumped before we can get our moneys worth. A disguise sequence could've been really creative, having to juggle different identities with OctoMask every time one identity is burned. But it's only used once and wasted because it's only used for a terrible tailing mission that doesn't let you actually explore the European City. And too many of the action set pieces are kind of bland except the bosses and piloting Metal Gear.

MGS4 should've been MGS4. Not MGS's "Best Hits."

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

1. LOVED it!

I know this is unpopular to say, but I'll say it. Peace Walker is one of the best Metal Gear games ever made. I adored almost everything about it. The gameplay improves on MGS4 in most ways because it doesn't juggle a billion ideas all at once. It's MGS4 stripped down to stealth action from start to finish, and that's all I wanted. The level design is great. The insane volume of guns changes the entire feel of combat in later post-campaign gameplay. The mission select options mean you can jump into all the parts of the game you enjoy the most. There's TONS of bonus missions that are really inventive and fun to replay. And the story is one of the best in the series. It's straight forward, very tight, characterized well, and is the best iteration of Big Boss to date.

Peace Walker's also the FUNNIEST MGS game by Kojima as well. There's so much more personality and levity to everything, to the point where Big Boss often feels like an MCU character. That might sound bad, but it's really not. That corniness fits MGS PERFECTLY, and I'd argue is tonally spot on for this series. MGS doesn't need to be dark, gory or explicit. It's a silly series that's about giant robots, corny bad ass super agents with an anti-nuke message.

The only downsides to Peace Walker are the QTE's and the boss fights. This was a feature that only ever appeared in this game and for good reason...it was fucking terrible. So basically, you had cutscenes that forced you to do various QTE's or else get dinged on your ratings at the end, even if you played perfectly. Fairly minimal, but then, you get to Strangelove's torture. And this is the single most rage-inducing part of any MGS game ever made. It's an insanely physically painful button mashing sequence that will leave your fingers raw and your PS3 triangle buttons jamming. And the ONLY way you can replay one of the best missions in the game (the prison escape where you have no items) is by redoing that sequence over and over. And the boss fights? While inventive, they're all just grindy bullet sponges with no personality, no stealth tactics, and no room for creativity the way you can get creative with every other MGS game's bosses. This was the biggest disappointment for me because the stealth and combat mechanics of PW are great and would've been SO good against human enemies like what Portable Ops had. Instead, every boss is a mini-Metal Gear all voiced by the VOCALOID AI from the mid 2000's, and each one takes forever to destroy. It sucks because PW had a TON of bosses, but only a few of them are any fun, and that's only if you have weapons that are strong enough that they don't take ages to destroy.

But asides from the bosses, the REST of the game is so damn good that I don't even care because that's just one element to a much larger, grander game. Which is even more impressive when you consider PW was originally on the PSP before the PS3 port. And this game has more content and replay value to it than most games I've played since.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

1. LOVED it!

Hooooooookay...so, I've rambled about my storybook romance with MGSV for YEARS now. (Just ask @twistedtummies2, he's been subjected to my fanboying of this game more than anyone in existence XD) But there's a reason I regard this game as one of my all time favorites and the best MGS game to date.

It's REALLY freakin' fun.

Kojima had been re-energized by the time he got to MGSV. He'd been working on the game around the time he finished Peace Walker in 2010. He KNEW it was his final MGS game and wanted to do something completely different...

...He wanted to make a game where the central focus was on...waaaaait for it...the gameplay...

MGSV was designed to be, what he described, as a toybox. You have these missions that all take place in structurally unique outposts like any level in MGS. And the missions are designed with the structure needed so that they all feel different, but all remain so open ended that you can play them countless different ways.

MGSV's game model is everything GTA SHOULD'VE been. It fully embraces the open world freedom and incorporates that into the missions flawlessly. And it plays in such a way that stealth and combat both feel like they were the primary point. In MGS, combat is usually a last resort. But with MGSV, you can fly into an outpost blasting away on your helicopters mini-gun, shoot up the bad guys, rescue your target, throw them back into the chopper and fly away while "The Final Countdown" blares on your choppers loud speakers.

Every method of gameplay is valid and the controls, the enemy AI responsiveness, it's all, bar none, the best I've experienced in ANY video game. Sneaking around feels tight and tense and combat makes you feel like Jack Bauer on adrenaline. (I mean, he IS the voice of Venom Snake)

And I really like the story for the most part too. Its weaknesses are really glaring. Namely, the "Fun" of MGS is completely devoid in the story (which is really odd since it's FRONT AND CENTER in-game). Venom Snake only has maybe six minutes of dialogue in the entirety of this 30+ hour long game. And the way Skull Face gets completely undercut right at the home stretch is something I have NOT stopped bitching about for almost six years, and my friends can personally attest to that.

That and the ending feels too abrupt.

We know that Kojima got fired by Konami's VP and said VP scorched the entire production company after that and made a series of dickheaded decisions that pissed off a LOT of fans, burning much of the good will Konami IP fans had towards the company. But that had nothing to do with MGSV's abruptness. That was the plan from the start because only Kojima would think to end the entire series on a plot twist like that.

And I think the issue isn't the twist at all. In fact, I LOVE the twist. The issue is that the game should've continued beyond it so Venom Snake could cope with the truth and realize how badly he'd been screwed. I think even people who hated the twist could've been won over if there was a little more to the games epilogue than Episode 46.

Also, the games boss fights were a tad underwhelming. Not the fights themselves, I LOVED all five of the games bosses.

Oh? There were twelve?

No. I meant what I said. Because so many of the games bosses are rematches against the same bosses. All MGSV has is the Skulls, Quiet, Eli, The Man on Fire, and Metal Gear. They're great bosses that do everything the best MGS bosses always did; give you tons of options, incorporate combat AND stealth, have varied attacks AND even have multiple methods to sneak around the boss and avoid the fight completely. But for a game as long as MGS, you need more variety. And frankly, the bosses NEED more personality. Skull Face should've had more XOF assassins acting as the bosses in the game along with the ones we have. Elite assassins like Quiet, with their own powers and specialized weaponry so the fights feel completely different from the ones we have. And oh yeah, SKULL FACE HIMSELF SHOULD'VE HAD A GOD-FUCKING-DAMN BOSS FIGHT!!!!

Buuuuuuut those issues don't even matter if for all the games issues, I still replay it frequently when it's almost six years old.

So yeah! There's the massive rant you totally didn't ask for! :D

[welsh-gamer]

Finished Pokemon Sword and Shield

Spoilers below

Ho boy this one has been a doozy - it’s easily the most controversial Pokemon game so far, what with how many changes have taken place. 

Pokemon has managed with annual development cycles for the past 24 years. It’s not like every year has seen the release of a core series game but they’re out enough that you’ll find two or three on every Nintendo console. In fact I think the only console NOT to join in on the fun is the Wii U... It had a bad Pokemon Rumble game but that’s all I remember.  

I went into this game with very low expectations. Having played Persona 5, I knew what a good UI felt like. Persona was responsive, you pressed a button and something happened immediately. In scenarios where your teammates get hit all at the same time it happens, you don’t get hit one by one, and when you’re hit by multi-attacks it just..... shows the attack hitting you or your enemy rather than AGONIZINGLY showing each impact one by one. 

Pokemon is a game with no respect for your time and Sword/Shield do not show remarkable improvements for this area. This is by and large the greatest flaw of the game, which claims to be catering itself to a younger audience when we know no small child will put up with this boring crap in silence.  

The Galar region is a step back from the fantastic Alola region too, with a lack of any proper worldbuilding. In previous Pokemon games you would enter a town and some NPCs would tell you the purpose of the town. Not in this game, where there’s a desert, a snow city, a bunch of other places all with no lore whatsoever. You enter them, fight the gym leader, and leave. 

I think that the core gym challenge, however, is one of the best that has ever been in Pokemon. Instead of just fighting a bunch of randos, you complete minigames called a “gym mission”. Past gens have done this (a prime example being Generation 5), but you can tell that GAME FREAK are taking advantage of the console’s power during these challenges, compared to Gen 7 which had nothing of the sort. The game has actual physics in some of the Gym Challenges. 

Exploring the Galar region at my own pace, being able to selectively encounter Wild Pokemon which now appear in the overworld.... Biggest improvement by far over the previous gens. This one needs to stick. Your quality of life is much better when you can see all the cute pokemon bumbling around. 

I found the characters to be, eh, nowhere near the level of Gen 7′s cast, but pleasant enough to want to see more of. This includes all the gym leaders, the champion Leon, and your pseudorivals Bede and Marnie. Hop, however, is a pain in the backside who becomes more of a loser as the story goes on. I’m not sure if he ever stops being one. No kidding - In the end he just has to accept that he’s a loser and do something else with his life. 

The “villain” was just some guy whose home we invaded. He went “F*** it” and tried to solve the energy crisis, then cried to the Champion when it went wrong. This was all just leadup to the awesome final battle against Eternatus, which has no difficulty at all since you can just sit back and watch the fireworks, but has a rocking soundtrack and feels epic enough.  

The postgame is lacking, no fun minigames like Gen 7, no dark Ultra Beast story like Annabelle’s and Looker’s, but it was servicable enough. You beat up Jedward and catch a puppy.   

The multiplayer aspect is HIGHLY LIMITED. It’s fun to be able to engage in battles against Gigantamax Beasts but it’s repetitive and difficult to matchmake with since you have to join each match individually and many of them are just people exploiting the game’s clock to get the Gigantamax pokemon they want. These people will glitch you out if you try to join them. If you leave the multiplayer on in the Overworld, it has the quality of Dragonball Xenoverse where the ally characters may or may not pop-in every couple of seconds. It’s chaotic and it will slow your game right down.  

The pokemon themselves.... In  a static image they look super boring, but in the Pokemon Camp minigame and during certain battle animations they can look impressive. My favourite was the ladybug pokemon, which is covered in spots that will flicker in its middle stage and outright swirl in its final form. I also enjoyed Scorbunny’s epic kick, everything to do with Sirfetch’d, and a certain fighting type’s special move called “No Retreat” which has all 5 of its components band together in a Spartan march.    

Overall, I would not say the game is worth the high price tag of £50. Get it cheaper if you possibly can.

Ratings below:  

Gameplay: 5 - A servicable battle system but it needs to move much faster. 

Story: 3 - Even the other characters treat the story like it’s interrupting your true journey; Pretty much nonexistent, then crammed into the final 5 minutes before you fight the Champion. This game was better when it was just letting me do my own thing.   

Music: 6 - Not up to Sun/Moon’s standard. Wild battle theme is good. Hometown theme is among the best. Everything else is pretty generic. The basic gym leader theme fights Gym Leader Piers for supremacy. 

Presentation: 2 - Considering the amount of resources this company have and how cheaply it continues to present its games, the only way this could get a lower score is if they went back to what Gen 1 looked like. 

Replayability: 7 - Benefitted greatly by the Switch’s multiple profiles. I could see myself trying a nuzlocke run for laughs. This game also gives you more peace and quiet, making it ironically more replayable than the superior Gen 7. 

Timewasting degree: GAME FREAK. I christen this development team with its own category, because I cannot express enough how much they want to waste the player’s time on innocuous crap. God forbid I play a game which wastes my time more and create the “Worse than GAME FREAK” category. 

Overall total: 4.5 out of 10.  This game has its cute parts but you can do so much better. It’s time to start trying. 

[metalgearkong]

The Last of Us Part II - Review (PS4)

8/14/20 ***SPOILERS***

Developed by Naughty Dog, released June 19th, 2020

The Last of Us was a game I wasn’t originally a huge fan of when it came out in 2013. Despite it receiving astronomical praise by fans and critics, it took me a couple times completing the game before I fell in love with it. What truly made The Last of Us special was not necessarily its concept or gameplay, but its storytelling and characters. The depth of the interpersonal drama and raw emotion on screen was the true core of the game, with the stealth-action, zombies, and other aspects more like icing on the cake. The Last of Us ended up being one of my favorite games of all time strictly based on execution, even if the game as a whole still isn’t perfect. 

The Last of Us Part II was my most highly anticipated game of 2020, and it feels strange to be on the other side of it finally. This game has been polarizing for fans, and as it turns out, I feel conflicted on the game as well. I finished it a month or so ago, but only now getting my thoughts written out. While some aspects are daring, jaw dropping, and gorgeous, other aspects detract from what is an unexpected story not quite living up to its potential. I respect this game more than I love it, and while I do think critics have been too kind in review scores, the exceptionally low user reviews have been far more incorrect. This is a solid, epic, deep, beautiful, emotional campaign which will deliver its money’s worth, but many contentious points will dictate how much you enjoy this blockbuster of a video game.

One of the aspects I like the most about this game is how similar the gameplay is to the original. Many people I suppose would want more change or innovation in the 7 years since The Last of Us, but personally I’ve always been a fan of sequels that retain what I like about a series. If it changes too much, it becomes too detached from what I enjoyed or got used to. Changes Part II makes are subtle, but natural for the genre and world. The player can duck and go prone in waist-high grass to conceal themselves, a dodge button has also been added, and a huge addition to combat and stealth is the addition of attack dogs who patrol with their owners. Dogs can pick up your scent until you distract it, adding to a lot of tension anytime enemy K9s are around. And yes, I found it difficult to shoot the first couple of dogs I encountered as they yelp out in pain when they get hurt or die.

Part II picks up I believe 5 years after the original. Ellie and Joel live in Jackson, the town they town the become a part of at the end of The Last of Us, and seem to be thriving in a community with food, power, and systems in place for relative safety from the outside world. The story is told in a much more chopped up chronology which I found to be detrimental to the pacing. The first game had a straightforward narrative and it worked very well, and this game has to dice up its story to make it seem more complex, but just comes off as pretentious. For example, by the end of the prologue (about a hour and a half) you play as three different characters. This leads into the strange structure of this game’s story, aside from having the linearity chopped up at times. 

The most controversial moment of the game is the moment of Joel’s death and how it occurred. While this event was not unexpected for myself and others, the manner of which he died is what’s justifiably pissing people off. A brand new character is introduced named Abby (and one of the three characters we briefly play as shortly before) and without any background or indication of who she is, brutally tortures and executes Joel in front of Ellie’s eyes. It’s not difficult to see director Neil Druckmann cackling with satisfaction of his subversion of expectations. It’s simply toying with the emotions of fans, and he has to expect and stand by any criticism he’s gotten for how this scene went down. However, this moment does make more sense as the story unfolds, but its no less a heavy handed and manipulative move for the sake of auteur video game storytelling.

Ever since I witnessed the brutal death of one of my favorite video game characters of all time, my only though was “they better justify this.” It was never “this is horrible and irredeemable, and “Naughty Dog is off its rocker,” like many people seem to have reacted. It was gut wrenching, but I knew Naughty Dog has a pension for organic characters, and in the back of my mind I knew I had to give this game its fair shot, and see if and/or how Naughty Dog justified a scene liable to piss off virtually every single fan of the original game. This is a poor spot of the game, but the structure of the game itself is, for me, the biggest issue of Part II. In the end, I don’t mind Joel’s death as much seeing the context surrounding it, although it still should have been handled entirely differently. 

Neil Druckmann proudly pulls a Metal Gear Solid 2 move, and entirely switches protagonists for a huge portion of the game (about 45%). Abby turns out to be the main character once the halfway point of the game hits. Following Joel’s death is about 9-11 hours playing as Ellie on her revenge quest to find Abby and kill her. The motivation is justified, being in the room with Ellie as she watched her father figure die in agony in front of her. Ellie’s portion of the campaign makes sense, Abby’s makes less. The structure of the story comes to a high point mid way through, where Abby and Ellie finally meet to clash. After all this build up, and around the same time of the game where the first game had its conclusion, everything halts and resets. 

We are suddenly dropped into the Abby story, showing her side of things, and why she would want to kill Joel. I do think the story directly surrounding her motivation is well done, but the problem is, a large portion of Abby’s story has literally nothing to do with Joel or Ellie. We effectively see why Abby would want revenge on Joel, but then we have to tag along on a major side journey while Abby helps a trans kid and his sister escape the cult they grew up in. I get that it helps develop more empathy for Abby as a character, but Abby’s story should have been at least cut in half to keep the overall story more focused and flowing. Many times while deep into Abby’s story I honestly forgot what the point of what I was doing is, and was getting confused on which events had happened and which hadn’t. 

Abby herself is a good character, and after all has been said and done, she is the third best character in this series so far. It’s a shame though that so much of her story is a direct waste of time, despite more of an excuse for more of the same great gameplay and set-piece moments. Empathy and perspective are the two big themes of this game. The best thing I can say about Part II is it convinced me of something I thought was near inconvincible: it made me like and root for Abby after the scene of Joel’s death. However, while the theme of the game is “all of your enemies have their own backstory,” Par II doesn’t teach us anything new whatsoever. Abby’s father was the surgeon Joel killed upon saving Ellie from the Fireflies at the climax of Part I. But Joel (and Ellie) killed a lot of random enemies in the first game, most of them players won’t even remember specifically. 

The fact that we have an entire video game showing us the perspective of one single person who wants revenge on Joel is a story that doesn’t need to be told. Any NPC we killed in the first game had family or friends who would also want revenge on Joel as well. We don’t learn anything new. This whole series is just marauder against marauder. Joel has never been a good guy, and that’s never been a secret. Joel is shown as an anti-hero even before the conclusion of the first game. It’s partially what makes him such a cool character. We only rooted for Joel because we were seeing things from his perspective. If the first game was entirely about Abby and Joel was framed as the bad guy, the results would have been the same: Abby would be our point-of-view “hero” character, while Joel was clearly the villain. Part II is not the epiphany Neil Drukmann likely wanted his audience to experience.

As anyone can see, the graphics and performances of Part II are incredible. While the story and structure are nothing too special (because it ruins its great moments by long drawn out heavy handed moments), at least the game itself is engaging to play and is gorgeous to look at. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest myself, and the game mainly taking place in Seattle, I enjoyed being totally waterlogged throughout the entire experience. If the story isn’t depressing enough on its own, the weather will certainly get to you. The core characters themselves are portrayed extremely well via motion capture and voice acting as well. I’m wondering why Neil Druckmann didn’t just make a Netflix series beings he is clearly so focused on the character’s interpersonal relationships. This is especially true for Joel and Ellie once again. Side characters are well acted, but have less of an effect on the core story, which is a huge tragedy when so much effort was clearly put into bringing them to life.

There’s no doubt Naughty Dog accomplished their specific goal in making you as depressed as possible. To be honest, it reminded me of some of my favorite books about stories of conflicting emotions and ending on depressing notes. Even though Part II is far from perfect, it’s still a juggernaut of a single-player game with amazing graphics, acting, responsive gameplay. I like the ways it proved me wrong on stuff I thought was unchangeable, and for that, it has my deep respect. It may not be for everyone, not even fans of the first, but if you come at it with an honest open mind and let yourself drop your ego enough to take in this entire story, I think it’s a daring piece of media that might age very well in time.

7/10

[fantasyresident]

My Review For Pokemon Sword and Shield (Spoiler-Free)

The road to Sword and Shield could be considered interesting to say the least. Shit hit the fan with everyone’s accusations, complaints, and grievances before the game even came out. Death threats, fake leaks, ridiculous critics, you name it. As a dedicated Pokemon fan, I saw huge potential with Sword and Shield, and I have officially completed Shield just a couple days ago. Reviews from official critics like IGN and Gamespot mainly praise the game giving it scores of 9.3 and 9 respectively. But then others off to the side of these major critics are saying the game “isn’t worth the $60″. I can say after playing the game myself to its completion (plus some) that the game is definitely in my view worth the money. I will break down my opinions of these entries by categories of Mechanics (how well the game works, how much gameplay there is, and how valuable the gameplay aspects are) Story (how good and effective the plot of the game is) Characters (how good the characters within the plot are) Dialogue (how good the writing of the game is) and Visuals (how good the game looks from a visual perspective). Here I go.

Mechanics: (9.1/10)

Sword and Shield is jam-packed with excellent features and gameplay elements to endlessly enjoy. The new Pokemon Camp feature is the best, most interactive way of playing and building your friendship with your Pokemon. The curry cooking is very simple, but it is more interactive then just giving a floating PokePuff or Bean to a Pokemon and having them chew it slowly right in front of you only to give it yet another one until they cannot eat anymore. You can throw a ball to have your Pokemon play fetch with you, speak to your Pokemon, and have them play with the little wand toy. While you cannot pet your Pokemon like in the past, the new features feels so fresh and even just watching your favorite Pokemon interact on their own is a worthy replacement for old systems like Amie and Refresh. Aside from Camping, the Gym Challenge was by far one of the best features. Gyms actually for the first time ever felt like full-fledged Gyms. Each Gym has their own special challenge in the beginning, and each one helped diversify the experience rather than tossing you into a room with randomly arranged trainers and the Gym Leader standing at the end waiting for you to get through the maze. I particularly loved Allister’s Gym Challenge, but every one of the challenges was a fun light-hearted experience. Many nuisances from the game that lingered in the past main titles have been removed, like no longer having to farm heart scales just to experiment with different move sets, having a Pokeball throwing shortcut, having a name rater posted in every Pokemon center, and many other quality of life improvements. The only problem I find with the mechanics of the game is the pop-ins. NPCs (ones that move from place to place), wild Pokemon, and berry trees all have their pop-in moments in the game. As you approach them, they come into view normally from a mid-range distance, and fade away again if you get too far away. This isn’t a huge deal when it comes to the experience as a whole, but it did slightly rob from the otherwise fresh Wild Area experience considering the pop-ins are the worst there. Lagging while online in the Wild Area is also a slight problem, but not too persistent of a problem.

Story: (8.5/10)

The story of Shield very much reminded me of the Pokemon anime in a sense (Swords being no different other than Pokemon variations). The narrative mainly focuses on the lovable and colorful cast of characters rather than a constantly changing dynamic plot. The plot is pretty big (not a Dynamax pun I swear), but it’s mainly told through your trainer character’s perspective, so the secrets of the unfolding plot occur through the perspectives of the adult figures, which you eventually see around the end. It’s not a complex story, but I found it to be very solid, kind of like a Pokemon movie. The characters carry the story along smoothly, and it’s a nice “save the world” Pokemon plot. There’s not a bunch of lore for the region, but what lore is explained is very suitable for the Galar region and I found it to be pretty interesting. I feel like the ending wraps up a little quicker than in usual Pokemon games, but the post-game story helps to finalize things even if it contains two very weird parodical characters. I think the point of the game’s plot is timely (for a reason I cannot elaborate upon for non-spoiler purposes, but to anyone who finishes it, you may know what I mean). I feel like it really connects with a real-world issue that the world is facing currently. Additionally, the story’s presentation was handled very well in most parts, I really liked the mid-battle cutscenes and the scripted battles that remind me of classic RPGs. While I don’t think the plot of Sword and Shield beats the darker dynamic plot of Sun and Moon, it’s good and solid all the same. 

Characters: (10/10)

As I briefly mentioned in the story segment of this review, the characters are some of the biggest stars of this game. Each Gym leader stands out and have their own little backstory. These backstories aren’t told through cutscenes, but you can read their biographies on the back of their League cards which I thought was a good way of telling us more information about the Gym Leaders than we got with them in the past titles. Gym Leaders are normally just treated like pretty designs and then thrown away by the post game. Sword and Shield however puts each of them in the spotlight more and they all get some time to shine. The designs for the characters themselves I find to be particularly amazing. Personally, Piers, the long awaited Dark-type Gym Leader was my favorite, but every single one of them had something interesting in store. Aside from Gym Leaders, memorable characters like Marnie, Bede, Sonia and Leon really help liven and enrich the experience. I felt really invested in these characters, and when I feel that invested in the characters of a video game, I consider them a smashing success.

***ADDITIONAL NOTE***

I neglected to mention the most important characters to any Pokemon game: the Pokemon themselves! The designs of the Galar Pokemon and Galar forms are breathtaking. I love the vast majority of them and there’s very few that I think little of. The designs are themed and look very creative, I really loved the art direction for this generation’s Pokedex.

Dialogue: (9/10)

With the new Galar region, inspired off of the UK, the dialogue is bound to change. A lot of British slang is slipped in which was enjoyable even if I wasn’t familiar with some of it. Each character seemed to have their own way of speaking and I liked this individuality in dialogue. Nothing any of the main characters say seems off-putting, so I’d say the dialogue is in a very good place for a Pokemon game. It is a game that’s marketed for younger audiences, but it does a good job of not making you feel like a baby (something that prior titles also done a good job with), so the dialogue is consistently good for any audience. Some lines could be improved perhaps or less generic, but nothing stands out to me as an issue with dialogue, so I’d say the writing is pretty on-spot.

Visuals: (9.4/10)

This is perhaps one of the most controversial parts of these games, with many complaining about reused models, trees looking badly textured, and the game looking like just an “upscaled 3DS game”. While I do agree that the Wild Area trees are terrible-looking upon close inspection, I by no means view this game as just an “upscaled 3DS game”. The visuals of Sword and Shield are by far the greatest the series has to offer, with town areas and dungeons looking absolutely superb. Some critics think that the graphics need a dynamic change, but I couldn’t disagree more. Graphics are a subjective thing until you’re delaing with something like the textures of the game (like the trees.) If fans don’t like the Pokemon style, they shouldn’t be playing the games anymore. Sword and Shield mastered the style the franchise should have with the very interesting, beautifully rendered areas like the Glimwood Tangle and Ballonlea. I found these areas and others to be breathtaking upon first seeing them and I just really adored the look of these games. As for the character models, (the people and the Pokemon) they look just fine. They’re not the biggest upgrade, but they fit in well with the rest of the game’s style, so no problems in that department. If you are to find graphical flaws that aren’t only subjective, they can be found in the Wild Area. The trees and some ground textures (near water in particular) are a bit blurred and wonky. But then you gaze upon the surroundings as a whole and it looks quite nice. The lighting looks incredible in many areas, and I just found myself in awe of just about anything I was looking at. As for the animations, there are some new incredible animations (like Cinderace’s Pyro Ball) and many well-polished animations. There are however some of the same-old animations that didn’t work and still don’t work like double kick and tail whip. Overall, the visuals are extremely nice and just what I’d expect from a next-gen Pokemon game.

My Verdict:

Pokemon Sword and Shield was an exciting new adventure that brought me back to the old days of playing Pokemon, only without all the nuisance problems that once plagued the fun of the experience. This game reminded me of what it was like to wholeheartedly enjoy a new adventure with new lovable partners. The graphics and mechanics are beyond refreshing, even if some areas could be better polished. The narrative isn’t as wide as Gen 7′s, but it’s as solid as I’d expect a Pokemon story to get while not straying too far from the roots of what makes them good to begin with. At the end of the day, experiencing Galar was without a doubt worth the $60 price tag, and the memories gained from the experience is even more priceless.

Final Score: 9.2/10 👍

[sunset-spring]

Hi again. I wanted to ask you another question that I'm a little afraid to ask, but I've noticed you're a big Pokemon fan so I was curious as to what your thoughts are on the National Dex controversy. I've felt that Nintendo's arguments for not including every Pokemon in the game have made sense, but everyone is tearing apart their game even though it hasn't come out yet and it's all felt very unfair to me. Especially since their reactions have been so extreme...

I feel like the National Dex thing is an understandable disappointment, but the reaction has gotten so extreme that it’s ballooned away from most of the reasonable complaints I’ve seen raised about it.

In terms of how it effects gameplay, I personally don’t see it having an extremely detrimental effect on how the game is played. Reasons I’ve seen from disappointed fans have been for three reasons, at least that I’ve seen:

Emotional attachment to a pokemon, most likely a favorite, that a player wants to bring with them to the new region.

Having a player’s entire roster of competitive pokemon for VGC.

A player a living dex they worked hard to complete for past games, made up of the entire pokedex with all 800 pokemon for completion sake. 

All of these points are understandable, and these certainly aren’t the only points (I’ll get to others later). But there are a few flaws to these arguments when used as the basis for the entire case of this being an incredibly game breaking decision. They might be deal breakers for a lot of people, which again makes sense, everybody is looking for something different in their pokemon experience. But it doesn’t destroy the playability of the game overall, and doesn’t guarantee that the game will be terrible.

First, wanting to bring your favorite pokemon to the new region. It’s understandable; as many have stated, “Every Pokemon is someone’s favorite.” But when it comes to actually using them during the game, there are a few problems. 

Pokemon has always had a system in place via badges and other progress markers that bars the player from using pokemon above a certain level. That way the player can’t just breeze through every battle in the game by grinding or using a pokemon transferred in at a higher level. As a result, if you have a pokemon that you’ve had for multiple generations, it’s likely going to be at a very high level from being used so much. Therefore the only time you’ll get to use that pokemon is in the post game. And that post game is only going to be something that keeps the player engaged for so long. Even if the post game is incredibly good, it is still a much shorter portion of the game that will only keep players’ playing for so long. And if you’ve already spent the entirety of the main story with a new team of pokemon, a player will likely have already grown attached to those pokemon as well and will likely keep using them in the post game as well. So at that point, it’s more likely that they’ll just be sitting in a box for the majority of the game.

Competitive has some more weight in criticism, as there is a possibility that some pokemon could be cut that cause some competitive team build to be excluded. However, in terms of how many pokemon are competitively viable out of all Pokemon, I don’t think that many competitively viable ones will be cut. Mostly because when there are over 800 pokemon, I doubt that the competitive viable ones are the majority. There’s likely a lot more in the majority that aren’t usable that will be trimmed down. In interviews, one of the reasons given was to balance competitive more evenly. 

There’s certainly reason to question whether the results will be satisfactory, but when it comes to balancing it’s tricky business in general. Because competitive play isn’t the only aspect of the game. They’re also trying to create a setting for the game that is organic and immersive. It can’t just be competitively viable, because as stated in the first point “Every Pokemon is someone’s favorite.” So if they only catered pokemon in the game to competitive players, that’d exclude a lot of pokemon that other players enjoy. So there’s not necessarily a good compromise to please both of these sides.

And finally, what I think gets to the heart of the decision of limiting the dex for me, the National Dex itself and the living dex. It’s frustrating that those who’ve put in the effort to maintain a living dex, because that’s a heck of a lot of work. There’s over 800 pokemon, and as of recent interviews with Masuda, there are now 1000 unique forms and models as of Sword and Shield. 

But that’s why they chose to limit it to only the Galar Dex in Sword and Shield. That’s a huge amount of Pokemon to expect every player to catch. They discussed in these same interviews that they were considering limiting the dex in Sun and Moon as well, which I believe is why they chose not to include a National Dex in the Alola region. While players who are willing to go through the trouble of maintaining a living Pokedex is great, having that as an in game goal, even if not necessarily required, is a hugely daunting task to expect a lot of players to complete. And as they continue to expand the pokedex with new pokemon, that’s only going to become more challenging and more alienating to players who haven’t already been doing so for every generation. And even if it’s not an in game goal to complete the national dex, the number of pokemon has reached a number where it’s not very feasible for players to use all pokemon in one game, even via rotation of teams in the post game. There’s just too many for it, and it’s likely that by the time someone has a new game will be coming out and expanding the dex even more. So there’s no reasonable time frame for someone to use every Pokemon without a majority of them just sitting in the box most of the time.

Debate as to whether it’s possible at this point to include all pokemon in Sword and Shield with the power of the Switch has persisted through the community, including discussion of development time and whether a delay to the game or patches would alleviate pressure on Game Freak so they don’t overwork. And those are all valid and important discussions to have; the game industry has a problem with overworking employees and discussing how tight a schedule Pokemon is on with it’s timed releases of multiple products - merch, Trading Cards, the Anime - could be putting pressure on that should be addressed. 

But while those discussions are important, I feel it also misses a very large point about the decision. It isn’t necessarily about having the ability to put everything in the game right now. Even if they do, this is still going to be an issue for future games, especially any time they have to change systems going forward. This is and always has been a long term issue that Pokemon was eventually going to have to face by the very nature of how Pokemon is as a game. A delay or patch to Sword and Shield to include everything right now wouldn’t be anything more than a bandage on that problem. So they decided to rip that off now to get it over with. 

However, there are also some other genuine critiques that I will agree with and bring up. And the biggest one that I think contributed the most to why the controversy became so big in the first place, at least to me, is Pokemon HOME and it’s advertising.

Because of how they chose to market Pokemon HOME as a way to transfer your Pokemon up to new games with Sword and Shield as the primary examples (because they’re the only ones currently available), that made the news of the transfer being limited to the Galar dex very jarring. Especially when we have so little information about how Pokemon HOME will actually work. 

There are a few counter points to this, such as how the release of Pokemon HOME will be well after the game’s release anyway. Not only that, but it’s also been hinted that there may be some gameplay features to Pokemon HOME as well, so it isn’t just a payed storage system. That way if pokemon are transferred, they won’t just be stuck in limbo if they aren’t in Sword and Shield. But the timing and advertising of Pokemon HOME is still an issue, as well as still not having a lot of new information revealed about it after this reveal. This could be relieved once more information comes out, and I think the sooner they do, the better.

So overall, while disappointment is absolutely understandable, I don’t believe that this one aspect of the game being changed is going to have such a big impact to be what destroys what good the game had before this was revealed. And the extreme reaction that it’s gotten feels like a bit of an overreaction. Being frustrated or believing it’s a bad decision is one thing, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a reaction this largely negative in reaction to something Pokemon related in… ever, in all honesty. 

And whether it’s a decision you agree or disagree with, it’s just a game. I don’t think it’s worth so much discourse in the grand scheme of things. This is one decision that Game Freak let players know about well in advance. They didn’t wait until after release or way later like other game releases from other companies. They let people know ahead of time. So if the lack of pokemon is a deal breaker, people can cancel pre-orders and whatnot. And based on everything we’ve seen - from the Wild Area to the new pokemon and so many other features - they’re trying to make a good game. Again, it’s ok to be upset by it, but I don’t think the amount of rage this subject is getting is worth it.

[thicceon]

My Final Views on Pokémon Sword & Shield

There’s my Trainer! Isn’t she lovely? Anyways, this is a game I had so many strong feelings about, so I feel like jotting this down so I can give it a lil’ bit of closure.

The National Dex

This was perhaps the game’s greatest controversy leading up to release, so I want to give my thoughts on this first. I don’t mind the absence of the National Dex as long as it improves the game all around. I think it’s an okay decision moving forward. However, in these games you can tell half the existing Pokémon were cut just to save time in order to meet a holiday release, not to actually improve the game.

Presentation

The game makes a powerful first impression. The campaign’s strongest moments are probably the first couple hours. The narrative really caught my attention in the beginning and I felt SUPER hyped for my first few gym battles. The story’s climax is also pretty exciting. Game Freak did step up to the plate where it counted most, fortunately. 

Gameplay

The game is bare, short, and vapid. Halfway through it’s REALLY apparent how rushed the game is. You end up zooming through tiny routes that feel more like hallways than anything, and only have a couple Trainers in them. Most “cities” are smaller than the ones in Red & Blue. There is a town that’s literally just a corridor with a Pokémon Center and outdoor gym. This is also one of the coolest cities in the game, so seeing that wasted potential is very frustrating. 

The NPCs feel lifeless and have nothing interesting to say. I don’t see anyone else talking about this! The NPCs in BW, XY, and SM actually had some very entertaining dialogue once the tutorial stuff was out of the way, whether it was hilarious, straight-up weird, or genuinely thought-provoking and insightful. Everyone feels so...boring.

The Wild Area is...rough. It looks horrid. However, it’s still where I had the most fun in the game. It’s a great concept and I think Game Freak had a decent first go at creating an open world Pokémon experience. It wasn’t a particularly fun place to explore per se, but it was enthralling just to be able to control the camera and go where I please. Being able to see glimpses of other players here is also a wonderful addition, and something I’ve wanted from the series for a while. All in all, this area has a delightful MMO feel to it. Raids are also very fun! It’s great to have a co-op feature to play with friends, and the rewards and rarity of Gigantamax forms gives you a good reason to do them!

There are many wonderful QoL features in this game. Pokémon’s UI experience has never been smoother. There's one rather large caveat though, which is the online experience. It’s nonsensical not to include a friends list for easy trading and battling with your pals, and most of the time the stamp system just doesn’t work. It’s extremely frustrating, but sigh it’s workable.

I also must say that I hate the Exp. All being baked into the game. The feature itself is not the problem, it’s the fact that I have literally no way of turning it off, despite previous games allowing you to. This was borderline game ruining for me, as it killed any sense of satisfaction I felt leveling my Pokémon. It genuinely felt like the game was raising my Pokémon for me. Yeah, not for me.

The post-game is practically non-existent. There’s a lifeless husk that qualifies as a Battle Tower of sorts, but that’s all you’ll find, Champ. But of course, this has become standard for modern Pokémon games.

Graphics 

The Wild Area looks very shoddy, however, the rest of the game looks genuinely beautiful! The overworld textures are poor, and this is not a high-fidelity game by any means, but the general art direction and colors are gorgeous. The new Pokémon have nice models, and the older ones have greatly improved textures. The cities all look distinct and lovely. However, the pop-in of NPCs is very apparent and feels jarring. I can tolerate a little pop-in, but this draw distance is short enough where I will just about hit NPCs that appear before my eyes while biking.

Pokémon still lack battle animations that are even comparable to the Stadium games. _That’s _the type of stuff that should be improved by cutting Pokémon.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is decent and has its own flare. There are a few standout tracks, my favorite being the Slumbering Weald at the beginning. Gym battles have a great chanting effect that really adds to the atmosphere. My biggest complaints are that a few of the city themes are weak, and theres a real lack of route themes. 

Story

It feels rushed and empty, like everything else in the game. Conceptually I think it’s pretty strong, and as I said before, the climax is great. However, the story beats leading up to the climax are hilariously rushed and character’s actions begin to make zero sense. You also visit areas that were so obviously meant to be dungeons, but were condensed into single rooms. One significant scene didn’t even get a proper cutscene and was instead told via a slideshow that looked like screenshots of the models painted over. 

As for the characters, I’m extremely disappointed with how underdeveloped the main villain was, despite him having an intriguing, and surprisingly contemporary motive. I was also bummed out that Marnie, a rival advertised as being significant, had practically no story relevance whatsoever. Team Yell also was very underutilized. 

Hop was okay; decently developed. Bede is probably my favorite rival in the series since Cheren. I’m one of those people that’s been complaining for a decade about how we haven’t had a jerkass rival since Johto, and I’m very pleased to finally have one again. His arc is also solid, though a bit under-explored.

Leon was good. It’s rare for the series to tell us who the Champion we’re fighting is before it’s time to tango with them. It was nice to see him have a presence throughout the entire game, and it was interesting to see the types of responsibilities a Champion has, such as protecting the region and...signing endorsement deals.

Closing

Yeah, the game is okay. It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not a train wreck. Just okay. It’s very apparent that it was meant to be so much more though, and that’s frustrating. It feels like even 6 more months could’ve made a world of a difference. I don’t believe Game Freak is lazy. I don’t believe they’re incompetent. However, I do think the yearly release schedule of Pokémon games really hampers the potential of not only the games, but the developers.

But perhaps that’s just what we have to accept from such a juggernaut IP. Sword & Shield is about the quality you’d expect from most MCU movies, or those live-action Disney remakes. It’s solid, and it’s the standard fun you’d expect from the property, but it lacks any depth. 

But I can’t really bring myself to call it a step back for the series. It does its fair share of things better than XY and SM, even if if those two games are much fuller experiences. Right, this is a decent first real entry for the main series into the home console market. However, it’s still nothing compared to the sheer breadth of content available in the GBA or DS games.

But this game signified to me that the “golden age” of Pokémon is really gone for good. Sword & Shield was never concerned about living up to those titles though. Gaming has changed. Gamers have changed. And thus, Pokémon has changed. Most games aren’t intended to last you the better part of a year now, unless they’re a live multiplayer service with consistent updates.

As a veteran superfan that's been absolutely enamored by the franchise since before I could even read, I’ll admit that I find it a bit of a challenge to judge Pokémon games on their own individual merit, rather than against the now substantial catalogue that makes up the legacy of the series. Sword & Shield isn’t worried about living up to the past, it’s a step towards the future, clumsy as it may be. However, that future is still going to need some more substance to it before I can consider it a bright one.