#got bored and everything is better in bw so here you guys go

[mooninagust-archive]

v for elle korea.

[doubleddenden]

I beat pretty much 90% of Legends Arceus, the only thing left is to find like 10 Pokémon I missed and fill out some dex entries.

I'm gonna kinda review, but it mostly turned into me rambling. I loved my time though. Read on if you want.

Man, what a ride. I went in with high hopes that were mostly met. Legitimately, this is one of the best Pokémon games of all time.

The story actually has HEART put into it and has a lot of fun twists, the gameplay is familiar but new and refreshing, and best of all there's a CHALLENGE. I absolutely love how amplified the life or death scenarios are in this game and just how dark it can get.

Now my initial criticism of graphics still stand, and I figured out what the biggest issue is: draw distance. A lot of textures for very noticeable things like mountains and rivers just do not load until you get close enough, and from afar it looks unfinished. I'm glad they absolutely nailed everything else, because it seems like they rushed on polishing and couldn't quite get it done. If they could just make the environment fully loaded in or have a much bigger draw distance, I feel like it would be a lot less of an issue.

But that said, there are moments where it's absolutely amazing and outshines anything Game Freak has ever put out, especially towards the end. I had legitimate goosebumps in the last fight with a certain character because of the way they handled it.

Music also got a lot better, especially remixes of iconic pieces like Eterna Forest/Heartwood, or battle themes for certain characters. Idk why but at first I thought I was hearing 3ds Sound Fonts, but as the game progresses it sounds more and more professional and orchestrated in some areas.

Overall I'm really happy. This feels like a Pokémon game that was made BY fans for fans, versus how soulless most of the Switch games feel. Honestly I was starting to believe that I had just out grown the series after the rest of the Switch games sucked so, SO much. Turns out those games were just bad and I just needed a fun game lol. I thought maybe the games were always childish and I hadn't noticed, but no, actually this game made me remember just how dark and complex the series can get, and just how dumbed down and insulting Masuda and Ohmori's works have been so far on Switch. In fact, Iwao, same guy that did USUM, directed this, and I realize now a lot of the best games in the franchise were directed by... well, not them, with the exception of BW.

In fact, I think I have a newfound excitement and love for the series. It's so weird because for a game that doesn't treat its audience like a child, I feel like a kid again in the best way possible. So much lore and myths are uncovered or expanded upon- stuff my friends and I used to theorize about as kids. The dangers we thought about are talked about in an honest manner without being grotesque or too edgy, but at the same time its a realistic thing to think about when the wild teams with lions that can fry you alive with lightning to eat you or gigantic bugs with scythes for arms. Ironically, this game is pretty damn edgy in ways the series desperately needed to get away from hand holding and the largely annoying sunshine and rainbows.

And I'm just sitting here in bed wondering what comes next. Obviously I still have stuff in game to do, I meant for the series. Because honestly, I don't think I can go back to hallway routes, babying their audience every 5 steps, and boring cookie cutter Gym challenge plots.

And see here's the thing: I acknowledge a lot of my hatred for SwSh and LGPE is due to the dex cuts, and with base SwSh in particular its because they said they cut half the dex so they could focus on models and animations- and failed for the most part, at best delivering an unfinished 3ds port and making a shit plot too. I hated BDSP because it kept the dumb ass dex cuts, felt soulless, did nothing new for the series, and it felt like a slap in the face to gen 4 fans everywhere with the chibi bull shit, let alone how Affection ruined the challenge that was initially there in one of the toughest games originally made. Both also are guilty of babying and hand holding, and both failed to deliver on the supposed benefits they claimed would come from the corners they cut.

So why is LA so good?

Freedom, open spaces, actual attempts to improve graphics, models, animations, and an actual honest to god attempt to improve and EVOLVE out dated and boring gameplay beyond a one gen gimmick or things the fans never asked for or needed. An actual plot that doesn't rely so heavily on copying past games' homework (with respect that it works with Sinnoh's lore as a base), actual challenge that respects the player as a fully functional player instead of a baby distracted by iPhones, and overall it actually just tries and risks new things and bends conventional rules of the series- and it pays off so much.

Also, unlike SwSh, most of the new designs kinda rock, especially the starters' new forms. That definitely helps.

So now I'm just wondering about the future of this franchise I've been playing for close to 23 years. I'm kinda hoping they take a break from new gens to bring some more Legends type stuff, that way when gen 9 finally comes, it'll be nice and ready, not rushed, have a nice thicc and meaty pokedex of new and great designs, and polished- hopefully more than this game is. And meanwhile, they can expand on lore that's just BEGGING to be expanded on.

Like we could use Legends to figure out what the hell the Original Unovan dragon looks like, or the war that Kalos fought so long ago, or wtf went down in Kanto that made Mewtwo and all of those science experiment Pokémon go wild

But I'm getting ahead of myself. This has turned from a review to a bunch of babbling nonsense on my end.

Please, if my vouch has any influence on whether or not you get the game, get it, play it, have fun. Try not to pirate if you can- we as fans absolutely need this game to do the best it can so GF gets the message.

I promise you it is such a fun time.

So final score? 8/10. It just needs a little more visual polish.

[baebeyza]

Thoughts after 12 episodes of TF Victory

So right of the bat this show is more fun and exciting than Masterforce, which I watched before!  The tone is lighthearted and fun, the characters have more interesting, witty interactions and dynamics and the pacing of the episodes is faster and not so slow as Masterforce had been. I am not saying Masterforce is bad for it’s more serious tone, characters and storytelling, just that I enjoyed the contrast to that in Victory. (maybe because I watched it right after Masterforce)

But gotta say the first Victory episode got me really excited! That fight between Star Saber and Deszaras was awesome and it had me thinking: “Yes! Some good fight between bitter enemies, right from the start!” And while I applaud Victory on most aspects, this is were I started getting disappointed. They deliver this fight Star Saber vs Deszaras at the start, but apart from that they are both the kind of leaders I learnt to dislike.

Star Saber is the respected commander and that’s were it ends. He gets respected, he respects his troups, and that’s it. 

This a thing I also disliked in some versions of Optimus. Yes, as a person Optimus and Star Saber are wonderful, but as a character in a story they are pretty lame and not compelling. 

The versions of Optimus I like are Beast Wars/Beast Machines, TFA and RiD01.  In each show Optimus is more than just the respected leader. In BW he has a more stern personality and gets angry easily. Plus there are a lot of times when his team members do not respect him and go against his orders or push his buttons. Beast Machines Oppy has to deal with a lot of stress and has an arc about radicalisation. TFA Oppy learns to become a good, respected leader and deals with self-doubt a lot + some angsty shit and the fact that there are autobots who dismiss him. RiD01 Oppy’s saving grace is the dynamic he has with Ultra Magnus, the only autobot who challenges and doesn’t respect him as the leader - and that is important for all these Oppys - they have different dynamics with their troups.

I think it’s safe to say that character interactions are really important and giving characters different dynamics makes each character involved more fleshed out and interesting.

And if a character only ever has one dynamic with all characters, it’s just boring. And so far that’s what Star Saber is like. 

Only interesting part so far is that he actually is the human Jan’s parental guardian, which, from a meta perspective, is fucking amazing! xD Most humans in TF serve the fantasy “First ones to come in contact with alien robots”, meanwhile Victory’s fantasy is “being adopted by alien robot”, I love it! :>

ANYWAY, even that aspect doesn’t really save Star Saber from the boring. (especially because his dynamic with Jan is just the same one he has with the rest of the autobots)

Star Saber is at least better than Deszaras because he actually does shit on screen - so lets talk about Deszaras and why he sucks!

It’s the same thing I disliked in RiD01 Megatron - he doesn’t do anything! He just sits on his throne and lets the others do everything, including coming up with plans! (he had like one maybe)

I keep going back to this, but it bears repeating: G1 Megatron is one of the best Megans, because he does shit! He is not the villain boss just sitting around letting his henchmen do everything, that is the exception. In most episodes he goes out and leads their evil scheme and that makes us engage with him.  The same goes for G1 Galvatron too - he might not have the same level of scheming as Megatron did, but he was no less active. Man was active without actually doing anything, that’s a feat! I mean guys, TFA Megatron was more active as a half-destroyed head than Deszaras has been here! Deszaras doesn’t even have the good grace to be fucking fabulous while he sits around waiting for his henchmen to get shit done like BW Megs has (Not that BW Megs is boring, just saying that he sits around in his bath tub a lot).

So he’s just boring and frustrating to watch, nothing he does makes one engage with his character and just like Star Saber, he doesn’t have any meaningful interactions with anyone.

I mean check TFP Megatron and how different his dynamics are with his troups, or how TFA Megs knows his men pretty well and only speaks to Lugnut at first because of that.  And say what you will about Megatron and Starscream, you cannot deny that their dynamic in most shows is compelling and interesting to watch. Deszaras and Leozack can be considered to be like Megs and Starscream, but while Deszaras surely influenced Leozack’s character, they still didn’t have any real nice interesting interaction with each other. Second in command here only means that Leo’s in charge during missions, and not being the Dragon who challenges the villain. 

That first episode of Victory gave me hope that Deszaras and Star Saber would have some pretty awesome enemy dynamic, but so far they only interacted twice.

And this is were I have to give Masterforce a plus point:

Yeah, both autobot leader Ginrai and decepticon leader Overlord appeared and met rather late, BUT once they actually clashed their dynamic was really interesting!

Ginrai as a leader is really unique, because just like TFA Optimus, he learns to become a good respected leader. At the beginning of his arc he didn’t even wanna join the autobots, so it makes his ascencion all the more sweet!

Overlord (and with that I also mean Giga and Mega, the two people who transform into Overlord) is also an unconventional leader for the decepticons, in that he treats his troups with respect and like a family and actually cares about them. And while he does berate them at times when they fail, he never abuses them like most other decepticon leaders.

And then there is the Ginrai - Overlord dynamic itself, when they first fight Ginrai loses. And we see that he’s actually afraid to fight with him again, but pushes himself to do so anyway, which makes them form a pretty solid rivalry that last throughout the show. Not to mention Overlord’s development and Ginrai’s involvement in that. (which I’m not gonna spoil here)

Gotta admit, when it comes to Enemy leader dynamics, Ginrai - Overlord might be my favourite next to TFA.

And Victory does not deliver much in that aspect, at least not in the first 12 episodes. Will it change? I am doubtful, but ready to be surprised ~