#i feel like it's kinda a slower tag probably because i stopped lurking at least a decade past the height of Loki's popularity

[lokiinmediasideblog]

Loki tag on Tumblr be like

1.MCU!Loki x Reader

2.MCU!Loki related posts (insert gifs/meta/fanart and lots of wank)

3.Lokean blogs

4.Record of Ragnarok RP blogs

5.People talking about their cats named Loki

6.People that refer to themselves as Loki ans tag posts with "Loki speaks/Loki.txt/Loki's art"

7. Persona 5/Assasin's Creed/GOW posts

[shiny-pokemon-giveaways]

Sword/Shield First Impressions

As I’m writing this up, I’ve played the game for about five hours. I haven’t gotten too far into the game yet. I’ll mention how far I am down below the cut before I start reviewing. The full review will be below the cut.

Before I start critiquing the game, I wanted to mention that I’m reviewing the game based off how Gamefreak has always made new Pokemon games. Gamefreak has never been a company that makes huge improvements with each release; therefore, I think it would be wrong to critique the game as if I was expecting huge improvements from them.

All of the spoilers in my review will have an asterisk before them *.

In my review, I break down the pros and cons of different aspects of the game.

For those of you who would rather not read the entire thing or don’t want to possibly see any spoilers, I’ll give a brief summary of my review:

Overall, the game’s only major drawback is that it has a $60 price tag and only 400-ish Pokemon to catch. Besides that, the game is fun and is about what I expected Sword/Shield to turn out like. There are a couple minor drawbacks like bad render distance, but most fans could probably look over that.

* Last night I stopped right after I chose my jersey number. So my review contains only things that came before that.

Graphics

Pros

Sword/Shield is easily the best looking Pokemon game Gamefreak has produced so far. The landscapes, Pokemon, and characters all look great.

The major issue I had with the shadows in Let’s Go! Eevee/Pikachu has been resolved. The shadows the Pokemon cast in Let’s Go! looked absolutely horrible; but the shadows in Sword/Shield look soft and natural.

I feel the colors in the landscape are vivid and pretty. The Galar region is quickly becoming my favorite region in terms of landscape.

I’ve only played a little bit, but I’ve already seen a handful of actual cutscenes and they look pretty good. 

Cons

There are still a few textures that look kinda meh. The tall grass looks fine from a distance; but once you get closer/walk through it, you notice that it doesn’t look all that great.

The render distance is terrible. NPCs suddenly pop into existence a few feet in front of you while you’re walking through town. Short render distance has always been a huge gaming pet peeve for me. Breathe of the Wild has a longer render distance and I feel that game is more taxing on the Switch than Sword/Shield.

Pokemon

Pros

I am genuinely surprised at all the Pokemon I didn’t know about yet. When Sun/Moon came out, I felt that I already knew about 75% of the new Pokemon prior to playing. However, for Sword/Shield, I’m coming across unknown Pokemon on nearly every route and town and I’m finding myself screaming “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?” every time.

I’m loving the designs of all the new Pokemon I’ve seen so far. I know that clown man is lurking in the distance though, waiting to change my mind.

Cons

As you might have guessed, the only real major drawback to the Pokemon is the lack of them. From what I’ve heard from others, there’s around 400 or so Pokemon to catch in Sword/Shield and some fan favorites like Bulbasaur and Squirtle are missing.

* They friggin killed Corsola and I’m sad. Like, this really isn’t a con and it’s a cool design; but I wanted to say how sad I am that they killed Corsola.

Characters

Pros

So far, I really like the characters. I especially like how Leon is a perfect combination of braggart and nice guy. There isn’t a character I’ve met yet that I don’t care for.

Cons

* This is a personal pet peeve of mine, but I really dislike impatient characters. So, I’m slightly disappointed that Rival Hop is hella impatient. He’s still a great and lovable Rival though.

The Wild Area

Pros

Wow, I don’t know where to start with this. I spent about an hour at least last night in the first little section of the Wild Area that they drop you off at and it instantly became my favorite thing about the game

It feels so good to be able to roam in an open-world area and catch wild Pokemon. I’m so used to Pokemon being a purely linear game where there was only one way I could go to progress. But the Wild Area lets you roam around before heading to the next area.

The multiplayer in the Wild Area was more than I originally thought it was going to be. Because of the trailers, I thought you would just meet up with friends for camping and Max Raid battles; but there’s more to it. If you connect to the internet while in the Wild Area, you’ll see people throughout the world running around the Wild Area doing the same things you are. I think that’s really cool!

Cons

If you play in the Wild Area with your internet connection on, the game can get laggy in some areas.

Players pop in and out of existence when they log in/quit the game or turn off their internet connection. It looks a little weird and breaks immersion.

Miscellaneous 

The stuff listed below are other interesting things I’ve noticed while playing so far; but I don’t know whether to label them as Pros or Cons. I’m kind of indifferent on these things.

Since the Wild Area has a lot of powerful high-level Pokemon mixed in with the regular stuff, Gamefreak has implemented a new thing where you cannot catch Pokemon that are a certain level until you’ve progressed to a certain part of the storyline. Kind of like how traded Pokemon won’t listen to your commands if they’re a much higher level than you are. If you attempt to catch a higher level Pokemon, it’ll say “The Pokemon won’t let its guard down!” Since the game didn’t explain this to me, I was very confused why I wasn’t able to catch a level 25 Palpitoad last night until I view my trading card which had a text box on it that said “This trainer can only catch Pokemon up to level 20.”

* You can receive a pair of earbuds from a man in the main city. The earbuds allow you to control numerous sound settings. A lot people have said this is a weird thing to do; but from what I understand, this is a new feature. I checked my Sun/Moon game for the option to change certain sound settings and couldn’t find anything similar.

The GTS doesn’t make an appearance; but I wasn’t expecting it to. There’s Link Trades and Surprise Trades. Surprise Trades act like a replacement for Wonder Trades, but it’s a bit slower.

You can seamlessly skip tutorials like learning how to catch Pokemon or learning how to heal your Pokemon at the Pokemon Center. If you’ve already caught a Pokemon by the time you reach the spot where the tutorial would kick in, Leon will just mention that you already seem to know how to catch Pokemon. 

Your character is really fast and runs at the speed of light. This works well for the Wild Area, but I’m finding myself bumping into stuff inside houses because the input is very sensitive. You can push the joystick a little bit to walk instead of run.

[quantum-shatter-a-blog]

HOW I RUN MY BLOG:

SPEED:  idk it honestly depends on what i’m up to. generally i try to answer threads within four days, but it can get up to two weeks if i’m terribly busy, depending on what i’m up to around that time. like, i’ll be slower in exam season, if i’m on a trip, etc. i’ll usually make a post about it, if i’m gonna be unreasonably slow, tho. 

REPLIES:  i try my best to match length, but i write what comes to me, so sometimes my posts can be a bit longer or shorter than yours. depends on the subject matter, too, and how well we’ve plotted- obviously crack replies are gonna be shorter than thought-out world-building/slice of life/action/whatever. i tend to write multi-para, the shortest being 2 paragraphs (with or w/o dialogue), but i’ll do whatever you do. might drop our thread tho if i’m getting no effort back from you, or if i can’t see it going anywhere (in which case i’d let you know, so that we can plot somethin’ else).

STARTERS:  if you have an idea for a starter, message me and we can decide who writes it! i love plotting & i don’t mind writing starters, depending on what’s going on (who’s character would be best to begin), and what is going on in my life offline (how much time i have). my starters tend to get long tho, so bewarrrrre lmao ! aside from plotting, if you leave me a prompt i’ll get to it asap. usually the same policy as replies tho, like after 2-5 days i’ll answer them.

INBOX:  i love getting stuff sent to me, but i am guilty of ignoring my asks more than anything else! please don’t be offended if you send me something and never get a response, it just depends on how i’m feeling and how behind i am on threads (e.g. if i owe 20 threads i’m probably not gonna answer your copy-paste prompt). my favourite things to receive are headcannon prompts and ooc asks, but again i’m open to everything & it depends heavily on timing.

SELECTIVITY:  idk i’m pretty selective. i honestly don’t... know? what i choose my partners based on, tho? i’m guilty of turning people away if their blogs look super unorganized or have minimal effort put into them. i also stop rping with people if they rush me, get upset when i don’t reply quickly, dig into my life ooc w/o prompt or permission, or mention any really sensitive subjects w/o permission. idk. other than that i guess i look for quality of writing? i’m pretty selective nowadays just because i have like 50 threads tracked (yikes mj you bitch), but if you have an idea for anything please don’t be afraid to approach me with it b/c i love making new friends, and there’s a good chance i’ll at least be willing to try threading w/ you.

WISHLIST:  i really want close friends for ekko, like some people that really dig into his issues and let him hug all over them and stuff. deep conversations @ nighttime and all that. also if y’all have any younger muses? like my ekko is 18 (STILL don’t do age differences tho pls be reasonable) but i would go for some kinda ship w/ him. it’ll be chiller tho because he’s... he’s my baby. aside from ekko, i really want more general interactions of any kind on @trefoliium , business partners/friends/long-development ships for @ladyferros , and like... any interaction is good on @stranglethorned , but i’m... i really want ships for them. pleaaaaaaase man. i crave it. note that avianna is gay tho, so that’s a thing.

HONEST NOTE:  i’m... really chill? willing to talk to about anyone? i’m pretty much always answering messages and lurking unless i’m in a serious class or doing something else (which is almost never). i have a cat. idk man like i’m.. canadian so i’m pretty nice sekdfgkjsagfuykag. i’m bad at league though so there’s a heads up LOL. anyways yes message me anytime ! even if it’s just to bounce headcannons or relationship ideas off of me. <3

TAGGED BY:  @fortunesails TAGGING:  @deathlygaze @infiniitas