#i suck at making movesets but i DO have general concepts for most of them

[cactusdying]

did i mention that i have children btw. did i

extra doodles under the cut

ft. fan roids flavor npc and mimkin by tairbaz and dummy by thegreendiji

ft. sasha by marmo

[gennarenee]

My Devil May Cry Game Ratings

Alright so I finally finished playing all the Devil May Cry games (barring DMC2 and DmC), so I wanted to write out my thoughts and reviews of the games in order of my favorite to least favorite. I played the games in the order of 5, 4, 3, then 1.

#1: Devil May Cry 5

DMC5 was my introduction to the series. I first watched a whole play-through of the game as background while I was working on a research project, but it looked so fun that I bought it on the steam summer sale and I loved it as much as I thought I would. The combat is intricate and fun, and I’m still discovering new tricks and play-styles (I think I’m on my third play-through of the game??). I love V’s character, but on my first play-through I didn’t know the story of the DMC universe, so I was disappointed when he turned back into Vergil. Now that I’ve played through all the games though, I love the story even more and I understand now how V is an important step in Vergil coming to terms with his humanity (also I love Vergil too now). Having played the other games too I can now see all the references this game makes to the previous games as well which is really cool.

Overall 10/10 this is my new favorite game and has beat out Bayonetta as being my favorite game of all time.

#2: Devil May Cry 4

As previously stated, I’m a huge Bayonetta fan, so you can imagine my excitement at all the parallels between this game and Bayonetta (aesethically, story-wise, etc.). However, DMC4 is definitely not a finished game, so I’m actually glad that Bayonetta basically stole the concepts of DMC4 and made them better. 

The start of this game is my favorite out of all the DMC games. I love the scene of Kyrie’s performance in the church while Nero battles demons in the street, and I think this does a really good job of setting the scene for the game. Fortuna is aesthetically beautiful, and the game’s music is fantastic (I’ve had “Out of Darkness”, “The Idol of Time and Space”, and “Shall Never Surrender” on repeat for the past few weeks). Having finished DMC1, I can see now too that Fortuna, Fortuna castle, and the enemies take a lot of inspiration from Mallet Island in DMC1. 

Combat wise, I loved playing as both Nero and Dante. After playing DMC5, Nero’s combat felt a bit lacking, but nevertheless I had fun smacking demons around with the buster arm. I adored playing as Dante, and I enjoyed his combat style more than Nero’s. HOWEVER, this brings me to the game’s biggest flaw: while Dante is super fun to play as, his levels are absolutely awful. Instead of creating a new area for Dante to explore while trying to save Nero, the entire 2nd half of the game is spent backtracking through all of the Nero levels. Like seriously Capcom?? I was aware of the backtracking before playing this game but having basically half of the game backtrack through the first half is ridiculous. The areas themselves also felt disconnected. Fortuna, Fortuna Castle, and the jungle all were interesting areas on their own, but it doesn’t make sense going basically from Italy, to a frozen mountaintop, to a jungle, all on a single island. 

All in all though, I’d give this game a 7.5/10. While repeated sections were annoying, the combat was fun and I love the aesthetic of the game and its soundtrack. Also Nero and Kyrie’s relationship is adorable.

#3: Devil May Cry 1

This might come as a surprise, but I enjoyed DMC1 more than DMC3 (but I’ll get to this more in the next section). 

First, I’m glad I played all the DMC games in reverse order. When I first picked up DMC1 after completing DMC5, I was shocked with how awful the camera system and general gameplay was, so I put down DMC1 to replay DMC5. However, when I came back to DMC1 after playing all the other games, I had become adjusted to the lack of features in each game, so I no longer felt as annoyed with the camera and gameplay. In fact, I enjoyed the gameplay a lot more than I thought I would. I imagined that the game wouldn’t live up to today’s gaming standards, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the combat. I missed having access to the different playstyles of future games, but this Dante’s gameplay almost felt like a mix between trickster and gunslinger, so his combat style was not as empty as I thought it would be. 

Much like DMC4, I also really enjoyed the aesthetic of this game. Having played DMC4 before DMC1, I almost had “reverse nostalgia” for the scarecrow enemies and the castle aesthetic. I also really liked the level designs. While the levels in DMC4 felt disconnected, I could see the areas (castle, canyon, coliseum, pirate ship, etc.) all existing on one island together. In terms of bosses, I wish that there had not been repeat fights. While I loved seeing V’s familiars having a role in this game (again, “reverse nostalgia”), I could’ve done with a couple less Nightmare and Nelo Angelo fights. 

In the end, my biggest complaint about this game is that it’s too short. I started this game at 5pm yesterday, and I’ve completed it in under 5 hours. While the game is short, it felt like there was almost no plot until the very end of the game when you fight Nelo Angelo Vergil. I wish they would’ve expanded upon the story and included more information on Sparda and Eva and Dante and Vergil’s childhoods, but I understand that this game was the first in the series and made in 2001. 

Overall, I’ll give the game a 7/10. While I can’t imagine myself replaying this game (especially since there’s no other playable characters besides Dante), I had an overall pleasant time playing this game.

#4: Devil May Cry 3

First, while DMC3 is the last game on this list, I want to clarify that I enjoyed all 4 games, and this game is almost tied with DMC1. However, there are just some choices in the game that made this game a less enjoyable experience for me. 

Combat wise, while it took me some time to adjust to only having one style at once, DMC3 has my favorite weapon set out of all the games. I loved played with Cerberus in DMC5, so I was excited to have the opportunity to use this weapon again in DMC3, and the same goes for Beowulf and Kalina Ann. While I didn’t use it that much, I also adored the Nevan weapon, and it seems like a perfect weapon addition to the game series (if only we could’ve seen something similar in DMC5!). I also enjoyed the story of this game. It was nice getting more of a backstory on Dante and Vergil, and Dante definitely grew as a character by the end of the game. It was also nice finally seeing Lady’s backstory. Arkham/Jester annoyed me, and one of my favorite parts of the game is when Vergil basically goes from “I need to begin the all important ritual” to “Okay we need to get rid of this clown ASAP”.

But, what this game makes up for in storytelling, it lacks in general gameplay and aesthetic. The game’s aesthetics almost felt bland, and many areas in Temen-ni-gru were just brown/grey stone. I also wish the early enemy design went outside of the “grim reaper” aesthetic. While I know others have different opinions on the matter, I feel that DMC3′s aesthetic was very one note, and suffers from the opposite problem of DMC4. In terms of gameplay, I felt that most of the item quests did not make sense and were unnecessary. For example, many of the doors require orichalcum to open, but randomly finding a piece of orichalcum on the ground doesn’t make sense story wise. I remember a level specifically where you have to drop down to the library to find a key item, but the library is even before the start of the level.

Compared to this, the item quests and backtracking in DMC1 made sense. For example, finding a key in a room in a castle to use on another door in a castle makes sense. Even weirder item quests, such as finding the trident to open the door, make more sense than DMC3 missions. While I do not know what orichalcum does or what it is, in one of the rooms in DMC1 there is an item with 3 holes in it, and it makes sense that the trident item gained later on would go in this space.

Finally, one of my biggest complaints about this game is the boss battles. Now I might just suck at video games, but it took me way too long to defeat some of the bosses on Devil Hunter. For example, it took me longer to figure out the Vergil fights than it did for me to complete DMC1. Bosses like Beowulf also sucked due to relying on the smaller eye hitbox. In contrast to DMC1 as well, these bosses were at the end of a level, as compared to being a separate mission, so if I wanted to leave and come back later, I’d have to replay the entire mission first. 

Overall, I’ll give the game 6/10. Will I replay it? Possibly, I know I can play as Vergil, so it would be fun learning his moveset. However, a game’s aesthetic is almost more important to me than gameplay (that’s just a me thing), so I’m not sure that I would enjoy playing through the levels again due to their lackluster design.

Ending Thoughts

And that’s my rating on (almost) all the DMC games! While some of the gameplay in the earlier games was annoying, I definitely love this series, and I plan on reading the extra novels/mangas outside the game (I’ve already watched the anime). Hell, I’ll probably read some William Blake and the Divine Comedy itself.

Let me know what your ratings are! I’d love to hear everyone else’s lists. 

[evilisk]

Trying Out A Game Jam #1

(Just a working title... I hope)

Currently working on a small RPG Maker project for “My First Game Jam: Summer 2020“ on itch.io. It’s a solo affair and I am keeping notes because that’s just the kind of person I am.

= = =

Day 1

I started late on that day (which was the 11th of July). I was able to use VX Ace’s Character Generator to come up with some player characters.

(Used this as a reference in case I needed to make changes to the user-generated sprite, which I totally needed to do)

I also settled on a story. I basically worked on this short, incomplete story in April and decided to use that as the premise. Mostly because it’s the most “practical” story I can do (it’s a low stakes, small scale story with one location, in a fantasy setting. The fantasy setting is the most important factor, since I am 100% not an artist, but I can use VX Ace’s stock fantasy setting assets).

Day 2

First thing I did was include a bunch of Yanfly Scripts (because that’s what I remember the RPG Maker OT on GAF suggesting)

I came up with a bunch of skills for the three (well, four) player characters. Since I was working with an existing story, it was easy to conceptualize skills for each character:

Gardenia: the main character is an assassin who is also a vampire. The story is “Gardenia gets stuck in a bad situation for her aka a prison where there’s a zombie outbreak” so I came up with two movesets; a prologue moveset (where she’s fighting at full strength) and her regular moveset (that she has to use since she’s not used to fighting zombies). Her regular moveset is “good at hitting single targets, has trouble dealing with groups”. Her prologue moveset will be used as her “power up” at the end and includes a classic Drain move.

Kat: the side character. She’s not a fighter, and plays a purely supporting role. She has a single heal, she has a buff and that’s all she starts off with. She’s intended to get more skills (like a poison curing skill, a joke skill used against specific enemies, and also a move that’s supposed to power up her healing)

Chester: he is the main character’s pet. Originally meant to be a blood wolf, powered by Gardenia’s blood magic. He is a good boy, and offers great support / crowd control abilities. Will also take a hit for any ally after a specific story beat.

Minion: is technically the fourth member of the party, but doesn’t play a big role in the story and game. The short of it is that Gardenia procures her own undead abomination towards the end of the game. They’re only supposed to be used for the final part of the game. Their gameplay design is being hideously overpowered to help you get through the horde of zombies, with a skill like “aggro all enemies” and “if they sharpen their weapon before using this skill, this other skill becomes instant death”

This part was weird bc I had to like, actually use RPG Maker for once. I mostly just did simple stuff like flavor text, animations, attack type etc.

I also decided on some music. Some of the stock tracks aren’t bad! But I did say “some tracks” and the rest kinda suck, so I’m gonna need to look around for free resources.

Day 3

Here, I had to actually figure out how to program all the attacks and unsurprisingly, I’ve hit into a few roadblocks. Here are the skills that are a bit more complicated than I thought:

Desperation Attack: Gardenia would have this double edged skill, where she’d hurt the enemy, at the expense of some of her life. And the default settings in VX Ace don’t let you target yourself AND an opponent at the same time, so I’m at an impasse.

Survivor’s Strike: Gardenia would have this OTHER HP based move, where she does more damage the lower HP she has. This could be possible with the default settings, but if it is, it’s not immediately obvious.

Conversion: Chester is supposed to have this skill where he heals the other characters but NOT himself. With the default settings, I can make Chester heal, but I can’t make him NOT heal himself.

Coin Toss / Pray for Mercy: Kat is supposed to have this move that’s supposed to be a joke attack. It goes “Kat throws currency” (which is useless in their current predicament), enemy gets the “Money?” status effect, and then if you use the joke move “Pray for Mercy” while the Money?” status is up, it does ridiculous damage. I do NOT know how to make a skill that only works if a prerequisite status effect is active.

Sharpen / Dismember: In a similar vein, Minion’s move of “use this buff first to turn this one attack into a instant kill” is something I have no idea how to program.

Kat’s Trust: At some point, Kat unlocks this ability where she lets Gardenia drink her blood to power her up. Again, not sure how I can use the default settings to do anything more complicated than “heal every ally” or “heal only one ally”

Gardenia’s Command: At some point, Chester unlocks this ability to intercept any attack aimed at other party members. While the game does have a generic “substitution” skill, it doesn’t work how I’d like it to.

I’m still looking up solutions, but I’m already considering scrapping some of these (just because I’m aiming for “an actual, completed game” and I want to remove anything that could kill my momentum).

I also did some other stuff. First thing I did was make some changes to the story. The original story was very short, but this needs to be stretched out a bit to include stuff like shopkeepers so it’s being stretched out. I also did things like “change Chester from a Blood Wolf to Astral Wolf” because the stock Wolf sprite looks awful in pure, unsaturated red (...and also because I’m a big Drizzt fan and Astral Animals are just a cool concept, period)

Oh yeah, the other thing was “bum together resources with a little Photoshop Know How”. Main thing I did was use Waifu2x to increase the size of Stock Sprites in order to use them as portraits. Then I did some light manipulation in Photoshop (mostly I just played around with Saturation, Hue and Lighting)

I had to use the Cerberus sprite for Chester because, as it turns out, VX Ace doesn’t have a generic sprite for generic wolves (despite them being a staple)

= = =

Here’s to hoping I can keep up this momentum~

[radramblog]

Pokemon Singles Meme Draft

Among certain parts of my friend group, plans get made and end up falling through more often than you’d expect. I’m sure it happens to a lot of people, but it always kinda sucks when it does, and you come up with all these ideas and they just don’t get to come to fruition. Especially when people are getting hammered with university and work and the grim reality of living in 2021.

An example of this is a friendly Pokemon Draft League conducted by myself and some friends, with the express purpose of memes and dreams only. What that meant was only using the bottom few tiers of mons, and encouraging extremely silly sets with them all the time.

We got through the actual draft, and I built some sets, so that’s what I’m going to discuss today. I have no fear of my secrets being spilled, because at this point I don’t really think it matters.

While I could probably go back and get all the pick orders from several months ago, I frankly cannot be arsed whatsoever. Instead I’m going to go by tiers, where we got 3 tier 3s, 4 tier 4s, and 4 tier 5s. Tiers 1 and 2 were banned entirely, to make sure we weren’t going to see any actually good Pokemon. Memes only, after all.

Tier 3:

Lapras: I’m 90% certain this was my first pick anyway, as Lapras being available at all felt like a steal- it’s Gigantamax form wasn’t banned because we aren’t cowards, and Lapras can take absurd advantage of such. It’s got a great typing and dummy thick defenses, along with solid enough offenses, not to mention the nonsense movepool it has access to.

I ended up building 3 different Lapras sets as tests.

The first was the Perish-Trap set, taking advantage of all those juicy support moves along with Perish Song to actually secure the KO. I…don’t know what I was thinking not putting Leftovers on this set, especially since I already had Protect and didn’t have access to a good recovery move (Rest or Life Dew aren’t going to cut it). But this set would likely just be incredibly rude. It has also just occurred to me that this is a Lapras-Gmax that can’t actually use G-Max Resonance, and that’s a bit of an oopsie.

Set 2 was a pretty vanilla Dragon Dance set, because people apparently forget two things- Lapras gets Dragon Dance, and Lapras’s Physical and Special Attack are the same, at 85 base apiece. As beefy as Lapras is, 85 often not enough to secure KOs, so DDance is a good way to mitigate this. The coverage it gets is also surprisingly decent, and I could adapt this depending on what my opponent’s options are looking like.

The final Lapras set I made is what I called “Blindpras”, or, the Lapras with a bunch of very inaccurate moves. I’ll get into it later, but I did have the ability to use Baton Pass to give some Accuracy boosts to it, but unsupported, this set would be a meme at best. Hella status though, between Sing and Zap Cannon. If it hit them. Frustratingly, Wide Lens is a 1.1x accuracy boost rather than the flat 10% I thought it was, so it’s actually only adding 5% to, say, Zap Cannon.

 Mienshao: I don’t know that much about Singles, but I do know two things are good: Regnerator and U-Turn effects. And this bad boy gets both, so I took it. It also added a Fighting type to my list, which I felt was needed.

I only made two Mienshao sets, but one of them was just Life Orb, so who cares.

This one is the real sauce. It’s not clear there, but this Mienshao has 0IVs in HP, Defense, and Special Defense- the intent being to get near-OHKO’d to pop the sash, and then shred things with Acrobatics. Alternatively, it can Baton Pass off a 2x Attack or 2x Speed, or both if they assume it’s an offensive threat and switch out. This is probably one of the sillier sets, but I would have loved to see it go off- Acrobatics hasn’t been as good ever since Flying Gem went away.

Guzzlord: I wish I had a copy of the rant I went off on for the Guzzlord pick, because it is truly the edgiest, vilest shit I’ve ever written. I was thinking about it at work, so. Guzzlord was the Dragon for the Dragon/Steel/Fairy core I was working on, and it’s also a giant idiot who I really like, so.

Much like Mienshao, I made two sets, but one’s just boring Assault Vest, so.

Spice only. The thing with Guzzlord is that it’s HP is huge, but it’s actual defenses are a meagre 53, so if you want to do builk you put them all in those stats. But it’s still an Attack boosting nature, because that still gives the most raw stats. This set is basically here to take a hit and crack back, with a monstrous Gyro Ball due to the rather sad Speed on this thing, a disruptive Knock Off or Dragon Tail, or just a 130 base power Fling. It could also Dynamax for even more bulk off of Max Steelspike. It’s just a beefy boi.

Tier 4:

Unfezant: After enjoying it in a Nuzlocke, the Love Dove was back in action. It has access to Super Luck, which is probably all it needs, right? Well, not quite, because it doesn’t get any STAB high crit rate moves save the mediocre Air Cutter and Razor Wind, and those both also come off it’s rather shite Special Attack. But we make do around here.

Crit Bird still gets Night Slash as useful coverage, and Dual Wingbeat doesn’t have a high crit ratio, but it does hit twice, and that’s still twice the chance to crit. Feather Dance is also here because everyone underrates it, and U-Turn is just nutty as always. Velocity is good, and that’s what the Love Dove has in spades. At least in this mediocre environment.

 Magneton: A former powerhouse, Magneton was the Steel in the Steel/Dragon/Fairy core and either a tank with Eviolite or a hard-hitter with something else

Or both, as it happens, because Analytic is a cool and good ability. This was definitely an unfinished set, I think, because it feels kind of confused. Like, why Rain Dance? I’m not really abusing that anywhere? Very confused. Anyway.

 Shiinotic: One of the fairies for that core, and the Grass for the Fire/Water/Grass core. Shiinotic was the only thing in Gen VIII that got Spore until the DLCs came out, but that didn’t necessarily make it great. It’s still slow as fuck and not super bulky. And it doesn’t hit super hard.

But, it can be the ULTRASUCC. Big Root works for Shiinotic either on an offensive set via Giga Drain and Draining Kiss, or defensively via Leech Seed or Strength Sap. And Spore is still here because, you know, it’s bonkers nutso if you can take a hit to set it up. And then Big Root helps you get that HP back afterwards. It’s decent enough, I think. If you don’t invest in HP, you can can get relatively more back!

 Mr. Mime: Here as an alternate Fairy and also because I wanted a Psychic type. I didn’t realise how awkward this creepy fuck was until after I actually drafted it. It gets Technician but barely anything to use it with, it gets much less useful support options than I had assumed, and it’s best defensive ability, Soundproof, makes it also immune to my own Lapras’s Heal Bell.

This was some of the best I could come up with. Trick in case Mime needs to neuter a support thing, otherwise just spam Psychic or Charge Beam. Or Magical Leaf, I guess. If you’re into that. I dunno, we were kind of getting to the dregs at this point. Shoulda taken Claydol.

 Tier 5:

Oricorio: I have a penchant for Versatility in my drafts, and since I couldn’t get Silvally, Oricorio had to do. Except…it kind of sucks ass, as it turns out. This was a National Dex league, meaning that we could use Pokemon that didn’t make the Dexit cut into Galar, which unfortunately means they don’t get the expanded movesets that came with the addition of TRs and the Isle of Armor tutor moves. And Oricorio is no exception, having been mercilessly slashed, leaving it very lacking for moves. At least it can be 4 types…?

I actually came up with 4 sets for Oricorio, because it has 4 types, and it is once again a thing that gets Baton Pass, so it has some decent enough options. This one is the Hateful set- the type basically doesn’t matter, but I put it as Pa’u and it would probably actually be best as Sensu for the immunities. Either way, this one is the troll fucker that passes Double Teams, in case I want someone to dislike me. Or it’ll just die, like this things stats are Not Good.

Aerodactyl: On the other hand, my 3rd flying type has actually very fucking good stats. Aerodactyl was OU for a few generations, and I don’t actually know why it wasn’t a higher tier. No complaints, though!

This set is literally one I lifted from Gen 4 Overused, updated with Unnerve because it’s less useless than Pressure here. Apparently OU back then was fucking wild, like, Power Herb Sky Attack on a support lead? I guess it’s fast enough that Sash isn’t something you really need, and if they pick wrong you do just nuke something. It’s a dedicated lead, from an era when that was still a relevant concept.

Camerupt: Another dex-cut species, which is a shame, because I love this idiot. It also lost its Mega, and as a result, is just kind of mediocre. But it was what I thought was the best option left for a Fire type, so.

An alternative lead for Stealth Rock, or just to Burn’n’Boom, Camerupt is here and ready to party. The camel that burns twice as bright burns half as long, except we don’t have a damaging Fire move, so………

Huntail: I considered this one kind of my masterstroke. I was so chuffed when I realised what this fucker could do, and that no-one could stop me- if they picked Huntail, I could just take Gorebyss! Easy money baby!

Huntail’s main purpose was as an opener for Baton Pass. Even though it didn’t make Gen VIII, it’s moveset was just good enough to make this work, with the ability to pass Shell Smash, Coil, or just Iron Defense and Double Team. And with Sucker Punch, it can surprise things or just sweep instead off Shell Smash. No one was going to look at this mans, nobody was going to see it coming.

Which is what set 2 was for. After I’d played my slippery, snakelike hand, I needed an alternative to catch people expecting the pass off-guard. Thus, the rudest set I could think of. Bulky, Toxic in more ways than one, Sticky and impolite.

 At the end of the day, I think I came up with more troll sets than I did actual meme sets. But that’s how it be sometimes, baby, can’t help what I’m made of.

I don’t know how to make actually good sets anyway.

[pan-matsuri]

Pokémon Moon Update 2

Last night, I finished Akala Island and the brief plot events directly following. Continued thoughts on my adventure below. Ye have been warned, there be spoilers. Akala Island: A Bunch Of Things You Have To Do

My current team is Brionne, Misdreavus, Ledian, Fomantis, and Umbreon. All girls except for Umbreon. Marowak is traveling with me and was used briefly on Akala, but she is currently on the bench. A Rock or Electric type would be a good replacement for coverage, or maybe a Dragon, or maybe Vulpix because I do what I want. I just noticed that my whole team, save for Ledian, is single typed. That’s not too uncommon for me, but usually in these instances I have a Raichu. Not this time because Alolan Raichu is not cute. I really like the cinematic sequences between you and Hau. He is my favorite character other than myself, but he continues to not be taken seriously by the rest of the cast. Before you even really set foot on the island, you’re introduced to two new characters, neither of whom properly introduce themselves. You’re told after the conversation that they’re a kahuna and a captain, but maybe they could have said as much. Or maybe they could have even said their names? I think captain Mallow did but the kahuna Olivia definitely didn’t. And another thing. The cast of characters I’m supposed to care about is huge. After the first meeting, you’re quickly introduced to Sina and Dexio, who we’d apparently met before in Kalos during XY. Plus there’s the oldest 8 year old ever, Hapu. And also the Team Skull people, Gladion and pink hair. And also also the Aether Foundation. There’s the clearly evil green dude, the clearly evil boss lady, the really nice administrator, and the unnamed employee that Rotom has the hots for. There’s too many names! Speaking of Rotom, I’m actually warming up to it. It’s not that intrusive and tends to think what I’m thinking most of the time anyway. This island, like Melemele, is very linear, unfortunately. The stupid boy and his Stoutland constantly block your path and force you to explore only in the designated areas. This isn’t really new for Pokémon, I guess. I don’t like how many surprise battles there are. I know by now I should just expect that a story marker on the map will have a battle, but more often than not I forget and my whole team will start in the yellow. I’ve used more healing items in this game than any other, but that may also be because my team is far less balanced than ever before. Ledian and Umbreon are walls and are bound to take chip damage. Fomantis is a glass cannon and slow to boot, so she’s hard to switch in without Ledian or Umbreon’s support. I didn’t like the ranch town. You couldn’t go into hardly any houses, which hurt the immersion. I don’t like how unceremonious it is when you are given access to Stoutland as a Ride Pokémon. For Tauros, you had to chase him all across Melemele and make friends with him. It felt like you earned the chance to ride it. But for Stoutland, it’s basically Mallow saying “oh hey here’s the itemfinder okay bye” I didn’t like how the first trial captain was Lana. On Melemele, we met Ilima several times before the first trial. I feel like it’s been standard for a while now to meet a gym leader at least once outside of their gym before the challenge. But once again, you walk into Brooklet Hill and meet someone you’ve never met before and it feels unceremonious. Also, you are given a new ride Pokémon, again with no ceremony. This time it’s the surfing Pokémon and I knew it was gonna be Lapras but I just really hoped it would have been anyone else. By this point, I had not yet caught Eevee or Cubone. But that’s fine, as Fomantis was able to single handedly take on the Totem Wishiwashi and it’s allies, thanks to Razor Leaf being an AOE attack. The fishing pole can seemingly only catch Magikarp which continues to be stupid. In GSC, the Old Rod can actually catch other things, like Poliwag. Apparently we forgot that tho. I don’t remember at what point we’re introduced to Gladion and his Pokémon. It has the worst name ever, Type: Null. It’s a cool concept tho. This is also about the time that we’re introduced to Hapu as well. I don’t like her. She’s failed to show me any reason to be interested in her. She has a horse. Cool. I really like Battle Royals. I do not like the way that you’re forced into your first one without any time to prepare, per the usual in this game. I had been level training my Eevee, which had just hatched, so I was way lower level than everyone else. Luckily, they all ignored me for whatever reason. So I just used Growl repeatedly, so that no one could do any damage to me if they tried. Once somebody was in the red, I used Quick Attack to steal the KO. I really liked how you didn’t hear from Kukui hardly at all on this island. I don’t like Kukui. I did like the build up to Kiawe’s trial. This was again another person we’d never met. But the dance thing was pretty funny. I did not like Totem Salazzle. This match was very difficult, but only because the rules suddenly changed for this fight. Totem Pokémon can call for help from predefined allies. In the first two trials, when you defeat the allies, they’re gone for good. But in this match, the ally Salandit keep coming forever. So if you don’t focus on Salazzle from the start, you’ll have a rough time. Annoyingly, I’d never seen either of these Pokémon before. They might have been in the wild in this area, but I didn’t bother looking because 1) catching Pokémon sucks in this game, and 2) wild EXP gain is not worth the time. So I stopped spending a lot of time looking in the grass, notably around the ranch, because I was sick of seeing Lillipup and nothing else. There’s 800+ Pokémon now, can we have some variety please? Anyway, they are Poison/Fire types. I had my whole team at this time, and they all were put through the paces, except for Fomantis who had no chance here. Misdreavus missed on the first turn with Thunder Wave and then died, which set the stage for an awful battle. Ledian could survive their stupid combo, but wasn’t fast enough to get a Light Screen up. Umbreon could survive but couldn’t do much on its own other than tank for a turn and let the others heal. Cubone could do serious damage but couldn’t survive for longer than a turn. Brionne was the MVP, but only after I switched focus to Salazzle and used Hydro Vortex. Poison was the killer here, even though this was supposed to be a Fire trial. Anyway. I do not like the ride Pokémon for flying, Charizard. It seems that even Nintendo thinks Gen 1 is the only good one, which is just not true. There are so many Flying types, you didn’t have to pick literally the first one on the list. I really like the music. Especially the ambient music in calm places, like where you first meet Tapu Koko. Mallow’s trial was neat. I did like how it incorporated Lana and Kiawe. I think Mallow’s trial should have been first. Totem Lurantis was not as hard as people on the internet said it was. Ledian was the MVP. I first took out ally Trumbeak with Brionne and Umbreon. For some reason, Lurantis kept using Solar Blade instead of X-Scissor on Umbreon, so I kept using Growl. After 3 Growls and a Reflect, Lurantis could only do 5~10 damage to Ledian using X-Scissor. Castform was taken out quickly using Brionne and Ledian. Brionne admirably tanked a sunny Solar Blade thanks to prior support. Ledian’s Infestation was able to outpace Lurantis’s Synthesis after an X Sp Atk. Professor Burnet is way cooler than her husband. I don’t like Kukui. I don’t know what to think of this Ultra Wormhole thing yet. Diglett’s Tunnel is stupid because Steel type is stupid and Zubat is annoying. I’ve even raised one before. I loved my Crobat in Crystal. But that was well over a decade ago. I really like how there are two clothing stores on Akala Island. I also really like the hair accessories. They are way better than hats. I was not a fan of all the surprise battles with Team Skull on the way to the grand trial. I like that Team Skull is dumb, and I’m glad to start meeting their leaders, and I like that even their leaders know that Team Skull is dumb. The grand trials are similar enough to gym battles that it’s refreshing. I like Olivia as a character. I don’t like Aether. They’re clearly all evil, except for Wicke and the girl who was nice to Rotom and me after we saved Slowpoke. I wish we could have actually explored their island a little. I liked the encounter with the Ultra Beast. I wish I could have beaten it before it fled. All in all, I generally felt the same as I did on Melemele. Kukui seems to want me to take this adventure way more seriously than anyone else. I wish I could have an adventure with Hau, where we could take it slow and enjoy our travels through the islands, perhaps without Kukui breathing down our necks. I don’t like Kukui. Some other thoughts: • I like how the trainers actually stand with their Pokémon during battle. It’s an idea that I had in my head a long time ago, and I’m glad it made its way through the aether into reality. • It seems like a lot of the moveset changes were made with competitive battles in mind. Which is annoying, because I don’t play competitive. I want to actually use cool Pokémon like Ledian and cute ones like Glaceon that are not very good in competitive, but it makes the single-player game more difficult. • I don’t like the version-exclusive clothing. I’d love to wear more red and yellow without having to figure out the Festival Plaza. But then again, like in real life, I only wear black and white so maybe it doesn’t matter. • I’m not sure why I feel so discouraged to wander into the tall grass in this game. My favorite thing about Pokémon is catching them all. It’s probably a combination of SOS battles being garbage, catch rates being lower, wild exp being lower, and my team being slower and more defensive.

[breegullbeakreviews]

Summary: When Hat Kid’s collection of magical time pieces ends up strewn across a planet full of deplorable begins, she’ll set out of a quest to take back these powerful pieces before they fall into the wrong hands in a 3D platforming adventure.

Overall: A Hat in Time is a fantastic love letter to the 3D Platformers of old. It’s full of fresh ideas and unlike many other attempts to bring back the genre this year, it knows what worked and what didn’t about the genre and accounted for it. At $30 it’s the best 3D platformer on the PS4 and Xbox One(Banjo Kazooie excluded) and is totally worth the price tag.

*Like with Yooka Laylee, I was a Kick Starter backer of the project backing at the $70 tier and spending an extra $20 to get a PS4 code. 

Controls: While inspired by classics like Banjo Kazooie and Super Mario 64, Hat Kid’s moveset is not particular inspired by either. Hat Kid has no triple jump, but she can do a second jump while in the air as well as a dive. Unlike either the bear, the bird, or the former plumber, Hat Kid will run up a wall when she hits one while not diving and in the air. This allows for some interesting platforming. Instead of always jumping straight across platforms occasionally you’ll need to drop under a barricade, dive and then run up the wall instead.

Hat kid can dive at foes while airborne with a homing attack, but she’ll also get a melee attack early on. Hat kid’s main quirk is her collection of unlockable hats. I don’t want to spoil them all as they’re a lot of fun, but her starting hat will show you your objective when you press L2 or its equivalent on your platform of choice. The first two hats you’ll unlock all for faster movement and a throw able explosive. Switching between hats is rather funny as a gimmick in a world post Odyssey, but this gimmick was planned well in advance of Mario’s return to open world adventures.

Hub: Hat Kid’s ship is a nice hub. It feels like a functional place and it’s just large enough to hold the games 4 chapters and the final showdown. The biggest issue for me is a nitpick, but its shape from the outside is pretty ugly. It isn’t seen from the outside outside of cut scenes, but when it is it’s not a particularly flattering design. Inside is what counts though and while not massive and as memorable as the classics, small and simple works a lot better than Mario’s lack thereof and Yooka Laylee’s mess.

Time Rifts/Customization/Relics: These next three things all are pretty linked. Time Rifts are A Hat in Time’s equivalent to Super Mario Sunshine’s Bonus stages. Hell they even have similar rotating blocks with pegs coming out. You are never stripped of powers when entering these, but four of these are extra special. Before I touch on those we need to cover the Relics. Hidden throughout the game are presents holding Relics and after all of those are collected they hold Rift coins, but we’ll get back to those. These Relics can be combined on platforms in the proper order to not only decorate the Hub, but they’ll also unlock an extra Rift for each chapter.

These Rifts are based around the chapters theme and are much longer. In these as opposed to just reaching the end of the rift, you’ll need to collect special tickets in each area and enough special pons to open the next area as you make your way to the end. These help break up the game as they are the few moments where the game can ignore how a challenge fits into the chapter’s world design and go nuts.

Back to those coins. When you complete a rift or spend three of those coins you get new to spin for new color schemes for Hat kid’s outfit or different appearances for the game’s hats. You get 3 spins each time but you can only take one things. Basically you spin, take what you got or spin again and give up that item unless you roll it again. I have no idea if you can get every customization option in the game, but you can’t spend money to get more coins so I’m fine with this system. I wish it was just the different hats though. I preferred those to the color scheme changes.

Mafia Town: Way back in the day A Hat in Time was sold to me on just this chapter and the promise of a return of 3D Platforming. Mafia Town is the first of four chapters in the game, and it’s incredible how it feels lived in and is still fun to explore. As part of the games narrative you are locked to this chapter for its first four acts before you can head out and explore the other chapters. The fourth act here really set’s the story in motion and is home to the game’s first real boss fight. Despite the game being a 3D platformer, this boss is fought in 2D and I’m not sure what to think about it. It’s a strange fight fitting of the Mafia’s strange vibe, but I’m not a fan of being locked to a 2D plane for just this segment. Maybe if it was used prior it would work better, but as is it’s an okay fight.

The chapter itself is a seas side town built around a volcano shaped geyser that keeps the Mafia bosses club floating high in the sky. Due to the slope of the geyser’s sides, the town has multiple levels of height you’ll be running between as you explore. Oh and the town is run and lived in solely by the Mafia who outside their leader all look the same. The chapter is super sparse on foes. The Mafia won’t attack unless provoked or tied into the act itself. Outside that you’re pretty safe outside fall damage and the strange sleepy raccoons. If this chapter has one issue it’s that due to the vertical nature of the town I never really got a lay of the land. This is an issue for most of the chapters, but unlike others, this one has a single distinct theme throughout so I can’t say I’m in this part of the map and over there is that part of the map very easily.

Dead Bird Studios: Somehow the chapter that feels the least inspired by classic 3D Platformers is my favorite. Dead Bird Studios is home to stealth segments, timed segments, and a conga line of enemies that forces you to keep moving and not double back too quickly. Pretty much all of these are aspects of Super Mario Galaxy which makes this whole thing even funnier since this chapter is set on the moon, despite never being seen. What makes this chapter so great is that every one of these elements is one and done all leading up to what is now one of my favorite boss fights ever. It is perfectly built to and I absolutely refuse to spoil, but it’s safe to say the developers of A Hat in Time are super cynical of the Cinematic Studio System.

Dead Bird Studios starts with Hat kids trying to steal back her Time pieces from the competing directors who plan to use them as props for their upcoming motion pictures. When she is caught she is instead offered to star in the films of two competing directors. From there each act is a movie with its own gimmick. All of these are super linear, but what makes it work is that none of them play the same and none of these gimmicks leave this chapter. All of these fun things are one and done so they never get old.

Subcon Forest: Of all of the chapters, Subcon Forest is the most generic, but how it handles the basic theme of spooky level is done really well. As the first act begins you are quickly forced to make a deal with the Snatcher, a spooky spirit. In exchange for your soul he’ll let you explore his woods as long as you complete tasks for him. While most spooky levels dance around the morbid nature of things, this chapter doesn’t shy away from the darker concepts at play. Magical nooses hang in the woods. The spirts in the woods want to die. It’s a strange setting.

The design of the forest itself is split into distinct areas. Each is key for at least one of the acts, but all of them can be reached from anyone act, except for the boss fight area which is only reachable when needed. This allows for each act to feel distinct. The most annoying part of the chapter is trying to find your way around. While everything is distinct I still never got a sense of which area was next to what other area outside a super select few. Luckily the game will start you facing the right direction and from there the path is pretty obvious. Good luck finding those rifts through.

The star of the show here is the Snatcher. He’s you pretty basic deal making devil but he’s played for laughs in such a way that while he would be terrifying to actually meet in reality, in this games setting he’s silly. He’s always smiling and he’s built like an inflatable tube man. Sadly his boss fight sucks. Because of how it’s built when you die it takes a long time to get back to the point in which you can actually damage him. It also doesn’t help that his attacks are all pretty random and similar enough that knowing how to dodge them doesn’t help much since where things will land is hard to pin down. Also no health was dispensed the whole fight. Snatcher takes the least hits of all the bosses, but he’s the least balanced of these bosses regardless. I’d rather have a lengthy but forgiving fight than a short and insane one.

Alpine Skyline: You know who up until now each chapter was divided into acts? Throw that out the window. This last level is entirely free roam. Hold your goats, it’s not a giant open mountain. The map is made up of various mountain peaks that you’ll zip line between. It’s pretty linear in nature, but you’ll get to choose which of the four acts you’ll tackle first. The Finale sadly can’t be redone due to how it twists the map, but it’s not particularly strong so no huge loss. The acts here are super fun. Twilight Bell and The Windmill are awesome platforming challenges that put your use of hats and platforming to the test. It’s puzzle platforming at its finest.

I’m honestly not sure what else I can say about the penultimate chapter. There is no boss fight and it’s where you obtain the game’s final and arguably game breaking hat. The setting itself is pretty underused and is pretty much just fluff to connect the four harder acts together but those acts are so good it all works out in the end.

Time’s End: The game ends with a final Bowser Castle style level leading into a final boss battle against Mustache girl who after learning that you wouldn’t use the Time Pieces to stop the bad guys decided to use the time pieces to become the judge of who is and isn’t bad. The final battle has Hat kid getting aided by all of the games baddies who just want things to go back to the way they were. It’s a fun final battle that was made super easy by the inclusion of the game’s final hat. I appreciate the interstitial cut scenes that occur throughout that remind me of the good old Paper Mario games.

The course itself is pretty challenging. I’d be lying if I said I got through it unscathed. The whole evil castle above lava is pretty generic, but as a love letter to the 3D platformers of old it’s fine. I think creating some sort of crazy place outside of time would have fit the theme of the game more, but what matters in the end is what’s inside, and what is inside the castle is good.

Story: I mean I pretty much covered the story back there. Hat kid’s time pieces get scattered on this planet. She lands in Mafia town and Mustache girl helps her out until she learns about the power of the pieces and that Hat kid doesn’t want to use the power to stop bad guys. From here you just sort of play the game until you get enough time pieces and Mustache girl comes and steals them triggering the unlocking of the final battle where the above events transpire. It’s a sappy story about power corrupting and that messing with time is bad. It’s a lot more effort than I expected out of this and it left me with a smile on my face.