#pokemon go is not the true experience in my opinion

[love-for-burgundy-blog]

If the only pokemon related thing you like or play is Pokemon GO, than you are not a true pokemon fan period!!

[onemillionfurries]

i gotta stop scrolling through the palworld tumblr/twitter search holy shit my brain is rotting.

Palworld did not use AI in it's designs oh my god. the initial trailer for the game dropped in 2021, before AI art generation really kicked off into high-gear, and you can see many designs there that are finalized for the final game. You can look at the original trailer here. No doubt that many other creature designs were also finalized during this time.

Additionally, lets also look at what AI pokemon actually DID look like at the time:

... these look absolutely nothing like palworld designs. palworld designs are very deliberate "pokemon but legally distinct" or "two pokemon mashed together", wheras these are an amalgamation of all the pokemon available at the time. if anyone remembers the melty surreal AI of the time, you know there's no way to ask it to give you a "normal type lycanroc" and have it produce direhowl's design.

I also feel like this whole discourse around accusing the team of using AI for their monster designs does a disservice to the completely original designs in the game? because believe it or not, there are a lot of wholly unique designs in this game! my personal favorites so far being Tombat, Swee, and Caprity.

if it turns out that everything truly was AI generated then that's egg on my face. you're allowed to have your opinions on the plagiarism of palworld's monster designs, but don't go around spreading false information you read online just because it sounds true and makes the game look worse.

[heinousactszx]

In your opinion how did the open world format work for pokemon legends of arceus? Is there anything you would have changed about it?

TLDR, i think it worked fantastically. but in order to get into why, i think i need to get into why the open world of SV (and to a lesser extent swsh) did NOT work.

It's practically one of my mantras at this point, but an open world game can have an explorable space as big as the real world itself; it's not going to be fun to play if it's not worth exploring. that means having interesting locales, secrets and new abilities to find, and exciting challenges to seek out.

Scarlet and violet... Don't really have that. the only thing you can really find in the game are, well, pokemon. Yeah yeah I know there's trainers and the treasures of ruin and maybe a raid battle, but overwhelmingly what you're finding in that big open world is pokemon. And the fun of discovering them sort of pales when really all you can do with that discovery is add them to your team or your dex. Plus, unlike classic pokemon games, the removal of random encounters means there's no real reason to even engage with the pokemon you see once you're at a high enough level and have them in the dex. seriously, once you realize how much of SV is just walking around pokemon in the open world, you'll never unsee it

you could argue that having the choice to complete the 3 stories in any order you like is one of the things you can find. But when all of those events are tied to a structured level scale that doesn't change, your "choice" comes down to either running into fights that are way too hard and then abruptly way too easy, or playing in the exact order they want you to. not exactly enticing either way. Scarlet and violet probably would have just been better off as a more linear pokemon with typical hallway routes instead of spending all this time on an open world that rarely enhances any part of the experience (though i will admit running around with a friend in union circle is really fun)

ANYWAY to get back to what you actually asked, Legends arceus sidestepped this issue by making interacting with pokemon the entire gameplay loop. it was a stroke of genius to make completing the pokedex the main goal of the game, because unlike in the regular series, catching a pokemon does not tie the bow on it. No, in order to advance in the game and truly fill out the dex, you have to complete research tasks related to that pokemon. Hitting it with certain attacks, using items, number caught, number stunned, using certain moves, and so many more. some of them even have side-quests associated with them!

all of this encourages you to do more with the entirety of the world you're exploring than SV offered. switching up your team and trying new things to fill out dex entries is encouraged and gives so much variety to the actual experience of playing the game like you usually would. While there's actually less pokemon to find than in SV or swsh, improving the way you actually engage with all of them makes legends much more exciting to run around in.

not to mention, the game feel in legends is just better, flat out. walking around feels better, the ride pokemon are more fun, pokemon running from you or attacking you feels more immersive than the way they mostly just exist waddling around in the other switch games. It helps that legends, while having some performance issues, is nowhere near as bad as SV has it.

of course, the truth of the matter is that legends arceus is not truly an open world game. It's a series of large and open but disconnected areas accessible from a main hub, rather than one large contiguous gamespace. remoraid to my head, i think i'd pick the former every time. it gives the game more focused central game design and cuts out a lot of extra transient elements that don't really add that much. Running around a true open world is fun and all, but legends arceus would not have been a better game just because you could walk directly from one area to another, much in the same way that Scarlet and violet really aren't better games for it either

as for what i'd change? honestly? nothing. the gameplay loop of legends was so addicting that i did almost nothing but play it for weeks when it first came out. it was and is the best pokemon game in over a decade. in some ways i can't believe it's actually as good as it is. i remember being so anxious with a friend that it was going to be a disaster when it ended up being a masterpiece.

no, wait, what i'd change is game freak's awful habit of adding cool new features, like this entire game, and then never touching them again. make a sequel. pokemon legends kyurem. call me mr iwao i can make this work

[digimontamerlayne]

I'm playing Cyber Sleuth for the first time because I got it on sale, and I am now angrily glaring at past me for not looking for it on deals sooner cause I love it. So here's my over excited rant of my general experience. I actually cut this short remarkably.

I am only on Chapter 4, so my info only goes to after defeating the Eater in the Subway.

At the start I felt pressed on the whole Pokemon Starter-esque way you gotta choose between Terriermon, Palmon, and Hagurumon. But you can still get them all later which is nice. The need to choose just put me on the spot.

Normally, I'd have jumped at getting Terriermon (I prefer Lopmon but you can't go wrong with Terriermon), but I wound up doing "wheel of fate" and got Hagurumon.

And now I'm attatched to it. I digivolved it to Clockmon cause I knew one digivolution was Guardromon, so I was curious about the others' possibilities. I could tell one was Scumon, though, and that was not happening. Thank you.

My current team set up is Clockmon, Gabumon BLK (I got attatched to him too), Fanbeemon originally but it has been switched for Lopmon for now, and Impmon in my reserve because the moment I found out Kuramon and then Pagumon digivolve to Impmon that felt mandatory to do.

Story thus far is pretty cool. Interesting characters. Kyoko Kuremi is pretty and rather interesting, but she needs to have her coffee pot removed from her office immediately. Anyways, she and Nokia feel a bit on the nose to pull in specific audience through use of "attractive allure" (*eye roll*), but I was told for Nokia it's part of her character of how she likes presenting herself and I know people who do the same and especially when they were 17 like she is, so she does make sense to me. But half the time that outfit of her's does not. It defies logic, I swear. Pretty or not. But Nokia's connection and partnering up with Agumon and Gabumon is pretty freaking cute and feels like a hint at her true colors underneath the choice of flashy-ness.

Arata felt pretty enigmatic, though less than Yuugo because Arata had just enough "I'm deliberately acting too cool" and was just enough of a smirking "jerk" to counter most of the enigmaticness. And then he gushed about the Cyber Sleuth thing after trying to brush off his interest. He revealed his true colors: he's a geek like the rest of us. I will hold that and the fact he ditched me to escape Crazy Detective Date on my own over his head whenever I talk about him. But the rest of him still feels "mystery" enough.

I'll talk more about other characters some other time when I feel more connected or understand them better. Right now, I only really got connected to Nokia (plus Agumon + Gabumon) and now Arata enough to give opinionable interest. Except one, dude. I'm gonna gripe about Jimiken here in a minute for a reason.

But anyway, I love a lot of the side stuff going on too.

Example: Mirei sending me to make hackers abusing Digimon repent is nice. But in the second round, the Three Scammers Siblings you go after, I was not ready for that! The oldest sibling as a nonbinary character with motives linking towards their identity and how pressed they felt having to "choose", and how their scams (which were mostly just catfishing compared to their brother's scams) link back to their harsh emotions towards that. Not justified (especially if you look at the "forcing their digimon to do the work" part which is why you're confronting them) for what they wound up doing to others, but clear in what motivated them. I was neither expecting nor ready for that, and I love it. And the fact we get to give them a pep talk about how they were strong and are a great sibling to their brothers to cheer them up was awesome. I am sorta sad that the dialog where they ask for our digiline wasn't actually interactable. C'mon, in Pokemon Soul Silver and Heart Gold, you get more numbers than you can keep up with. Why not with this?

So, I'm having the time of my life with this game.

Although I found out the hard way about the Game Overs when you lose a battle. I loath Jimiken and the chapter and a half BACK he sent me. What I felt on par with "not saving in Pokemon and your device dying" level of despair. I had to redo chapter 2 and then my progress through chapter 3 back to that stupid fight, saving every few minutes out of sheer paranoia! It undid digimon I had converted and digivolutions I had done!

I was cussing out his Devimon and Meramon while fighting it. I was having flashbacks to Adventure Devimon, just channeling 12 year old me's emotions to relive that hatred of Devimon for this fight... But that died the moment Jimiken blamed his Digimon for losing. I became this specific Devimon's number 1 advocate cause screw this Paul Stanley wannabe. It is not this Devimon's fault you suck. This Devimon was Hella strong and made me scream cause it took me from just under half health to no health on my reserve digimon when he himself had just one last hit point before I beat him (can you tell I'm still a little sore on that?).

This was an amazing moment for me. I hated Jimiken so much it somehow bulldozed right over the loathing I had for Devimon in general that my introduction to Digimon drilled into me in a matter of moments. This is a bizarre development for me I'm still getting used to.

Also, WHAT IS CRAZY DETECTIVE LADY DATE!? What is her problem? It's funny but she is unsettling with her yelling.

Alright, I'm cutting this rant short here before I keep going over board.

I got carried away in the tags, so there's a rant in there, too.

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale's Rankings: Best Ash Ketchum

Now this sounds like a weird Ranking topic, but with over 20+ years of Pokemon anime to sift through, I can tell you there are some differences.

This Ash:

Is very different than this one:

And not just in animation styles.

So I should go over the rules.

I will be distinguishing each Ash on the Tried and True method. Based on Ash's Hat. For Example, Ash in the Kanto league, Orange Islands, and Johto Ash are all the same Ash, as they have the same hat. But once he goes to Hoenn, Its a different Ash

I will be ranking them based on Personality, Pokemon team, Competence for experience level, Performance and Overall Charm.

In regards to Competence for Experience, I mean how skilled he was shown to be compared to how he is in the region

I will not be including Manga, or spin offs. Purely the anime. Movies will be included if it benefits Ash

This is a personal list and I would love to hear everyone's thoughts.

____________________________________________________________

7. Black & White Ash

This... this ash at his lowest point in my opinion.

Also 2nd lamest companions. Iris was fine but the green haired Connoisseur annoyed me.

This was around the time the anime tried to do a soft reboot/retcon within itself and had Ash still say he is 10, even though he already went through 4 regions.

This Ash isnt a terrible person or anything, but ... he is kind of an idiot in battle. He gives advice and there are times he's mature but he loses battles he has no business losing. His team is also pretty unremarkable in Unova, even with all 3 starters. He never fully evolved any of them, the only Fully Evolved pokemon from Unova being his Krookadile (His best pokemon aside from Pikachu) Leavanny and Unfezent. (Which he switched out HALF THE TIME)

His pikachu also lost to Trip (a bargain bin version of Paul) who JUST GOT his pokemon recently.

But that is nothing compared to his embarrassing performance in the Unova League.

He made it to the great 8 and ended up losing to Cameron. Who if I had describe his incompetence, it would physically hurt me.

This Ash off the bat was not going to win any Leagues. But you would think with his experience he would be better... but he wasnt.

6. Sun and Moon Ash

I hate this iteration of ash... personally dislike him.

This Ash is likely the most immature we've seen ash since Kanto. Most of his maturity is gone in the first half of the season. His battle tactics may not be as bad as the previous ash (With this Ash actually WINNING his league). But its hard to say if most of those wins feel earned. Unlike later entries on this list, this Ash stumbled into incredibly powerful pokemon (two of which are basically legendaries), but to this Ash's credit, his Incineroar and Lyconroc were trained up and earned. I also enjoyed seeing the dynamic of this ash had with his friends in alola, along with the professor. I do think this Ash didnt deserve his Win in the league... mainly because the league was hardly official in terms of rules. It was basically a tournament with half of the people being his friends. But thats me nitpicking. This Ash does show to grow and strategize better than the last Ash, so I will give him props. But thats all I am giving him. Well Okay, Pikachu helped hard carry in this season

5. Journey's Ash

This Ash is... well he is technically the most skilled Ash as he can use all the tricks and did win the Master Class. But I dont get why.

Side note Gou is the worst Companion in the entire series dont @ me I know I am right.

This Ash STUMBLES hard into all his strong pokemon. Gengar, Dragonite, Dracovish. Sir Fetched and Lucario are the only two he needed to help evolve. Also, what is up with that unbalanced Team Composition? Half weak to fairy and dragon, Half weak to ground types. How did Cynthia NOT sweep?

That may have been Nitpicking a bit, but I still stand on the former point, most of his mons were strong at the jump. In Alola, the two legendaries he finds he at least has to evolve. Sure they are legendaries, but still.

I also just found this ash a bit too kidish until the end at the master class tournament.

Now did Ash deserve to be the very best? Yes. Did this iteration of Ash deserve it... Meh. At least it wasnt Unova or Alola Ash.

I do like that this Ash actually remembers his journey and tries to improve on it... though I am still pissed at a LOT of the retcons they did.

It did give us a lot of epic battles and Pikachu's epic clash.

4. Ruby & Sapphire Ash

Now we are at the Ash's I actually enjoy.

This Ash is a more refined yet still Childish Protagonist. He has been around the block and still has his child wonder. Yet he is more brazen and intelligent. He is more strategic compared to his previous iteration and will go into battle's with clever strategies. His team is also fairly balanced, His Sceptile being the star of the show, but his hoenn league team was nothing to sneeze at, His Swellow, Glalie, and Torkoal did work.

His placement in the great 8 in Hoenn showed his improvement and was a solid placement for him at this time. After this we really got to see Ash improve in the Battle Frontier.

Now the Battle Frontier is similar to Ash in the Orange Islands, the main difference though is that this is a more mature ash with some more serious opponents. Ash had a larger arsenal of pokemon and if it wasnt for all the experience he had gained, he likely would never have beaten Brandon and his team of incredibly strong Regis

Ash had his MVP companion Brock, and was accompanied by May and Max. Max being the young curious kid helped let Ash be more mature, while May still being new to pokemon let ash give advice as well as explore new avenues for strategies by watching Contests

Out of All the Ash's I would say he is the ash I look to to show his growth.

3. Original Ash

The Original, The start, the hyper active, comedic Ash that I grew up with.

Ash in the start was a complete noob and was stubborn to a fault. Its funny how he doesnt earn Half his badges through battles at the start. His pokemon usually joined him instead of being caught, and a chunk usually left for other reasons.

This Ash does grow and has the most heart out of all the ash so far. He cares about his pokemon and this is the closest Ash to capturing the magic of a trainer on their first Journey.

During the Orange Islands and Johto he does grow a bit, learning new strategies and showing himself capable of winning. He even bests his rival Gary.

And Of course this Ash had a team of strong mons, Charizard, Pikachu, Heracross, Squirtale, Bulbasaur, Pidgeot, Lapris. and a HERD OF TAUROS! Bayleaf, Quilava, and more.

And of course the OG companions, Misty and Brock. Though tbh I never cared for Misty. She was Mid.

2. Diamond and Pearl Ash

This was VERY hard for me to decide. Ash from Sinnoh is honestly some of the Best Ash I have seen.

We see ash grow and develop a lot more of the iconic strategies and out of the box thinking we know him for. Ash had met his antithesis in Paul and would clash with him only to have one of the best battles in ALL of Pokemon in the great 8!

This Ash had The OG Brock by his side, along with Dawn, who in my personal opinion was a superior coordinator companion to May. I liked May but Dawn managed to vibe with Ash much easier in my opinion.

Ash's team with Gliscor, Torterra, Buisal, Staraptor, Gible and Infernape were a solid team base, and Ash's Pikachu also being a star in its own right

I loved the maturity of this ash, as well as the frustration he felt when being beaten by Paul at every step. He even began questioning his own ability when Paul's cutthroat tactics seemed to show such results. But it was shown through Infernape why Ash was in the right.

This Ash also should have gone farther than top 4, but dude faced DARKRAI AND LATIOS. Not Ash's fault the had to deal with the one trainer with a game shark. It did feel like Tobias was created SOLELY to stop Ash from winning. But even the final's opponent couldnt beat the darkrai while Ash at least did.

Still salty on that.

1. XY Ash

Yes, Kalos Ash is my favorite Ash. Sure Kalos as a region and a game was MID. But Mega evolutions, the battles, the way Ash grew and developed. This Ash was SUCH an improvement from Black and White Ash that it felt like this ash was from Diamond and pearl. It is Ash at his best. His most mature, his most energetic yet not annoying. This Ash is the cool ash that your GF tells you not to worry about.

Serena Clemont and Bonnie were solid compatriots. Bonnie being a better max, and Clemont being the dorky yet fun inventor. While he isnt Brock, he is still a fun character. And of Course, Serena is best girl. She didnt lose her bike to Ash's pikachu, so points. She knew him from the past, the cute crush never felt forced. It also made the times when they argued really hold weight. Ash realized he effed up when Serena was pissed.

Now for the team. Ash earned his OP team. He evolved all his pokemon save for Pikachu and Hawlucha, into the strong powerhouses they became. He was competing against Mega evolutions AND Winning. He and Greninja even bonded so hard he got a unique form. AND THAT THEME FUCKING SLAPPED

His fights in the Kalos league top 4 and final match were INSANE!

His rivalry with Sawyer was interesting, especially with how Sawyer overtook him when he was in a slump only for him to push back hard.

His rivalry with Alain also had some depth that I wish was explored more.

This Ash deserved the Win in Kalos. But even so, his fight with Alain in the final was intense and epic.

It shows how Ash went the POLAR opposite of his Unova iteration, it showed how Ash struggled and grew on the level of Sinnoh, and it showed how he was a leader in his own right. This was Ash at his best.

[clefclefairy]

for that ask game 🔥 gimme your absolute pettiest pokemon opinion(s) i'm talking that shit that no one else has even thought about yet it Compels you 🔥

okay here goes. one of the broadest hot takes i have is: there IS no pokemon fandom, in a singular, unified sense. this is literally the most sprawling multimedia franchise conglomerate on the planet earth. i can literally spend tens of hours explaining glitch pokemon but if you ask me the basic rules of the TCG i will throw up and cry. I have played and finished literal dozens of Pokemon romhacks that have their own separate fandoms that will never be touched by 90% of the pokemon fanbase and that STILL gives them an audience of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. i havent played pokemon ranger for more than fifteen minutes. i can tell you about ADV OU and RBY OU and weather wars and aldarons proposal and etc etc etc but i only play VGC sparingly. pokemon masters is an entire separate continuity of lore that i refuse to touch bc i can't do gacha for my own sanity. i do still need to watch some story cutscenes, though. Pokemon collosseum and gale of darkness were incredibly important to the era of fandom i flourished as a BNF in; now they are like ancient, weathered scrolls in a language modern players do not speak.

a horrifying amount of 20 year olds only started during the DS era of games. there's an entire spate of time that, to me, is so crucial to my experience and embrace of pokemon that literally millions of people did not and can not experience in the same way. What does pokemon feel like to them? It can't feel the same way that it does to me. maybe that's true of everything. there are literal millions of pokemon go players who haven't touched a mainline game in 20 years or more. to say nothing of its own hideous vile wretched PVP meta. there are people who consider themselves pokemon fans and can only recognize like 500 of them. max. and yet they are pokemon fans, right? they enjoy the series? because after a certain point what can you ask of people? To be in this fandom is to grab at a few of Arceus' thousand arms and shape your universe therein. how can I even begin to understand this as a fandom when it's just this part of my life and has been almost since I was born? What about people who play Mystery Dungeon? What about Pokemon Conquest?

Also people were and are super fucking weird about Kieran, holy shit. This is a slightly less underdiscussed point but I was genuinely stunned by the amount of people calling him an incel or comparing him to a school shooter because, as related to my point above, i don't really participate in broader "pokemon fandom" because how can you? girl he is a 15 year old with an anxiety disorder and you stole his horse girl movie plot right out from underneath him. I think he's allowed to be a bit of a bitch about it! It is also really annoying that a satisfying conclusion to that plot was and is impossible because it would break away from one of Pokemon's core, integral mechanics, which is that Everything Important Is Yours. Is that mechanic as a core element worth discussing? I'd say so. Not even necessarily getting rid of, just reckoning with how it is going to inevitably leave certain plots frustrated because like. By all rights Kieran should've gotten Terapagos, right? Since we got Ogrepon? Parallels? And it would've felt a little less like I did just steal some kid's sacred relic slash autistic fixation if he also stole mine? And then I stop and think, does this feel that way to the children playing it?

I will never be a child playing Pokemon again. What does that change in perspective keep me from understanding now? What do I know and interpret and learn now from my experience of Pokemon that I couldn't possibly then? is it inevitably lesser? sometimes it feels that way. like the beats of my life are tied less tight to the Pokemon games I played and the Pokemon I cared for when I did. is that a bad thing? probably not. that's just life. but...do I miss it?

doesn't everyone?

[generalsnivy]

The land of Kitakami is celebrating a successful apple harvest by holding a festival and, of course, Ogerpon has to join in on the fun as she skips along the apple orchard while holding a balloon and singing a song from her heart, looking as happy as a Spheal rolling down a hill!

If you're wondering where she got the balloon from, she saw it floating in the air at a balloon stall near the apple orchard. Curious, she approached the stall with a look of amazement and wonder in her eyes as she got closer and closer to both the stall and the balloon. There, the human running the balloon stall was handing out a balloon to a child after they purchased one from them when they saw Ogerpon staring at the Applin balloon from the corner of their eye. The balloon was floating high in the air near the stall, blowing around slightly in the wind as the balloon string that's tied to the balloon, keeps it anchored to the ground, preventing it from flying away. After the balloonist finished handing out the balloon to their customer, they went over to Ogerpon and asked her if she liked balloons. Ogerpon responds to the balloonist by jumping up and down happily with a big smile on her face, which indicates to them that she does indeed like balloons very much. Being a nice person, they pull the balloon string attached to the Applin balloon, lowering it down to where Ogerpon could see it better up close, and then offer her the balloon. Her face lights up as brightly as the sun as she happily accepts it and jumps up and down with pure joy. The balloonist then informs her to hold onto it tightly and not let go, otherwise it'll fly away. They then hand over the balloon to Ogerpon and then she goes "Pon Pon, Ogerpon!" as if she is saying "Thank you so much!" as she happily skips along on her merry way with the balloon in hand as the balloonist waves goodbye to her and then returns to work at their stall as a lot of customers begin to line up at the front of the stall.

I finished this drawing 2 days ago, but I just got around to posting it now due to 2 reasons. One) When I finished it, it was getting late, and two) I had some errands to run with Mom the following day, and then we went out later that evening to a local bar.

When it came time to draw Ogerpon, I went to Bulbapedia, as per usual, to download some images of the creature to use as references throughout the entire process. However, Bulbapedia was having problems with their site at the time and I couldn't access their usual image gallery for Ogerpon, or any Pokemon for that matter. So, I had to work with whatever images were available on Ogerpon's front page, which wasn't much. Even so, I was able to work with what I had access to and I love how this turned out! I also wanted to experiment a little bit when it came to the Applin balloon to see how it would look without a black outline, making it look a little more realistic. After sitting on it for a bit, I think it worked out well and it didn't clash with my art style like I originally thought it did when I first drew it. It really started to shine when I drew the environment, making me feel much better about this experiment.

Drawing Ogerpon, herself, wasn't too bad as I broke down each part of her into smaller pieces such as her face, her black-ish hood, the stem on top of her head, her chest, etc, etc. The pose I had for her was envisioned for quite a while, but shortly after I began drawing, I decided to change perspectives and have her face forward towards the camera rather than sideways, like I originally planned. The reason for this change was that I wanted the drawing to focus more on her than the environment she's skipping around in, which turned out a lot better than I expected. I also originally planned to give her a regular, round red balloon, but changed it to an Applin balloon because I thought it'd look cuter, which turned out to be true, in my opinion. As for the apple orchard, it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped as I wanted to keep it in spirit to the one found in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. (At least the branches aren't going out for a nice float here, unlike the ones found in-game.) Regardless, though, it was still fun to put together and make the drawing feel that much more alive and complete. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this drawing and it was quite the challenge to complete as I didn't have access to as many references as I normally would due to technical difficulties on Bulbapedia's end. I haven't had a challenge like this since I drew Koraidon quite a while ago. It was worth the experience, regardless and I had a great time with this one! I am looking forward to drawing Ogerpon again in the future!

[onceuponaroast]

Ok so. I have Thoughts about pokemon sv now that I've finished it. This is your spoiler warning, details below the cut for the full main storyline. You've been warned.

I have to admit, I think this is probably my new favorite game.

Don't get me wrong, I'm just as disappointed with the lagging/glitches as everyone else! I even spent much of the first part of the game feeling mildly underwhelmed

But then I hit the final storyline

I enjoy games with good writing above all, graphics etc second. So I was hooked pretty early by Arven and Penny's storylines. No offense to Nemona, I love her, but I've done the gym challenge before, so I was way more intrigued by them. Especially with the air of mystery surrounding those plots

I was super surprised by pokemon handling such mature themes, too! Arvens struggle to feel loved by his parent(s) and the possibility of losing a beloved pet- and Penny's storyline about how often when victims of bullying stand up for themselves they're the ones who end up getting in trouble with teachers. I have personal experience with parts of both of these stories (losing a pet and bullying) so these hit me hard!

But then! Oohhhh then when I finished those three plots and the all came together for the final storyline?? Beautiful!!! I'm a sucker for seemingly unrelated things coming together for something even bigger

The writers actually did a great job of portraying a bunch of teenagers hanging out together. Each character remained true to themselves, while also sounding like a realistic group of kids.

As we got closer to the final boss there were some breadcrumbs to pick up on, so I was suspecting *something* was up, but when the final twist dropped my jaw actually fell open

It was so well written! I was not expecting it, but in hindsight all the details clicked together. That's the best kind of plot twist in my opinion. When I first saw AI Sada I thought it was her dead body, but then it activated and I was like "Oh Shit, okay!!!!"

Then they subverted the evil AI trope, having the robot professor actually want to help us, but knowing they'll turn against us because of their programming... beautiful showstopping spectacular

I had a few fears going into the final battle (would we have to send Koraidon back to the past? Were we gonna loose Mabostiff for Dramatic Effect, wasting all the work we'd put in with Arven?) And I'm SO GLAD I was wrong.

The final storyline ended in such a satisfying way, and I was actually astounded by the level of care that went into the writing. My expectations after swsh and pla were not high, and I was blown away

I've never had a game make me actually cry before, let alone twice (once when Mabostiff was fully healed and once when Arven found out about his mom/lost AI Sada too. Yes Arven is my favorite why do you ask)

I am so happy with this game. Did it need some more time to iron out the rendering kinks? Absolutely. Were the programmers probably way overworked and am I totally pissed about that? Yeah 100%. But I can tell a lot of love went into this game, it's writing and characters, and I've still got more to do! There's a ton of post game activities I haven't even started yet

Overall I loved this game and I'm going to go cry some more now

[amethystblack]

I'm sorry if my questions are offensive but I have to get something off my chest. Why is your writing so clumbsy? Like, I know we're only human and all and I appreciate your attempt at a good story but this isn't it. It tries to be realistic but I feel as though it's not. And one other thing is that I love challenge but your balancing is just super weird to me. Like, everytime I play Reborn I felt like the battles weren't very difficult if you use certain pokemon and felt the battles were samey.

i dont want to just "*your" and end thread but there is something so cosmically funny to me about "why is your writing so clumbsy" being spelled that way

anyway, i'm just going to take a guess that this subsequent ask is also you:

and i'm glad you sent it because my original response was basically going to be "what exactly is clumsy about it to you?"

because under normal circumstances, my answer to that would be the circumstances behind it-- the narrative structure is a mess because from the start we were gluing unrelated league characters together. it's a poor structural foundation with which i've done the best i could, and i eagerly anticipate the chance to do better.

but if this is about amaria then this is a completely different conversation. and that explains a lot, like for instance, the attitude. many people really seem to have a special brand of vitriol for her, which i continually find genuinely fascinating. i also love the line "controversial characters the community despises" because it acknowledges that people have opposing opinions on her, but in the same breath you speak for the community as a whole as if it has one unified, objective stance. some might say that that kind of writing is a bit messy.

so let's talk mindset. especially regarding the depression, that was based partly on the experiences of a friend, and mostly on my own personal experience with it. i am keenly aware of how depression makes a person feel, and i somewhat resent the implication that i am somehow unfamiliar with that. more than anything, i do not accept the outside criticism that my portrayal of my own depression is unrealistic. in fact, i was very happy when the episode released that it resonated with their experiences as well. in terms of personal, vulnerable and emotionally-resonant writing in the game, i would actually go so far as to say that amaria's depression is actually some of my most successful.

of course, it's also true that not everyone's experiences are the same! you obviously have strong opinions on what depression does, which i can only assume by the objective confidence you say them with is based off of your own experience rather than something flimsy like opinions on characters in a video game. the contrast of experiences is a great opportunity for both of us to learn a lesson about how each other experiences these things. in the sense of being an opportunity to compare emotions and understand where they differ, i feel as if this bit of writing has actually been quite successful.

finally, there is, of course, a strong, vocal population of people who just despise amaria. after all, she does whine about it a lot, doesn't she? she even says so and feels bad for it! and she is a terrible person, isn't she? she admits to that and feels bad for it too. but when in the game are you ever expected to forgive her for that? when have i asked you to do that? when is the depression ever framed as an excuse? i'm pretty confident i expressly have not framed it that way, because i certainly do not view it that way. i think amaria is one of my best characters exactly because she is so flawed. i suppose that a shallow reading of her presence in labradorra might be taken as narrative endorsement of her behavior, but i hope a more emotionally-nuanced interpretation would understand how actively and intentionally uncomfortable it is for her to show up and insert herself into a battle alongside you after that. because that, also, is very personally-motivated. i had a very complicated relationship with the aforementioned friend on which she was based. so while i also put a lot of myself into her, i am also so very vindicated when people hate her as well. in terms of creating a divisive character who people have a variety of strong opinions about, i actually feel as if i've been very successful with her writing.

what's weird to me is the point at which this stopped being about the character being bad, and started being about me being bad. like, there is a lot of bad faith from you to me here, but the expectation to excuse her behavior based on depression, which you take so much issue with, didn't come from me. as a firm believer in the concept of death of the author (if the hydreigon scene didn't make that clear), i really feel like that expectation which seems to have stirred you up so much came from yourself-- from your reading of the game.

and i'm okay with that. that's a new one to me, but i've enjoyed hearing the new hot take fresh out of the oven. you say you don't mean offense, and i kind of believe you, but the amount of bad faith and the sharp wording you've now punted two asks at me with... makes me wonder. on the other hand, if it's something you 'have to get off your chest' like you said... well, i get that. because that was also me for writing those parts of the game. it was just something i emotionally needed to do. maybe you can understand that, since these asks were also kind of clumsy on your part.

it's okay, though. after all, we're only human.

[latealzalost]

I know you brought up XG in a previous post with some of the screencaps, but what are your opinions on the hack/mod as a whole? Alnog with Grand Colosseum if you've dabbled with that at all, I'M actually curious to hear your opinions about them!

When I was younger, but old enough to be cynical, I viewed romhacks of Pokemon games as expression of discontent for what the base game provided.

When I learned years ago that, at the time, XG had replaced all the names of the NPCs in the game, I would never look at any post on here featuring stuff from XG as anything but made in bad faith. I hated anything that tried to erase the memory of Orre in any way. It went against everything I stood for. But that was one of the earliest versions of the romhack and the developer reversed the decision of renaming characters, at least, for the major characters like Lovrina and Greevil. Common npcs are still renamed which is alright. I'm over it :T

Years later, after joining his server (the apex of all Orre communities) one fateful invite via twitter later, getting to know the developer Stars, and realizing that romhacks in general are made out of love for the game and not disdain, I've warmed up to it. He and I are very good friends and he's one of the coolest Orre fans there is. A romhacker would take so much time out of their day to edit a game because they love it right? You would have to be a bitter freak if you didn't love the game that you're hacking on some level. Romhacks that offer a different experience while staying true to the game's mission and spirit are the best. (I say, having only played the Earthbound Halloween Hack by tobyfox as my only other romhack experience)

I started a playthrough of XG, but I haven't finished it yet. It might be the burn-out from all these years of Orre self-exposure but as I play I just feel like wanting to play the original real-thing on my gamecube. I'm conditioned to seeing the silly names and in ALL CAPS no less. I still plan on continuing my playthrough, but I have other things to play and creative endeavors I wish to try. I know that he's added Shadow Pokemon I've always wanted to see and readjusted abilities and type match-ups for a modern-esque take on the game. I know I'll enjoy it to the fullest eventually even with the risk of crashing at any moment

Please enjoy XG: NeXt Gen if you'd like. If you're a fan of the original I'm sure you'll like it once you've put enough time into it. I've barely gotten into the meat and potatoes of it myself, but don't let that stop you. There are twists in the Shadow Pokemon themselves and some fun changes to XD's scenario I'm sure you'd appreciate if you played the OG at least once. Just be sure to save often lol

As for Grand Colosseum, I haven't touched that romhack ever, besides contributing to Rui's palette swap, but I'll say the same thing in that please go ahead and play it if you like what Colosseum's base game had. I know Kya too and she hangs out in the same discord server Stars founded and let me join. It's a wonderful thing to see the original Orre games live beyond their time by being remixed and resurfaced by the fans for a new Orrean experience.

[ranger-crow]

Opinions on houndoom?

Sincerely,

Aurora (@unown-history)

My brother actually has a houndoom! A real sweet girl she is, and yet another pokémon that I think gets an unfair rap

Like how in their more popular dex entries it’ll say that pains from their burns never go away- something that can be true for just about any severe burn from a fire type ‘mon.

And I say this as someone who has been burned by a houndoom! And I’ll be the first to say that I poked the beedril nest on that one and had it coming. I was a dumb kid who won a dumb prize for not reading a pokemon body language properly. Scar is square on my collar bone after all these years- smaller now and faded, still feel it sometimes if I move certain ways, but it certainly wasn’t the houndoom’s fault.

Strayed to a bit of a psa there but I think it’s important to know with any pokemon capable of producing flames/heat comes with risks. Healed burn wounds can still hurt after the fact due to the nerves healing, but that isn’t mutually exclusive to any pokemon!

Houndoom can even make for great therapy ‘mons for their higher body temperature! In my experience their actually oddly good at determining people’s moods and adjusting to that.

Often times houndooms are seen as violent and scary. It’s not without its merits, but I think it’s important to remember that pokemon have their own social behaviors- and houndooms tend to have a lot of physicality when engaging with each other. Not just as a way to gauge their status above the other or when dealing with territory, but to play in general!

Wild houndooms aren’t too common in main Unova, but you’ll find packs of houndour if you go out far enough and know where to look! When I’ve been on excursions through the mountains of greater Unova, I’ve heard them more than I’ve seen them. I actually find their howls to be hauntingly beautiful <3

[zaph1337]

Monster Hunter Rating 39: Silver Rathalos, the Silver Sun

I got Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin for Christmas, and that was the spark I needed to start working on these again. With how long it’s been and with how much more experience I have with the games (I hadn’t even played Rise outside the demo when writing the previous ratings, and since then I’ve beaten Magnamalo in Rise), don’t expect my opinions to necessarily stay consistent with the reviews I’ve posted thus far. Other than that, though, these’ll be more of the same reviews you saw before, so I hope you enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you didn’t think Rathalos would get a second subspecies after Rathian did, then I don’t even know what to say. I mean, that might have been a possibility if Rathalos wasn’t basically the series mascot, but we don’t live in that timeline. I’m getting off track, so let’s just move on to talking about Silver Rathalos!

(How it appears in Monster Hunter Freedom 1)

(How it appears in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne)

(How it appears in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak)

Appearance: The problem with silver as a color is that unless you deliberately make it look metallic, it just looks like grey, and what should be flashy then becomes boring. From what I’ve seen, whether this is the case with Silver Rathalos or not depends on the game. Unfortunately, not only does it compete with Gold Rathian’s impressive appearance, it also competes with Azure Rathalos, which, in my opinion, beats it without even trying. Even the regular variety of Rathalos looks better than the silver kind unless the latter is shiny enough, so I’m going to give this a 7/10.

Behavior/Lore: Much like Gold Rathian, Silver Rathalos are the apex predators of any habitat that doesn’t have Elder Dragons in it, and even then, they’ll fight such godlike beasts without fear, and sometimes even to a draw--and that’s just when they’re fighting on their own! Silver Rathalos can call their golden mates to their side with a single roar, and the two together can send an Elder Dragon running for its life--if it hasn’t lost it, that is.

It’s not surprising that Silver Rathalos are such a threat--they’re not only stronger and more aggressive than other Rath subspecies, they’re smarter, too; they kinda have to be, considering the monsters they compete with for living space. Yet, for some reason, the Hunter’s Guild (of which region, I don’t know) looked at such a dominant beast and decided “hey, we can make a killing by making people fight these things in special events,” so they go out and capture Silver Rathalos to make Hunters fight them in an Arena. Now, all this is coming from a single sentence on the Silver Rathalos’ wiki page, so its credibility is dubious, but if it’s true. then the people who decided on this course of action are either dumb as dirt or very, very prepared for a dragonic tantrum.

Normally I wouldn’t be a big fan of a subspecies just being “the monster you know but stronger and meaner,” but the fact that Silver Rathalos can hold off Elder Dragons, the legendary Pokemon of the MH world, leaves an impression that earns it some points. The guild’s potential dragon-napping is also interesting, though I still have some doubts about it. I’m giving this category a 7/10.

Abilities: Like the Azure Rathalos, Silver Rathalos have stronger versions of the normal variety’s attacks, but their attack patterns are unique; they prefer to use their tail for grounded attacks rather than bites or tackles, but prefer to attack from the air with agility that their red and blue versions can’t match. This allows them to corner their prey/opponents very quickly before unleashing a triad of fireballs. Interestingly, they can also use an ability once thought unique to Rathans: fiery explosions--though obviously the ones created by Silver Rathalos’ are much more powerful.

Thought they are intelligent, their aggressive temperament leads them to enter a rage more often than the other varieties, but they can also go even further and enter a mode called the “incandescent state,” which is marked by even more heightened aggression in their attacks. While this should leave them more open to attacks from smart opponents, the scales on a Silver Rathalos are incredibly tough--perhaps even metallic--so they can afford to get a bit sloppy. As durable as these scales are, they ironically may be responsible for the Silver Rathalos’ one shortcoming compared to the other subspecies (at least in the earlier titles): a heightened weakness to Thunder-element attacks, especially on their wings. God help this thing if it ticks off a Rajang (which is unfortunately very easy to do, to my knowledge).

As I said with the Azure Rathalos in this department, I appreciate how Silver Rathalos’ attacks aren’t so similar to regular Rathalos’ as to be identical. Their better understanding of tactics allows them to more effectively use the tools at their disposal, and said tools were already impressive; their specialized rage state and superior defense doesn’t hurt either. 7/10.

Equipment: As you’d expect, many of the weapons made from Silver Rathalos parts also have some Gold Rathian in them. Since I’m biased, we’ll start with the Insect Glaive from MHG/U--the Blossomajesty:

This makes good use of the gold and silver parts. I like how the “blunt” end of the glaive looks like a Gold Rathian’s tail, and the fact that the blade has little silver dragon wings is a cute touch to a weapon made from some of the most dangerous monsters in the series. The description reads “A legendary Fire Wyvern Insect Glaive. Fly through the air on golden wings of fire,” and with how the Insect Glaive plays, I think that tracks. Next up is another example of a gold and silver weapon, the Expert Hammer, also from MHG/U:

Okay, so there’s more Gold Rathian than Silver Rathalos in this, but still. I question why the chains are there, considering the halves of the hammer are screwed into the handle and the chains don’t look like they do anything stability-wise, but the weapon overall still looks cool. Finally, it’s about time I show off a weapon made from only Silver Rathalos parts, but since I like to have at least one really weird weapon in these things, you get the Hunting Horn from Frontier. The Rathians had bells on a flute, while the Rathalos’ have:

A saxophone. A freakin’ saxophone made out of the scales of the MH mascot’s ultimate incarnation (to my knowledge, anyway). It even has parts of it that are directly modeled after Silver Rathalos just to hammer that fact in. God, I love this series sometimes. Onto the armor, let’s start with the Blademaster set from Freedom Unite:

It’s okay to make comparisons to Shredder, we all thought it too. These are both cool, and really let the wearer give off the powerful vibe you’d expect from someone who killed a massively powerful dragon to make them. I guess I also can’t complain about the chestpiece the woman’s wearing, since it doesn’t stick out much farther than the one the man’s wearing, so overall, these are a success. As for the Gunner set:

It’s... alright, I guess. It just doesn’t look as imposing as the Blademaster set. I actually can’t think of much more to say than that. The colors remind me too much of the standard knight armor to really help here.

Admittedly, rating these all is hard. The standard and azure equipment all look cool in their own ways, and to be fair, so do these! But the colors just don’t work for me as well as the others do. I feel like I’m supposed to like the equipment more than at least the ones for normal Rathalos, but I just...don’t. It’s not bad, it’s just not as good. It still gets a 7/10.

Final Thoughts and Tally: For something that’s so much more powerful than the garden-variety Rathalos, my feelings on the Silver kind aren’t very different. I guess that’s to be expected from something so similar, but I feel like I’m wrong to not be more awed by these guys. Guess that’s an ish-me and not an issue, though; there’s nothing wrong with being a different flavor of the same cool. 7/10.

[crystalelemental]

Hoenn was, at one point in time, my least favorite region. This is an asinine statement, but listen. They didn't have Eevee. Eevee was my favorite! I did Crystal with an entire Eeveelution team! How am I supposed to play this game without Eevee? This is a concept that will come up twice more in the series, but to simplify this moment: Hoenn is now arguably my favorite. I adore these games.

I played Emerald, the superior game. My team was Blaziken (Lonely), Delcatty (Hasty), Tropius (Bold), Banette (Naive), Walrein (Naughty), and Mawile (Jolly). The game was pretty much a straight shot, with only one stop to train up to Walrein's evolution before Tate and Liza.

Hoenn is a region based on exploration more than any other. One of the interesting things that stands out about Hoenn is the pathing of the game. You start out going up to Rustboro, then double back to take a boat to Dewford and then around to Slateport, continue north around Fallarbor then loop back to the gondola that takes you up to Lavaridge, then go all the way back to face your dad, then you open up all the Surf routes you took on the boat and the east toward Winona, then to Tate and Liza, and then all the surf routes that loop to Slateport again. The game feels very interconnected, and the constant looping back somehow doesn't feel too irritating. You'd expect this to be tedious, retracing your steps so often, but it's always with something new you can do when you come back. Alongside this are a ton of optional areas, like the Sunken Ship, Shoal Cave, all the Trick Master trials, the routes between Slateport and Pacifidlog including the nonsense Regi puzzles, etc. There is a metric ton to do in this game.

Part of what's exciting about Hoenn is that, in my personal opinion, this is the best new roster of Pokemon ever made. Hoenn has some of the strongest new designs, and almost nothing I could criticize. With the size of this dex, it creates a situation that is perfect for replays, picking between all-time favorites like Mawile, or options that I like but never used before like Tropius and Walrein. It's a delightful region.

The biggest gameplay transition is also one that you could completely ignore: the change from Stat Experience to EVs. I won't bother getting into specifics, if you know you know, but these changes...fundamentally alter nothing. Your Pokemon are unlikely to hit caps, and the main way you do is through medicine. In essence, your stats aren't any higher at the end of the game between these two systems. I will note that EVs tend to go faster than stat experience does, at the cost of not improving every stat simultaneously.

A criticism I have historically levied against EVs is that they can be, at times, wasteful. This is, from this replay, a superficial complaint. The idea is that, if you're training Kadabra in the Fighting Dojo in Gen 1, you still gain the stat experience of their defenses and speed, while in Gen 3 using Ralts against Brawly puts on a lot of Atk EVs that Ralts will never use. While this is technically true, it is functionally without meaning. By gameplay, you will never feel this substantial difference. It's a minor optimization you can make at best, to consider using, say, Taillow instead, but it's not necessary. If anything, EVs in a generation before the physical/special split are best when they distribute evenly. Ralts and Kadabra are extreme examples, but most Pokemon will utilize both offensive stats, so no EV truly goes to waste here.

But this raised an interesting question for me. If the system doesn't feel different...why change it? And I think I know the answer now.

Gen 3 introduced Double Battles, and Emerald in particular offers a ton of situations where you can get into Doubles. In the old stat experience model, stat EXP was split between combatants, such that each participant received half. In essence, in a Double format, Stat EXP would train each Pokemon half as quickly. EVs, however, cannot be split. All participants share the EVs, so a Double battle is training two at the same time for the same full amount. I suspect that EVs were adopted due to the anticipated shift to Doubles formats. Which. Did not catch on. As it turned out. Best laid plans?

The last big takeaway I had was that Hoenn is where difficulty first appeared in the series. Not like in a big way, but Gen 1 is piss easy, and so is Gen 2 barring Red, and even Red can be easily counterpicked. Gen 3 has a lot of tools it throws at you that test your problem solving, or at least push you to grind.

Consider Roxanne. In Gen 1, Brock is easily beaten regardless of starter, because Geodude and Onix have terrible Sp Def and no Rock or Ground moves. There isn't really a trial, so much as maybe a showing for Charmander that not very effective attacks may still be better. Roxanne, however, goes for the throat. Nosepass is obscenely bulky for this time in the game, and she backs that up with two Potions. She can stop you from switching, lowers your speed with Rock Tomb to spin turn order to her favor, and is generally a menace. I love her for that.

The rest of the bosses also have an interesting flow. Brawly has Bulk Up, which turns Makuhita into an absolute beast. He then hands you the TM for Bulk Up, which you may decide to employ against your next big battle. Only for Wattson to whip out paralysis and Selfdestruct, killing you instantly. So okay, status is good. Only for Flannery to go "I may be statuses, but have you tasted Overheat in the Sun?"

Every gym leader seems to build off previous concepts, and at a minimum, has a lead that is carefully designed to counteract possible strategies. Winona has Perish Song on Swablu, Sidney has Sand Attack and Roar, Phoebe has Curse, Wallace has Water Spout for absurd damage, and Steven has Toxic and Spikes. This is the first game to easily hand you boosting moves to play with, and its bosses are designed to teach that you can't just use them without repercussion. Which I think is a really interesting design, and shows the care and consideration they put into their fights.

This does, however, have the long-lasting effect of "just hitting them with sticks is the most effective plan." Four attacks to cover weaknesses remains the dominant strategy, and there's a lot less opponents do to counter that approach than there is countering the boosts or status. But then again, the boosting still works if you're careful. Trust me, you have not lived until you sweep the superboss with Mawile Baton Passing to Calm Mind Delcatty.

Speaking of, Steven Stone qualifies as one of my favorite fights here. I know I dunk on Red, but that has a lot to do with discrepancy of level. The difference between Red's best level and the top level of the League, the best grinding location, is 31. The difference between Wallace and Steven is 20. With the introduction of boosting moves, You also have a lot more options to work with. Despite that, Steven also employs a lot of nasty tricks, like lead Skarmory having Spikes and Toxic, Claydol having Dual Screens into Metagross, or the unbreakable nature of Cradily. Compared to GSC Red, who is very easily counterpicked by just switching around team members, Steven is much harder to counterpick. Unless you bring the legends. Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza are all excellent responses to him broadly.

I just have very little negative to say about Hoenn. I started this talking about how it used to be my least favorite, and that is true. Lacking my favorite Pokemon of the time was rough for my baby child brain to deal with. But you manage. You pick up new favorites, and they grow on you, and maybe you learn to love something new. And by god, did I learn to love Hoenn.

"Even the Battle Frontier?" Don't push it.

Ruby and Sapphire Corner Ruby and Sapphire are games I have not played in 20 years. This is not an exaggeration. They came out in 2002, Emerald came out in 2004, and I have only played Emerald since. Sapphire is one of the only games I don't physically own anymore. I wish I did...

Ruby and Sapphire are very different from Emerald. Aside from the changes made in Emerald to have both Magma and Aqua involved, Ruby and Sapphire also lack the Steven superboss, the Battle Frontier, and changed up a lot of the gym teams and layouts. I have seen a map of Ruby and Sapphire Tate and Liza's gym. No thank you. But of course, the big difference is that Rayquaza has story significance, and a whole event surrounding it.

Obviously, I consider Emerald far superior. But this is the time to talk about something I remember an old high school friend explaining to me. See, he preferred Ruby and Sapphire because of a single event: The Sky Pillar. In those games, Sky Pillar is 100% optional, and he greatly valued exploration and finding out something novel. To him, the best experience he had with the games was accidentally discovering the pillar, climbing it not knowing what would happen, and then running into Rayquaza. Which...fair enough! The third games do tend to put story emphasis on something that used to be a surprise benefit if you explored. I tend to like the added focus and story, but I can at least understand feeling like you found something magical just by putzing around.

[shock-micro]

i think it's so charming that cassette beasts takes so much from its predecessor, lenna's inception

(spoilers ahead for games i really care about under the cut. go play 'em! or, if you haven't played either, maybe this'll convince you?)

it has a few designs inspired by it, the titular lenna actually shows up as a secret boss WITH A VOCAL MIX OF MULTIPLE THEMES FROM THE GAME AS HER BATTLE THEME WHICH SLAPS, and overall it seems to learn a lot from the game's successes and failures

lenna's inception, if nothing else, was procedural to a fault. the final dungeon is the only one that has a set layout, for example, and the whole world layout down to the name itself is based on a seed. but i dunno, it's a neat little experiment, it's still filled with its own charm despite going to great lengths to parody the legend of zelda at times. the story is fairly goofy, but i like the homages to old glitches and how it turns "going out of bounds" into a real game mechanic. oh yeah, and the music slaps, but i feel like choosing between the 32-bit and 8-bit styles was kinda oversold when the 32-bit is the clear winner.

cassette beasts, in contrast, is far larger of a game, and much less experimental. the world is quite well-designed, and the procedural stuff is kept to places where it's actually warranted. the way to unlock the final dungeon is revealed based on a song, fragments of which are obtained by beating bosses- and the song (along with the location it points to) is actually picked randomly when you first start a save. i love that! it's a nice and natural way to freshen up subsequent playthroughs, complementing its more open-world style and its theme.

the game has a far more involved type system than its inspiration, and far more ways to influence your beasts' types in battle. fitting that, the game has a system for dynamically recoloring your beast depending on what type it currently is! this works in tandem with the game's equivalent of shiny pokemon, bootlegs, which also change the type and color- but if the coating and bootleg happen to be the same, it changes a completely different part. the fusion system also plays into this, with each beast having a unique body and face that are dynamically combined with each other when you fuse, and a fusion power move depending on their types. it's not ai, just smart programming!

i also love the smaller ways it builds on and references its predecessor, like the archangel of capitalism being named mammon in both games, how both "deus ex calibur" and "deus hex machina" are plays on the same trope and are used by the true main villain of each game, how the main female sidekicks both have a lesbian crush on archangels despite potentially being in a relationship with you, and just generally how they criticize the tropes of their respective genres while also adding something unique gameplay-wise.

...both also got updates later on to add new caves? that one might be a bit of a stretch. i'm gonna be real here- lenna's inception is definitely the worse of the two, but i think it's still very worthwhile as a charming experiment that you should look into if you have the time. you all know my opinion on cassette beasts. play the damn game. i've tried so hard to not mention the music and i still did it in the opening comparison! cassette beasts is living proof that monster tamers outside of pokemon can be amazing and unique in both style and gameplay.

[ecargmura]

Gen 5 Is The Best One - Pokemon Black Review

Given how I was replaying older Pokemon games, it was no brainer that I’d decided to replay Pokemon Black. The last time I played Pokemon Black was eleven years ago! Look at my crappy team back then! I beat both main game and post game with Simisear, Unfezant and Emolga! How? Well, my current team isn’t all sunshines and rainbows too as I used rather unorthodox Pokemon.

Anyways, Pokemon Black was one of the best Pokemon experiences I had in my youth and replaying it again this year was another good experience! In my opinion, it’s one of the best Pokemon games of all time and it has aged very well since its release. I’ve been there when it was the “black sheep” of the franchise at the time, but the general opinion have changed and I’m glad that it did.

Pokemon Black had a more focused story than its predecessor and I think that was the reason why it was so charming since Pokemon games were mainly a “figure-it-out-yourself” sort of story. The themes of truth and ideals were poignant from start to finish. Other than the story, I found the characters to be very charming. I really like how the characters feel very human in a way. The Gym Leaders have second occupations in addition to being Gym Leaders and it makes them feel like they’re actual people and not goals to progress through the game. Cheren and Bianca were excellent rivals that encompasses the themes of truths and ideals with their stories of finding the truth about his goals (Cheren) and finding the ideal future for herself (Bianca). Above all else, Team Plasma makes an excellent villain group because they’re so incorporated into their scheme of liberation that it actually affects people. Some people actually release their Pokemon while some become in doubt. In the midst of Team Plasma resides N, the leader. N is a fascinating character in his own right. He is someone who stands by truths and ideals to the bitter end; however, it was because he was brainwashed since he was young to be the king of Team Plasma and believe that liberation is the foundation to an ideal world. The true villain is Ghetsis who reveals that his scheme of liberation would be so that he’d be the only person with Pokemon and that would mean he could overthrow the innocent people and become a tyrannical ruler. After defeating Ghetsis, N realizes the errors of his ways and flies off with the Pokemon opposite of the version of you’re playing and the world is saved. The fact that there are consequences in N and Team Plasma’s actions and such really hits it a notch.

Gameplay-wise, the battle system is the usual turn-based but it’s a lot faster. Because this is the one of the few instances where you use region-based Pokemon only, the Unovan Pokemon are the only usable ones for the main game. I do like how fast the usual 2D battles go in this game, but I really disliked how only Unovan Pokemon were only selectable. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a unique idea and all, but the fact that Unovan Pokemon are cursed with either taking too long to evolve or falling off after a certain point really irks me. It took a while for my Vanillite to evolve all the to Vanilluxe. Also, this game made it so that some Pokemon are faster to train while some are slower. Good luck trying to raise a slow experience-gaining Pokemon.

This generation also introduced Triple and Rotation Battles, but unfortunately, they aren’t used as much as Double Battles, which is a shame because it’s a unique idea. The fact that they introduced a new battle system but did very little with it feels like a waste and a bit pointless. However, I did enjoy Rotation Battles a lot! I wish it could be used more. In place of the Battle Tower and Battle Frontier, there is a Battle Subway, but it’s super tedious. I once almost had 21 win streaks, but a clown with a Leavanny came and destroyed my team at Round 20. It’s extremely complex, and the fact that it’s optional makes it good; I don’t need to stress myself out for something optional. They also introduced musicals which is kind of like Contests, but musicals; since Unova is based on New York, it’s an homage to Broadway. To be honest, I’m not too sure what the purpose of Musicals are but it’s a fun thing to do.

After you beat the main game, post game starts. Post game is just helping Looker find the Seven Sages and that’s basically it. You can get access to East Unova where Pokemon from different regions are now accessible as well as access to three new towns. One town, Undella Town, is where Cynthia is having vacation in; she’s basically a super boss in a way. Post game can have you catch the Legendaries if you haven’t done so, challenge Cynthia, rematch the Elite Four, battle Alder, and rematch Cheren and Bianca. There’s a lot to do, so it feels fulfilling to wander about.

In all honesty, this is a splendid Pokemon game for old and new fans to dive into if they want a challenging Pokemon game with a story; the challenging aspect is selecting Pokemon that fits your play style. However, if you can overcome the challenges thrown at you in this game, it’s a guaranteed fun experience! This is one Pokemon game I would totally recommend to any Pokemon fan!

[phantom-witch]

Phantom Thoughts: Unova

So, Im always finding myself wishing to finish my Pokemon Black playthrough. I haven't gotten back to it in a while and it makes me wonder "what isn't it I don't vibe with with this game?? I love the artstyle, the sprites, the colours and character design!"

I think I've come to a conclusion as to why?

It's story. It goes to hard into the grandiose element of the game in my honest opinion with little to no room for more grounded characterisation. I admit I've seen the story of this game, it's been spoiled for me hard due to everyone talking about it. I really like what they're going for with N but that's about it? Everything else just does not vibe with me compared to Pokemon Platinum which balances the grandiose and grounded moments super well for me. Pokémon needs those little moments or more contained narratives for me! It's why I really dig Scarlet or even Legends Arceus as the story is mostly grounded and that rewards you with a mystery throughout the game slowly teased and rewarded!

Legends Arceus has you growing a life in this region, make a name for yourself and meet many people and bond with them and help them grow... Which climaxes with a whole mystery of the Legendaries and the true villain in the postgame orchestrating it all, I LOVE THAT! whereas I find Black & White just doesn't do this? There's so much heavy stuff constantly that there's no room to breathe and it makes me wish for grounded elements like Biancas plot to be much more focused on instead of barley there

I hope I'm making sense! Don't get me wrong I absolutely respect Black & White and do get why others adore it, but I've been trying to feel the same and just don't? The little I know of the sequel sincerely excites me a lot more and I really want to experience it!

Of course no shade to gen 5, it's amazing and beloved but it's been on my mind why I specifically can't enjoy it as much as others