#pokemon series retrospective

[soundofseclusion]

37. Pokemon X

Release: 2013, 3DS Beaten: August 19th, 3DS Playtime: 28h 12m

The story is really weak, and the game doesn't always perform very well, but it can be really striking as well as quite poignant at times. The core experience is pretty fun, though they probably should have given you more mega stones to play around with during the main game. Overall, I had a pretty good time returning to Kalos.

[soraka-in-warhammer40k]

I'm always fascinated when someone at the club rants about "how they just invented T'au to cash on them anime weebs", completly oblivious to the time and culture of their creation. So T'au came out first in 2001, and were obviously conceptualized some years prior, which puts them into the late 90s in their original design. This is slowly hitting "the majority of the populance has no relevant internet access whatsoever" levels of "barbaric analog ages".

So imagine where GW sits in the late 90s - its a small studio somewhere in England barely coming to touch with the first elements of the internet, with the most dominant medium being television which... is not really about "exotic" shows from the other end of the world? Those get ported over when they have proven to be a hit in their own country mostly.

And without the internet as we know it today, the anime community just... did not exist. You have to understand that the whole concept of online anime culture centred around piracy, fansubs, fanart, and the creation of the term "weeabo" was a mid-to-late 00s thing, and it took almost another decade before "weeb" was somewhat reclaimed and no longer an online-slur.

There was a whole generation that grew up with (often horribly localized) japanese shows on TV (Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon) which came over with some delay to their release in Japan. By the time this generation came to congregate into online spaces and form any sort of fan-identity and culture, the T'au and their battlesuits had already been a design over a decade old.

"But wait isn't Gundam from the 70s"? Yes, that is totally correct. However, this is the one glaring mistake people make: you cannot compare modern day media content circulation around the globe to the analog ages. Those of us who remember these barbaric analog times know how it was: you just did not know stuff existed. If it was not in the newspaper or on the telly, it might as well not exist unless you knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy.

Sure, the Internet was slowly becoming a thing that found widespread use, but it would still take a while - not to mention the technical limitations. No streaming episodes. You start the download (if you can find someone who hosted the file of a series you had to know even existed first) somewhere around lunch, to hopefully get something to watch in the afternoon. Oh and also that blocked the household's phone-line and if the download cancelled for whatever reason then it was back to square one. Under such conditions, the online community we know today could simply not exist, as the alternative was importing stuff from the other end of the world for quite the money, or hoping a really shoddy localized VCR-tape ended up at your Blockbuster-equivalent.

Of course there was anime before that time, even those regarded absolute classics in the west, but those mostly achieved that rank over here in retrospective. When in the late 00s people wanted to watch stuff and had the ability to do so they shared what was considered "the classics" first (shared to the best of their ability with one episode cut into 5 parts on youtube with sometimes very questionable subtitles).

So even if we assume there was someone at GW in the 90s who was a total "proto-weeb" and Gudam-fan, there was literally no reason to "make knock-off Gundams" because the miniscule western wargaming audience SIMPLY DID NOT KNOW THE STUFF.

You can't make a marketing ploy to reference something your average consumers have never heard off. If anything, the creation of the T'au as a robotic-centred faction was inevitable: they needed a design that could hold their own in the setting, but Necrons hogged the full-robot niche, Imperials were weird cyborgs, Orks the "madman-scrap-tech", and Nids the "biotech". The only thing left here was "not full robot but also very clean and efficient" - and just like that, the Battlesuits and Drones were born.

It was only in later years when the Internet had come into full swing where they decided to go full-suit with releases such as the Riptide, but if we talk about the OG design of T'au and the first decade? Nothing to do with anime or "fishing for weebs". The fish would not be coming to that spot for almost a decade, and it would take a bit more before their numbers were plentyful enough to make it worth casting a line out.

[ifbench]

Pokemon Soulsilver Retrospective, from the perspective of someone who had it as their first Pokemon game but never finished it (until now)

To preface this, this is not my first time playing Pokemon Soulsilver. I played some of it back in 2012 or so, but didn't get very far. And my memories of that playthrough are almost nonexistant, so this is essentially still a first playthrough.

If you'd like to read my other mainline Pokemon retrospectives, you can read Emerald here, X here, Firered here, and Black here.

Pokemon Soulsilver has a strange sort of anti-nostalgia to it to me.

It was technically my very first Pokemon game, yet I have more memories of the 25 minutes I played of Explorers of Time back in 2012, than I do of the several hours I played of Soulsilver in that year.

I don't even remember how far I truly got. It might have only been up to the first gym, it might have been up to Pryce, I don't know.

What I do know, though, is that like with Black, people keep bringing up Soulsilver and Heartgold to be the "golden age" of Pokemon. That it was when the series was good. (Though I personally disagree. I love Violet, and I also love what I've played of Shield so far.)

Nonetheless, the idea of trying Soulsilver again kept popping up in my head after I got into PMD. I briefly entertained the idea of playing it again in 2021, then again in 2022, but I never went through with it until I started this marathon.

But in September of 2023, I decided to do it. I deleted my old save file, and started anew. While I had chosen a Cyndaquil during my first playthrough, this time, I chose a Chikorita as my starter. I named him Acacia, after my PMD Rescue Team DX partner.

However, soon after entering Cherrygrove City, I very quickly got sidetracked with Emerald and put Soulsilver on hold. I didn't get back to it until July of 2024, after I had finished Emerald, X, Firered, and Black.

And after I figured out how to implement the infinite rare candy cheat, since I remember a lot of people talking about how grindy the Johto games are.

But after all that, my second playthrough of Soulsilver had truly begun.

I went to go meet Professor Oak, and as I was on my way to return to New Bark Town, I had my first encounter with this game's rival, Silver.

I very nearly lost that first battle, but through sheer luck, Acacia managed to win.

After meeting with Professor Elm again and hearing about the theft, I caught a Sentret, and named him Niko, after the Sentret on my friend's blog @fated-furret.

I continued on the way to Violet City, collecting a few apricorns along the way. It was cool seeing them again after Legends Arceus, even if they did originate here. I also briefly peeked into Dark Cave.

Violet City was neat to see! I enjoyed how the Pokemon Center and Pokemart had different colors than normal.

I decided to head to the Sprout Tower first, with Niko at the front of my party.

Side note, I love how your Pokemon follow you around in this game, and you can interact with them! Reminds me of the "Let's go together" feature from Violet.

The Sprout Tower was...not very fun. It was a bunch of extremely samey trainer battles, all the way up to the top floor. Though seeing the central pillar shake and wobble was pretty neat.

I also caught a Ratatta here, who would be my HM buddy. I named her Jifa, after my HM buddy from my Firered playthrough.

But with Niko leveled up quite a bit, I decided to take on Falkner. He was pretty tough, but Acacia felled his Pidgey, and Niko felled his Pidgeotto (after 5 Roosts).

Then I decided to take a short detour to explore the Ruins of Alph. It was cool to look around for what possible secrets the ruins held, and the sliding puzzle was fun, though I didn't spend much time there.

As I was traveling down Route 32, I caught a Mareep that I named Marla, and subsequently found someone trying to sell me a Slowpoke tail for an obscene amount of money. I knew from fandom osmosis that there was something related to Slowpoke tails coming up soon.

But before that, I had to traverse Union Cave. It was a bit tricky due to all the firebreather trainers around, but I made it out the other side, into Azalea Town, where Team Rocket awaited me.

After talking to Kurt, I went into the Slowpoke well, and had my first encounter with one of the Team Rocket executives, Proton. Thanks to Marla, he wasn't very difficult to defeat.

Apparently, in the original Johto games, GSC, the Rocket executives are all nameless? I guess that makes sense with how different they were in the GSC arc of the Adventures manga, but I'm glad they were given names and personalities in the remakes.

But after defeating Proton, it was time to face my second Johto gym leader, Bugsy. He was quite tricky, especially with how powerful that Scyther of his was. But he had a Metapod with only Tackle, allowing me to have Niko spam Defense Curls to maximize his defense. After that, taking care of the Scyther was easy, and I won.

My next task was to look for Farfetch'd in the Ilex Forest. I enjoyed the little puzzle here on how to sneak up on them, it was pretty neat!

Then, with Cut taught to Jifa, I pressed onwards, and helped out one of the Kimono Girls along the way.

Soon, I made it to Goldenrod City, the hometown of my character Gen.

It was one thing to research Goldenrod City, but another thing entirely to experience it myself. It was massive and sprawling, and took me quite a while to explore it fully.

I feel like now's a good time to talk about nostalgia.

See, I remember nothing of Goldenrod City from my 2012 playthrough. I'm not sure I even ever got there. Yet you might be wondering, why choose it to be Gen's hometown? Why not Saffron City, or Castelia City, or another city from the mainline Pokemon games?

It has less to do with Goldenrod City itself, and more with Johto as a region. My memories of Soulsilver from 2012, foggy and faint as they may be, did influence me to have Gen be from a Johto town. From there, I just chose what looked like the biggest city, and made that his hometown.

Johto does hold some nostalgia for me, and so I cannot truly say that this retrospective is untainted by nostalgia. I do, however, believe that nostalgia to be faint enough to be negligible. I hope that is satisfactory.

Back to Goldenrod City, I completed the quiz to get a radio card, and went to the gym to challenge Whitney.

The rumors weren't lying, that Miltank was tough. I had to have Acacia use stall strats in order to pull off a win.

Next up, I headed towards Ecruteak City, and was starting to understand the jokes about Youngster Joey, after receiving my 11th call about his "top percentage Ratatta".

Speaking of the Pokegear, it's really neat! It has so many little functions, such as the radio and calling people you've met along your journey. Though I do wish the map was a key item instead of being inside the Pokegear. I always assigned the town map to the quickselect button.

But soon, I made it to Ecruteak City, after catching a Pidgey and naming him Bagoli. After fending off a Rocket grunt inside the Dance Theater, I went inside the Burned Tower, to find Morty, Eusine, and Silver.

Eusine is definitely an odd character. All I knew of him before this playthrough was from Pokespe, and that he was a prominent character in Crystal. I think he's neat, though.

After a battle with Silver, I went downstairs, causing Entei, Raikou, and Suicune to flee. Though I'm not sure why they only fled then, and not during the commotion upstairs.

For the gym battle against Morty, I actually only used my Furret, Niko. I had kept Foresight on him, and this allowed him to sweep through the ghosts with Headbutt, while being immune to all the ghost moves.

Afterwards, I headed east, and got the Strength HM. But not wanting to go through a cave at the moment, I headed west towards Olivine...and immediately encountered Entei.

I had no idea what to do here. Entei was far beyond the levels of any of my Pokemon, and I had no idea what triggered the encounter.

So, since Niko was still in the front of my party, I used his Run Away ability to flee the battle.

It wasn't until I told my friends about this that I learned about Roaming Pokemon.

Apparently, Entei and Raikou randomly teleport around the map, and if you end up on a route with one of them, you have a chance of encountering them. You only have a single turn to do anything against them, but damage stays between battles with them.

I don't understand the reason for all this in the slightest.

I was rather baffled by this, but I continued onwards, to Olivine City. I caught a Pidgey somewhere around

I like the Olivine lighthouse's music. It reminds me a bit of Pokemon Tower from Firered. Somber, but catchy.

Eventually, I made it to the top of the lighthouse, and was told to go to Cianwood to get medicine for Amphy.

Side note, I love how the lighthouse Ampharos has a nickname.

Surfing to Cianwood was simple, and so was getting the medicine. And there was also Suicune, in plain sight. I was expecting Suicune to be a Roaming Pokemon like Entei and Raikou, but here they were.

Of course, they fled shortly afterwards, but it was nice seeing Eusine again afterwards, and getting to battle him!

The gym battle with Chuck was actually easier than his gym trainers. After winning, and with the medicine and Fly HM in hand, I flew back to the Olivine lighthouse, to give the medicine to Amphy.

Jasmine was a rather difficult battle, as I had nothing super-effective against Steel. It took several tries, and me mixing up my strategy a bit, but I managed to win.

I flew back to Ecruteak City, surfed around Mount Mortar, encountered Suicune and Eusine again, and arrived in Mahogany Town.

The gym was blocked off, I couldn't go further west, and the strange souvenir shop didn't hold much interest for now. So my only path forward was north, towards the Lake of Rage.

And I got mugged by Team Rocket along the way.

But I managed to catch the red Gyarados, my first shiny I've encountered during my entire mainline Pokemon marathon. I named them Splind.

After arriving back on shore, I encountered Lance for the first time since my Firered playthrough. It was cool seeing him outside the Pokemon League.

And after making my way back to Mahogany Town, I got to see the oft-memed scene of Lance having his Dragonite Hyper Beam someone. Then, it was time for the Johto Rocket Hideout.

I'll be honest, it kinda felt like a disjointed mess.

They had something cool starting out, with the Persian security statues. But after the first one, you can immediately turn them off, and they don't appear on any other floors. I'd have liked to see some stuff about remaining out of their lines of sight. There was also the explosive floor, which I still have no idea what was up with.

Then there was the two passwords, for which I had to battle Rocket grunts willy-nilly until I found both of the ones with passwords. I feel like a hint as to which grunts had the passwords would make this better.

The battle with Petrel wasn't much to speak of, though it was funny seeing him speaking the password aloud backfiring on him, thanks to his Murkrow.

Then there was a battle with another Rocket executive, Ariana. I feel like she and Petrel deserved their own separate encounters, instead of being immediately one after another.

And even after defeating her, it still wasn't over. I still had to defeat the Electrodes powering the radio transmission.

The entire hideout was all over the place, and I felt like it's a bit indicative of one of my main problems with this game.

But before that, it was time to take on Pryce.

He wasn't too tricky, but he was no pushover either. It was also interesting to see how he differed from his Pokespe incarnation.

But I won, and immediately afterwards, Team Rocket sends their second radio transmission.

I feel like now is the best time for me to talk about the pacing with Team Rocket in this game.

In short, I really feel like it'd have benefited from another major encounter with them before Mahogany Town. Maybe around Olivine or Cianwood.

Because before Mahognay Town, there was only two noteworthy encounters with them. The Slowpoke Well, and the single grunt in the Ecruteak Dance Theater. That's it.

Petrel and Ariana should have had their own bases, instead of being shoved into one together. I also feel like it'd help make Team Rocket feel like more of a threat, rather than something that happens almost entirely just before and just after the gym battle with Pryce.

Sorry for the negativity there, but I needed to get that off my chest.

Anyways, I flew back to Goldenrod City, to take on Team Rocket one final time...at least until Ultra Moon and Let's Go Eevee.

It was neat seeing the Rocket disguise from the first visit to Goldenrod coming into play here...at least until Silver unmasked me immediately after I entered the Radio Tower.

Still, it was fun fighting all the Rocket executives again. Petrel, Proton, and Ariana. It was a Rocket marathon, and I was having far more fun here than in the Rocket Hideout. Helped that the door puzzle in the underground storage area was pretty fun!

But soon enough, I was at the observation deck of the Radio Tower, ready to face off against Archer.

Like with Petrel and Ariana, I wish we had gotten to see more of Archer. But his battle didn't disappoint. It was quite tricky! But I won, and defeated this iteration of Team Rocket for good.

Again, though, mainline Pokemon games don't end when the plot ends. I still had quite a ways to go before the credits.

Next up was the Ice Path. It felt like sorta an extension of the Mahogany Town gym, with more ice puzzles. This time with an added echo of the Seafoam Islands puzzle, of using Strength to push boulders down holes. It was a fun challenge!

Soon, though, I made it through, to Blackthorn City, ready to face the final Johto gym leader, Clair. She was a tough opponent, but I won the battle.

Not the badge, though, not yet. For the second time this game, a gym leader refused to hand me the badge after I won the battle. But unlike Whitney, Clair wasn't content to just give me it anyways after a few seconds.

No, I had to go into the Dragon's Den, and pass one more test in order to prove myself worthy of the Rising Badge.

I really like this part of Soulsilver! It's so interesting to see some of the gym badges have a bit more to them than usual.

I passed the test, and received my final Johto badge, only to receive a call from Professor Elm, telling me to meet him at his lab.

I decided to go the long way, instead of simply flying there. So I set foot onto Route 45, and immediately encountered the last of the Legendary Beasts, Raikou.

Sure enough, after a single Petal Dance from Acacia, it fled. But I had now seen Entei, Raikou, and Suicune all at least once, and so I was satisfied.

After receiving the master ball from Professor Elm, it was now time for me to face the toughest trainers yet, the Kimono Girls.

Silver wasn't kidding, they were very tricky opponents. They may only have had one Pokemon each, but as I couldn't heal between, it was essentially like fighting one trainer with five Eeveelutions.

But I pulled through, and won, receiving the Tidal Bell. And then, it was time for me to go to the Whirl Islands.

Which were completely dark.

Oh no.

I was not looking forward to stumbling blindly in the dark again like I did with Rock Tunnel in Firered, and Emerald's Victory Road. And due to my single rule for this marathon, I could not look at a guide for help.

Not helping was that the only members of my team who could learn Flash already had four moves that I wanted to keep on them.

Luckily, I was still able to ask friends for advice, and one of them gave me a very useful tip. To go in the top-right island entrance, and not take any stairs.

And so, I navigated through the Whirl Islands with that advice in mind, eventually coming to Lugia's hiding place beneath the waves.

The scenee to summon Lugia was really cool! I love how the bells stated getting added to the track as each one began to ring.

And then, it was time to face off against the box legendary, Lugia.

I wanted to catch Lugia. Not only that, I wanted to catch Lugia in anything but the master ball. I wanted to prove that I was worthy of being Lugia's trainer.

They weren't kidding, the catch rate for Johto's legendaries is very small. Even after having Marla paralyze Lugia and then knock it down to a tiny sliver of health, I went through all my ultra balls and great balls without a catch.

I tried again, having Marla knock Lugia down to an even tinier sliver of health, plus paralysis. Still, it took nearly my entire ultra ball stock again to catch Lugia.

But I did catch Lugia. It was time to say goodbye for Jifa, at least for now, as I had Lugia take the sixth spot on my team. I needed every advantage I could get for what was to come.

My first steps as part of that, would be my first steps in this game into Kanto.

You see, I had thought that the entirety of Kanto was post-game only. That you wouldn't even step foot there until after the credits roll. So imagine my surprise when the first person I meet after surfing east from New Bark Town tells me that I'm in Kanto now!

It was so cool seeing the map be updated to show this section of Kanto, and it made me determined to keep going.

The trainer battles on Route 27 and Route 26 were some of the toughest yet, but I kept going, unstoppable on my way to the Pokemon League.

But before I got there, I had one final challenge, Victory Road.

It wasn't nearly as tricky as the other Victory Roads I had faced so far. The puzzles were pretty simple, and here weren't any trainers there.

Well, except for one, who had driven off all the other trainers on Victory Road.

The final fight here with Silver reminded me of the battle with Wally from Emerald. A final battle with one of your rivals, inside Victory Road. Only this time, it was at the end of Victory Road, rather than the start.

It was fun to see Silver realizing what he had to do to become a truly strong trainer: be better friends with his Pokemon.

Silver is probably my favorite of the "jerk rivals" (though what I've heard of Bede makes him a very close contender). He's a very interesting character, and this final battle with him was great!

After saying goodbye to Silver for the final time, it was time to enter the Pokemon League.

Healing up my team, and purchasing some final supplies, I headed beyond the doorway at the top, to start my Elite Four challenge.

Will was quite tough! But Psychic's weakness to Bug would be my key here, with Marla's Signal Beam decimating many of his Pokemon. While I won this battle handily, it would only get more difficult from here.

Koga was no joke. I had no counter to Poison, and his hyper-evasive Pokemon badly poisoned several members of my team. But Niko's Foresight would once again prove useful, and be key in taking down Koga's Pokemon.

Next was another familiar face, Bruno. Bagoli and Lugia were key here, but a tricky switch-out from Bruno during a Fly from Bagoli had him get taken out by a Rock Slide from Bruno's Onix. Thankfully, Acacia was able to take care of the Onix, and Lugia took care of the rest.

Finally, there was Karen. True to her advice, I was going to try to win with my favorites. I tried to have Niko pull the Foresight trick against her Gengar, but it surprised me with a Focus Blast, taking Niko out. But with the help of Marla, Acacia, and Splind, Karen's team was defeated.

All that remained now was Champion Lance.

I healed up my team, but forgot to use an Ether on Marla, whose Discharge was running low on PP. This would soon come back to bite me.

Lance was my toughest opponent in this game by far. Sure, Marla easily took out his Gyarados with a Discharge, and Splind took out his most powerful Dragonite with an Ice Fang, but then the tides turned in Lance's favor. Splind got knocked out by a Thunder, and Marla ran out of PP for Discharge. I had to scramble to figure out a strategy, and it took all of my remaining Hyper Potions.

But eventually, I won. I became champion of Johto, and finally finished Soulsilver. I had done what my 2012 self couldn't, and beaten this game for the very first time.

I had completed Pokemon Soulsilver, and that fact means so much to me.

I will be doing the postgame for Soulsilver eventually. But that'll probably be its own retrospective.

I had a lot of fun with Soulsilver! Sure, its pacing could have been a lot better, but it was a really nice experience overall! Though I feel like it'd have been a lot trickier and more frustrating without the infinite rare candy cheat.

I am so happy to have finally completed this game, 12 years later.

[kob131]

Lily Orchard and Pokemon: Gen 4

Yay, we get to hear Lily bitch more from now on.

"Gen 4 runs like shit because the game is trying to process 3D graphics all the time, like with battle transitions, health bars and movement!"

Then how the fuck do you explain Platinum, which ended up fixing all these issues then?

"Also I'm modding the game to remove the FPS cap and give myself a Ralts as the starter-"

W-w-wait, what?!

Why the fuck are you modding the games...in a retrospective all about looking back at the games as they hold up? Your complaints and footage WON'T line up, thus weakening your arguments!

Also, I don't give a fuck about how much you like Gardevoir. Ralts doesn't get an attacking move until Level 6. Starters start at Level 5. And Ralts is INTENTIONALLY weak to compensate for how strong it is fully evolved. Modding in a Ralts WILL affect your gameplay because the games aren't built for that.

For fuck's sake- USE A DIFFERENT TEAM!

"I encourage Barry to try and jump over the grass because I wanna see him get mauled by a Bidoof-"

Wait a minute. Was-was that fucking Peanut Butter from Pokemon Rusty?

...Oh great, Lily Orchard is probably taking her takes from Dorkly. That explains a lot.

"Well Ralts doesn't get an attacking move so I 'threw the match-'"

Sounding pretty salty there, Lily. Maybe you should try diversifying your teams and actually ENGAGE with the Pokemon by using a damn starter.

"I'm getting stopped all this time like a small child in a brony conve-"

I will call Taka in here to maul you, Lily. You were kicked out, deal with it.

"Uh oh! My Ralts is worse than a Magikarp! Whoopsie!"

Keep this in mind. It will be important later.

"Oh no! It takes a whole minute and ten seconds for me to get through an encounter with Team Galactic! TOO LONG!"

Speaking as someone who has played every Gen of Pokemon...as well as playing a few games with Pokemon's older, edgy brother SMT- You are making mountains out of mole hills Lily.

Games, especially RPGs given how they don't tend to be very interactive games, tell stories to stimulate the player's brain. This requires time, Lily. I know that you like being lulled into a silent stupor as evidenced by your love of Team Aqua/Magma and later Lysandre (No I am not joking) but most ACTUAL people like having some kind of engagement with the game. Pokemon, even at it's most verbose, is fucking SMALL POTATOES compared to your usual JRPG.

I brought up SMT for a reason Lily- that series compensates for having a less engaging battle system than Pokemon's by having a more robust story. If you played any SMT, even one like Nocturne- your brain would likely shut down.

JRPGs like having stories. You signed up for this with Pokemon. Now judge it accordingly.

"People gas up Cyrus as one of the best villains-!"

No they don't. They gas TEAM GALACTIC as one of the best villains because they fuck with the fundamental forces of existence, giving them an air of a series threat. I don't agree, I like Cyrus for being the only one with a reason for doing what he's doing. But people usually like him for the stuff OUTSIDE his home game.

"Reading Pokemon stories is just like watching subbed anime: reading the most inane bullshit!"

... Lily, you hate anything anime, don't you?

"Sinnoh ugly because grey and mud and forest gross!"

... 1- Lily, you literally show a grey tiled route being dyed orange in evening light.

2- Yes Lily. Mountainious regions and marshlands have mud and rocks.

And 3- The forest looks dark and damp because that's a fucking FOREST. If you paid attention the BGM in the previous forests, you'd notice that is what the developers intend the forest areas to be like. You basically just said ''the previous three gens completely failed at their jobs!'

*Lily proceeds to have a fake existential nightmare about Pokemon and Youtube*

Cool Lily. Too bad you mention these minor things and not...you know...the strewn path of broken lives you've left in your wake on this planet.

Could have had some kind of respect for you.

"Pokemon games hold your hand like a creepy uncle with a MLP collec-"

@takashi0 get in here! Lily's being an ass about bronies again!

"Oh my god! So many forced tutorials! Why won't they let me skip everything like the Underground tutorial! POKEMON BAD!"

Lily, the reason why the game won't let you skip the Bike is because you NEED it to progress the game and it gives you an improved movement option. It also won't let you skip the Egg tutorial because Pokemon breeding is necessary for getting certain Pokemon or helping you get certain Pokemon (like multiple starters). And this is why you can't skip the catching tutorial: you'd just be throwing Pokeballs at random and failing constantly.

These are necessary aspects of the game. A game for kids who may have never played a Pokemon game before. Deal with it.

"I don't know why I'm here, I just keep ignoring the dialogue."

So you talk about the story being ass...while acknowledging that you aren't paying attention to said story...

Like, I know that Lily is implying she's long since gone through the game and experienced the story, hates it and is now skipping over it but you are now making a retrospective of the games. Now would be a good time to pay attention and possible reconsider your stance.

"HMs are so cool! You can use your Pokemon to transverse the region! People are so dumb for bitching about them. You have 24 moveslots, just set aside some and forget coverage, dumbbnuts!"

So what you're saying is that we should have random required HMs in Pokemon Gyms to challenge them properly? You know, like Chuck's Gym? That you couldn't complete without backtracking?

Or that maybe we should have moves like Cut, Rock Smash, Flash, Whirlpool and Defog (which you basically call useless) be necessary! After all, who cares about player expression? It's just 20.8% of your moveslots!

... This is why you use your BRAIN Lily.

"You need to adapt to roadblocks, you useless clowns!"

Remember this, it will be important later.

"Archie and Maxie were charmingly stupid but Cyrus is completely crazy!"

A- That's intentional with Cyrus and UNINTENTIONAL with your favs.

And B- You outright emphasized that they were gonna blow up a volcano to try and expand water/land for Pokemon. How is THAT not crazy?

"Barry demands yet ANOTHER Battle-"

It's the fourth fucking battle Lily. Just because you cut yourself anytime a rival shows up doesn't make it excessive.

"*another 'cobs bad' joke*-"

Yeah yeah, you want cops gone because your abuse victims keep calling them on you and you have a bad experience with them.

Move on.

"Hey I'm not a cop, it's not unethical if I go on a rampage-"

You REALLY don't know when to keep your mouth shut, do you?

"Cyrus can no be cult leader, HE HAVE NO MOTIVE OR PESONALLITY!"

...

"Fellow members of Team Galactic! Hear me! My name, as I appear to you today, is Cyrus. This world of ours is a crude one. In a word, it is incomplete. It has been, and always will be, a struggle to survive in this world. We humans and Pokémon are likewise incomplete. Because we are all so lacking, we fight, we maim... It is ugly. I hate the incompleteness. That we are all incomplete, I hate it with my entire body and being. The world should be complete. The world must change. Then, who will change it? Me, Cyrus. And Team Galactic. Yes, all of you. Together we pored over myths and exposed their secrets. Together we captured legendary Pokémon. And now, Team Galactic has obtained the energy to change the world! The power of dreams is within our grasp! Understand it, fellow members! My long-held dreamworld is on the verge of becoming reality. All those headed to Mt. Coronet, and those who remain here... Though our missions may differ, our hearts beat as one. Let there be glory for Team Galactic!"

-

"But, I must say... You are a remarkable specimen. Those Pokémon have nothing to do with you, do they? But still you come to rescue them out of pity? Such pitifully useless emotions... It's illogical and irrational. Pity and compassion are products of the weak and faulty human heart. You were compelled to come here by such vacuous sentimentality! I will make you regret paying heed to your heart!"

Perhaps pay attention to the fucking dialogue, Lily. Because these are pretty blunt and obvious examples. Cyrus appeals to people feeling that the world is harsh and unfair, promising them a bright tomorrow if they listen to him. Then he explains how he believes emotions have caused these problems so he wishes to erase them.

"Oh really Looker? You think I'm so dumb that-"

Lily, you just got done humiliating yourself by being outsmarted by a children's game and will continue that streak throughout this video.

Yes, you are that dumb.

"Cyrus has double the dialogue Maxie and Archie have in these games but it is so stilted and devoid of personality! Archie and Maxie are SOO much better by being stupid and trying to better the world-!"

Lily, those guys were not intended on being stupid. They were intended to be well intentioned extremists. They seem stupid because the games made their acts so dumb that the intentions are overshadowed by their stupidity.

Cyrus does more than try to be evil, you can tell from comparing his dialogue to Giovanni's-

"Blast it all! You ruined our plans for Silph! But Team Rocket will never fall! <Player>, never forget that all Pokémon exist for Team Rocket! I must go, but I shall return!"

And his so-called 'stilted' dialogue would probably fit a man who is OPENLY TRYING TO RID THE WORLD OF EMOTION. If your assessment is correct- that would be good writing.

Archie and Maxie are badly written. You are praising bad writing over good writing.

"Platnium has gotten away from the feeling of adventure that makes Pokemon good-"

You know what helps with a sense of adventure Lily?

A story. Something to give structure and stimulation to the player.

You praised one of the dullest games in the series in Emerald and are going to praise THE dullest game in the series. All while demonizing the games that actually stimulate.

You're full of shit.

[findingyourrootscomic]

Gameplay Retrospective #3 (Chapters 8-10)

Hello all, and welcome back to Finding Your Roots: Gameplay Retrospectives! FYR is based on a type-restrictive nuzlocke run of Pokemon Omega Ruby. This series is where I describe the events of this nuzlocke run, so you all can get an understanding of how I transform the gameplay into a story! Today, we’ll be covering Chapters 8-10 which ranges from leaving Slateport City to the Team Magma encounter at Meteor Falls. Sorry it’s been so long since the last one, thank you for your patience!

The Current Team

Cedar- Marshtomp

Gender: Female

Met: Route 101, lv 5

Ability: Torrent

Personality: Brave, Good endurance

Shelly- Nincada

Gender: Female

Met: Route 116, lv 6

Ability: Compound Eyes

Personality: Rash, Proud of her power

Brawler- Geodude

Gender: Male

Met: Granite Cave, lv 10

Ability: Sturdy

Personality: Careful, Quick to flee

Nauki- Trapinch

Gender: Male

Met: Granite Cave, lv 1

Ability: Arena Trap

Personality: Jolly, Strong willed

Ember- Numel

Gender: Female

Met: Route 112, lv 14

Ability: Oblivious

Personality: Brave, Somewhat vain

Copper- Slugma

Gender: Male

Met: Fiery Pass, lv 15

Ability: Magma Armor

Personality: Rash, Impetuous and silly

Lockheed- Skarmory

Gender: Male

Met: Route 113, lv 16

Ability: Sturdy

Personality: Modest, Likes to run

Eclipse- Solrock

Gender: Neutral

Met: Meteor Falls, lv 17

Ability: Levitate

Personality: Jolly, Takes plenty of siestas

Tuffy- Numel

Gender: Female

Met: Jagged Pass, lv 21

Ability: Simple

Personality: Hasty, Quick to flee

Gyms Completed

Mauville Gym: Leader Wattson

New Catches

Fiery Pass: Copper (Slugma)

Route 112: Ember (Numel)

Route 113: Lockheed (Skarmory)

Meteor Falls: Eclipse (Solrock)

Jagged Pass: Tuffy (Numel)

Evolutions

None

Deaths

None

Chapter Eight’s gameplay was especially fun to translate into story, since it contained a rival battle AND a gym battle! The chapter picks up at the Pokemon Center visit that I made after winning the prior rival battle against Brendan, who fainted one of my pokemon and reduced the rest to low health. I used repels to make sure we didn’t get jumped by wild pokemon and rushed my poor earth-type babies to the Slateport Pokemon Center to heal them up. Since I had three revives to use on any fainted pokemon I wanted throughout the run, I used the first on Cedar and rezzed her at the Pokemon Center. I stocked up on potions and other heal items, now paranoid that this run may not be as easy as I was hoping. After that, we set off for Mauville.

In the comic, Team Hearth never visits the comic’s stand-in city Mawhill, the lightning elemental capital. This is different from the gameplay, where you are of course unable to skip visiting Mauville since it has the third gym. I made this change since it wouldn’t really make sense for Team Hearth to visit an elemental capital so soon after what happened with Briar. I also just didn’t want to introduce and design a new city, and I figured I could connect the needed gym battle to Mauville by having the gym leaders be Mawhill citizens. It made sense anyway since lightning elementals live there, and the gym is an electric gym! So that fell together pretty nicely.

But before the battle begins, Cedar and Nauki run into Wesen the ralts, the comic stand-in for Wally! I was pretty excited to get to bring Wesen back for this chapter, since he left Cedar so abruptly ages ago in Chapter Two. It was fun to get to pick at the unresolved drama between these two, because Wesen is avoidant to a fault but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel bad about the things he does. Cedar is a fun character to throw at Wesen because her very nature is antithetical to what Wesen expects from the world. These two shake each other up and I love their chemistry.

Cedar and Nauki bring Wesen back to meet their new team, and some aggression from a recently retraumatized Shelly helps to lead both into the upcoming rival battle AND the gym battle. The conflict causes Nauki to run off on his own, which separates him from his older protectors and frees him up to get kidnapped by the lightning elemental gym leaders. This event thus gets Shelly even MORE pissed, and once she identifies Wesen as at fault for Nauki’s kidnapping, all bets are off. Shelly attacks Wesen, violence ensues, and the rival battle commences. Check that one off the list!

In-game, I used Shelly against Wally in Mauville. She was still weak af but was getting a little stronger now that she was getting to higher levels, and bug is good against psychic. Wally only has one ralts here, so it was a pretty easy fight even for Shelly. It went by quickly, and does as well in the comic, though in-comic Shelly is so overcome with raging emotion over the kidnapping that when Cedar intervenes, the explosion targets her instead. Wesen is spared, rival battle is cut off, and Shelly runs away. After the Talk happens, we cut to Nauki with his lightning elemental captors, and the third gym battle is imminent.

Gameplay notes for the Wally battle (Yeah it was literally two turns lol):

Shelly vs ralts- Cut, half yellow.

Teleport, no effect.

Cut KO.

Originally, I was actually going to show the third gym battle in-comic. It would have been Nauki beating the everloving shit out of these lightning elementals to protect his sisters from potential harm, and it was gonna be cathartic and awesome and glorious. I ended up cutting it for time. Chapter Eight was long as fuck even without this battle, so it unfortunately just couldn’t happen. The camera cuts away as Nauki charges in, and by the next time we see him, the cave is reduced to rubble and Watts, Gadget, and Mango are beaten to a pulp. In-game, you’ll never guess what happened…

I swept the gym with Nauki. Wow, how’d you guess? :V

Yeah, it was super easy. Even the battle against Roxanne was harder and I was fighting with a frigging water-type. Once the gym battle was done, we moved onwards towards Hoenn’s arid region! Finally, I had gotten to the good part of the game… THIS NEXT PART OF HOENN IS EARTH-TYPE CENTRAL! I was gonna be getting catches on almost every route, instead of every few levels like the early game! I was so excited to finally fill out the rest of the team, and I caught lots of new pokemon!

My first new catch was on Route 112, where I encountered and caught a female numel that I named Ember. I was so fucking excited because numel is one of my favorite earth-types to raise, and what better place to do so than Hoenn! She was the fifth pokemon to join the team, and then we went to Fiery Pass where I caught a male slugma named Copper. I’d never raised slugma before, so I was pretty interested to see how he would do. Full team!!!

The next step in the game was to head to Fallarbor, and I knew from my research that Route 113 would have a possible skarmory encounter. I really, really wanted skarmory on the team (steel-type, flying-type, cute design, nostalgia for my skarmory from my first Emerald playthrough, GOOD). So once we got there and I encountered and caught the male skarmory Lockheed, I suddenly had choices to make. 7 pokemon, but only 6 slots on the team. It was time to send someone to the PC!

This was the point in the run where I made pretty liberal use of the PC boxes to switch the team around. It was a kinda chaotic time for the team, pokemon would regularly get boxed and come back and get boxed again as more new catches were made. I was trying to balance the team type-wise as well, so that we weren’t leaning too heavily on ground-types versus rock and steel. Cedar and Nauki were the only real permanent fixtures on the team at this point. Lots of switching up!

In Fallarbor, you get a quest to save a kidnapped professor from Team Magma, who dragged him off to Meteor Falls for whatever reason. You also encounter Brendan here, who doesn’t battle you but rather accompanies you to Meteor Falls. I decided to skip this rival encounter because honestly I forgot it even happened. Brendan just leaves very little impression on me as a character lol. I skipped the professor thing, too, because it was just kinda boring and would’ve taken an annoying amount of time to set up, just needlessly extending the comic further. Once Team Hearth made it to the desert, I wanted to send them to Meteor Falls without spending a ton of pages on it. I definitely wanted to include the Team Magma encounter there, since I was taking this opportunity to introduce the comic stand-in for Maxie. I used Team Molten’s strong desire to fight Team Magma as the bridge to get us from one story point to the next as quickly as possible.

I don’t exactly remember how I got the idea to connect Team Molten and Team Magma. The numel catches were definitely part of the inspiration, since Maxie also uses a camerupt as his ace. Bridging different elements of the story also helps to streamline things; Team Molten wanting to fight Team Magma can serve to drag Team Hearth into the conflict as well, even though our main characters don’t yet have a personal stake in the conflict. They will have a personal stake eventually. But for now, their major motivation is to help their new friends out. Thankfully, with Cedar and Nauki’s personalities, it was easy to justify this.

In Meteor Falls, I caught a solrock named Eclipse. I was kinda miffed about this catch I’ll be honest lol, because solrock is a psychic-type but also a physical attacker??? And I don’t even think they learn zen headbutt. So at the time I was just kinda like… Eclipse you’re just a less good Brawler… But I kept them on the team for far longer than I anticipated at the time of capture. So its kinda funny how that all turned out!

Once Eclipse was caught (and introduced in-comic as a character with OCD, as I had promised a friend I would write one), we move on to the Team Magma encounter and introduce Mantle and Tabs (stand-in for Admin Tabitha). In-game, there are three Magma Admins that you regularly fight (or two?? Was it two or three??? I remember Tabitha and Courtney uhh), but in the comic, only one of these admins is still currently with the team. This is to just streamline things more so I don’t have a billion cast members to keep track of. The other Magma admins can be seen in Ember and Tuffy’s flashback, so they are at least referenced. In-comic, Team Magma is here for the same reason as in-game: To steal the meteorite. Team Molten find them first, chaos ensues as the numels three reunite, and then Team Hearth arrives. Molten has outed themselves as being connected to Team Magma. Team Magma successfully steals the meteorite (same as in-game p sure) and leave. I literally don’t remember what they do with it after the fact lol, but I at least remember that much.

Sometime after Meteor Falls, I went to Jagged Pass and caught the second female numel, Tuffy. This was fucking awesome because I love numels and now I had two of them fuck yeah. And thus, we had nine team members in total: Cedar, Nauki, Shelly, Brawler, Ember, Copper, Lockheed, Eclipse, and Tuffy! Earthen party, earthen party! Things were going strong at this point, with lots of fighters to choose from and all sorts of new type coverage. As you can see, in-game Tuffy was the last of these five pokemon to be caught, but she’s introduced as one of the first new catches in-comic. I streamlined all the new catches by introducing three of them (slugma and the two numels) as a unit. I wrote in reasons for why all these new pokemon would start hanging with Team Hearth, though all have yet to officially join the team. I try not to rush new catches onto the team, since it can come off really unnatural. I want to give time for the characters to meet and get used to each other and have them join up when the moment feels right. But for now, all these new pokemon are traveling with Team Hearth!

Aaaand that’s about it! Thanks for reading this gameplay retrospective. Next one will come at the end of Chapter 13. Laters!

[strawberry-s0ap]

literally no one asked, but if anyone’s looking for video essay recommendations, here’s a list of some of my favs! there’s some iceberg videos in there too :))

literally anything by thafnine (especially ‘the world of five nights at freddy’s)

the quiet sadness of mario galaxy - jacob geller (11:17)

how midsommar brainwashes you - acolytes of horror (27:31)

the rise and fall of girls go games - izzzyzzz (25:01)

the path: psychological horror in the woods -izzzyzzz (1:07:54)

an exhaustive look at pokemon omega ruby - ShayMay (7:15:29)

why you get spooked from 4th wall breaks - Daryl talks games (18:15)

why you should watch disturbing horror movies - super eyepatch wolf (25:18)

the silent hill everyone hated - totallypointlessTV (1:05:27)

the silent hill everyone really hated - totallypointlessTV (1:07:43)

silent hill: the full series retrospective - yourfavouiteson (8:45:16)

how media scares us: the work of junji ito - super eyepatch wolf (22:53)

the feminist horrors of jennifer’s body, teeth and a girl walks home alone at night - elle literacy (32:48)

the bottom of the rabbit hole iceberg - parallel pipes (1:30:11)

the aquatic anomalies iceberg explained - wideeyedwiseguy (40:55)

the desire to be sad: “tragically beautiful” art and romanticizing mental illness - oliSUNvia (35:09)

how hollywood demonizes ultra-femininity- shanspeare (13:34)

the crime of being basic, the illusion of being unique- shanspeare (27:28)

a deep size into the path - izzzyzzz (40:02)

the video game hoaxes and rumours iceberg explained - sourcebrew (1:11:46)

hitogata: japans most mysterious PSA - blameitonjorge (24:44)

the mariokart wii iceberg, explained: supercut edition- seedButter (1:06:35)

why ace attorney is a classic- nezumiva (3:36:08)

Saki Sanobashi - The Lost Deep Web Anime (Go For A Punch) - pezle (30:03)

the most disturbing anime you’ll never see - blooky. (16:46)

the rise and fall of america’s next top model - elle literacy (1:19:07)

the manga that lies to you - schnoz meister (36:07)

the best bad game ever made - totallypointlesstv (1:28:25)

a comprehensive history of internet horror - Redlyne (43:48)

silent hill called to me - liam triforce (2:08:06)

guitar hero and rock band retrospective - liam triforce (1:10:01)

i care very deeply about mario kart - liam triforce (1:36:03)

nintendo ds retrospective- liam triforce (51:51)

super mario galaxy- an impossible masterpiece- liam triforce (53:52)

super mario sunshine is… weird (and i love it) - liam triforce (1:01:51)

super mario 64 - more than a game - liam triforce (1:51:17)

digital horror:rebirth of creepypasta - sagan hawkes (2:35:39)

so, what’s up with don’t hug me, im scared? | an analysis- sagan hawkes (1:12:16)

the lost media of creepypastas - blameitonjorge (35:58)

the complete history of horror movies- magikarpusedfly (2:27:29)

a complete history of the A button challenge- Bismuth (5:22:14)

the complete cursed image creepypasta iceberg explained - Sacrow (2:51:41)

a lot of these are horror based, so sorry if that’s not your thing!

[kafus]

i am particularly enamored with mystery gifts distributed in real life locations over local wireless or physical link cables and stuff. i don't even know how to explain why? i mean they're cool on the basis of being exclusive collectibles and also cool on the basis of people working hard to document and preserve their data... but like. i think in general pokemon in real life really takes my interest since pokemon when i was younger was very much a lonely isolated thing that i did entirely on my own, i never had the social real life pokemon experience that was a core part of the series until adulthood, and so i think i'm just really wistful and feel very surreal about the idea of gathering in a room and having a real life person plug a cable into your gba sp to give you a mew and stuff like that. it makes the pokemon experience tangible i guess.

and while real life events were really inaccessible, and it sucked if you lived somewhere that either didn't get events at all or you were unable to travel, especially as a child, now in retrospect it's easier than ever to learn about these events online and get them yourself so many years after the fact. it's like a cool relic of the culture of the time before the internet Dominated Society. local pokemon events are rarer and smaller in scope now and i think that's too bad.

like sure shiny online mythicals are cool but my favorite event pokemon i own from the switch games is my pichu that my friend from korea had to go to a real life movie theater to get me, because how fucking cool is that? someone went somewhere in real life to get that code for me. a friend from across oceans. as much as mystery gifts represent exclusivity and FOMO they can also represent memories and people and i think that's really fucking cool. i think seeing them as a soulless way to keep people hooked on pokemon is overly cynical

[trappedinthewalls]

Seriously considering making my own Pokemon retrospective to give people something to watch other than Lily Orchard's. Like in the vein of @saiscribbles response streams and videos. Since Lily's is, you know, really not great. Opinion, obviously, which is fine. Except it's needlessly mean and creepily Gardevoir obsessed (and we all know what that is). Only mine wouldn't be a friggen 6-hour slog of a ted talk spent mostly bashing other people's opinions on the games and instead be just a straightforward look back on what I liked and didn't like about the games. Also Lily's idea that Blue's bullying is just how little kids treat their best friends is kinda strange.

It'd probably just be a series of shorts that I'd cobble together into one video when I'm done. Just a thought.

[sheikah-simp]

Exile//Vilify, One Year Retrospective

Well folks, as of May 31st, 2023, it has officially been one whole year since the last update for Exile//Vilify was released, and it simultaneously feels like way longer than that and not very long at all. But, in celebration, I wanted to take some time to look back on my thoughts and ideas and processes that led up to the creation of this story, and share some appreciation for all that’s happened since then.

First of all, this book is massive, and it was way more massive than I thought it would be when I set off to write it. It is almost as long as Tolkein’s “Two Towers” and other similar novels—not what I was expecting when I went in to write an origin story about a character completely lacking in personality with no backstory. But if there is one thing I do, and do well, it is commit to the bit. And here, the bit was doing justice to a character I saw having so much potential but was, quite literally, doomed by the narrative, and built to be a throwaway character for a spinoff game consumed by his own hubris and never developed or mentioned again. And I thought to myself, “Man, that sucks! What would it be like to be him?” And the answer is: it would suck a lot, actually. But also in that vein, I still wanted to portray how his life was still a life worth living, and his story, one that was worth telling. Even if it is one that doesn’t “matter” to Nintendo or the LOZ franchise as a whole, even if it’s one I had to entirely make up grasping for straws, it is one that mattered to us. And that’s kind of the thesis of the entire book.

Many of you know I’m a Pokemon writer (hence username) and I never really intended to write in other fandoms, but I dont know what I expected. Something about this character just fucking gripped me, and I couldnt let myself stop until his story was out of me. But the thing is, I wasn’t super interactive within the Pokemon fandom. I had actually just ended a huge general life hiatus for mental health and had made a resolution to get back to what I love. The result of that was the completion of The Devil and the Dead Sea and the start of my hardenshipping series. But I just kind of dropped that book on AO3 when it was complete and then didnt interact with anyone. I wrote it and then uploaded it all at once, which didnt give me a lot of time or opportunity to develop a community and discuss updates. I had a few people who reached out, but nothing close to the type of community I’ve felt now.

I have been so full of love and blown away by the support I’ve received from this small but mighty niche in the community. So first of all, I just want to say thank you. I'm so glad that I could bring this story to life and so blessed to think of how many people it's touched. So now I just want to take a moment and look back on the book and how it started, what things changed, and where it's going and what's happening in the future.

Exile//Vilify's conception

Does it feel like a trial? Does it trouble your mind the way you trouble mine?

The band, The National, has inspired I think all of my fics to this point. After playing Age of Calamity, Astor had been swimming around so much in my head, especially since so much of his mysteries were unanswered. And one day blorbo was on my brain in just the correct way at just the correct time when I happened to be listening to a completely unrelated song from Portal 2, Exile Vilify. The book, of course, has nothing to do with Portal, but on that particular day, the lyrics really spoke to me of Astor and his potential struggles, and I became fascinated with the idea of him and his ideological square-off against the king: a man who was so set on defying prophecy and the man who, well, prophesied it.

So Exile//Vilify was born, to me, actually in the concept of a butting of heads between King Rhoam and Astor. I saw the song lyrics as a dialogue between the two of them, mutual antagonistic (but also troubled) feelings shared between them. So King Rhoam was actually going to have a much bigger role in my original vision for Exile//Vilify. In fact there was a toss up in my mind between whether or not he'd have an odd homoerotic rivalry thing for the king, or his crush on the queen, but--

But the simple fact of the matter is I found Rhoam super unlikeable and sadly couldn't find a good way to get into his head in a way that would be sustainable for a novel. So while the concept is what initially gripped me, Exile//Vilify ended up going in a different direction, although the inception of that concept is definitely still there. The closest I've gotten to writing my desired dynamic between Astor and the King was in "Prophecies to Waterfowl," a one-shot in my short stories compilation Stories from Exile. ("Prophecies to Waterfowl," aside from "Voe and You," is my favorite of my stories in that compilation).

Other things that were cut/changed in the writing process

When I realized the fic was getting as massive as it was, I wanted to streamline its focus and decided to cut down on some plotlines. I could have just left it was it was, because fic writing is about being self-indulgent, but I want to challenge myself to be a better writer than that. (Not that there is anything wrong with just writing to be self-indulgent, but I use my fics as my place to practice and get better, so I need to.. actually practice).

One of the biggest things that was therefore cut was the relationship between Astor and Ganondorf, and the implications of Astor's past lives. How Astor became the one selected by Ganondorf. Because in the fic, it just ended up seeming random, which was intentional. Fate is merciless and random and does not pick and choose, while also picking and choosing.

There were going to be more Astor and Ganon dream scenes planned, and a plotline of Astor's "awakening" somewhere along the line where he unlocked visions of his past as a different kind of royal seer--the seer to Ganondorf. There are hints of this in the dreams, but nothing concrete.

Still, the idea of what "could be" still fascinates me, and I love the idea of exploring the idea of Astor as Ganondorf's reincarnated seer, and I have a one shot that I am currently working on that explores this very concept, and can be considered canon (or semi-canon) to Exile//Vilify. I hope to have that out... soon. Ish. Eventually. I have a lot cooking right now.

Other honorable mentions:

Astor was going to have more blatant romantic feelings for Rose.

Astor was going to have more blatant romantic (or complicated) feelings for Rhoam.

The contention between Ganondorf trying to push Astor into evil and Thelem agreeing to block Ganon from Astor in the meantime was also going to be explored more, but Ganondorf got his last laugh on that eventually.

Even more fucking Order of the Seers stuff (culture, rituals, etc)

Chapters of Astor stalking Link and Zelda leading up to the awakening of the Calamity

More Yiga scenes (my little teen Kohga gives me oxygen) and Astor building a cult following of people who worship Ganon

Astor having basically a weird prophetical drug addiction to the "high" of witnessing the Great Calamity in his visions (this is kind of implied in the book, but not expanded on)

All of these things, ultimately, were great ideas, and things I'd love to explore and maybe will some day if I'm ever inspired enough on any of them to write anything concrete. They were just things that slightly detracted from the story I wanted to tell. But that's why I keep Stories from Exile around.

So What's Next?

As I mentioned, I have a few things Exile//Vilify related still in the works. The first is that Astor/Ganondorf one shot I was talking about. (Likely going to be called "Prophet to a Gerudo King.") I also have a secret surprise fic commission that is also Astor/Ganondorf related and involves an AU and the Stories from Exile universe ;) (that one will hopefully be out soon).

I have a lot of things on my Stories from Exile list that were not out yet, and I may revisit them if I'm feeling or have the time. I'd love to keep updating that one every now and again, now that Exile//Vilify is complete, just to keep the world alive.

I also am planning on doing a limited, hard-cover release of Exile//Vilify to celebrate its publication. I have a great team of people who have been slowly helping me copyedit this massive beast so I can get it printed from a self-publishing company. It will not be publicly listed for sale, as it is illegal for me to sell or make money off of it. This hardcover will only be available to obtain for those who contact me on tumblr during a specific time frame. That time frame is not now. When I have a more clear set date for that, I will circulate posts. You will have to cover the cost of shipping and maybe some of the printing depending on what the cost is on my end, but the book will be free. It will likely be 500+ pages. It will likely happen by the end of the year.

That said, as the book nears being printed, if you would like to lend a hand proofreading, there is still time!! Please just DM me. You will have the option to be credited in the hardcover if you'd like.

And finally, you'll still be able to find me here, and updating in my other writing. I still really love receiving asks about this book, so please never be a stranger to my inbox. Sometimes I have more energy and power to reply than others, but every ask always makes my day.

I have planned "Trouble Will Find Me," which is a Thelem and Azelphir prequel that will detail some of the stuff that I didn't have time to develop about the Order of the Seers, and Thelem's origin story. This one I might just release all in one chunk - uncertain right now. At that point though... isn't that kind of just original fiction.... set in the BOTW world???? Unsure.

I'll also be returning to my Pokemon series, The Dead Sea Trilogy, if you have any interest in that fandom or my other writing.

That's all I have for you! Thank you all so much for an amazing year (really more than that, since I've been posting about this big honkin' thing since December 2020...) and thank you so much for being such a great community. I can't wait to see where else this journey leads.

[blazehedgehog]

Not all that related to the last question outside of the name drop, but what are your thoughts on Donkey Kong 64?

So generally I'd get consoles when they were new and relevant. Not brand new, like I'd never have them at launch, but at some point during that generation, my Mom would find a sale somewhere or save up enough money or whatever.

So, for example, 1992, I got a SNES. 1994, I got a Genesis. 1995, I got a 32X and a Sega CD, because in both scenarios, Toys 'R' Us was having an overstock fire sale and you could pick the hardware up for about $30 each and games for around $2. 1996, I got lucky and had enough money to buy a Sega Saturn for myself. 1997, I got a Playstation for Christmas. So on and so forth.

The one time that did not happen was with the Nintendo 64. The N64 was the rich kids console. A Playstation game was about $30, maybe $40. A Nintendo 64 game could be $60, $70, even $90+.

Not something you get when you're a family that has more or less lived paycheck to paycheck for basically their entire lifetime.

So I think it was after I got my Gamecube in 2004 or 2005, my Mom surprised me with a brand new hot pink Nintendo 64 and a huge number of pre-owned games. At the time I was confused and a little let down, but in retrospect it was actually kind of awesome, because she got me Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Pokemon Stadium (with the Gameboy attachment!), Ocarina of Time, Diddy Kong Racing, Perfect Dark, and lastly, Donkey Kong 64.

She had fond memories of the year I got Donkey Kong Country for Christmas, and swapping the controller back and forth as we played. She wasn't very good at those games, but she thought the game looked beautiful, and hoped DK64 would fill that niche. Unfortunately, outside of the two racing games, she struggled to understand 3D analog character movement and it kind of soured her on all video games, forever.

I was already well acquainted with Super Mario 64. I was the kind of kid that latched on to in-store demo kiosks and would stand there playing for hours as long as nobody else was around, and I'd played quite a lot at a friend's house. I'd seen almost the entire game by this point. So, I dove right into Donkey Kong 64 first.

Well. That's a lie. Gamestop had sold my Mom Donkey Kong 64 without the RAM expansion cart. She knew the game required it, and they claimed to have included it at the time, but it was nowhere to be found. So we had to wait a day for the store to open back up.

But when I finally sat down to play it, the first impression I remember having was it taking over 20 minutes for me to get my first golden banana and thinking, "I hope the rest of the game isn't like that." Because, you know, 30 minutes in Super Mario 64, and you probably have enough stars to be halfway to the first boss fight. Each star (and in this case, golden banana) is tantamount to the game's "level" and opening with a level that took me 20+ minutes to figure out and complete is kind of outrageous.

But the rest of the game is actually worse.

Donkey Kong 64 is maybe the first and greatest example of quantity over quality. As legend goes, the game began development with Tim Stamper handing the team a list of items he thought needed to be collectables in their next game. If you have so many collectables you need to make a list to hold them all, that's your first mistake.

DK64 is a grind. It's a slog. Individual ideas don't seem so bad when viewed in isolation but everything around them is so watered down and stretched so thin that it's exhausting to deal with. It is a game about testing the limits of your tolerance for tedium.

My second strongest memory is opening up the final level and it taking me close to an hour. It's kind of a series of challenge rooms and minigames tailored to each Kong. The thing is, you get a time limit to finish the level. For every blueprint you've found elsewhere in the game, the timer gets extended, which is how I know how long it took me to finish the level.

Except... I didn't finish it. I got all the way to the final door, and with only a few minutes to spare, realized you needed both a Nintendo coin and a Rareware coin in order to open it and reach the final boss. I think I only had the Rareware coin.

Knowing how long it took me to get through this level, combined with the fact I'd have to find that Nintendo coin, and everything else... I gave up. I thought, "naw, I'm good."

And I didn't touch the game for 15 years.

Sometime in the last couple years, for whatever reason, I began poking at DK64 again in an emulator.

Not like, a lot. Just every now and then. But then I got up to Gloomy Galleon, and that level is the first one that really, actually, massively sucks so I haven't gone back to it in like six months.

Anyway. Awful game. Rare had really messed up priorities and the game is a massive disappointment. Sometimes it's a wonder Nintendo gave them the Donkey Kong license.

[owls-den]

Hi. Did you always like pokemon best wishes?

Hi! Thanks for the ask :))

This might come as a surprise but actually no.

Tl;dr: I didn't for 10 years (but was weirdly passionate about hating it). Then a year ago, I went through an intense character arc and realized I actually REALLY loved it. Which led to me posting on Tumblr.

I had been watching since the first Pokemon BW episode aired in France and... I immediately thought it was fishy?? I was like 9-10 at the time. I didn't outright dislike the series until season 15 where I just really hated the episodes and would rant to my friends about them.

Now, did that stop me from drawing small comics and writing fanfictions about self-insert OC going on adventures with the gang or Trip? Nope! I wrote multiple of those! (and burnt them in holy fire once I grew up and realized they were ultra cringe)

I don't think I really REALLY hated it. It was more of a love hate thing in retrospect. I loved the characters but didn't like how poorly they were used in the series. I actually kept up this passionate "hatred" thing until I was 19. I had written an entire essay at this point detailing the series and its short comings. It was about 20 pages long??? (most were about Trip cause... Obviously.) and funnily enough, I had written a conclusion in advance saying I was being too harsh on it and started liking some of the most improbable of characters.

I had re read it and I think I started realizing that... You can hardly being THIS passionate about something and TRULY hate it. I went through all of my sketchbooks from when I was 10 to now and noticed how Trip was in. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. So I did some soul searching (YEAH.) and started studying my fave character's—Trip's—personality and... Woah, he was way more interesting than I remembered? And that one episode where he meets Alder again? I hated that episode as a kid but nowadays, I really really love it?

I just kinda stayed in what I had perceived as a kid and never looked back to realize all the problems in production that led to a product with a ton of little issues but that had a lot of heart put behind it.

And THAT was when I started posting on Tumblr a year ago. Right after going through this insane character development lol! Now, I look back at the conclusion of my essay and wonder "WHAT DID I HAVE AGAINST STEPHAN?! HE'S SO COOL!" and... Well I guess my 19 yo self somehow managed to predict my fondness for the series, despite their assessment being coated in sarcasm. I gave a second chance to the series and while it DOES have its issues, man is it a charming little series <3

Funnily enough, the first art I posted on Tumblr of Trip was the first time I had drawn him digitally in nearly 9 years! Not ever going to be the last though, haha!

[soundofseclusion]

20. Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness

Release: 2005, GCN Beaten: May 27th, GCN Playtime: 28h 53m

Vastly superior over its predecessor in basically every way, XD has hardly any of the frustrations that made Colosseum so insufferable at times. It still has its own quirks and annoyances, but it's safe to say that all my biggest gripes with Colosseum were totally ironed out. I enjoyed XD quite a bit and found myself eager to play it, which is usually how I feel about good Pokemon games.

[makeroomforthejolyghost]

am hours late but wanted to record my thoughts on new pokemon game announcement so future me can look back and laugh

don't care about megas* but still happy to see them back. please flygon this time?

is this the future or past?? the fact that the trailer's art style leaves even this ambiguous worries me a little. but i've also seen people declare confidently that it's been "confirmed" it takes place in the past. can't tell if this is literally true or if what they actually mean is "from my analysis of the trailer i am certain of this"

lack of gameplay footage also concerning, but probably a good business decision considering how bad gameplay footage made their last few trailers look lmao

ppl seem really disappointed by the "entirely in lumiose city" thing but idg why? that's different enough from any previous game that i'm curious to see it. i guess maybe that sounds more linear and fans want more open world? but the narrow scope sounds cool to me; it implies having an Actual Objective from the start of the game, which is so different from most pokemon games (where you just kinda dick around for 80% of the game and then get told about a world-ending event you need to fix) that i'm here for it

kinda glad they skipped unova since i couldn't envision a unova remake/revisit that would have pleased me. but also... really? all unova gets is a few homages in indigo disk? indigo disk sucked tho

mildly sad no johto bc i love johto but i didn't consciously want johto, you know? like i didn't endorse my wish for johto; i just get happy whenever i see it

i got so genuinely, viscerally irritated when the trailer started with pikachu, i think bc in my mind pikachu represents reassurance/pandering to the babiest of baby fans. does anyone actually need that? is anyone really going to feel lost if pikachu's not there to guide them? (this is not an important insight i just find it funny in retrospect that my first reaction was negative for suck a nitpicky reason)

but also, i saw one guy suggest maybe we're going to switch off playing from a human and pokemon perspective? this would be cool conceptually, but i will like it only if it's nothing like the synchro feature in indigo disk. if we sometimes inhabit a pokemon protagonist with their own agenda that involves communicating with humans, that will be cool; if we as a trainer command a pokemon whom we then go complete missions as (e.g., like, the rocket hideout puzzle in let's go but in first person), no thanks

that's all assuming that the blurb about "a vision of beautiful coexistence between people and pokemon" is a hint/loadbearing detail and not just fluff? i see people hanging a lot of speculations on that line but like... aren't there lines like that in every pokemon game? it could just be fluff

thank god for 2025 release. please be november like main-series games and not, like, january

*1. most of them look dumb to me 2. seems kinda cruel? like forcing your pets into a berserker rage. idk. but most importantly 3. i like that they buffed weak pokemon but what's the point if you're also gonna buff, like, garchomp

[alyo]

Remember Pokemon Ranger? I wanted to dive into the three Pokemon Ranger games again, and made a retrospective type video for the Pokemon Ranger series! A series that I think a lot of people hold dear to their hearts, as it is a charming, fun, and unique series of games. Check it out! 

[remimibanana]

Pokémon Anime Retrospective!! ♪( ´θ｀)ノ

Since today is the day that Ash is leaving the anime, I thought it would be fitting to look back on the all the series that I watched with Ash and reminisce my time with the anime!

I mainly watched the English dub growing up, mostly on television or on DVDs! Ash holds a special place in my heart for being himself alongside his various friends and his Pokemon.

So, let's go!!

Pokémon: Indigo League 

I've watched a few episodes here and there, especially the first two.

I downloaded the first and second episodes as a kid back in 2012 from some random website without getting a virus from all the downloading I did (for legal reasons, this is a joke).

The first episode is my favourite because it has a banger English opening (I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was-) and it always makes me laugh for a very specific reason.

One of my favourite quotes actually comes from here!

Professor Oak says "The early bird gets the worm, or in this case, the Pokémon” to Ash when he comes late to the lab.

I used it to describe one of my old primary school teachers in Year 6 and 7. He was always late for parking in the morning so he was forced to park on the dirt surrounding the actual car parks. I would always say "The early bird gets the worm, or in this case, the parking spot” as it felt very fitting whenever I saw his car.

That was in 2016 wow.....I'm old. I always loved seeing Brock and Misty alongside Ash as they get up to things and Team Rocket tries to steal Pikachu for the nth time and being blasted off.

Pokemon Master Quest

I originally said I never watched any of the Johto anime, but I lied LOL

I found a disc of Master Quest that I used to watch religiously, and it’s literally the last four episodes of the anime as I’ve realised rewatching it late at night in the dark.

I thought it was Sinnoh I had on DVD, but I was humbled when I did some spring cleaning.

Brock and Misty left, Gary decided to become a Pokemon researcher and Ash is heading to Hoenn on a new journey. I think it was the first exposure I really had to Pokemon, and I remember absolutely loving the episodes!

The openings are bangers, Master Quest’s has a special place in my heart.

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire

I've watched a few episodes here and there of the Hoenn anime! I remember Ash and May both yelling at each other for some reason very vividly, they were always such good friends.

My favourite Pokémon movie comes from this generation in fact!

Pokémon Ranger and The Temple of The Sea. Dare I say it’s one of the best movies (is blinded by nostalgia).

I remember watching it on television as a kid one day since it was on and I had nothing better to do. Free to Air tv was cool back in the 2010s, there actually was stuff to watch.

I really loved it, the story and the relationship between May and Manaphy....so good. I absolutely love the way Ash saves the day and puts May in the capsule so carefully aaaaaaaaaa

It made me like Pokémon even more, every time it was on television I would sit down and watch as much as I could (because every single time I got interrupted for some reason and I was always so disappointed lol).

The English openings are so good! My favourite is Unbeatable, but they’re all really catchy.

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

I remember watching episodes on my television as a kid, although I never was really into it until way later like in 2021 while I was playing Pokémon Platinum on my DS.

All the Pokémon artists I followed always drew Dawn and showed the anime and I was like "yes I like this now too" haha

Sinnoh is high on my regions list.

I really like Dawn, she's just so cool. I also learnt that Dawn is called Hikari in Japan and now I use both names for her lol

I've watched a range of episodes here and there! The English openings for DP are fire, I like to listen to them from time to time. My favourite is We Will Be Heroes, I love singing it.

My favourite Japanese opening is Together, so good.

Didn’t watch Black and White really…..

sorry lol

The openings are bangers though!

Pokemon XY and XYZ

My favourite Pokémon anime! I watched this one the most, it was always on television so I used to sit with my brother and watch it. I think I have the most memories and nostalgia here.

I think Amourshipping was one of my first ships for Pokémon, I freaking love Serena and Ash. I think my favourite scene with them was the Snowbelle arc or the ending. I even used to write stories about them aha

Ash-Greninja was the bomb.

I love all the English openings to this anime, they're all so good! My favourite one is Be A Hero, since that was the one which played the most for me lol

My friend likes Stand Tall, which is really good too! And my favourite Japanese Opening is Iku Z, so catchy.

Pokémon Sun and Moon

I didn't actually like the anime at first for some reason lol

Maybe it was the art style change but I didn't really watch it until I saw a few clips and episodes and suddenly I liked it. It's really goofy yet the story gets more serious at times and it's a fun season!

I love Lillie, her growth was so awesome. And I love her Alolan Vulpix, Snowy! Man I really love Alola.

I was following the end of the series since everyone was talking about it and I remember the moment Ash became the champion of Alola, it was amazing.

I think this series was the first time I finally learnt that Ash was called Satoshi in Japan and now I use both names lol

Pokémon Journeys

This was the first Pokémon anime I followed from the very beginning, I think I watched a good twenty or so episodes before I stopped and fell behind and never tried to catch up again lol

But I did keep up with what happened in each episode and watched the episodes I really wanted to watch (like Serena's episode or the ones with Lillie's family).

Speaking of Serena's episode, I remember the leaks. That was a time to be on Anipoke Twitter. It was just a poster but people were freaking out, including me. And Serena really did come back!

I did like Journeys at the end, especially the Japanese opening 1.2.3! It's so good! I can sing it all lol

Seeing Ash win and become the world champion....was amazing. Everyone was freaking out and I was too! I watched the episode and I was so proud of him. He did it!

The end of a era....

I can't believe that Ash is going, he was a part of my childhood and he really made me smile. I also can't believe the future generation won't watch Ash (or even know who he is, if I ever have kids I'm making them watch Ash lol).

Thank you for all the fun memories Ash! Satoshi! I will always remember you!

(I think I'll cry if I watch the final episode, I don't want to say goodbye just yet.)

[kitchfit]

Year in Review: Games Part 1

This is a series I've been wanting to do for a while. Whenever I finish a piece of media (books, games, movies, comics, maybe art and music in the future) I jot in down in a doc so I can look back on them at the end of the year. I wanted to write my thoughts on them as I finished them, but since you have to start somewhere, I'll be writing simple reviews in retrospect. This is just for fun, but I welcome any feedback.

Pokemon Scarlet

This game released with some controversy. It was an unfinished glitchy mess with graphics still not up to the standards of the Nintendo Switch six years into its lifespan, but tbh this game was fun as hell to complete. I loved most of all the new designs and managed for the first time in my Pokemon career to actually complete the Dex. I usually get worn down on that pretty quick.

The characters were also much more engaging than the previous generation, especially my best boy Arven. The environments were super fun to explore and I got a new favorite little guy (Slither Wings my beloved). Here's hoping the next game has an actual sane development cycle and we get this amount of creativity in a higher degree of quality with better paid developers.

Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

If you thought I only played games that came out this year, sorry to disappoint. I don't manage to pick up even half of the blockbusters that pop up annually, and go after older games way more often. That being said, I see why AA fans hold this game up so high. I played the first and second Phoenix Wright games last year (which I won't review since that was too long ago now) and this is a nice cap to the original Trilogy.

You get Phoenix's background as a dorky bisexual art student, Mia's first case as a defense attorney, and an honestly heartbreaking quest for revenge through Godot while never stooping to melodrama. (I love his theme it sounds like the Mother 3 Magypsies). Also unlike the first two games, there were zero "filler" cases. Each one was thoroughly engaging and moved the plot forward in a meaningful way. Though, I don't begrudge the earlier cases that fuck around a lot more.

Pokemon White 2

When the OG Black and White came out, I was in the "everything new is lame" stage of adolescence, so when the sequels came out I didn't even bother. Turns out I was the lame one for doing so! In hindsight, Pokemon seemed to reach something of a peak with Gen 5 in terms of graphics and gameplay, and would seek to experiment with new artstyles and gimmicks for the next (looks at watch) 11 years damn.

With the first Black and White, it focused on remodeling classic Pokemon designs and gameplay into something new and modern, and these games add back in most of those classic Mons. The plot is also very action-packed and engaging, and gives a satisfying epilogue for a lot of the characters from the first games. You get to see how the region has changed after 3 years and even get to explore some new parts of Unova, similar to how the Gen 2 games handled Kanto. I hope Gamefreak does something like this again in the future.

Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded

Prepare for a deluge of this series, and not in any conceivable order. Kingdom Hearts took over my heart, mind, and body Xehanort style for the better half of the year. This title is known for a fun variety of gameplay and an absolute dogshit story. I wouldn't really agree. The game switches up its playstyle pretty frequently, including side-scrolling platforming, railshooting, and turn-based combat but for the most part its classic hack-and-slash 3D platforming that feels kind of grindy, but there's multiple unlockable difficulty sliders that you can use to switch it up if you get bored.

Storywise, there's not a lot for newcomers and if you want to play through all the games as one overarching narrative, I wouldn't blame you for skipping this one. However, if you're already a fan of Sora and Riku's relationship, this has quite a bit for someone to dig their teeth into. The world's are all recycled from KH1, making this one of the two games where you can actually explore Destiny Islands, but they all feel pretty downgraded. The endgame gave me a headache.

Kingdom Hearts

Our best boy's first big boot step into adventure. I watched all of the KH cutscenes for all of the games during a particularly dry season of lockdown, so this was my first foray into the original. The story genuinely holds up to a surprising degree, leaning into the Disney elements more than its Squaresoft side for probably the last time in the series. Its really good groundwork for Sora's introduction as a hero, I especially love the assertion towards the end that it is Sora's choice to help others that makes him worthy of the Keyblade and not destiny. Its a theme that would be both muddied and compounded upon later in the series in a pretty interesting way.

I was almost astonished at how in-depth all of the worlds are, especially Traverse Town. There are a lot more little Disney references and sidequests, like the 101 Dalmation quest, that help the worlds all feel a bit more lively. Also NPCs, which later in the series would become a rare gift. I fucked up on the combat. Did not learn how to do spell shortcuts until midway through KH2. Despite that, it was still fun to wack Heartless with my keyblades six different ways, and it makes me excited to replay it at some point.

Kingdom Hearts II

This is the big boy that every KH fan loves to absolute death. Chain of Memories had already started the series tradition of experimental storytelling, but the mainline sequel takes it to an fascinating and well-executed degree. For the first three hours you are forced into playing a new protagonist with zero context and near zero Disney shit. Vivi is there though and we love him for that. Later on we would see this prologue as the tragic conclusion of another entry in the series, but its initial presence here is jarring in a way you have to piece together throughout the rest of the main game. It would also introduce many of the more headache-inducing plot aspects that are fun to dissect but a pain to explain, such as Nobodies. I see them as ghosts, and no one can tell me otherwise. I wrote a whole absurdist retelling about it.

The worlds are more quantity than quality, I'll be real. About half of them are made up of 4 or 5 flat maps with nothing to do except grind Heartless encounters, (e.g. Mulan.) The other half are a bit meatier but could have benefited from more sidequests and such. You revisit quite a few from KH1 to see how they changed and that's always fun. There's a theme to each of the Disney worlds that add to the narrative, in this title mainly being romance and identity. The identity aspect leans toward the relationship between Sora and Roxas, two separate people who are also one person, while the romance theme hints towards the relationship with Sora and Kairi. Oddly enough, both themes also seem to work towards Sora's quest for Riku, who is in the midst of his own identity crisis while Sora desperately tries to find him. Huh. Interesting.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep

This is my favorite Kingdom Hearts game. This was one of the few I was able to play as a teenager and even after all these years I still adore this game to death. It works without knowing anything else about Kingdom Hearts. You don't need to know about Ansems or Nobodies or Time Travel; none of that shit. This is the story of three friends that get torn apart by their own ignorance and one bitter old man on his quest to change the world. Its one story split among three perspectives, and each character you play through the game with you understand the grander narrative. You understand why Aqua's best friend snapped at her, why Terra's little brother is so ready to die. You also get to hear Leonard Nemoy yell "KEYBLADE" in the same cutscene three different times.

I love this game so so much dammit. The combat has a fun collection system where you earn action commands and combine them to make better attacks and healing moves. The worlds in the latter half of the game are also really creative and fun to explore, though you get a limited area to move around in for each character. If you have played previous KH entries, there's a lot of references to make you point at the screen and go "THAS AXEL THAS MY BOY HE'S A LIL GUY HERE." Anyway I'll shut up. Play this game.

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance

Never ask me to explain the plot of this game. They added Inception to Kingdom Hearts and also Time Travel. And the story is mostly told through unlockable backstory cutscenes including the premise. Yes, the introduction to this game's story is an unlockable. Despite this, the story is pretty effective. This is Riku's second time in the spotlight since Reverse/Rebirth, though the game is once again split between him and Sora. It dissects Riku's character arc in a similar way to Re:Coded, except uhh this one isn't a computer simulation, he is a Dream. Completely different. It asserts his desire to continue as Sora's protector, and realizing this it is him who ultimately triumph's over Angst Teen Xehanort, saves Sora and passes the Key Test. He's no longer on his Way to the Dawn. He's in the light. It's sweet.

The worlds in this game are based around vertical movement. There's a new Parkour mechanic that lets you wall-step-flip around basically everywhere, and to compensate this the worlds are Huge. Since they're dreams, that also means they're pretty empty of anything to really do or explore. They are pretty at least. There's also a pokemon mechanic where you collect lil guys. I did not realize this mechanic also determines Riku and Sora's stats until the final boss, which caught me off guard. I see why this is a lot of people's fave KH game of all time, but its a little too busy for me.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

This is an odd one. I first played this game two years ago at college alongside Oracle of Seasons in my spare time. Eventually my phone-I MEAN MY AUTHENTIC GAME BOY COLOR- broke and I thought I lost my save data for both. Turns out I did not and finished through the last few dungeons. This game makes solid use of the time travel mechanic, which is a mix of Ocarina's time travel and Alttp's world jumping. It's fun to jump sporadically between 1000s of years and see the world in different eras. That rock? Used to be slightly over to the left. Would you look at that.

The dungeons had a larger focus on puzzles in comparison with Season's love for combat, which is probably why this is the more beloved twin. Some of the dungeons had me waddling back and forth for too long until I figured out what to do. You can link these games up to get bonus items like the Biggoron's Sword which is fun to complete. After beating both games, you get an extra final boss against Ganon and a scene hinting towards the beginning of Link's Awakening, which is a nice touch. And then Nintendo declared them two separate Links, for some reason. Beh.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Oh hey. One of the most beloved games of all time. I have played through this games more times than I know. Probably around like. 6 times I used to boot this game up and play all the way up to the Forest Temple and then restart for some reason, I don't know how many times I actually got to the end.

Its a game that eases you into its idyllic fantasy world before dropping you headfirst into the apocalypse you inadvertently caused in your quest to destroy evil. Its never a melodramatic game though. Its about the loss of innocence. Maturity. Learning that the evil was always there, before the King of Thieves took over the world, before you were even born. It even came from the place you are trying to protect. But there was always goodness too, there was always light. There are always friends to be found in dark places. The style and presentation are peak. The dungeons are rich in aesthetics and well made puzzles. The time travel mechanic is honestly a bit undercooked. But this game is fantastic. Quintessential Zelda.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure

I straight-up forgot I played this. Its fun though. Its a relatively short game, but compared to its predecessor, its a huge improvement. The game plays out in stages like the first Four Swords game, but usually in explorable environments, like towns and forests rather than generic volcano and cave themes. You control all Four Links at once, moving them into different formations to move rocks or put fires out. Or you can do it with friends controlling each Link. I did not. :(

I was mainly interested in this games story from a lore perspective. It features the return of Vaati, the Wind Creep who Lova Da Ladies, but with the addition of the Rise of Ganondorf. You are sent to stop him from a wise owl, Ganon allies himself with Deku Scrubs, attacks the Gorons, and is eventually turned into a monster by his own lust for power. It seems more and more like a retelling of Ocarina in a different light. Eh. Maybe I'll write about my Zelda timeline theories in a different post. Not here though

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory

BACK TO KH BABY! This is a rhythm game, so I don't have too much to say. I've never really played any rhythm game before this, and I'm not sure if this one is on par with the more well-known rhythm titles out there, but I had a good time with it. Its great for people who like Kingdom Hearts music, lmao. You have a lot of unlockable character groups to play through the music with and level them up, but once I unlocked the Days trio I didn't really go for the others too much. Xion my beloved.

The story is hilariously shallow, almost insulted considering its Kairi's first solo outing, technically. She's on her quest to learn all the KH lore she missed out on, and eventually finds a repressed memory of a grown adult monologuing at a toddler for fifteen minutes. Also that her boyfriend is alive so that her boyfriend's boyfriend can go save him. Her boyfriend's boyfriend is also her boyfriend. Fight me.

Kingdom Hearts III

People were. So upset when this game came out. Acted like it was the biggest disappointment since the ill-fated economic crisis of '07. Sure, yea, that's a reference. Well this is the first time I've gone into it and I'm here to say this is probably among my favorite KH games of all time. Strong competitor with BBS. A lot of the criticisms of the story and gameplay weren't wrong per-say, but the issues with this game, such a goofy dialogue, bizarre pacing, and over complicated exposition dumps, are problems with the entire series that fans of the series, in my opinion, have come to see as endearing elements of Kingdom Hearts. Its funny to watch the big cloak guy point at Sora and say "Darkness Light Heart Darkness," and see Sora gasp in fear, while also realizing the importance of that dialogue to the story. It's a feature, not a bug.

The worlds in this game are its biggest asset. They are huge, heavily detailed, heavily explorable areas with tons to discover. Hell, the Pirates of the Caribbean world acts as a slightly smaller Wind Waker. The game adds in most of the mechanics from all the spin offs to give you a lot of toys to play with, such as parkour or sharpshooting, that are easy to forget but a treat to use when you actually remember them.

A central theme of each of the Disney worlds is happy endings. Hercules finally takes down Hades for good. Mike and Sully are able to visit Boo without risk to her safety. The dead Baymax from that one Disney movie gets a redemption arc. Frozen and Tangled play out exactly as their movie which is kind of boring. This correlates with the happy endings the rest of the supporting cast get to experience, including the initially tragedies of the BBS and Days trio in scenes that genuinely got tears out of me. But Sora doesn't get a happy ending. He sacrifices himself to strong-arm everyone else into their perfect circumstance. Literally breaks the rules of time and space to force the universe into saving his friends at the cost of his own life. And then Hell turns out to be Tokyo so its not all that bad. It makes you feel for the boy. This game also lets you play as Kairi in the DLC which makes me happy.

Alright ending this here. I've played way too many games this year this isn't even half. Also only including games I've finished, and games with definitive endings. I played Mario Kart 7 but that doesn't rlly end, ya know? Will try to write these weekly, even if no ones reading them. But if you do read them tell me what you think! Gonna switch over to books next week to even it out. I swear I don't just play games. This is the last Kingdom Hearts game on this list too I swear.