#i watched half of leon's route gameplay

[cherryisagamer]

local lion-type guy is too chivalrous and gallant for this world

and he knows it

[tanstar]

Rambling about RE2R and RE3R’s cut content part 1

Part 1: RE2R

So the original re2 is my favourite RE title. It introduced me to the series (I watched my dad play it) and it was the debut of my favourite RE character, Claire Redfield. So I was overjoyed when I learned it was getting remade. Now all I really wanted from this remake was a melding of the original scenarios to create the true canon storyline of re2 and some fun interactions between our characters and I thought that would be a given... So you can imagine my disappointment at what we got. I also love the original re3 and was looking forward to RE3R for similar reasons though I also wanted to see how they’d update Nemesis. Now I’m not saying either are bad games at all, I think both are worth experiencing and purchasing. I just want to air my grievances with both remakes and their cut content but I will also share what I did enjoy. 

Also want to say that I know these games are more like reimaginings or retellings but even from that perspective there’s still issues.

Spoilers ahead. 

Just a quick list of RE2R’s cut content:

No proper B scenarios that offer a cohesive narrative. A severe lack of notes/files/diaries for lore and worldbuiling. No zapping system. No bowgun. No explosive rounds for the grenade launcher. Robert Kendo’s death isn’t shown. Leon and Claire’s interactions are severely trimmed down. Marvins transformation cutscene isn’t shown. Two playable segments as Ada and Sherry (Sherry’s second playable segment maybe has the darkest scene in the game, as she collapses after falling down the trash disposal chute her mutated father lurches towards her, stands above her and we cut to black and shortly after this we learn from Annette that William is trying to find Sherry to implant his embryos in her). Multiple unique boss fights depending on scenario. Irons’s death is far more gruesome in both scenarios in og 2. Ben has far less screentime. No super lickers. No giant moth and it’s larvae. No spiders. No crows. Barely any music. No classic iconic lines (“You lose, big guy” etc). Plant 43 has lost it’s iconic yonic design in favour of looking like a rainforest or something. The ivy’s are now human plant hybrids instead of mutated plants. No super ivys. The alligator is now a RE6 style chase sequence instead of a boss fight. No factory. No marshalling yard. Birkin’s transformation by injecting himself with the g virus and the cause of the T virus outbreak are far more clear in the original. No street section for the opening of the B scenario and no cutscene or explanation for the helicopter crash. Leon no longer saves an infected Sherry from the sick room and brings her to the train. The train no longer self destructs and Sherry no longer saves the day by stopping the train.

That’s a lot of cuts right? Now of course not all of these cuts were bad decisions. While I like the crows for atmospheric purposes, i can understand their removal. Same with Kendo’s death and Marvin turning into a zombie, they wanted a different approach with these characters and I can accept that. Even the zapping system’s exclusion I can understand because although it was a cool little gameplay element that added to the cohesion of the overlapping story, it’s really not that neccessary. And the exclusion of iconic lines is understandable as I believe narrative should always take precedence over fanservice. 

I’m fine with content being cut as long as it’s in favour of the story or is replaced with something else. RE2R did neither of those things. RE3R gets a ton of shit for it’s cut content but RE2R not only did it first but also cut waaaaay more content than RE3R.

RE2R fucked up it's story bad. Og re2 has the strongest narrative of the ps1 trilogy imo with two separate scenarios per character that integrated into two strong narratives. The game throws you straight into the deep end as you navigate the city streets filled with zombies, you watch Kendo be eaten alive as the zombies break into his shop and finally you reach the RPD. And that’s only the A scenario, the B scenario has you witness the cause of the helicopter crash as you make it to the east side of the RPD. From the beginning the og re2 puts in the effort to tell the whole story of whatever scenario you choose. Like the remake there are certain story beats only one character will face, Claire is the only one to meet Irons and Sherry, Leon meets Ada and Ben( he does meet Sherry in the B scenario but we’ll get there). Also in the original due to Leon giving Claire a radio both characters are able to keep in contact and therefore keep each other up to date on their progress. 

So let’s talk a bout the marshalling yard and factory. The marshalling yard is one of my favourite locations in the original. Its atmospheric music, its industrial design and the iconic shot of the train on the turntable with the moon in the background. It’s so foreboding and it leads to an iconic fight with Birkin as you descend to the lab, while protecting either Ada or Sherry (and depending on which scenario you are playing his form will be different). The factory is a small but crucial area to the worldbuilding of og 2 (It’s a cover were Umbrella employees access the underground lab) whereas RE2R has... a sinkhole in the middle of the city. And it’s important in keeping a cohesive overlapping narrative as the reason our protagonists don’t encounter each other in the lab is because the B scenario character has access to the factory. It also contains two iconic scenes for the B scenarios for each character (it should be noted that in the og 2 Mr X is exclusive to the B scenarios). Claire saves Sherry from Mr X, taunts him and then tricks him into falling over the railing into a vat of what looks like molten iron, it’s so badass and it cemented Claire as my favourite character. In Leon’s scenario B Ada arrives to fend off Mr X and protect Leon, she succeeds and Mr X falls over the railing but in the process he nearly kills her, this leads to the kiss between Leon and Ada. No manipulation, just genuine affection for each other. In either B scenario the self destruct sequence is set off by MrX instead of it being exclusively Leons fault like in RE2R. And the factory is important as it gives access to the elevator for the B scenario character to escape to the train. The A and B scenario characters have different methods of escape that make more sense in the original and that comes down to the factory’s inclusion.

So now let’s talk about cut character interactions. In the original Marvin relays to the player the events of re1, I’m fine with this omission as it’s not super important to the overall narrative of re2. Claire and Leon can either reunite in the STARS office or the hallway behind the spade door (Leon also encounters Sherry here but she runs away). Regardless Claire finds out her brother isn’t in the city by reading his diary, Leon gives her a radio so they can stay in contact (which they do, throughout the entire game) and they split up, with Leon looking for an escape route and Claire looking for survivors. Claire’s encounter with chief Irons is very different. The mayor’s daughter’s dead body is sprawled over Irons’s desk as he talks about dealing with the undead and then brings up his hobby of... Taxidermy. It’s just very unsettling and what makes it worse is that earlier before you could access the room, you very clearly hear a woman scream. Once you head into the adjacent room Claire encounters Sherry and radios Leon to tell him. Sherry warns Claire of a monster that is chasing her and runs off again. When Claire returns to Irons’s office he is gone and so is the body of the mayor’s daughter. In Leon’s scenario he meets Ada in the parking lot and she tells him she is looking for her boyfriend John. Now for players who had played re1 this was a neat little reference that tied both games together. With Ada’s assistance Leon gains access to the Cells and meets Ben. Ben willingly locked himself in his cell for safety and won’t leave until Leon finds a way out unfortunately Ben is attacked and either implanted with a G embryo or fatally slashed by Birkin, however he was able to hand over his investigative notes on chief Irons’s corruption and involvement with Umbrella. Likewise when Claire encounters a now crazed irons in his torture chamber, he explains the G virus, Umbrella’s involvement and that Sherry is the daughter of the man responsible for the outbreak. Irons is then either killed from being cut in half by Birkin or from the G embryo. There’s just a lot more build up, subtlety and payoff in the original game that just feels rushed in RE2R and I don’t know why. 

Sherry and Claire’s relationship is portrayed pretty well in RE2R. Although their time spent together is severely cut short, like seriously they only know each other for a whole two minutes before Irons drags Sherry off to the orphanage. The original has Claire and Sherry interact way more, with Sherry travelling by your side through parts of the sewers and the entirety of the marshalling yard. Still a good portrayal overall though.

So we have to talk about Ada and Leon. In the original she is at first portrayed as aloof but eventually from her time spent with Leon, she shows her more vulnerable and genuinely caring side. She is a spy and secretly after the g virus but she also genuinely cares for Leon’s safety, almost dying in the B scenario as she protects him from Mr X. RE2R almost get’s this right. She is initially abrasive but warms up to Leon’s sincerity and kindness. The problem is she is far too manipulative. Their first kiss in og 2 only happens the B scenario and is 100% sincere, Ada might be dying from her wounds so it might be the only chance they get. The remake on the other hand comes across as really skeevy and manipulative. In og 2 when Ada confronts Leon on the bridge he doesn’t believe for a second that she’ll hurt him and he’s right, after she falls off the side of the bridge you can inspect her pistol and find out that it wasn’t even loaded! Also I find Leon to be just a bit too naive in RE2R, he acted like a police officer in the original but in the remake he feels more like a boyscout. I can see what they were going for with his arc for RE2R but is just misses the mark for me personally. Not to say he’s awful or anything, he’s still very likable just a bit of a let down in terms of how he’s used in the story. Namely that he really doesn’t get much to do. He saves Ada, sets off the self destruct sequence, kills Mr X with Ada’s help and gets forced to fight G3 by Annette. The most useful thing he does is willingly fight Birkin on the train in the 2nd run to protect Claire and Sherry. In the og 2 B scenario per Claire’s request via radio, Leon carries an infected Sherry to the train, activates the power and opens the gates, fights the super Tyrant and kills it with Ada’s help and then activates the train to finally escape the underground lab. Then he fights G5 Birkin, when they find out the train is going to self destruct he directs Sherry on how to stop the train and our trio are able to escape. The game then ends on Leon’s iconic line “ It’s up to us to take out umbrella.”

And that ending... Oh boy did it not land for me. It’s almost comical how chipper it is considering what’s to come for these characters. Our trio promises to stick together except canonically Claire heads off on her own like five minutes later because Leon knows if she gets taken in by the government it will hinder her quest to find her brother, so he tells her to leave while he looks after Sherry. So Claire leaves and we get the events for Code Veronica. And as for Leon and Sherry, we know from Darkside Chronicles that Leon was blackmailed into working for the government through threats of experimentation on Sherry. He agrees to work for them to protect her but guess what they still turn her into a test subject anyway! And re6 confirms that the experiments where more than Sherry could bare, as she herself tells Jake. Also the fact that Leon and Claire’s friendship never got any developement in RE2R really works against this ending imo. 

 So what did RE2R get right? Well it has enjoyable puzzles and the solution changes depending on what run you’re playing! While I do miss the soundtrack and think it could have been remixed to fit the tone of the game, the ambient sounds used are spooky and effective. The gore effects are phenomenal. Marvin's expanded role is great, he’s an actual character this time around and it’s sad that we can’t save him. Sherry is adorable and her voice actress does a great job, she’s just incredibly sweet and likable. While Claire can come across a little Moira-ish sometimes, she’s great for the most part. She still get’s to be incredibly caring towards Sherry while also being a total badass who willingly faces down G3. The G3 fight is great and the remixed boss theme is beautiful. William Birkin's transformations are great (though I do wish dog birkin was more like the original), just the detail of his mutated bones and tissue is amazing and grotesque. Speaking of Birkin, the scene where he uses the last of his willpower to kill Mr X and protect Sherry before being overtaken by the g virus completely is so fantastic and perfectly directed. Backtacking/exploration is enjoyable (except the fucking sewers). It has variety of unlockable costumes which is my favourite kind of unlockable. S+ is a fun challenge. The fourth survivor and Tofu modes are really challenging yet fun and have great music, like seriously Hunk’s theme “Looming dread” is fantastic and probably my favourite song in the game. It’s always a joy to see Hunk and he is portrayed perfectly. It’s still an enjoyable game and a good starting point for newcomers, I’d just recommend they play or at least watch a playthroough or the cutscenes of the original to get the full story. Also if you want a fun reimagined, abridged retelling of og re2 then you should look up Darkside Chronicles. The premise is what would happen if Leon and Claire never got separated.

This got waaay longer than I expected so in part 2 I’ll discuss my problems with RE3R and its cut content as well as what I liked.

[slo-liveblog]

Witch’s Heart Final Thoughts

Hellooo! It’s been a bit! I figured I’d go ahead and post that big ol’ thoughts and rambles post before I went ahead and started the Bonus Stage. I’ll probably be doing some similarly styled things in the future... anyways, I hope you’ve all been doing well, and don’t mind the long post! 

CHARACTERS

Claire: Oh my god. I would give my life for Claire in a heartbeat. I was honestly expecting to not care for her much, not that RPG maker games don’t have plenty of female protagonists I like but they’re almost exclusively children. On the adult side of things, not so much. I was expecting a mostly silent audience insert at best and an annoying, shallowly written protagonist at worst. Thankfully I was 100% wrong and ended up absolutely loving her and rooting for her all the way. I probably said at some point but she reminds me of Hiyoko Tohsaka, the protagonist from Hatoful Boyfriend... yes, the bird dating simulator, don’t even get me started. Maybe a little bit like Emma from The Promised Neverland, too. Pure of heart, dumb of ass female characters that could beat the shit out of anyone AND are incredibly compassionate and enjoyable to watch are just too damn rare. The ways in which she interacted with the other mains felt completely organic and I was never skeptical as to why she was spending time with them, which is something I tend to take issue with in games with a scenario/route structure. On the flip side, the reactions the mains had to her were completely understandable- as far as they were meant to be, anyway- and I found myself at least somewhat identifying with their thoughts on her. Like Leon, I too am in love with Claire. 

Ashe: Oh Ashe. Fuck Ashe. In terms of livening up any situation he’s in, for better or for worse, he’s an absolutely perfect abomination of nature. Every time he enters a scene I either laugh or am filled with pure, unfiltered rage, which I guess is a good sign. He’s definitely an excellent wild card that makes the experience better no matter what way you look at it. However.... in hindsight I think he might actually be the character we understand the least at this point, despite being the first person you meet and the first to get a scenario (if you play it in the order I did, anyway). Even Wiwardo, who’s silent 90% of the damn time, does have a pretty clear motivation. It seems likely that Ashe’s wish is to bring back his family, but not only do we not know anything about them or how they died, we also don’t have any context as to how Ashe became the sort of person he did. So it’s hard to really have a full grasp on him... I appreciate his character for what it is, but I’m not quite as enthusiastic about him as I am some of the others... yet.

Reynaldo: Reynaldo makes me want to start throwing things, in a good thing. I didn’t liveblog the beginning of the game, but I distinctly remember telling my friends he was my favorite initially- the bizarre name, the gun sprite that inexplicably makes me laugh, seems like just a sexi guy. I adore the reveal of what the curse/his wish was, and I think despite not knowing much about the particulars yet it says enough about why he is the way he is that it works perfectly even without the missing information. He’s a fascinating character and has a TON of the best moments in the game, for me personally anyway. My one major complaint would just be like... c’mon, I know he’s the stoic type but I would’ve liked just a liiiiittle bit more reaction from him in some of the bigger scenes, such as when Claire confronted Invective. Also I hate him and I’m gonna beat him up

Sirius: Baby boy. Baby. I want to hold his hand. He’s the character that I think is the easiest to understand at this point in the game, as his cards are almost all on the table. We’ve seen snippets of his childhood, gotten him to reveal pretty much all his thoughts and relevant knowledge to Claire, we’ve literally seen him go to hell, all the good stuff. Male tsunderes, at least ones that are still generally nice people like Sirius, are sooort of my weakness. There’s not a lot to say about him that I haven’t already said but he deserves the world.

Leon: BABY BOY. BABY. Okay, granted, I don’t... really care about Leon that much. Don’t get me wrong, I love him and nothing bad should ever happen to him ever again. But since he didn’t really get to be present in the other’s scenarios, I don’t feel as connected to him as I do the others. BUT with that said, now that the ball has finally dropped and his whole deal isn’t a secret anymore, at least not entirely, I’m hopeful that him not being around enough’ll be rectified by the bonus stage and final endings. He’s never done anything wrong in his entire life.

Charlotte: Charlotte’s in a weird place for me where I’m intrigued but not quite into her yet. I feel like we’ve only really scratched the surface, so I’m interested to see where she goes from here. She got so many interesting scenes like the one with Noel, Fiona, and Lime in her backstory that REALLY hit the mark for me. 

Zizel: Not a lot to say about Zizel, just that her interactions with Claire were absolutely adorable no matter how morbid the context. Love her.

Lime: Lime.... oh boy. I have some. Emotions. About Lime. She definitely seemed like the most one-note out of the demons when she first appeared, just sort of a cutesy masochist anime girl, but wow. I love her relationship with Charlotte and her fascination with Leon is really interesting. I kind of hope going forward that she develops more of a relationship with Claire? I dunno, feels like there’s just some untapped potential there, with Claire being as empathetic as she is and Lime being... as confused about emotions as she is.

Rouge: Again, not a ton to say about her, but her relationship with Leon ended up being way more interesting and heart-wrenching than I expected despite how little we saw of it. I appreciate that she really does care. 

Overall & Final Score The characters were fucking fantastic. My only complaint is that I haven’t seen enough of them yet. 9/10

STORY

Ashe’s Route: My least favorite route, I think, though that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. It does have the advantage of being completely new (if you played it first like I did) and Claire and Ashe’s relationship was so fucking cute and entertaining to watch. It does really feel like an introductory route though- it was mostly setup, which isn’t bad. Just not as gripping as the other routes. And the ending is... a little anticlimactic, considering you can see Ashe’s murderous tendencies coming a mile away. But there’s nothing in particular I think I would change, solid but not incredible.

Wiwardo’s Route: My second favorite route, which... I have a feeling will be an unpopular opinion. I dunno, I just really enjoyed it from start to finish. The partner swapping was hilarious and did a lot to flesh out the dynamics between the characters, Invective was really fun and fleshed out Claire’s personality as well as a lot of demon lore, and I think Reynaldo’s conclusion might be my favorite in the whole game. I was really questioning where any of it was going towards the end, it definitely had me on the edge of my seat. The main complaint I have about it though is that we... don’t actually see that much of Reynaldo. Like, at all. I mean, he’s THERE, but as I mentioned prior he doesn’t... react to much. Of course he doesn’t need to be overly emotional, that’s just not in his nature, but a few more moments where he actually had any sort of stake in what was going on might’ve been nice. The majority of the scenes he’s in prior to the boss battle hardly get any dialogue out of him at all. But like I said, the ending really made it worth it. Fighting Ashe was probably THE most cathartic boss battle in the game and the realization about what Reynaldo was going to do moments before it happened gave me chills. 

Sirius’s Route: My favorite! Love my boy!! God Sirius’s route was incredible. Definitely the one that was the most consistently gripping. Exploring hell was such a cool way to make the route continue after Claire’s death and Sirius’s character development was top notch. It really felt like we were finally getting some answers, too, which was satisfying. I will say, despite being my favorite, it probably has the weakest actual conclusion. Like, the confrontation with the monster made me Feel Things, but since we don’t actually know who or what it is there’s not really as much weight as the other routes that end with Claire’s death. Still, the juicy plot revelations and character development more than made up for it.

Leon’s Route: It may not be one of my favorites but this shit fucked me up. Definitely elicited the most tears, the whole goddamn thing’s miserable. Leon’s route feels slightly lacking in the charm department for me, which probably sounds weird but... I guess it’s cause the whole thing is so laser focused on Claire. Like, obviously Leon is primarily concerned with her, so it feels like there’s less emotional or interesting moments with everyone else and the ones that ARE there aren’t as impactful as they could be since, y’know, he’s really only here for her. But that’s mostly just a personal preference and since that was the whole point I can’t really complain. Leon’s relationship with Claire was wonderfully executed and I really appreciate this poor boy. 

Torch Backstories: Like. They didn’t HAVE to add all this stuff in but they sure did and wow does it pack a punch. I was always super excited to see the next one after finishing a scenario. I do wish we had a little more variety instead of half of them being Lime though, as much as I adore her character.

Overall & Final Score My only real issue with the story is, again, I haven’t seen enough of it yet, and that it sliiightly dragged in some places. Plus there were some small elements I took issue with, like the use of the ??? character, but nothing major. 9/10 

GAMEPLAY

Fighting: No major complaints with the fighting mechanics, it was actually a really nice change of pace since most RPG maker games I’ve played don’t have battles. I do wish Leon had something a little different to set him apart from Claire, since he essentially has the exact same fighting style, albeit with a knife this time. 

Demon Requests: This was a mixed bag. I liked the concept, especially how it wraps in a little bit of lore and everything. But some of the requests, like the ones that involved fishing, were just tedious. I probably would’ve preferred if demon requests were either just a liiiiittle less frequent or had more lore sprinkled in to keep me interested. 

Scenario Mechanics & New Items: The whole idea of the scenarios is... good, but not flawless. I think giving the option of doing Reynaldo’s scenario first probably wouldn’t work very well and giving the illusion of choice only for it to just be which of the two you play first is a little redundant. But that aside, I really love the way they’re strung together with the hell room and all the things you can do there. Setting up a routine in this kind of game was a really good idea. I also looooved the new items you get each scenario, the lighter doesn’t do much but the wand and broom really feel like they broaden your horizons. 

Gift Giving & Minigames: Not super into the affection system to be honest. Like, the plushies are super cute, but the gifts and minigames feel pointless and tedious. I would’ve liked if there was some sort of scene, or even multiple, per character that you get when you max their affection, you know? Obviously this is a small complaint considering the absurd amount of content in the game but I was a little disappointed by how underwhelming the gift giving was. 

Other Puzzles I didn’t take issue with any particular puzzle, they were all reasonably easy and fun to do. I really enjoyed the majority of them and if I didn’t they were either over quickly or optional, such as Ashe’s damn slider puzzle.

Overall, Final Score The gameplay isn’t anything crazy, but it does what it’s meant to do. 6/10

ART & SOUND

Character Design: I don’t have a ton to say about the designs, I think they’re all really effective and well thought out, especially for the demons. No two characters look too similar despite the simplistic art style making it very easy for that to happen, and I thoroughly enjoy everyone’s outfits. 

Sprites and BGs: There are a few wonky sprites here and there but for an RPG maker game I was pleasantly surprised by their overall quality. And ability to make me feel things. And quantity! Like damn, there’s so many sprites for each character, I never feel like I’m seeing too much of the same one. 

OST and Sound Effects: I know none of the songs were composed for the game itself, which is common in these sorts of games, but the selection was excellent regardless. I still listen to the soundtrack a lot just for fun. The sound effects are really cute too, no complaints there either. 

Overall, Final Score It’s crude at times, but the art and music is perfect for what it wants to be and elicits a hell of a lot of emotion. 7/10

I adore this game and I can’t WAIT to start Bonus Stage!

[pokefan531]

Sword and Shield Overview Part 2

So this review took much longer than expected, as I typed some things, but forgotten about this review, and stuffs, so I finally got more things to add from my part 1 back in last November as well as looking back at the game a couple of times to give off my thoughts on the game itself. I will address the flaws and the great of the game. To give off of what the game is, it's a decent Pokemon game.

The Mechanics Once I take a try on the mechanics, a couple of them are pretty interesting. Well, the gyms got brought back, but as stadiums. It's a really nice way to have everyone look at gym battles. We never really see random people watching a gym battle in any Pokemon games, and it widens the world. However, The only problem is any type of battle, the field is really small. It seems like each Pokemon are too close together, even if they're not. I would like the player and the opponent would distant themselves more to widen the battle more, almost like Pokemon Battle Revolution. That way, we don't have to see trainers disappears when some moves are being used and reappear. Also, it would've show more of the attack moves. Now the next mechanic that I liked is the wild area. The wild area is really an interesting concept and it does give you a feel of a open world. The random weathers, items, and hidden items that shines adds the new generation of wild Pokemon world. Well, I wished a couple of places in main Galar have movable camera, but it's good enough to see the big part of the wild area. I would've picked longer draw distance on objects, as they're too close, but I'll explain later about it. Dynamax, well it's a mixed bag. It seemed like an interesting idea as I can see it be useful, but you would have to know when to use it at the end of the pokemon battle when one of us have a last Pokemon. It can be a bit unfair when batling online as it's a bit OP if timing hasn't been used correctly, like using it in first turn instead of later. I do find Dynamax more fitting for raid battles as it's battling against a dynamax pokemon in the wild or just a straight up dynamax battle. I know a lot of people don't like dynamax as it can be over powered, so I can see why some battles don't make use of it on online battles to make it a more fair battle. I do appreciate Dynamax concept, but I think it needed its time to plan out even better in the game to get more appreciation. Still, I don't mind using them in some battles like the post game or straight dynamax battles or even battling gym leaders or Champion Leon, although the difficulty can be a bit all over the place especially playing it online and the reason why I wished it was better thoughout. I don't hate dynamaxing though. The Bike is useful, and you can surf with it instead of having Pokemon use Surf. For me, I think Sun and Moon removing HMs and to have all the moves being used without any Pokemon learning them, is an interesting idea. Flying to cities by using a map sounds like a fine idea. Sword and Shield seems to take half of the changes from Sun and Moon. Autosaving is a handy feature, but I prefer to save it manually incase if I haven't left the building or area without saving, or if I ever have disabled it and forgot about it. I still prefer old fashioned saving.

Difficulty Well, as much some of the ideas makes the game enjoyable, there are some parts of the game where it's too easy, and it's mostly not related to the aforementioned ideas in the game. It seems like I don't really feel much of the difficulty on some battles, especially the later main story. I didn't grind as much. Most of the Whydon City story were too easy, and I thought it would be more challenging. The difficulty was too easy in almost all parts of Whydon, from entering the Whydon Stadium, to battle Oleana and meet Rose. I feel like they should've been more challenging. The Whydon City should've been a bit more challenging to all Gym Leaders than when you battle them the first time. I just defeated them with barely any Pokemon change. Even the Rose story part, they all seem too easy, even Oleana. I thought Oleana would be challenging, but that battle didn't feel as challenging as I thought it would be. Prior to battling Leon in the finals, the most challenging Gym Leader was Raihan. I lost to him a couple of times, so he is pretty challenging than anything in Whydon City except for Leon. As for Leon, He seems challenging enough for the finals, but I wished all gym leaders were a bit better, even re-battling Raihan. I mean even with all EXP shares permanently active, it's still feels like they could've made more balanced battle, like what I saw with first battle of Raihan and final Leon battle. A couple of Gym Leaders difficulty are appropriate as I lost a few times on a few of them. The first Gym Leader I didn't lose the first time was Bea, and it seems like a fair battle like most of the gym leaders in their first battle. As for random trainers, I would've have them in slightly higher level outside the gym, but more so Team Yell. Team Yell grunts are a bit easy, even on the task to get to Piers on Gym Battle. Now as I was thinking about the Dynamax battle, it did make some battles a bit more challenging, and I lost to some gym leaders by their last Pokemon, and mostly Final Battle with Leon. However, dynamax can have its difficulty a bit all over the place, not as often on gym battles or stadiums, but more so online battles, mostly depending how the rules of the battles are set up. As for Raid Battles, yes, they're pretty difficult and everyone told me that Zygrande Raid is the hardest one in the game, so maybe more challenge in the game. Overall, the difficulty is at the least better than LGPE, even with some mishaps that makes some parts of the game a bit too easy. I'll get over another thing later where I explain my thoughts on gamefreak's words as to why later Pokemon games became more easy, and how they could've improve it.

Graphics and Animation: Okay, this would have lots of explaining to do about this game with graphics and animation. Well, as it was released in late 2019, being a rushed game, it was not impressive. As I mentioned about Gamefreak's words on their focus on high quality animation as to not having all pokemon available to the game's release, we had to focus on the graphics and animation to see if not having all Pokemon was worth it, and it turns out it remained underwhelming. Sure, you guys can point out the trees with bad textures all you want, and was relevant at the time, but I don't think one bad example could prove the game's underwhelming expectations, but a couple more problems to prove it. I could also say gameplay will often be the most priority over the graphics, which is commonly true. To put this in my view of this high quality animation thing in to view the game's graphics and animation itself, and I know the game has more than graphics, but I just want to review this part on its own. As I said, it's underwhelming, at least lots of parts of the game. As it was rushed for Christmas money, some parts of the game were not as impressive. Sure a simple fix with the tree texture would be ideal, and simple animations on the moves like double kick could've had more work. Not to mention the Mouse Cursor were printed on the beginning of the cutscene and end credits, which those weren't recorded from OBS program, but rather the development version of the games, that also contains a mouse cursor. With those aside, I could mention how the game's performance and resolution goes. Seeing the game being sub-720p 30fps (portable) and sub-1080p 30fps (docked) on outdoors and special moves on dynamax battles, it isn't optimized well, compared with other games that would look superior. When I take a look at the beta on CFW switch, it couldn't stay at 30fps on Hulbury City, and under 20fps down from the daycare center, when staying at constant 720p (portable) and 1080p (docked). As a rushed game, they also don't have time for further optimization. As Gamefreak do 3D Pokemon games from X and Y, they aren't best at optimizing rendering for performance. Gen 6 lags with 3D-stereo on (no reason to use 3D-stereo) and without 3D, some Pokemon lags the game, especially with double and horde battles. Other 3DS games can get away with higher polygon counts due to further optimization. With Sword and Shield, this trend continues in a smaller extent. While reducing resolution to stay at 30fps, there's no lag. I was kinda unimpressed when coming out from home and seeing the outdoors in lower resolution, but later on, I didn't really mind. I did use a texture pack from BSOD gaming, and there was a couple of improvements. As for the animations, like I said, I wished TPC didn't force the game to be out too early (to sync with the merch) so they would iron out animation errors or redo simple animation. The mom in the beginning of the game doesn't turn to the other direction when talking to her. Lots of pop-ins and NPCs and items having short draw distance instead of reducing polygons, and with Onix popping in at front of you in Monostoke City. I saw all the list from DistantKingdom's videos, and well, that was disappointing at the time. Some animation flaws, might be laughable, but still looking like it was not ready. BUT, does those problems make the entire game look bad? My answer, if the gameplay is actually better than the graphics, then no. You may still have fun playing the game if you can get past the graphic and animation problems. However, I can understand being disappointed with it if you mainly focus on the whole dexit situation of its statement, but at the least, none of the game was ever gamebreaking or any lower quality graphics or animation should take the game's quality by a huge amount. Couple of other parts of the main game can look better, such as the Stadiums and Route 3 and 5 looking pretty fine for me, and also Raid battles too. As for the main game, the graphics is overall... okay. It doesn't look really bad overall, even one small tree texture doesn't really justify all its graphics. However, like I said, more development time would've make many places of the game look better, but also stated that graphics are usually overshadowed by gameplay, to which it's at the least tolerable if you play it.

Now let's get into DLC's animation and graphics. Short answer, it improved better, more so Crown Tundra. While the outdoors are still at sub-native resolution, it still managed to look even better. Gamefreak at the least had more time to develop with two DLC maps. Isle of Armor improves itself with not only the visuals, but also animation expressions from the characters and fast slowpokes. Only problem was the Pokemon couldn't keep up with you while running, but the graphics seems to be more stable and refined, even better than some parts of mainland Galar. My favorite design of the map was the island with the big tree with six sub-islands around it. As for Crown Tundra, wow...as Gamefreak proved that they can make Sword and Shield graphically impressive, this is it. I know not in a level of Pokken, but still big enough to say. Like Armor, Tundra has many variants of areas with different weathers, and they managed to make the second map look more pleasing. Two places of the Tundra map I can say that looks really great in my memory is Dyna Tree Hill and Slippery Slope. Freezington looks great too, and with many trees around and not lagging, it's really amazing. The Legendary Birds from Kanto in Tundra Form looks amazing. All the animations you see are pretty acceptable. I could point out the problem with the fade-ins and black screens and not do animation, like Hop getting hit by the apple Pokemon missing, but still, there's plenty of animation done and done better in the DLCs.

Designs: For a 3D Pokemon game, I like all the character models. Even Sordward and Shielbert's model design. They finally have right portions, not being in LGPE, and they have movable pupils so they don't have to use texture-illusion to make limited eye and eyebrow expressions. All of character design looks generally great. As for the Pokemon, I could only mention Galar Pokemon, and older Pokemon with Galar form, being in a fine design. Like the graphics paragraph about the game being rushed, much of the older Pokemon were imported from 3DS games, which, like LGPE, which isn't really new. Besides those, the new models of Pokemon looks great. What about the maps? Some cities looks well designed, and others, not so great. Many routes and caves lookes more straightforward, especially routes. Open routes that are around Monostoke City and Hammerlock City are the best routes of the game due to being open and have more variety to show what an open world route should look like. Despite some parts looking inferior, graphics wise, the map design shows a lot of good work with it. Now many routes, a lot of them just became more of a hallway, and not really expanded enough. Route 3, Route 5, and Galar Mine No.1 are the ones I could think off that a lot of them are like. I like Route 4 and 6's designs the most since they tend to expand wide enough for items and trainers around instead of looking like lines of trainers waiting for you for a battle. LOL! Monostoke City and Circhester are the cities that are well designed at least for me. The least designed one was Spikemuth. Sorry Piers, your city is too simple and straight. Yeah, I wished the city wasn't a straight line and add more variety to make the whole Team Yell challenges more creative. Whydon City, I do wish it was a bit more like Castelia City or Lumiose City level of large city, since it's a capital city, being based on London. For what we got, it's fine. To go over the characters, I would have to review their design in the character section. Overall, model designs and new Pokemon are done pretty well and some of the maps looks great, but lots of routes and some caves are just hollow. They need to be more expanded and have a lot of work, including the mentioned cities.

Before I get into the characters, I want to make it clear about being a 3D Pokemon game. I hear some people think this game, or any past games, remain 2D, and I disagree. Sure 2D can show more expressions, but 3D can proven to be as good as 2D, as to how this game was compared with Battle Revolution and Pokken. These games proved that the main games can work with 3D. Especially as an MMD animator, I know a lot about 3D animation and can be almost as expressive as 2D. Sure Pokemon or characters turning slowly from animation subject isn't completely realistic for its aesthetics, but Pokken and Battle Revolution proved that, and so did the DLCs. Even Legend of Zelda, with their games given more dev time, showed their transition to 3D, even with Link's Awakening, has managed to look really great with 3D models and all. Also, even back in N64 days, with Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2, and Snap, was also cool to see Pokemon in 3D, even seeing more polygons and low resolution textures. So I am completely fine with main Pokemon games going 3D. Just like how I'm fine with Miraculous Ladybug being a 3D animation, even with old 2D trailer, but that's another story.

Characters Well, here's the part I really want to get to, explaining each characters and what I think about themselves and their characteristics. Victor and Gloria are just players, and funny memes with Gloria as Scottish Trainer. Victor seems like a cool trainer, and Gloria is just cute. Hop, I know some of you will say he's a complete copy of Hau from Sun and Moon, same personality and animation, and I get it. However, he seems to have different goals at least, so I didn't feel like Hop was a rehash of Hop, almost, even with same personality. With that said, he seems like a good friend in the games. Hop seems really supportive with his brother Leon. He wasn't happy when Bede once defeated him. Champion Leon, he's a pretty great character. Him being friendly to the player since the beginning of Sword and Shield, and he's pretty funny. There's a gag of him being bad at directions, and lots of fans likes to play around with him getting lost for comedic purposes. Not only that, but he's well supportive with Hop too, and also had been friends with Sonia since childhood. I don't really see romantic connection with the two, but just friends, which is rare to see platonic friendship in media. We get to see his own room in Hop's house, and with many things we see in both Twilight Wings and the anime so far, he's an interesting Champion. One thing I really wished they could've done with Leon is he should've have a Dragapult as his main Pokemon instead of Charizard. It would make more sense to get to know more of Galarian Pokemon in Galar, instead of using Charizard for just fan favorites. It didn't really add anything special, but other than that, he's a fun person. I know some people hate him for being dumb? Or if he was a weak champion? He seems to show more character than some might say, so I'm glad he's got good enough attention to have getting lost jokes and great enough fanarts. Sonia, I like her design, and I think she's attractive. Sonia is pretty helpful during the game, by giving you items and helping the events during the main game. She seems really and is best friends with Nessa. All the gym leaders are likable. We have Milo. Wow, it takes really long to get to the first gym battle. Milo seems like a nice person and has many Wooloos with him. His gym puzzle was fine. It's funny when certain people comment him lacking a nose, but he has one. Next is Nessa! A really lovable Nessa. She seems like a really strong trainer, and also has interesting friendhip with Sonia. Nessa looks like a comedic swimmer if I think about her roles in my videos. But yeah, she seems like a great friend with other gym leaders. Kabu the fire type. I like how he came from Hoenn, and also seems pretty serious gym leader. As I remember, he was pretty nice to the trainer, even after battling when he congratulate the player and Hop for battling three gym leaders. He also seems like a comedian when thinking about fanon stories. lol And my most favorite gym leader of Sword and Shield is Bea! Bea is my favorite character of the generation too! She's adorable, and really strong and tomboyish, the type of female characters I love the most. Bea looks always brave and wow, she's got skills. I liked her backstory of how she's trained, and has her smiles too. I liked all the media she's in, even Journeys, and she's adorable. I liked the cute kid Bea. Bea is my favorite that I could go on and make a single post about her as to why she is my favorite. Bea is pretty nice, even with harsh training she has got for years. Oh and her cuteness on eating sweats are adorable ^w^ Alister is also pretty interesting character. I only got Sword so I couldn't battle him. Alister's design with the ghost mask looks like he could scare others on a party, being a ghost gym leader. Many people headcanon him as Bea's younger brother, and please let this be a thing, Journeys or in general, Game Freak and Pokemon Company. My headcanon while being related to Bea as siblings, Bea is supportive for Allister's emotions if he ever feels scared or cries, to show both siblings in care. After Bea or Allister, we get Opal. An interesting old lady who's a gym leader, being a fan of pink. Well, her stories going around Bede is funny. She goes to him and takes him to her care and have Bede be around Pink, which is funny. Also she asked two questions during the battle to not give you status affected to your Pokemon. One of them asked the player how old she is, and being 86 is correct, she also states to be polite. Well, honesty doesn't seem to be usually polite, isn't it? XD Next would be Gordie. Gordie looks like a fun guy who likes riding with rock Pokemon. He seems to be friendly with other trainers too. It's interesting that he's the son of Melony, who's a gym leader too, if playing Shield in place of Gordie. She's also the likable mother, and I could say moreso than any player's mothers due to the fact that we get to see at least parents of a gym leader or at least has a family, IN A GAME (not counting anime Brock or Misty) and I know Norman is your dad in Hoenn. However, Melony and Gordie has nice share of family in the stadium, and she seems like a nice person. She is really prepared for ice climates and hey, she's an interesting big and beautiful mother. The next one and most interesting one is Piers! Piers is one of the most interesting written gym leader in the game. Piers appears more and even post game too. He is the only one who never relies on Dynamax battles nor own any stadiums and just gym, even though the town he's in is too simple, but doesn't affect him at least. I know some don't like dynamax and it can hae some flaws of it depending on the player, but his dislikes of it seems interesting seeing him being different from other gym leaders and him being afraid of them. He has a sister named Marnie, which I'll get to in a bit. Oh, and he does appear singing in the game twice. The flaw of the game is he does not have a voice when singing, which they should've have to tell he's singing. However, that spawned a gag and meme for Piers always forgetting to turn on his mic whenever he performs, and fanarts and headcanons have him be told he forgot to turn on his mic. So funny! Also his expressions are priceless. On post game, he helps out to stop Sword and Shield duos from forcing dynamax to every stadiums, and he's always relieved that his place never got dynamaxed, as to how his area was never meant for dynamaxing of course. XD Before I cover Raihan, I'll cover Marnie. She first appears in Monostoke hotel with Team Yell distrubing the place, and Marnie stops them. As far as I try remembering Marnie, she's fine as a character. At first, she seems serious by her looks, and smiles more later on. As her development goes, it's decent. Not the best that I can consider greatly developed as a whole, but still a memorable character, partly her design looks the best, and being Pier's brother. Marnie's smile animation looks pretty cute! She is pretty supportive with Piers, as she takes over his gym, as Piers wanted to be a dark trainer. Those are the most memorable thing I see from Marnie. Now let's go to Raihan, the last Gym leader. Well, he's a cool dude. He's the strongest gym leader of the game, no doubt bring the 8th gym leader. The most memorable thing is his dynamaxing animation, where he turns and takes a quick selfie with Rotom Phone, and spawned lots of memes as him being the obsessed selfie man. Even his artwork shows his personality of him being good looking for his phone to post on Insta-mon app. Wow, his artwork and expressions are brilliant. He likes to defeat Leon one day and never succeed, but it doesn't stop him smiling for a selfie. LOL We have Rose next. Rose looks like an evil businessman or just irresponsible business man, either way it's funny. As a villain in the story, well, he's not really memorable. As the game was rushed, and never will address the issue on the story's pacing, him as the villain at near the end of the main game seems less memorable. I tried remembering the stuff he does, and I know I can just go and see them on youtube, but his story isn't really the best nor was helping him to be taken seriously. Him talking to Leon in that moment of the game, it didn't feel like it was meant to be a powerful scene for the audience. Also, his role was short in the entire game, from the restaurant meeting, to the stadium battle before the final battle with Leon, there isn't much to say about him as how he was served in the game other than looking like the evil businessman. However, I do remember two things about him. First, his outgoing outfit, his shorts looks decorated that it almost looked like he was wearing boxers in public. I know they could've have the shirt decorated rather than the shorts to have it a better design, but that's still seen as a joke. The second thing is...his stare from Twilight Wings. I find it strangely funny. His stare on Nessa was just random. LOL As of Oleana, well, she's insane. We all see Oleana as the freaky woman and sure is a group with Rose. With her insanity, it sure is what we just know about her. XD Now, the crazy twins, Sordward and Shielbert, first off, they have insane hairs, mostly Sordward! Wow! We couldn't imagine a haircut like that! A hair shaped like a sword! Second, their names are just funny. Sordward is really close to Squidward, and Shielbert is a similar funny name as Sordward, except I couldn't think of a character that's close to his name, but funny enough. Well, those two may seem too silly for you, but they serve their purpose to be meme-able. That's the best way to describe them, and also they're villains in the post game. As for their story, they were fine. Just a bit short and not as well paced. Them causing forced dynamax to all stadiums (except Piers's) and battling them was all right, but could wish a bit more challenge as far as I can remember. Now as for Isle of Armor, We meet Klara and Avery. Both welcome you to the island. Klara seems like a yandere and creepy while Avery wants to use psychic powers on people. I played Sword, so I see Klara's part only. Well, she seems like she just wants to compete with you and beat you to have Mustard proud of her. I assume Avery's situation is similar. Well, Klara looks pretty charming, I actually prefer Avery. He looks funny, and has a cool floating Pokeballs with him on his long hat. Mustard and Honey seem like a respectable members of the Dojo. Honey really does look like Princess Daisy. XD. Mustard looks like a cool guy and also a funny one too. MMD videos makes these characters really funny. Wow. As for Kyle, we barely know him. Penoy and Peonia first appear in Crown Tundra. Due to Peony's silliness, he looks like a comedic father from many dads from cartoons. Him getting used by the Pokemon for talking, and how he's hot blooded, is how I could tell he's the typical dad in children's media. As for Peonia, all I could remember is she wants to take an adventure on her own instead of being with her dad, while he wants to protect her. It was pretty little to get to know Peonia, but we do get more of Peony's screentime. Bede is another rival in Sword an Shield. He seems like a jerk, but as the story goes on, it's understandable. Bede had to be trained by Rose and all that, and well, his wrongdoings had got him kicked out from Rose himself when Bede tried smacking the ancient wall that shook Stew-on-Stow in worries. Oh, and him being stuck with Opal is really funny. He appears in the Whydon Stadium before the final battle, telling the player how much he suffered his life with Rose, and being with Opal surrounded with Pink, and he also shown to like it. Bede may be a dork in the game, but his story was satisfy able. He's more interesting to me than Hop. Speaking of Hop, Bede couldn't stand Hop's naive personality, and laughed how Hop couldn't defeat Bede. Hop's silly in a good way, but Bede is pretty right about him. XD SwSh has really interesting concept of creating characters, and I even saw memes of them, like Bede's song in animation as well as Marnie's theme. 2D vine animation was made, and all known characters were fit right as their characteristics were so interesting that their roles in each vine fits perfectly.The weakest character for me would be Rose as mentioned, but there is no character in SwSh that I truly dislike, unlike Anime Iris in Best Wishes or Lila Rossi and Chloe from Miraculous Ladybug.  I even like making two Nessa and Sonia's Sketch Show on my channel.

Story The story in SwSh was...ok. It was pretty weak. In the main game, as the game was rushed, the pacing of the story is flawed, so it didn't have a lot of time to make room for some characters. In the whole Leon and Rose plot, as they were talking, there was no music playing and flat animation, as they were just pics. It was supposed to be emotional, but since no music was added, there isn't anything to feel much. Well Rose's story isn't really memorable as his parts are just short. As I made my point about Rose, the pacing and story didn't really make Rose memorable enough and that's why I had a harder time writing about Rose other than he's a weak villain of the series. I know Twilight wings showed more about Rose, but for the games, I wished it was expanded enough to be memorable than just him giving a stare XDD. As for Leon, his story is all right. Leon's story seems more interesting than Rose's story. He was shown to have more story than any other champions in Pokemon. The whole Galar Gym leaders are fine, and even Bede's story too. Sonia was shown to have good enough screentime. However, I do wish to see more friendship between her and Leon. As for the post-game, it seems a bit weaker. Introduction to Sordward and Shielbert is fine, but it can sometimes be fast paced. At one time, when Sonia's assistant betrayed Sonia in the lab, and it wasn't too long when we get to the end where she apologized to her and Sonia decided to her her join back. That's not how it works. I wouldn't let a traitor be the lab assistant again if they betrayed and shown to side with two villains. Not only that, but everyone seems to be okay with the twins after the post game story was about to end. Well it's a bit unreal for villains to be taken nicely once after their event just finished, so it didn't make a lot of sense to me. The very end with me battling Hop and the legendary Pokemon there is interesting as well as the beginning. The main games's story have some pacing issues, so let's see how the DLCs are like.

In Isle of Armor, while short for each DLC, they're still interesting. They seem to be handled better for me. In Armor, I like the introduction for Klara and Avery as well as the events in Dojo. The side quests and the final battle by the Dojo are pretty cool. I like how it explained about Klara or Avery trying to please Mustard and Honey as they wanted to be their support, and learns to respect the player at the end. They may leave out poison spikes and psychic terrains on the field, but they're pretty redeemable to both the player and anyone in the Dojo. Now to Crown Tundra, I like the story with Calyrex, who's always controlling Peony whenver it needs communication, explaining the story and its needs. Peony seems like a funny guy. Peonia, well only problem was she isn't as much in the story as Peony, so I wish I wanted to know more about her other than trying to get away from her dad. Still, I really find the story interesting as it's a story by a legendary Pokemon, and it was long enough to get to know Calyrex and its lore. Well if I can combine both DLCs stories and compare it with main story in Galar, it's a bit short but understandable as they're DLCs, but the writing and pacing of them seems better overall.

I wished the story in the main game was really improved and have better pacing, and also help out to flesh out character more often, like Hop and Rose. It's pacing issues is liked to the story being rushed, so not only the graphics and animation is the problem, but also the story too as it needs a fine pacing. It seems like a similar situation with Big Hero 6, where the characters and their concept are really interesting, but the story and pacing are the problem and could be why they got more focus as to the game/movie's problems and overshadowing the characters and their concepts as they had more potential. The story in the game isn't bad. I just say it's okay like stated in the beginning of this. I enjoyed it, but like I said, I wish it got enough development time to fix a couple of the flaws. As for DLCs, they seem better.

Also to keep note that I do prioritize gameplay>story>graphics in that way. Graphics as started in the animation isn't my huge priority over the gameplay. Only rare case if graphics and design are a problem over gameplay is if it's really ugly looking like Pokemon Playit games. If story is worse than gameplay such as TLOU 2 due to being intentionally very divisive, is also the same thing. Gameplay is more important for a game to be fun, as long as story is decent enough and graphics are not horrible looking such as Playit, those are worse looking Pokemon games LOL.

So I'm not done with the review yet, as I have part 3 to think about other stuffs regarding Sword and Shield's reputation, so I'll be making part 3 where I discuss other things and just to get the review of the game itself sooner, so I hope you understand me trying to be honest with the games and such, so see you in part 3.