#nintendo has made some major improvements to the switch

[phantompeaches]

All I have been seeing since yesterday's Switch 2 Nintendo Direct is people spreading misleading articles and complaining about the Switch 2 and the cost associated with it. I get it, it's expensive and not everyone can afford it, but this isn't a case of Big Evil Nintendo are Big and Evil, it's a case of Nintendo keeping up with the current state of the game's industry and the rising costs. Games are a luxury item, and as unfortunate as it is, they're not always going to be financially accessibly to everybody.

In light of this, however, I've decided to share some of my favourite games that are (around) £20 or under! This is an opportunity to share and support smaller game developers, if you can't afford to buy from the bigger ones :]

I could go on forever with these games, all of the Itch.io games on this list I got in charity bundles, both Itch.io and Steam are full of cheap and free games, and some of these you can find on console too, you just need to take the time to look. You don't need libraries full of AAA games to enjoy gaming.

[milkpumpkin96]

The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Review

Part I: The Teal Mask

I have a lot to say about Pokémon Scarlet & Violet as a whole . . . but damn, this game is ginormous. I have recently completed "The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero" DLC in its entirety, but since it is absolutely stuffed with new content, I am going to divide up my review.

It is quite clear that Gen IX has . . . its flaws. But nonetheless, I adored this DLC like you cannot imagine (graphical concerns aside).

Pokémon has always been a huge part of my life and I am eager to talk about it. I think that the DLC could have been cheaper to purchase, but it is definitely worth it for Pokémon fans.

I know I am late to the party because "The Teal Mask" came out like half a year ago, but oh well!

[ MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING ]

OVERALL SCORE: 7/10

For the most part, I went into the DLC blind. I did not view posts or trailers or anything about it beforehand. As such, I was in for a nice surprise!

Overall, "The Teal Mask" featured definite improvements from the base game. I consider myself lucky in that I never experienced the hoards of bizarre or game-breaking glitches that other players dealt with in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. The DLC had some slight upgrades in this regard. Slight.

That being said, the fact that performance issues remain present only highlights the indolence of Game Freak. Since, on the other hand, Nintendo has Tears of the Kingdom and Pikmin 4 pushing the Nintendo Switch's capabilities to the max and can run fine and look stunning in its own right.

Otherwise, the soundtrack, the storyline, the characters, and the aesthetic of the DLC are phenomenal and feature some of my favorite elements compared to the main game. Also, "The Teal Mask" certainly offered quite a fresh challenge (at least for casual players).

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GAMEPLAY: 6/10

As stated, the biggest disappointment with the DLC is its failure to properly fine-tune the performance issues. Cutscenes still lag; and holy hell, the cutscene of the MC and Carmine gazing at the Crystal Pool is egregiously choppy. The game tried sooo hard to feature the sparkling beauty of the pool but to no avail. It seems that this severe lag happened to everyone, which made the already underwhelming Milotic jump scare even more underwhelming.

The game does not look awful, but still pretty bad. Game Freak totally is not a billion-dollar franchise capable of more, right?

Players still have instances of sudden FPS drops, especially when Koraidon/Miraidon tries to run and jump (this is most apparent during the Ogre Oustin' minigame).

The smallness of the map will be this DLC's savior, which I will discuss under my "setting" review category. But, in regards to the graphics, I think if the map were any larger, "The Teal Mask" and its areas would be sooo sluggish and lackluster compared to many places in the base game. This is due to the lack of NPC density and really anything going on outside of the three major locations of Kitakami.

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I still believe that Pokémon has its own charm though. At the very least, the land of Kitakami is enticing and pretty.

I did not experience any glitches in "The Teal Mask." The performance ran smoother on my own copy compared to other players, because I have heard the other people had more prominent performance errors in their DLC.

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Moving on, I will say that the difficult scaling of the DLC surprised me in a good way. This is especially true for casual players like myself!

The game is not hard, but it is not easy either. If you choose to begin part one of the DLC after beating the base game and post-game, the Pokémon in "The Teal Mask" are between levels 60s-70s. This shocked me as being a fairly difficult starting point (especially since this is only part one of the DLC, and it is kind of its own game).

I am a fully casual player. Say what you will, but by the time I completed the post-game of Pokémon Scarlet, my highest level Pokémon (my Skeledirge) was about level 71. Most of my main party were between levels 50-70, so the DLC being at this level was amazing for me. A perfect blend of enjoyment and challenge.

Even for competitive players and heedless grinders, there is still some difficulty to be had. This is particularly the case with the optional ogre clan members you can battle--which their Pokémon are level 75--and also even some battles against Kieran can come as a surprise. If your team is all maxed at level 100 . . . then of course you can blast your way through.

Personally, I lost to several ogre clan members, and nearly to Kieran as well.

Some other people might want to start from scratch and foster a brand new team in the land of Kitakami. I actually recommend doing so if you want to experiment with the new entries in the Pokedex and have a nice and fun challenge.

If you start the DLC before you finish the main game (which is possible), "The Teal Mask" will try to scale down to your own level.

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Aside from battling, there are other extra features players can engage with. At the "Festival of Masks," you can try a minigame called "Ogre Oustin,'" in which your MC rides on Koraidon/Miraidon and attempts to pop ogre-themed balloons and retrieve berries of certain colors (red, grey, green, and blue). These colorations match the masks held by Ogerpon, hence the name. Since the inhabitants of Kitakami initially view Ogerpon as unfavorable, the point of the minigame is to mimic hunting down the ogre to avenge The Loyal Three.

This minigame starts off fairly easy at first: run around and pop like four blue balloons and three green ones. Players must play "Ogre-Oustin'" at least one time due to story reasons, and stick it to Carmine who's ego is more inflated than the balloons themselves.

As you progress through the levels, it becomes alarmingly difficult. You go from popping 10 balloons in total to around 60 or 70! There are also Skwovets and Munchlaxes actively trying to steal your berries. Players can try this minigame alone or play online or local multiplayer. Trust me . . . playing the game with others is superior. I cannot get through the harder levels solo, like at all.

This minigame is weird but kind of fun. I feel a blend of anger and joy when I play . . . "Ogre Oustin'" will incite peoples' competitive streaks.

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Another side option players can do is engage with the character named Perrin, who . . . you know . . . is 100% a descendant from Hisui's famous Adaman.

She will not regard you until you have completed 150 Kitakami Pokedex entries in full. Once you begin Perrin's side mission, she asks you to assist her with capturing a photo of the "blood moon beast," who is rumored to be lurking in the woods of Kitakami. Throughout this quest, players camp with Perrin and take various photos of Pokémon at night. Perrin's strange camera device has to filter out all non-"blood moon beast" species in order to autonomously detect the location of the beast.

So, I mean, if you like Pokémon Snap or just enjoy using Scarlet & Violet's camera function, then wahoo! However, I wish all the new camera functions were available at this point in the game, as they are not accessible until part two of the DLC.

You ultimately get to battle and capture the "blood moon beast" (which is a special coloration of Ursaluna), and Perrin takes a horrifically blurry photo of it. This side quest is silly and fun, but ultimately just kind of meh. Perrin herself and Ursaluna are cool, though!

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A third side quest you can engage in is with the characters Billy and O'Nare, who are adorning sparkly outfits and can be found standing on the edges of Kitakami's apple orchard. The two are members of "The Glitterati" and are very flamboyantly wealthy.

Their side quest is kind of tedious and annoying in my opinion. After each conversation with these guys, they travel vehemently to random landmarks either in Kitakami itself or back in Paldea. It is a fetch quest where you find the same duo over and over rather than an object. The hints to their whereabouts are kind of vague, which is made worse because Paldea's map can be redundant. Billy and O'Nare are looking for a famous waterfall? There are so many damn waterfalls in Paldea!

After each find, they give you daffy advice and some items. Occasionally players must battle O'Nare, but all she has is a rather weak Persian and eventually an Arbolivia.

Once the side quest is completed, players will have enough valuable items to bulk sell for a hefty amount of money. Players should sell these items and get the 10-ish grand. If you return back to Kitakami and talk to the caretaker, he will be asking for donations to repair the disassembled statues of The Loyal Three in Loyalty Plaza. Sure, the caretaker only wants to repair them for tourism purposes, and sure, the caretaker is kind of a greedy asshole, but if you donate 100,000 to the cause, you will receive a flashy jinbei to wear!

There is a fandom debate on the identities of Billy and O'Nare, in which some fans suspect that these two may be Nemona's parents. After all, O'Nare specifically resembles Nemona in the face, and players know that Nemona grew up quite lavishly. Her parents are never home and Nemona had been primarily taken care of by housekeepers . . . and Billy and O'Nare are always recklessly on the go . . . hmmm.

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MUSIC: 8/10

Pokémon has never blown my mind with its soundtrack, but damn, these games have some bangers!

The music in "The Teal Mask" is very fitting, giving off a warm, seasonal vibe and incorporates the sounds present in traditional Japanese folk music. Overall, the DLC's soundtrack contains some of my favorite works in all of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, and I am very happy that Game Freak decided to change up the wild battle and trainer battle themes to distinguish it from the base game.

Also, wow, I am still very happy that Toby Fox contributed to the soundtracks of "The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero" DLC!

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The music is funky, upbeat, and irresistibly hard not to dance to. It pairs splendidly well with the visual setting, and I feel as if I am roaming rural Japan.

I am always a fan of battle themes. So, some of my favorite tracks include:

Battle! Vs Carmine

Final Battle! Vs Kieran

Battle! Vs Okidogi, Munkidori, & Fezandipiti

Battle! Vs Ogrepon

Carmine's battle theme is bouncy and light-hearted, reflecting her humorously volatile nature yet her slow-growing friendliness towards the MC. The battle theme against The Loyal Three starts off sounding intimidating but then becomes super funky and whimsical. This gives it a de-escalating feel, as in that these Pokémon are actually not that much of a threat after all.

Ogerpon's theme is awesome! It is super folky and happy-sounding, and it made the final battle feel and sound emotionally significant in a positive way. And damn, I love Kieran's battle music, particularly the final version. His theme begins as light-hearted as Carmine's but becomes more intense the worse Kieran's mental state becomes. The final battle music sounds desperate. It sounds sad. It sounds vengeful. It sounds passionate. All of these strange, edgy, teenage hormones unleashed into an awesome tune.

Evidently I love battle music, but there are several other tracks I adore as well:

Mossui Town

Kitakami Hall

Get Stronger

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STORY: 7/10

I do genuinely believe that Generation IX is pretty top-tier when it comes to writing, next to Gen V and VI. At least when it comes to mainline Pokémon game standards.

I had a great time playing through the story and was invested in each line of dialogue. The story itself is about 8 hours, and it offers a pleasing mix of silliness and emotional investment. The star of the show was the friendship/rivalry between the player and Kieran, which the latter stumbled down a childish version of the joker pipeline.

As many people say, Scarlet & Violet's companion characters are some of the best. Nemona, Arven, and Penny are packed with personality, and especially when it comes to their post-game interactions, their similarities and differences bounce off of each other well. Including the MC, they all are outcasted children (and have parental issues) to varying degrees, united by a love for Pokémon and a desire for friendship.

Then, we have the new sibling duo from Kitakami: Kieran and Carmine, who also harbor [potentially] parental issues, and host of other problems.

Carmine and Kieran are natives of Kitakami, and strangely it seems there are not too many other NPCs of their age around. They live with their grandparents Hideko and Yukito in a pale yellow home, and like other locals, are majorly disconnected from a technological standpoint. Carmine has a phone, but Kieran does not, and the only other devices (a television and a game system) are located in the community center for tourists to stay at. Kieran and Carmine are battle maniacs; apparently, according to the "caretaker" of Kitakami, the two tend to cause some disturbances around the place. I am not quite sure if he is referring to their youthful boisterousness, craving for battle, or simply their short tempers (especially Carmine).

But, I was not bothered by them in the least. I was quite entertained.

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The story begins when the MC--Julianna or Florian--alongside some other random Uva/Naranja students are "randomly" selected by Professor Jacq to take a school trip to the little local town of Kitakami. The reasoning for this seemingly obscure location is that the trip is hosted by an affiliate sister school, Blueberry Academy. Blueberry is a new Unovan school that aims to strengthen its bonds with Uva/Naranja.

Kitakami is a small village located near the Kanto and Johto regions. Of course, the MC has no choice but to agree to go on the trip!

The group boards an airplane and takes a long bus ride, eventually making it to Kitakami. The class is led by Ms. Briar, a faculty member of Blueberry: Ms. Briar states that she is a descendant of Heath, the author of the Scarlet/Violet Book. In the uncensored book she possesses, Heath vaguely describes a legendary creature named Terapagos that has some sort of connection to the terastal phenomenon. She is on the hunt for this mysterious creature and wants to ultimately gain access to Area Zero in Paldea (which apparently she has been denied many times). The primary reason why Ms. Briar is hosting this trip is because the Crystal Pool located in Kitakami possesses terastal crystals akin to Area Zero. This could help with her research.

Anyways, the kids leave the bus and one of the students becomes car sick, so Briar sends the MC to Mossui Town, the one and only little village in the area, to get some help. The player then encounters Carmine and Kieran, two locals awaiting the arrival of the Paldean students, and Carmine immediately becomes hostile and xenophobic towards you. She challenges you to your first battle while Kieran quietly watches. They are eventually shooed off by the "caretaker," who properly greets you.

You all are cared for and fed and housed in the community center, and when players wake up the next day, the "school" part of the trip begins. You all gather outside of the community center and Briar, Carmine, and Kieran officially introduce themselves. Carmine and Kieran, while born in Kitakami, actually attend Blueberry Academy (which is in the Unova region), I suppose because they are notable for their battling skills. Blueberry is known to specialize teaching the art of Pokémon battling.

As a part of a school task, the "caretaker" instructs each student to pair up and visit three signboards across Kitakami that detail its history . . . or rather historically-based folktales. Briar encourages intermingling between the Uva/Naranja kids and the Blueberry kids. The MC talks to the Kitakami siblings and Carmine asserts that her little brother has been ogling at you, much to Kieran's embarrassment. She then encourages a battle between you two, which is conducted. Depending on your play style, this fight can be kind of easy or surprisingly a struggle. The outcome of the battle regardless makes Kieran even more fascinated with Julianna/Florian.

As such, the MC ends up pairing with Kieran. Kieran is very timid so he kind of avoids actually walking with you to the signboards. First, players traverse through the apple orchards and make it to Loyalty Plaza, where the first signboard talks about the tale of The Loyal Three sacrificing their lives to protect Kitakami from the monstrous ogre. There are statues of these honored Pokémon in the plaza; and Kieran opens up a bit and claims that he finds the ogre actually pretty cool and powerful. After all, the ogre, who is a grass type, murdered three Pokémon with a type advantage. Kieran mentions that he used to go to the ogre's hiding spot as a kid at night and would be yelled at by the adult villagers.

The MC and Kieran then head towards the Festival Hall where the second signboard is. This board continues to talk about the tale, and references the ogre's four masks: the cornerstone mask, the hearthflame mask, the wellspring mask, and the teal mask. Kieran opens up to the MC even more and talks about his fascination with the ogre, and how it doesn't care about what anyone else thinks, and it can hold its ground and is strong and willful. He then invites you to come check out the "Dreaded Den" on Oni Mountain, where the ogre is said to be. The MC agrees and travels there.

Here, Kieran and the MC battle again, because Kieran hopes a display of strength will draw out the ogre. It does not . . . to their knowledge. The two go inside the den and look around the cramped area. Sunset arrives, and then Kieran invites Florian/Julianna to attend the Festival of Masks with him that begins that night.

Later, you are given a green jinbei and attend the festival alongside Kieran and Carmine. You hang with Kieran for a bit until Carmine has a little blowup episode, and while you are off on your own, you see Ogerpon walking around alone. Thinking it to be a masked child at first, the MC approaches it. Then, Carmine finds you and calls out to you. The ogre runs away, accidentally dropping and chipping its teal mask. When Kieran catches up to you guys, you lie to him and say you saw nothing. Kieran thinks you and Carmine were talking about him behind his back.

The next day, Yukito reveals to Carmine and the MC about the true story of the tale of Ogerpon and The Loyal Three. It turns out, the roles were reversed. Ogerpon has been defending itself from the three Pokémon and went on a rampage after finding all of its masks stolen and its original companion human presumably dead. The "Loyal" Three were greedy, murderous thieves all along.

Kieran overhears this conversation, after having been vehemently shooed away by Carmine. He becomes upset, especially since he is a superfan of the ogre, and his entire life he had believed Ogerpon to be the "good guy" where nobody else in Kitakami believed this to be true.

You go to the last signboard with Kieran, and the latter noticeably seems more tense and withdrawn than before. The MC battles Kieran, and Kieran loses, lamenting privately that he is too weak. The last signboard gets a little wild and says that if you encounter the ogre without a mask, it will steal your soul. Kieran asserts that there is no way that is true, and then begins talking about how his great great great great great grandfather was a mask maker (in which the mask maker is responsible for making Ogerpon's mask). The MC just says that's cool, and via body language, one can tell that Kieran is pissed by this because he subtly tried to incite the player to tell him the truth. Kieran then leaves.

Yukito tells the player that he cannot fix up the mask without a terastal crystal, so the MC and Carmine head up to the Crystal Pool to retrieve one. They are met by Ms. Briar, and Carmine angrily questions why she is there because the Crystal Pool is considered a sacred space. Briar claims that she got permission from the "caretaker" and needs to look at the pool for research purposes.

The duo then tries to give Yukito the crystal, but the grandpa says that Kieran ran off with the teal mask. Carmine wonders how in the hell Kieran figured out the truth, so you two chase after him to Loyalty Plaza. Kieran is violently upset, challenges the MC to a battle, loses, and then edgily punches the statue of The Loyal Three while holding the teal mask. He begrudgingly returns the teal mask to you and runs away. Carmine wonders if he is becoming hormonal or something.

Then, suddenly, the statue of The Loyal Three explodes into a purple fume . . . and The Loyal Three are found standing on top of the wreckage, alive. It is theorized that Kieran may have accidentally revived those fools because he touched the monument holding the teal mask, which according to the signboards, is said to have revival/restorative properties. The three thieves run off and you follow them to the Festival Hall. There, the "caretaker" and other townspeople admit that they were fascinated with their return, and thus fed the Pokémon nutritional mochi (perhaps with herba mystical or something) and had returned their stolen masks to them. Carmine becomes outraged and dubs them The "Lousy" Three. She tells the MC to go rescue Ogerpon from their clutches while she quickly goes to retrieve the fixed teal mask from Yukito.

The player finds Ogerpon surrounded and defenseless without its masks and fights Munkidori. Carmine and Kieran show up eventually, scaring the Pokémon away. Kieran apologizes to the player. He expresses that he wants to return the teal mask to Ogerpon himself. However, the ogre gets flustered around unfamiliar people and does not accept it. The MC then tries and Ogerpon happily receives the mask . . . much to Kieran's annoyance.

The three "friends" then develop a little mask retrieval squad, which they will seek out each of The Loyal Three, defeat them, and return each mask to Ogerpon. The ogre begins to follow the MC around, and eventually Kieran backs out of the task force, mysteriously saying that he has something else to do.

After Carmine and Florian/Julianna defeat the titan-ized Loyal Three, Kieran request them to return to Mossui with Ogerpon. Everyone feels reluctant, since the townspeople believe Ogerpon to be a violent gremlin, but Kieran assures them that it is going to be okay. The quartet returns to Mossui, and much to Carmine and the MC's surprise, the townsfolk welcome Ogerpon with sorrow and joy. They apologize to the ogre, expressing that they had misunderstood history, not even realizing that any of the tales were actually true in the first place. I guess it helps that the inaccurate story of Ogerpon is so many generations old, that the people of Kitakami lacked extreme emotional connections to it. The townsfolk just like to celebrate and wear masks.

Yukito says that Kieran shouted at everyone about the true story of The "Lousy Three," breaking out of his socially anxious character temporarily. Kieran had good intentions to help Ogerpon, but ultimately he avoided any chance to actually bond with her as she roamed around with Florian/Julianna.

Carmine, Kieran, and the MC set off back to the "Dreaded Den" to return the ogre to her home. However, as Ogerpon approaches the den, she turns around and runs up to the player, expressing the desire to tag along with him/her. Ogerpon had been seeking a companion like she did so long ago, and I suppose the MC fit the bill. Kieran, at this point, undergoes a tantrum and tells that player that they should battle to see who gets Ogerpon. Carmine tells him that it is not his choice, and the ogre can make her own choices. Kieran does not give a shit (well, he kind of does, but he is having a mental breakdown), and the two of you battle. Kieran fights for his life but is no match against the MC's determination (and ability to terastalize). He falls to the ground, punches the soil, and dies on the inside.

Then, the MC fights Ogerpon, because he/she has to prove their strength to the ogre. Ultimately you succeed and proceed to catch Ogerpon in a pokeball. Carmine cheers, and Kieran brokenly tries to congratulate you, before he runs away crying.

The next day, another class meeting is held in front of the community center. Everyone is there except Kieran, who "does not feel well." Each pair had finished seeing all the signboards, and then Ms. Briar expressed that a sudden development occurred in Area Zero, and she must leave--which means taking Carmine and Kieran back with her. The kids wave them all goodbye, and Carmine tells everyone that she is super sorry about her initial xenophobia, and that she had so much fun with the MC and wishes to see him/her again in the future.

The Blueberry goers then leave. Before "The Teal Mask" concludes, there is a brief scene of Kieran losing his shit in his bedroom. He is shaking his head, grabbing his hair, talking about a deep desire to grow stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger. He creepily smiles, and then a "to be continued" screen appears.

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The story is full of positives for the most part. Though, I find it disappointing and strange that the other Paldean students are full-on nobodies. These kids do not even have proper names or anything remarkably unique about them. It just felt unusually random. I have heard complaints/questions wondering why the other students could have not just been characters we already know and love, like Arven and Nemona? Why could they not have tagged along? In fact, our Paldea friends are entirely absent from "The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero" DLC (which is especially weird because Arven is so connected with the terastal case).

While this is kind of sad, it is actually very much understandable. "The Teal Mask" is Kieran's story if anything. The plot was high-key focused on the relationship between Kieran and you; a wicked plot progression as Kieran goes from a sweet, shy, timid child who is absolutely fascinated with the MC, to a jealous, egotistical, confused, edgy asshole who wants to destroy you.

This plot highlighted something that most Pokémon games fail to emphasize: you have it all. Kieran can try so hard and give everything he has, but will never be the main character. Florian/Julianna is the MC. Kieran is programmed, story-wise, into having to lose to you. Every time. Kieran's reactions to his failures are quite realistic--he's bitter, jealous, and upset with himself. It is not "oh ha ha you win AGAIN wow you are so cool!" Well, it began that way, up until the MC repeatedly batted him down.

So, I think that having our character's old happy-go-lucky friends would very much get in the way of the development of this dynamic. Kieran and Carmine needed their time to shine. Plus, who knows how it works chronologically? You can activate the DLC almost at any point. So . . . what if the MC met Kieran before he met Penny or became friends with Arven?

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I appreciate the length of "The Teal Mask." It is about eight hours story-wise, but I invested significantly more than that doing everything. I thought the plot would end earlier . . . I did not expect Kieran's mental breakdown.

The game is not too deep nor dramatic, but highly enjoyable. As mentioned, there are great fleshed-out characters like Carmine and Kieran, and then the story of Ogerpon herself is fascinating.

The folklore is based off of Momotarō, or "Peach Boy," a popular Japanese folktale. This allusion becomes more apparent with the mythical prologue story available after beating the entire DLC.

Ogerpon's tale has some dark elements to it. She killed The Loyal Three (and tried to kill Pecharunt) to avenge her deceased companion and get her masks back. I adore the way in which the story was animated too: in the game, Yukito talks about the true historical events and there are little wood-block-like clips that demonstrate these events. On YouTube, Pokémon uploaded an epic video about Pecharunt's story, and I find the animation to be super enticing with a storybook aesthetic.

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Having such intriguing folklore for the legendary Pokémon is such a huge plus. I also liked the toned-down plotline of "The Teal Mask":

No, the end of the world was not happening (yet). It was simply a story of some teenagers having drama and miscommunication . . . . but with flare. All the characters are actually interesting, and it is cool to see how a foreign, "city" boy/girl interacts with two emotionally volatile rural kids, one of which is obsessed with the "bad guy" of a folktale.

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SETTING: 7/10

If you can look beyond the janky graphics, I find that the land of Kitakami to be quite pretty. To my knowledge, it may be based on a place of the same name in the Iwate prefecture of Japan. This is further evidenced by the way the townspeople speak, particularly Kieran. He harbors a bit of a Tōhoku dialect which is considered the "typical" rural Japanese accent.

And poor Kieran. In "The Indigo Disk" following the epilogue, Kieran can be found in the BB clubroom stating that he used to be embarrassed by the way he spoke. You can kind of tell that he attempted to ditch his dialect in part 2 of the DLC, but it would surface during his shy or geeky moments. I am not sure as to why Carmine's Tōhoku dialect is not very prominent.

---------- Some players might have wanted a larger DLC map, but I believe that Kitakami is a perfect size. It is actually kind of big, hosting only one town of Mossui and several other staple areas like Oni Mountain, Loyalty Plaza, and the Festival Hall. There are several other locations that players can travel to and catch or battle Pokémon and trainers there. This includes the Mossfell Confluence, Paradise Barren, and Wistful Fields, among others. Some of these places do have signboards that are a part of the main plot, and other areas--like the Timeless Woods--are where Perrin and the "blood moon beast" side quest occurs.

There are very few shops here: Peachy's, located in Mossui Town, sells pretty much anything you need as well as brand new glove and sock options. The stands at the Festival Hall allow players to purchase a variety of masks (e.g., Pikachu, Eevee, Ogerpon, and each of The Loyal Three) as well as food options, like candied apples.

I say the size of the map is good because, for one, I think that an overly massive Pokémon DLC would be very time-consuming and overwhelming. Paldea is big enough as is. Secondly, as can be seen with the performance issues, I am not sure if the Nintendo Switch could handle that much more. The Crystal Pool, as small as it is, lags horrifically. Thirdly, which is probably one of the biggest critiques I have with then main game as well, is that too many areas are otherwise kind of . . . lifeless.

In the Paldea map, there is a surplus of areas of just nothing. The open world is novel at first, but there are a host of spots that lack NPC density and any remarkable geological or architectural standout points. Paldea is too open for its own good. Game Freak has yet to master this.

Lucky for Kitakami, it is just small enough so that the pockets of barrenness are not too noticeable. Sure, there is an unnecessary amount of mini cave entrances and completely pointless islets, but most of the significant locations are memorable enough. The lack of NPCs is not too bad either because Kitakami is supposed to be an incredibly small village. It helps that there are ogre clan members scattered throughout the map so you can find and challenge these lunatics.

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The Festival Hall would be my favorite location. Sure, it was kind of sparse with the vendors, but this is rural Kanto/Johto. The hall has its charm: the music, the colors, the twinkling night sky, and the masks adorned by all the villagers . . . it really appealed to me.

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My only other complaint is that players still cannot enter people's houses. I know it is culturally rude, but you were able to do so in older Pokémon games!

This was a major disappointment for Pokémon Scarlet & Violet as a whole; and another indicator that the open-world system was to big for Game Freak to handle. In the base game, you could enter the MC's own house as well as Nemona's (and kind of Arven's), but in the DLC you cannot go into Kieran and Carmine's home, even though Kieran invites you there!

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COMBAT: 8/10

As mentioned, the difficulty of the game was a wonderful surprise in my humble opinion. The battle system is not any different from the main game of course. Players still conduct single battles, but alas in Kitakami, nobody is going to terastalize. That gimmick is absent in battling despite the presence of terastal crystals--in that case you as the player can still terastalize your Pokémon.

Though . . . how? Terastalization is majorly a Paldean thing, and despite the presence terastal crystals, only Ogerpon terastalizes. Why does some "land in the east" have the same phenomenon happening in theory?

The details are vague and unexplained. You would think these story elements could be solved in "The Indigo Disk." Here is a link that suggests some theories:

You know, with Pokémon, each generation is going to have a gimmick that is abandoned. At least there is some degree of lore behind terastalization in Scarlet & Violet.

----------

The hardest battles of the DLC are the seven ogre clan members. The ogre clan leader, who is standing in front of the Festival Hall, will give you riddles and clues on their whereabouts. These trainers fight at level 75, and I found them to be quite challenging and satisfying to win.

Carmine's battles are easy, especially the first fight in which she sends out Poochyena. Seriously! Her Sinistcha (which is a new Pokémon introduced in "The Teal Mask") however can be a tough one with that "matcha gotcha" move. Though, I would say Carmine's Sinistcha works better as a support Pokémon during double battles.

Kieran on the other hand . . . players may struggle with him, especially if you beginning the DLC with a fresh and new team or are at the same level as these trainers. The more you battle Kieran, the tougher he gets, especially in the final fight where Kieran goes psycho mode. Although, poor buddy cannot terastalize like you can.

I appreciate how the Kitakami siblings are not stagnant with their lineup, and despite the hefty amount of battles you have to do with them, the party and dynamics change every time. Kieran's Yanma, Nuzleaf, and Sentret all evolve, and he catches a Gliscor and Probopass eventually. His ace is his Dipplin (another new Pokémon), which looks cool and cute but fights mediocre. Kieran also attempts to use items in battle, like focus sashes and berries, in desperate attempts to beat the MC. So yes, Kieran is pulling out the strats, and has a degree of intelligent/predictive AI. Some might find this challenging in a positive way, or rather annoying.

----------

The battles with the DLC's new legendary Pokémon were pretty great. Not necessarily hard, but still fun.

Battling against The Loyal Three for the first time demonstrates the consequences of the naive townsfolk nourishing them back to health with all of their best mochi. Munkidori, Okidogi, and Fezandipiti all become titan Pokémon that you and Carmine must face against (minus Kieran who abandoned the squad). Holy hell, these guys are huge! When I saw the titanic Munkidori for the first time, I wanted to cringe and laugh and cry. His big head made him appear rather funny-looking.

The purpose of the double battles against the titan Pokémon are perhaps there to give you a taste on what is to come in part two of the DLC (which takes place in Unova, where everyone engages in double battles only).

----------

The final battle against Ogerpon herself was a wonderful experience. However, she is shiny-locked (bummer) and has a 100% catch rate, so it eliminates some tediousness.

Ogerpon will go through four stages of battle, and is the only Pokémon to terastalize in "The Teal Mask." Players fight all four masks, which changes Ogerpon's type from pure grass to grass and rock, fire, or water type. Ogerpon terastalizes all four times which showcases the immense power of Ogerpon, and how each mask themselves are the ones that terastalize (the ogre is just chilling behind it). This fight feels incredibly rewarding. The fight is also tough to get through with the changing types, combined with the overpowered cudgel move.

I am certain the most players sent out that friend ball to catch the ogre, right?

----------

I do not have many complaints when it comes to the combat, but I would have not minded an even greater challenge. I am sure that players with all level 100 Pokémon would agree!

The lag also made some of the battles (and the buildup to them) a bit more cringe. The Milotic fight . . . I don't even understand it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ENJOYMENT: 8/10

In all, I had a wonderful time playing through "The Teal Mask." Scarlet & Violet has its ups and downs, but there is no denying that Kieran and Carmine are wonderfully complex and amusing characters, and that the writing and music are exemplary.

Part one of the DLC offers a nice challenge to even more competitive players, and I can appreciate the bonus introductions of new minigames, side quests, and even new Pokémon in the Kitakami dex. Is it worth over $30 (which includes "The Indigo Disk")? I am unsure about that . . . but you know, Pokémon fans do torture themselves.

The lack of an attempt to fix the FPS and other graphical issues is not excusable, however. I am not always too concerned about these topics, and I do not think that these issues fully detracted from the actual enjoyment of the game, but it is certainly embarrassing for Game Freak.

But yeah. So I guess what I'm trying to say is . . . I had fun!

TOTAL TIME SPENT: 20 hours (an estimate. I am slow af)

OVERALL SCORE: 7/10

PLATFORM USED: Nintendo Switch

DATE OF COMPLETION: April 2024

[shinysamurott9]

Alright so now that it's been a day and I've had some time to collect myself, I want to give my thoughts on Xenoblade X Definitive Edition.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. How is this real.

Ok so, I'm a pretty big fan of Xenoblade X, though I wasn't as much when I first played it in a Xenoblade marathon in the months leading up to 3. I didn't think it was bad or anything, it just didn't click with me the way the rest of the trilogy did at the time.

That is until I played it a second time roughly a year later alongside Xenogears and Xenosaga leading up to Future Redeemed. Before I got to it, I had made an effort to try and figure out the game and avoid the mistakes I had made in my first playthrough.

And I loved it.

Compared to the first time it was crazy, I didn't want to put the game down at all. Naturally after that, I really wanted to see some kind of follow up or for X to get some kind of second chance. Being a late Wii U game in a series that was at the time quite niche meant not a lot of people have gotten to play it. So a remaster on the level of Xenoblade 1's Definitive Edition felt like something X sorely needed as a way for more people to have a chance to play it and as a way to follow up on some of it’s infamous cliffhangers. People have wanted it for years for those reasons as well as the prospect of having the entire series on Switch.

And then Nintendo decides to come in on a random Tuesday out of nowhere and just drop the insane bombshell that a Xenoblade X Definitive Edition is real, is coming to the Switch and seemingly doing all of the above. I genuinely did not think it would ever happen. Monolith have put out statements before talking about how difficult and costly porting X would be, understandably so given how demanding that game was for the Wii U. Between that and just how late we are into the Switch's life, I felt like X on Switch was a pipe dream at best. Plus with the supposed Switch successor rumored to be a notable leap in power, I expected that if an XDE was on the table it would be saved for that to take advantage of the improved hardware.

But, here we are, Monolith have pulled out something I never thought possible. So far it seems like the graphics aren't overhauled as much as 1DE, which is fair, X holds up way better, especially in comparison to Xenoblade 1. But of course there are obvious changes to the character models and geaphics overall, so far everyone is looking pretty good so I'd say I'm already pretty happy on that front. There do also seem to be some minor tweaks to character designs, nothing major for the most part namely Lin only has one Monado hairpin instead of two.

What may be the most notable thing here is that finally after nearly a decade, they are finally following up on some of X's hanging threads with confirmed new story content. We can also see here the character people have called The Black Knight up until now. We never get anything close to a proper look at them in game but datamined models have shown us his model from the ending cutscene. He's we can already see he's been pretty heavily changed from the datamined model which makes sense. That model uses recolored grenada armor with a hood added so it was probably more of a placeholder than anything. I am very much looking forward to seeing where this goes.

What I am most curious about though is how this game will perform on a technical level. The original version was already struggling to run well on the Wii U even after the 15GB worth of performance patches, so I can't help but wonder how this game will turn out on the Switch. There's really no way to know til people get their hands on it.

That's about all we know for certain til we hear more, but there is a fair bit I would like to see from this game, a lot of it being general qol stuff, such as let me change my party or the time of day on the fly, give me better inventory management stuff like that. More options to customise my character would be nice too but given the precedent set by 1DE more armor pieces is probably a given. I would like it if some of the outfit pieces that differed between genders became available to both just to have more options, especially in regard to casual wear.

The biggest thing that I hope they implement though, that personally I think is borderline required for this game is some actual explanation for how the game mechanics work. The main reason I had such a hard time with X the first time is because most of its mechanics are never properly taught to you and they're just not intuitive enough to figure out on your own. Most egregiously this includes Overdrive, not just the cornerstone of X's combat system but an incredibly fun mechanic unique to X that not a lot of players got to fully appreciate because they didn't understand how it works.

I know the Wii U digital manual explained some of these things but people weren't really reading manuals in 2015, much less digital ones that are somewhat disconnected from the actual game. As far as I'm aware the Switch doesn't even have digital manuals like the Wii U so actual tutorials maybe something they need to add if they want any of the presumably many new players to figure out how to play the game.

Other than that though I'm very happy with what we've seen so far. I'm really looking forward to playing this game again with hopefully a much more active online playerbase for things like squad missions or nemesis battles. Will certainly make getting reward tickets much easier and more fun.

[shadowredfeline]

Three in One Post

For my P-Pal's On this Day Post

Looks nice to have another Chipmunk like Kelly to help out with the crew. Even the Chipmunk Mechs won't let us down with the help of breaking cracked walls and rusty obstacles in the way.

For my A-Pal's On this Day Post

It looks nice to see Nickelodeon characters in Smash Bros. Style. But now they already got Nickelodeon All Star Brawl and brought in some voice actors to voice some of the characters. But normally Nickelodeon All Star Brawl is what I usually play the Least besides Nickelodeon Kart Racers and Team Sonic Racing, but normally I kinda like Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3 Better since I was glad they already improved the game and actually got voice actors in the game which it's amazing! And I know that it's downloaded on my Nintendo Switch, which I know my A-Pal downloads games on the Switch too, a lot of people like to download some games on a console if any reason people don't feel like getting a physical copy of any video game title. And of course I know I can identify some worst Nickelodeon shows like Breadwinners. But normally I like Harvey Beaks better since it's not always that "In your Face!" Treatment like Breadwinners does, and I won't have to think about the most uncool episode where they did the whole thing with the Love Loaf. And I was glad Enter had to talk about that episode as well.

Anyways let's hope the Nickelodeon crew can start their adventure as a team like if SpongeBob would tag along with Stimpy Cat, Lincoln Loud, Danny Phantom and Jimmy and Timmy. They work really well together besides Ang.

And for a Response to both my A-Pal and my P-Pal

Well it's nice to have Wilson with his fun abilities to use his ears. And even Zack and Shadow would be pleased with his performance.

And also, that movie theater you mentioned in the Creepypasta, too creepy, I only made this style of a movie because if anytime we want to do Cartoon Cinema Labyrinth, that's where our OCs would be to start the adventure. Plus it was also based on a video game I played called Persona Q2 New Cinema Labyrinth on Nintendo 3DS, despite the game using English Subs where they use the Japanese voice acting only. A bit like Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey Redux. But not to worry, since I always wanted to do Cartoon Network in Persona, we can just do the Cartoon Network character voices as some of the characters, and I know a YouTuber I know that can work to play Morgana and Teddie.

But with Cartoon Cinema Labyrinth, we'll start off with Shadow, Spot, Riya, Luna and Vanilla exploring a Chocolate Factory to look for clues. Especially when they can find Wonka Cat.

Note: I decided to change Lisa's name to Wonka Cat instead of Wonka Dot.

[pizzacatdelight]

I did it! I finally beat Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom after playing it for almost 2 months!!!!!

Spoilers below on my personal thoughts and the background on both Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild.

When I first saw the trailer of this game back in 2019 E3 Nintendo Direct, I immediately fell in love with it. Back when it used to be called Breath of the Wild 2.

I remember my mom gave me the WiiU version of Breath of the Wild as a gift, back when it came out in 2017. I saw the opening cut screen and playing though the starting area. But for some reason, I never got out of the starting area. Mainly because it was back I was an architect major at my old school and have a part-time job, so I (mainly) never had time to sit down and play the game.

One year later, I transferred schools and changed my major (long story) and one day, I saw a guy playing the game in the common lounge at the student union. That was when I picked up the game again and man, I wanted to kick myself for not continuing in the starting area! The combat, the music, the characters, it amazed me that the game have it all and now I know why many people who played it, said it was the best game of 2017!

I remember taking at least a month (thanks to plenty of free time from not having an architect major) to beat the game and I loved it! Loved it so much, when I got the Switch for Christmas in 2018, I bought the game again and beat it, six months later (my final semester and having another part-time job is the reason why it took so long)!

Although, there few things I didn't like about Breath of the Wild is that I didn't like the weapon durability, where the weapon break after using it too much. Didn't like the rain that kept Link from climbing further before falling to his death. There was no dungeons, which everyone agreed. The story was kinda not there. And the lackluster final boss of Calamity Ganon (is the horse really necessary to beat him?).

It was after beating the game on the Switch is when that announcement was made. And then it got delayed. And again. And again, once more. At that point, people feared it's going to end up like Prime Metroid 4, where it keeps getting delayed for various reason and that it won't make to the Switch as there will be a new Nintendo console at that point.

Then during Nintendo Direct in September 2022, they finally announced that the game is still alive. It updated the name (which was the reason why Nintendo Direct was delayed for the British due to the death of the Queen). And it finally announced the release date of May 12, 2023. At that point, people got excited that the game isn't dead. That it looked that Link is exploring Hyrule both on land and in the sky. It was enough to keep the fandom busy for a bit.

Three months before the game came out, another Nintendo Direct in February came out and it showed another trailer of the game and that it's going to cost $70 for the game (which made some mad). That part annoyed me since it only showed, like 10 minutes of the game and people are jumping to the conclusion.

One month later, there was a 10 minute gameplay of the game. There were mixed reactions over it was some was impressed, others complained it didn't show enough and some even accused the game of being a "$70 DLC".

That April trailer that came out a few weeks later, shut those who think Tears of the Kingdom is a $70 DLC and it showed a bunch of things that wasn't seen in the pervious trailers. There's now people who will fight alongside Link. Handmade contraptions that can be used in combat. The story. Ganondorf! Now, people are defiantly going to get this game.

I was one of those people who bought the game and download it on my Switch on released day.

And wow, the game is an improvement compared to the first game! Characters are interacting outside of villages. The story has improved greatly. There's mini dungeons that is caves and wells (which fixed one of the biggest issues from the first one). You can now store recipes. There's a way to climb on walls when it's raining. And you finally found a way to deal with weapon degradation!

And while Breath of the Wild is still a good game, Tears of the Kingdom has improved in various of things.

Of course, the game still have issues like weapon durability, graphic performance issues on the 6 year old Switch and various small things that annoyed some people.

But at the end of the day, it was a good game and I'm sad that I'll never get to play it for the first time again. Definitely my best game of 2023. Maybe until Super Mario RPG comes out in November, that is.

[gay-saltasaurus]

Ok so I just finished replaying BOTW post TOTK. Not a super detailed replay, just main quests and some of the larger side content.

Now that both are fresh in my mind...what the fuck.

I am legitimately kind of terrified of the team working on these games, they might be too powerful. How did they do this. How the fuck did they manage to hit it out of the park, then come back a few years later to hit it out of the solar system. So many big games are released half finished (looking at you Pokemon), and it would have been so easy to do a cash grab sequel. So many assets, systems, and minor sidequests were reused, as expected, but instead of just making botw+, they went in 100% to build somthing huge on the impressuve foundation they already had. As someone who works in games, I can't stress enough how so many people, in so many disciplines, had to be working at the top of their game for years to pull this off twice. Nintendo also deserves praise for giving the developers the time they needed to go above and beyond (this should be standard, but unfortunately the actual standard is to drive developers to make as much money as possible as fast and as cheaply as possible).

Replaying botw really highlighted how much totk was able to improve. Botw gave the player multiple ways to solve every problem, but the Zonai devices and new abilities make the solutions practically infinite, while somehow still making things challenging. The new abilities also feel more usefull, I think I only used cryonis twice outside of shrines.

There's also the little quality of life changes. I seriously missed being able to drop weapons from the hotbar, swap out an item after opening a chest, easily switch between inventory tabs, the little things that really streamline gameplay.

Totk's story is also made a lot stronger by botw's foundation. Everyone's already talked about botw's loneliness vs totk's theme of connection. But botw also creates emotional connections that totk builds on. Tarrey Town, the construction in Castle Town, the fucking Hateno house. It's similar to the environmental storytelling in botw. And despite Link's Tony Hawk syndrome, you know these npcs. You knew the Hateno kids when they were toddlers. You get to see the people you've met thriving. You know exactly what you're fighting for.

Botw tok a minute to get me emotionally invested in saving Zelda. "Yeah save the princess, I know the drill. You've seen one Zelda you've seen them all." At first I just expected her personality would be improved from Girl to Smart Girl. Then I saw the memory of her trying to force feed Link a live frog and instantly decided I would die for this character, and needed to save her asap. She's a full fledged character with an actual arc across games! And I love her! Yes there are things that could be better, the self sacrifice and not getting to do much in the actual game is an issue, but for what we got I'm pretty pleased with it. Botw got me invested, and totk used that to maximum effect. I saved a lot of the side content because I wanted to know where Zelda was, then when I found out I just couldn't get invested in sidequests because SHE HAS BEEN UP THERE BY HERSELF FOR 10,000 YEARS HOLD ON BABYGIRL IM COMING WE'RE GONNA GET YOU DOWN SOMEHOW.

So with Totk being so good, I have to wonder what's next. First, everyone who worked on this should get a vacation and a raise. And some awards. But after that, I think it might be possible to make this a trilogy. I have no idea where you could go from here, but that's what I thought after botw and look how that turned out. But if the team feels like they're done with this iteration of Hyrule, this is a perfectly good stopping point. There is just one thing I need first. Whether it's in a sequel or a major dlc. I need this Zelda. To not be having a terrible time. Just once. I know saving Zelda is the whole thing for this series, but my god she has been through enough. Just let me go on an adventure with her. You have the technology from the sage avatars. Or if that's too much, let me go in an adventure while she hangs out with Purah or something. Nintendo I'm begging you.

HOLY FUCK THIS IS SO LONG

[randomboo256]

Archive: Problems of the Wild

Yep, I'm bringing back my old "Archive" series for two more entries, and these are major ones. The prior entries in the Archive series mostly consisted of texts I wrote while in high school to then privately share amongst my friends. This one is no exception. In fact, this was my biggest and most carefully made review at-the-time. For whatever reason, I never posted it. As you may have guessed from the title, it's a lengthy criticism of 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and one that I wrote back in 2019, then revised in 2020 then again in 2021. The additions that I made in 2020-21 will be clearly labeled as "Addendums" throughout. As for why now? I figured that, since the Nintendo Switch 2 is looming on the horizon, I should finally rerelease my own legacy content with no meaningful alterations, except I'm not charging you an extra $10! What a steal!

This was written years ago. The following may or may not reflect my current opinions. I simply wanted to post these archived thoughts on this blog. To that end, it has been left unedited.

An updated retrospective on the often ignored issues in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Squadila! We are off!

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (TLOZ: BOTW) is truly an anomaly of the Zelda franchise. It, unlike its predecessors, completely changed up the formula that other Zelda games often strictly abided by, and the game wants you to know that. So far in fact, that on the game’s page on Nintendo’s online storefront, the Nintendo eShop, it reads: “Forget everything you know about The Legend of Zelda games.” So what did it do?

Breath of the Wild is the first game in the Zelda franchise in which the game had an open-world, which abides by a current gaming trend widely popularized by The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Open-worlds, like other gaming trends at their time, were lauded by critics, often leading to important criticisms of the game going overlooked. 

An easy example is Bethesda, the company behind Skyrim as well as a handful of other open-world games like it. Bethesda’s games are riddled with tens of hundreds of technical flaws and glitches. Critics and fans alike overlooked these glaring flaws and gave Bethesda a pass. This led to Bethesda to not only fail to improve their craft, but to try less and less to make a good game as time went by. This led to Fallout 76: an unfinished mess of a game with more bugs than one could count and scummy microtransactions galore.

A similar case happened with BOTW. The game was lauded by critics and fans, despite having numerous flaws. Mostly because of the defining feature: “You can do anything you want, when you want.” So what are the flaws? Let’s start from the top.

I just wonder what Ganon’s up to...

The plot of BOTW is nonexistent at best. Because of the dedication of “You can do anything you want, when you want.”, the story had to take a backseat. It’s hardly there. Here’s the plot: “Go kill Ganon. He’s a bad and he's doing a bad.” Hell, even that’s a stretch. We never see him doing anything bad. Or at all. All he does is float around the castle. He certainly looks evil. But that isn’t enough. The rest of the story is just backstory (and not very interesting backstory at that). It’s all about people long dead that you can’t do anything for. It’s all just meaningless fluff to convince you that there is more plot going on than there actually is. And also, the voice acting leaves something to be desired. 

Addendum to the story

It’s a shame the plot is so lukewarm, considering the plot is generally the best part of Zelda games. They also try to make emotional moments between Link and Zelda, but they fail because you never see Zelda in person until the end, and when you do it’s underwhelming to say the least. Even if you ignore that and just focus on what is given, the plot makes no sense. Let’s go over some of the plot holes off the top of my head.

After 100 years, why hasn’t society rebuilt itself? 

Why are the majority of towns still in ruin? The world acts like the disaster happened last sunday. 100 years is a long time. Look at the real world. Not even a century has passed since WWII and the world is completely different. I get that there are monsters, but if the monsters were that much of a problem, why is anyone still alive? 

Why is Zelda still young? Everyone else has aged. Why didn’t she age? Oh because she wouldn’t look like waifu bait anymore. I see.

How has Zelda been able to hold Ganon back for so long? 

What is she even doing anyway? They never explained it. 

Why is it that right when Link is starting to wake up she “can’t hold him back much longer”? 

In fact, why does she lose her grip right when Link walks into the final boss room? You could beeline straight to Ganon at the start or spend 500+ hours climbing mountains and either way she loses her grip when you walk in. Maybe she got excited seeing him and lost grip…? But they don’t say that in the game nor does it come off that way.

Why did it take 100 years to revive Link? It isn’t like he died and they resurrected him with magic. He was alive. Why didn’t they just heal him? This is a game where eating apples can revive you from the brink of death. 

If Zelda is holding Ganon back, why is Ganon seen flying around the castle? 

Why does Ganon have control over everything if Zelda is “holding him back” whatever that means? 

What exactly is Zelda preventing Ganon from doing? Preventing his physical pig form from leaving? 

What’s the point of holding Ganon back anyway? He won already, has he not?

What does Ganon want?

 In fact, what is he even like? 

In fact, why is he like this shadow-y thing in the first place? This isn’t established in the series, and it certainly isn’t explained in Botw. Maybe it’s for the sequel.

How would I change the plot? Well here is what I would change it to. I think that the game’s plot would have been a lot better if Ganondorf was completely free and did rule the world. Make it so it was only a couple years passed. Zelda is free, but she’s in hiding, alongside Impa. Once Link is free, the dead king tells Link to go to them. They tell Link to go free the Divine Beasts. When Zelda realizes that Link forgot about her, there could be an emotional moment where Zelda gets upset and leaves the room. After you complete the memory quest, you can return to Impa and Zelda and talk to them. Zelda will be happy, and she will mention that she forgot to give you the Champion’s Tunic, which now serves as a reward for completing the quest.

Throughout the game, we would actually get to see Ganondorf in cutscenes and we can hear about the things he did from the npcs. Link could slowly free places like Kakariko from his rule. Once everything is done, Link defeats Ganon and we get a nice wrap up to a romance plot with Zelda. Why not? They clearly wanted to do that in game and got cold feet.

It didn’t take me very long to come up with a lot of improvements to this plotline, and I think that one of my biggest problems with the plot. 

You must die!

BOTW is praised for its combat. “It’s the best in the series!” - BOTW fans. I’m here to argue that it’s style over substance. It’s crazy and flashy, but that’s it. Aside from some elemental mechanics, minor stealth, and counter attacks, it’s the same thing as the other games.

But there is one mechanic that makes it much worse than other Zelda games: weapon durability. In BOTW, shields, bows, and everything from mops to the Master Sword, can break after enough use. Bows rarely break, and I never really used my shield a lot because it doesn’t even block most attacks (another major problem with combat in this game). 

The big one is weapons. The problem with this is they often break between 1 to 6 uses of that weapon. Because of this, an enemy encounter inherently takes a toll on you. You need your weapons for more important things. Therefore, it makes it a much smarter idea to just avoid combat altogether. 

Which soils the idea of the “The combat is the best in the series!”. Even if it was, you wouldn’t want to actively engage with it for a number of reasons. Because not only does it waste weapons, but it wastes food, which is used to restore health. Because in BOTW, even the smallest of enemies pack a major punch. Expect one-hit KOs. Many, many one-hit KOs. 

Even when you’re powered up enough to handle those hits, they still pack a wallop. You will have to restore that health via consuming food. But you again need that food for more important things. But to add insult to injury, when you do kill those enemies, you get something like a weapon or food that’s worse than the ones you wasted, or a pitiful handful of rupees.

Addendum to the combat

Upon further inspection, I would like to add onto my thoughts on the combat. 

While there is a large variety of ways to fight, most are incredibly ineffective or more tedious than the simple solution, which I’ll explain in a second. But first, the weapons. 

The weapon types are very unbalanced. Big weapons take too long to use and are so hard to aim that they’re practically useless, or at the very least quite inferior. Most enemies are fast, so fighting slow is a bad idea. 

Swords are better. They swing fast enough and do good damage, but because of their short reach you have to get right up in your foes face, and considering most enemies fight exclusively melee, you often get hit. Swords pale in comparison to past Zelda games. You’re limited to basic horizontal swings that stick you in place. It makes sword fighting feel very stiff. Even OoT had more complex sword mechanics.

The best is easily spears. They may deal the least with each hit, but they hit very fast. More importantly, spears are so long that in many cases, it can hurt enemies without getting close enough for them to hit back quick enough. Many battles devolve to walking around in circles jabbing the enemies. But once you get lighting weapons, fights become a joke. The lightning spear is the best weapon in the game. One jab shocks the enemy in place (dropping their weapon). In the time they take to unstun, the spear will recharge. Jab them as soon as they unstun and wait for the spear to recharge, etc.  The cycle continues until they die.

Not to mention that most enemies are bullet sponges (as in they have an absurd amount of health) as well as the aforementioned ridiculous amounts of damage they deal. This game uses a ragdoll physics engine (specifically a modified Havok engine.  Garry's Mod also uses a modified version of Havoc. A little fun fact.), so you either get pinned to the ground as you get pummeled to death, or by the time you get up, another enemy comes at you and you have little to no time to react. So essentially, every fight is either you infinite the enemy, or the enemy infinites you. Great.

Many things were removed from combat that were in past Zeldas, specifically Twilight Princess. Here’s a list of some:

You can't swing your weapon while moving.

All forms of sword swings outside the basic swing, jump (which is clunkier now), and spin (which has never been that useful) have been removed, making Link feel more robotic.

Rolling is gone. Not a super useful move, but it was very iconic. Just another Zelda thing BotW removed for no reason.

Sword fighting on horseback has been nerfed.

Link now only attacks one side in a pathetic jab.

Link can no longer spin attack on horseback.

Link can no longer quickfire arrows, slowing down combat.

While quick spin attack is still in, it still drains stamina, which partially defeats the point of the quick spin attack as it's supposed to be a faster and free spin attack, but it requires practice to consistently pull off in a combat scenario.

While partially already covered, all the unlockable sword moves in Twilight Princess to my knowledge are missing, with the exception of the shield bash, however that has been nerfed.

The dumbing down of sword fighting to just "press button to swing" makes sword fighting feel way more repetitive, and generally less useful. Relying on unorthodox strategies is more or less required both to be effective and to have any fun with the combat system. With everything considered, it's odd people are quick to say this game has the best combat in the series. It adds less than it takes away, as well as introducing unique problems such as the weapon breaking system.

Jumping left/right to dodge attacks is WAY worse than other Zeldas. Z-targeting once would make everything revolve around the enemy you are trying to fight, so when you dodged, Link would dodge wrapping around the enemy.  But in Botw if Link tries to do that, Link just dodges to his side, no matter where the enemy is. It could be because other 3d Zelda game engines were being designed from the ground up to be 3d zelda game engines (not modified from an already existing engine), but it could just be because this game was poorly designed. 

Also, some people say that combat taking a toll is a good thing because… idk. Maybe in a better game they could actually run with that concept and do something fun with it. Make a game where combat is intentionally discouraged in that way, like a horror game, a stealth game, a survival game.... wait those genres already do that.

Sarcasm aside, Botw clearly wasn't designed with that in mind, so the game suffers from it as a result, instead of benefiting from it like it could have. I mean, what does botw have to lose if weapons didn't break and if arrows were as easily replenishable as past games? 

Nothing imo. I think that those merely serve as annoying and unnecessary systems in a game that doesn't blend well with them.

They come off as annoying rather than fun. 

Like an inconvenience rather than challenge.

They discourage you from engaging in the combat and rather just avoiding every enemy like it's the plague.

Gee… It sure is boring around here.

This is a big one, Despite the massive size of this world, there isn’t much to it. The game is an ocean wide and a puddle deep. On your grand exploration of Hyrule, you will: 

Find Korok seeds

Find the occasional shrine

Find Korok seeds

Find one-note NPCs

Find Korok seeds

Run into generic wildlife

Find Korok seeds

Find cool little structures that are otherwise meaningless

Find Korok seeds

Find a rare special shrine (i.e. Eventide, that completely dark area, mazes)

And find Korok seeds.

That is, if you find anything at all. 4/5s of the time you find nothing or you suddenly realize you’re exploring the same area again because everything looks identical. But, getting around can be fun. It normally isn’t. But it can be fun. You know, once you spend an extra $20 to play the dlc chapter to unlock the motorcycle. Horses are still as clunky as always, and they are much slower than what you can do on foot, and running around everywhere also isn’t ideal.

This game is incredibly repetitive. You found a mini-boss in the overworld?! Cool! I hope you like fighting it a lot, because you will do it again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, etc. Did you like the boss at the end of [Insert divine beast]? Well, you have to fight it three more times with slight changes. Oh, so you do want that motorcycle? Well, you gotta fight it 4 more times! Yep, that’s where your $20 went! Boss refights! Did you like fighting [insert any enemy]? Well, I hope you like fighting it a lot, because there are very few kinds of enemies. So you will fight it again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, etc.

But it doesn’t just stop at enemies. Remember food? Well, because enemies hit so hard, you will need a lot of food. How do you get food? By making it. How do you make it? You need ingredients. How do you get ingredients? By finding them randomly or buying them. How do you get money? By finding them randomly or by selling stuff. How do you get the stuff to sell? You find it randomly. And you make each dish one by one. It’s tedious! And it isn’t fun.

All Korok seeds are all one of about 6 puzzles. All shrines feel identical, and so do the Divine Beasts. The extra dungeon at the end of the dlc also just reuses elements from the already similar feeling Divine Beasts. Hell, almost the entire map feels identical. Combat feels identical. Everything feels identical! The entire game is “Great! Now do it again.” 

It’s kind of like life in that sense. It is incredibly boring, repetitive, and if you try to do anything out of the norm, it’s a great risk that will likely lead to death or will really mess you up. But that is NOT a good thing. Let’s leave games similar to life at Animal Crossing. At least Animal Crossing is somewhat charming in its mundanity. In fact, speaking of charm...

Addendum to the exploration

Let’s ignore the world itself now, because even if the world was massive and diverse, the game still messes up its exploration, and that’s mostly because of one thing: stamina. Link has a stamina meter, which essentially just exists to heavily restrict certain moves. 

What moves? Well spin attacks, climbing, gliding, swimming, and running. Yes. Running in a massive open world game is limited. Not only that, but once the meter is fully drained, Link can’t do anything until it refills. Additionally, it stops your current climbing/swimming/gliding, making you fall and normally lose a lot of progress. 

My question is this: what do these systems add? Nothing, other than being annoying and slowing you down. Having infinite stamina wouldn't break the game. It would just make it much faster (something the game really needs) and more convenient. 

When it comes to climbing and swimming, these actions are incredibly tedious. It devolves into just holding up and waiting forever for something to happen. You can speed it up, but that consumes all of your stamina real quick. 

The only option is to sit your ass down and wait for something to happen. Even worse if you end up running out of stamina, which will normally end up with you stuck back at square one, resulting in a complete waste of time. Between stamina, the rain, and your IPad powers needing to wait to refill, it's like entire game feels like nothing but waiting for things to happen half the time.

“Great! I’ll grab my stuff!” - Zelda Series 

In BOTW, there is almost nothing Zelda related. If you remove the few easter eggs, returning species, and the Master Sword (which feels lazily slapped in) and you would never have been able to tell it was ever supposed to be a Zelda game at all. In brief, the main dungeons in BOTW (aka the divine beasts) feel so half assed compared to literally any other dungeon in any other Zelda game. They used to be these large, multilevel labyrinths full of puzzles, and while that's still kinda true now, they still pale in comparison. The puzzles feel watered down as well, especially considering the lack of true dungeon items.

This especially hurts with the lack of the series' signature charm. Even the series at its worst in the past had maintained the charm it established back when the games first started being RPGs. But BOTW just doesn’t have that charm. The game removes so many iconic things from Zelda that’s not even worth attempting to list them all. It’s faster to list what they did keep, and that’s because they didn’t keep much.

It also lacks when it comes to music. The game has little music. What is there ranges from decent to unmemorable to outright annoying. The music is often just random unconnected notes from a piano. It sounds so lazy. The Zelda franchise has a ton of memorable tunes. Not only does this game not use any of those tunes, but it adds nothing to that list. 

The only good song in the game is the song the game plays for 30 seconds at the beginning and never again until the end credits. Even then, the Smash bros version is superior, so this game adds nothing in this category.  Well, that and some of the dungeon and battle themes. Admittedly, the cutscenes have pretty good music, but most of the gameplay itself (aka the vast majority of your playtime) is very lacking. You're better off just listening to a playlist of Zelda songs from other games while playing.

Not to mention the technology. This is a Zelda game. Technology has never been a factor, aside from small doses here and there. This game spits all over all of that. I know they try to justify it in the game through story, but it just feels jarring to see sci-fi elements in a fantasy game. It’s not even hard to rewrite this game to remove the technology. Zelda is known for magical mystical adventures. This contrasts so hard with BotW, and not in a good way. At this point, they should just give Link a gun.

The game is so different that I can’t help but wonder if it was always intended to be a Zelda game. Throughout BOTW’s development, Nintendo was constantly teasing a new Zelda game. But maybe, just maybe, something just fell through; they didn’t like the ideas they had (or something of the like) and the game was scrapped and then replaced by an ambitious new IP they cooked up. That’s just a theory, though.

“Forget everything you know about The Legend of Zelda games.” If you forgot everything about yourself , and then proceeded to act entirely different, then you aren't you. You’re someone else that looks just like you. In my eyes, at least.

Imagine if Nintendo released a new Pikmin game, but called it and themed it as a Mario game, going off about how it’s the way Mario is from now on. Imagine the response that would get. But that’s what BOTW is to Zelda, but instead of being a Pikmin clone, it’s an uninspired copy of every other open-world game on the market. The game clearly took some notes from Bethesda. Probably too many.

Addendum to the lack of series elements

The most likely cause of the lack of Zelda staples is the same reason we went from the cheeriest 3D Zelda game, Wind Waker, to the darkest, Twilight Princess. It’s because anytime Nintendo is faced with criticism towards 3D Zelda, they way overcorrect in the opposite direction. That’s the main reason why the 3D Zelda games are so distinct from one another. To fully understand Breath of the Wild, you must understand what came before: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Skyward Sword (SS) was a game made for the Nintendo Wii, and it damn well wanted you to know that, in basically all aspects of its design. The obvious thing to point to is its overreliance on motion controls, which later games simplified down just to aiming, including BotW. However, that’s not the most important thing in the game that was influenced by the console. 

The Wii had a very large market of mostly casual gamers, people who didn’t normally play video games. As such, Nintendo designed the game so that not even Grandma can be left behind not knowing what to do. To achieve this, they did several things. First off all, the game, especially early on, likes to hold your hand. They added hint stones that straight up explain puzzles for you, and, more pressingly, your partner, Fi, would explain quite literally everything for you in excruciating detail. Partners normally served to offer some advice, as well as provide certain menu options. Fi cranked that up to eleventy seven, constantly interrupting gameplay to explain basic stuff you probably figured out moments before she said it. As an aside, she also had little personality of any kind, which made it even more annoying. 

It didn’t stop at hand holding, however. The game design itself was designed very differently to a typical Zelda game. The overworld was designed the same as dungeons. As such, it felt much more linear than a normal Zelda, even though Zelda was always about that linear. It’s just now the game itself makes that abundantly clear. My assumption for why they did that was that they didn’t want the casuals getting bored or something.

Now, I should state here that Skyward Sword is still a very good game, but the forced motion controls completely overshadowed the rest of the experience in the eyes of the public. Casuals were never a reliable market, especially by late in the Wii’s lifespan that Skyward Sword released in. By then, iPhones really started skyrocketing in popularity, and the Wii was an old fad. This is something Nintendo would only understand fully until the Wii U’s failure. That left Skyward Sword only to be bought by the leftover gamers, and they screamed and ran when they saw the motion controls. All of this led to Skyward Sword selling substantially worse than Twilight Princess, the previous 3d Zelda game. 

This caught Nintendo’s attention, and they decided to make their next game the polar opposite to Skyward Sword in many ways. They completely ditched partners, made the game completely open (I’d argue too open), and got rid of dungeons almost entirely. Skyward Sword was also a game that doubled down on things from prior games. BotW is a game that removes so many things from previous games, while not adding much to compensate. In that sense, many of BotW’s differences are just being different for the sake of being different. That explains a lot, doesn’t it?

My boy, this peace is what all true warriors strive for.

Every game can live or die based on its difficulty. I would say this one dies. Because of the “You can do anything you want, when you want.” gimmick, the entire game is the same level of difficulty. It’s a high bar at first, but a little over halfway in you surpass the bar and then the rest of the game becomes a cake-walk. So the game starts off at its hardest point and ends off at its easiest point. I have never seen difficulty this botched before.

Oh boy! I'm so hungry, I could eat an Octorok!

I’ll admit. There is some fun to be had just playing around. Just having stupid mindless fun. You know, doing stuff like biking around from point A to wherever the road takes you (if you catch my drift). Clearing random shrines as you see them. Doing and experimenting with random stuff. It reminds me of Garry's Mod (in more ways than one) in just playing around and losing yourself with that level of freedom. No real goal in mind. 

But then, I realized something. Despite the momentary joy, it left me feeling completely unfulfilled. It’s the junk food of gaming. Sure, it tastes nice, but you’re still going to be hungry after you eat it. So you just eat more and more, and before long you have diabetes grow sick of the taste and just want to eat something that will actually fill you up. At best, that's what BotW can hope to achieve. Since doing everything by the game’s actual design isn’t good, all you have left is to have your own fun.

“I won!” - BOTW

Well, despite all of these flaws, BOTW was praised beyond rationality. I clearly disagree. This game is easily one of the most flawed games in the franchise. “You’re lying. You’re only saying all this stuff to be contrarian.”  I’m saying this genuinely, as a fan of this franchise.

So I must hate it, right? Wrong. The game can be fun.  But is it the best game ever made? Hell no. It has WAY too many flaws to ever be considered anywhere NEAR that in my eye. 

But the biggest issue is that the concept of “You can do anything you want, when you want.” is flawed. A game can’t have no rules. That’s a mess. But BOTW has rules. So… you can’t “Do anything you want, when you want.” Besides, Garry’s Mod is a game with no rules. And it gets very boring after awhile, even with the memes it brings.

Good games have structure and order. BOTW doesn’t. “You can do anything you want, when you want.” is a gimmick, and not a long lasting one at that. It’s a shame what happened to Zelda. I really enjoyed a lot of the games in this series, but if this is how things will be from now on, I’m less than thrilled to say the least. Oh well. I give this game a:

4/10

-Maycie Hughes 2019 (Revised 2020-21)

-------------------------

Huh, so that was my old essay, huh? Yeah, I definitely don't agree with everything I said there. (Seriously, why did I end with a review score, and why one so stupidly low? Even with the problems I have with it, it should be at least a 7/10). Anyhow, this review definitely be very different if I rewrote it today, especially considering the sequel. A lot of this really comes off as overly aggressive ranting, which makes sense considering I wrote this in the middle of my "edgy" phase. Ugh. I'd recommend reading my post "Tears of the Kingdom Revisted" from last year, as well as my new post "Problems of the Kingdom" for a more updated and thoughtful opinion on these titles. Oh, what's that? Why wouldn't I just remake it in this post? Well, because then I'd have no choice but to charge $80 for it, and that's too much for ya.

[firestorm-can]

Hey-o folks! How're you all doin' tonight?

Yeesh... what a crazy year we've had, huh? 2024 will only have three hours left on the Pacific time zone by the time this post goes up-- then the next leg of our journey on this madhouse we call planet Earth begins. Not everything went the way we would've wanted it to, and there's a lot of uncertainty heading into the new year. Who knows what might happen as the clock keeps turning.

For me, there was a lot of big hits and major misses this year. I'm just glad I've been able to get through this year with all of you, whether you were following me or not.

Leaving the shithole that was once Twitter and starting over on Bluesky was the best decision I've made this year. I was also glad to change up this blog to be more light-hearted with game clips, gifs and other's artwork added to the queue. There are certainly causes I will fight for, but I don't want that to be the main focus here or there--If there's one thing I want to be known for in this world, it's to brighten everyone's day and help look beyond their troubles. Even for just a moment.

Splatoon 3 certainly took up a lot of my attention this year, and I'm happy to see you guys enjoy all those silly and epic highlights. From the controlled chaos of Side Order to the serious business of Salmon Run, many of my evenings and weekends were spent in the Splatlands and the surrounding areas. With new content all but completed, it's now a matter of waiting for the new hardware and the next game. They'll be plenty more from this octoling in the meantime, I assure you.

One other thing I'm happy to see is the love you guys are giving to Mapleton and its residents--this island was a real labour of love between @blueeyedrat & I and I'm proud to share our experiences, past and present, living our island lives. We've only scratched the surface with our album archive--there's more to reveal (and rebuild) in the new year!

With Neopets making a resurgence under new management, I've been getting back there a lot more often. It hasn't been a smooth run, but there have been major steps in the right direction: daily tasks, the revival of classic games, a new plot and lots and lots of fixes and quality of life improvements. I'm glad to see the site come to life again, and will be cautiously optimistic about the next year. Happy 25th birthday, Neopets!

One thing I'd really like to do is play more of my game libraries, both on Switch, PC and even my old 3DS. I know it's gonna be a huge ask given my work schedule, but there are many titles I've yet to finish nor have even touched yet. I wanna be able to play and post more game clips here, and share the enjoyment and the frustration I felt in the process. And with the new Nintendo hardware set to be revealed next year, I wanna be sure to cover as much as I can. Hope you guys enjoy it!

My portfolio has been in several places on the net and I would love to share them here too, but there's a hitch that needs to be addressed first: With the explosive rise of Generative AI and their data scrapers, I've got to take some protective measures to ensure these parasites regret trying to steal my work. As someone who's aiming to be a graphic designer long-term, I want to bring my work to you guys without having those greedy, lazy techbros rob me of my future.

One huge step I plan to take next year is push my graphic design business to the next level. To be perfectly honest, I spent way too much time at the warehouse and the commute this year and I'm suffering major burnout. I've been severely hampered by my job schedule this year and have had to limit the number of projects to take. That changes in the new year--I'll be working towards setting up a new presence in the Vancouver convention scene and online. There are two events I'm gonna be there for to start the year:

Vanhoover Pony Expo (Staffing) - January 17-19, 2025

Vancoufur (Vending & Attending)- March 6-9, 2025

More to come as they're announced!

It's a long, dark road ahead, but I'm ready to travel on it with all of you. See you all in 2025!

[paterklatter]

Do you have any video game opinions/hot takes?

ok so i ended up writing like an entire essay so i'm gonna put this under a cut

-hades is not that amazing of a game, while it's fun it hardly qualifies as a roguelike and the gameplay lacks depth. the only reason it's so loved is its absolutely amazing character design. it's not bad just the definition of a 7/10 game (which i need 7/10 brainrot games in my life. that's why i've played shit like hades or steamworld quest to completion as their lack of gameplay depth made them easy to play with my brain in the wash)

-"cozy" games have quickly grown repetitive and i genuinely question the need for 500 "stardew valley but fantasy games" or otherwise generic farm sims with one catchy steam page gimick

-the direction of the yakuza franchise is actually such a fucking mess right now. the change of the name to "like a dragon" after the series has already established itself as yakuza is such a stupid fucking move. no one calls it "like a dragon." some fans may call it rgg (including me), but no one calls it like a dragon. the annual release model also just isn't working. these extremely long story based games are a huge time sink and require anyone who wants to play 8 to play all of them, so new fans are going to get burnt out quick. even people who has played all the games are gonna get burnt out fast, especially considering you HAVE to play the new to understand the one coming out later that year. i think 7 was a really good way to sidestep that without leaving fans of the other games hanging as you can go into it having played none of the games and still understand it perfectly well. i'm not the craziest about the turn based combat but i definitely prefer it to whatever the hell the other dragon engine games were cooking because the ragdoll physics of kiwami 2 actually almost made me drop it (one of the reasons i think it's the worst game in the franchise behind 5). i think dropping that to do ANOTHER kiryu send off is stupid. some people didn't like the ending of 6, but changing your mind after switching to ichiban (who has the potential to be a better protagonist than kiryu) is actually so fucking cheap. i'm sure i would make this paragraph even longer if i had played gaiden or 8 but i'm actually so fed up with this franchise. also doing a ground up remake for ishin instead of just a translation with maybe some quality of life improvements or updated characters was stupid and also the combat was bad.

-totk sucked ass nintendo didn't cook. there was NO reason for it to have taken longer to make than botw. the main gimick is cool but i personally didn't like it (though i'm in the minority on that) and while its impressive how bug free it is it doesn't feel play tested. like yeah sure the physics are consistent but it feels like there isn't as many fun ways to use it. after 5 hours you realize what same 7 things work and use them in every situation. also it has some major ux problems (HOLY SHIT JUST LET US PRE-FUSE ARROWS I DON'T WANNA GO TROUGH A DROP DOWN 3 TIMES MID-AIR). the exploration is completely gone for anyone who has played botw as well. the depths and sky just don't have enough going on and again this game took longer than botw to come out despite have absolutely not map change and don't even get me started on the train wreck of a story

-people who have watched playthroughs fundamentally had a different experience to people who actually played the game and that gap can sometimes make them just not able to engage in discussion in the same way. it depends on the game definitely but something like disco elysium relies so heavily on individual experiences that watching someone play it isn't even the same game. even like fnaf which is THE let's play game, you don't truly feel any of the stress from doing mental management by watching someone else play it

-overwatch 2's characters have been such a step down from the first games it's insane. not even as kits but in actual personality and story. with the exception of ramattra who i think is one of the strongest overwatch characters overall (who also has been definitely cooking since mid-ow 1), ow2's characters have been like. not even bland just straight obnoxious. kiriko, venture, lifeweaver, and juno have the same stock "snarky" personality that makes them really obnoxious. kiriko is the worst of that though, her design is also ugly and her entire existence genuinely makes no sense and why is she blizzards golden child what are they cooking. sojourn is just like. boring. junker queen is really fucking annoying and it's a shame as in the cinematic she seems like a much more fun character than someone screaming in my ear. mauga was such a waste of potential because he's also been cooking since before bap's release but he lacks any personality and is again. obnoxious

-fortnite needs to put the collab skins DOWN. the shop has anywhere from 2-8 different collab pages on any given day. and while i'm sure they sell, it just looks so obnoxious and honestly the original skins are just better and more interesting. having to dig to find the signature style page is so annoying. also they need more skins in the rotation because it's the same 5 fucking skins i swear. lego fortnite has absolutely trashed the shop, fall guys will make this problem even worse i imagine

-no more souls likes pleaseeeeee i never fucked with the genre in all honesty but this oversaturation has to be bothering even avid fans of the genre

-nintendo's current re-releases make no sense because why is metroid prime's remaster $40 but fucking luigi's mansion 2 hd $60. also why have they been holding wind waker and twilight princess hd hostage those are easy ports that would sell. i've been wanting to replay twilight princess as i remember it fondly and want to tell if i'm tripping or not but don't have a wii u and you got me fucked up if you think i'm digging up my dead old wii to play it

-on that. twilight princess gets too much shit. of course some of this could be wrong as i'm going off very biased memory as it was my first zelda title and one of the first i 100%ed, but it's so much better than everyone says it is. the aesthetic is very edgy for sure but it also has some of the weirdest character designs and personalities in the franchise and they work so well with the gritty visuals somehow. midna is the best companion as she has an actual personality and isn't BUZZING IM MY FUCKING EAR THE ENTIRE GAME HOLY SHIT FI YOU ARE MY OPP. zant is an amazing villian as well. some people hate on the game's slow opening but i love it because it gives link so much more character and makes you connected to the villagers so you actually care when shit goes down. tp has one of the best stories in the franchise and THE best link and i truly believe that. tp link has so much personality and his connections to characters feel real. it also has some of the best dungeons in the franchise, this is a take many people share at least so i know i'm not tripping on that one

[onlygamemedia]

Palworld Patch Notes 29 January 2024 "Xbox and PC"

Palworld Patch Notes 2024 - Xbox and PC Update Details Revealed Explore the latest Palworld Patch Notes for the January 29 update, focusing on Xbox and PC platforms. Learn about the improvements made by Pocketpair to enhance the early access version of Palworld, addressing stability issues and providing a smoother gaming experience. Find out what's new and get insights into the frequently asked questions about Palworld.

Palworld Patch Notes January 29 Update: Xbox and PC Patch Notes

Pocketpair, the developer behind Palworld, has released new patch notes for Xbox and PC platforms to further enhance the early access version of the game. Since entering early access, Palworld has been a significant boon for Xbox systems, as the game is currently unavailable on Nintendo Switch or PlayStation consoles. Only PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S users can enjoy the game with Pals. Nintendo and PlayStation players, aware of the filled errors and performance issues affecting the current version of Palworld, can alleviate their shortcomings. Fortunately, developer Pocketpair has addressed the situation by progressively releasing patch notes for Palworld's PC and Xbox versions. A new patch notes has been released to help further resolve issues related to the game.

What's New in Palworld January 29 Patch Notes? The new Xbox patch notes for Palworld address stability issues. A recent post on the official Palworld Twitter/X account announced the release of the v0.1.1.2 update for Xbox and Microsoft Store PC versions. This update also benefits Game Pass versions. The patch notes are concise and vague, mentioning the resolution of issues affecting the stability of the game. This may refer specifically to a series of problems reported by gamers, especially when Palworld can run slowly with a lot happening on the screen. Xbox and Microsoft Store PC version v0.1.1.2 update has been released. Fixed some issues which negatively affected game stability. We will continue to place top priority on fixing major issues. Thank you for your continued support of Palworld. — Palworld (@Palworld_EN) January 29, 2024 Pocketpair should be commended for prioritizing Palworld by targeting the major issues and releasing a regular flow of patch notes. This is something that cannot be said for the yet-to-be-fixed issues in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, which is a year into development. As Palworld is still in early access, fans should expect many updates and quick fixes in the future. Given the promise of more content from developers, it might take a while for the game to reach its full potential.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) – Palworld

1. What is Palworld, and On Which Platforms Can It Be Played? Palworld is a game developed by Pocketpair and is currently playable only on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S platforms. 2. What do Palworld Patch Notes Fix? Updates generally aim to improve the game's performance and fix various errors. Updates focusing on stability issues, in particular, aim to provide players with a smoother gaming experience. 3. When Will Palworld Transition From Early Access To The Full Version? While developers haven't specified the release date for Palworld's full version, being an early access game suggests that more updates and content can be expected in the coming months. Read the full article

[flameraven]

Misc Thoughts on Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

-The opening was definitely slower than I'd like, I was a little bored, but once you get let out to explore the world it's really fun! Very similar to Legends: Arceus but much improved. Key detail: you can pick up items while mounted! This was really annoying to not be able to do in PLA.

-I've been pretty lucky and not run into any major glitches. Sometimes the background is a little wobbly but the overworld has run okay. I definitely noticed some major lag as the game tried to load each item when I was shopping. -The world is big and exciting but still feels awfully empty. The towns have these huge wide streets and giant houses, but there's not really anything to do in them. You can't even go inside NPCs houses, there's only the shops -I feel like they split up the clothing shops in the main city to make it seem bigger and more full, but it just made shopping inconvenient. What's the point of a giant castle/city if there's nothing THERE? -I'm still not thrilled with the school uniform but it's not as ugly as I feared. Still hoping that we get some real clothes post-game, or possibly as a DLC option. (Why does the new kid get to wear her Eevee hoodie and I can't??) -that school is definitely not ADA compliant, wtf are all those stairs -I'm enjoying riding around on my giant motorcycle dragon a lot more than I thought, and Koraidon running with his legs looks a lot less stupid than it did in the trailers (he tucks his tail in to make the back "wheel"! What a cool detail!). Cannot wait to climb up walls. -Your dragon making a catlike "Brrrp!" noise when you summon it is perfect, A+, 11/10 -I do find the map a bit hard to navigate, it can be hard to find the bridges to cross rivers and such and figure out how to get to different areas. -I really really wish we could mark places on the map like BotW! I found a cool glowy sword in the ground I couldn't reach, and I know I won't remember where it is later. -The variety of pokemon available and how many new pokemon you can find are really cool. I do like that they didn't show most of the new mons because it makes them more fun to discover. I think there's also a good balance of Pokemon spread out in the grass, sometimes they clump up, sometimes they're single, but it's not obvious "sections" the way SwSh Wild Areas were. -I love that the game is like 'BTW the crater is SUPER DANGEROUS, don't go there!!' so we all know where the plot is going to end up. Spoilers on Pokemon/Evolutions below:

-I got spoiled on the starter evos and... yeah honestly not a fan of the final forms. Giant spooky crocodile is okay but not as cool as the idea I had in my head, Grass Cat is just kind of boring and similar to Delphox, and Quaxly is just... WTF. I heard "fabulous" and "peacock" before I saw the images, and I think an actual peacock would have been cool, but instead we got... that. D: Nintendo, please stop with the anthro starter evos, they're not good. -Paldean Tentacool is a horror show, I hate it. X) -Pawmi is ADORABLE, I love him. Although the 2nd and 3rd evolutions are awfully similar, seems like it could have just been a 2-stage pokemon. There are SO MANY new pokemon I want to try out, though, I keep switching things in and out of my team, it's really fun. So far my team is: Clodsire, Azumarill, middle stage Fuecoco, Pawmot(? the third one), the tiny fire megaman, and the Flamingo, which is WAY stronger than I expected. Bulbapedia says it has a base attack of 115?! That's huge! Also working on evolving the little floaty psychic thing because apparently it becomes an ostrich?! There are a lot of new bird pokemon in this game, I approve. May need to do another run someday with an all-bird team.

[tierknee]

The Evolution of Multiplayer in Pokemon and My Pokemon Journey

Pokemon and multiplayer have always gone hand in hand. From trading and battling in Red and Blue, to taking on the journey together in Scarlet and Violet. It’s interesting how Pokemon made the most solitary genre in video games, JRPGs, into some of the best social interactions I’ve had in my entire life. From the beginning, trading and battling against other people’s teams and collections set Pokemon apart from the rest. It’s easy to think that’s really where most of the social innovation stopped, but there’s still a lot to be said on the strides this series has taken. 

The way I see it, you can really split this progression into three eras. You’ve got the Game Boy era, Pokemon Generations 1-3, that were limited by hardware at the time. You had link cables or at best, a wireless adapter jutting out of your GBA. You’ve got the DS era, introducing online play (I’d argue the single largest innovation in franchise history), and you’ve got the Switch era, making experiences in Pokemon game more and more communal over the last couple generations with a touch of Pokemon Go for good measure.

The games that started it all have the simplest multiplayer experiences to offer, but they’re still evergreen pillars of the franchise in the forms of trading and battling. You and someone else with a Game Boy could square up, pitting your strongest teams against each other, or you could trade Pokemon to fill out the vast 151-strong Pokedex. Pokemon’s roots come from collecting bugs and childlike, rural exploration. By being so straight forward, the original few generations still have that organic encouragement of meeting up with other people physically, in-person. For all the advances and improvements future generations provide, a little bit of that original intent shifted over time as the internet became more and more ubiquitous.

The leap from the Game Boy to the Game Boy Advance was a massive one by almost all accounts. In terms of playing Pokemon games with other people, it was mostly the same. Link cables. By the time we get to the Hoenn region, we’re already at the point where cell phones are getting more and more common, and the internet is becoming more apart of our daily lives. GameFreak was well aware of this, carrying entire hardware peripherals that would push the likes of the Game Boy Advance further on. With the introduction of the Nintendo DS, however, everything goes global.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl brought the series into the internet age, taking advantage of Nintendo WiFi Connection to connect trainers across the globe! It may seem novel, being able to trade and battle Pokemon online, but in 2007, this was a gamechanger. This was of a time and place where social media was relegated to MySpace and AOL instant messenger, not nearly as ever-present as the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Forums and web boards flourished with the influx of online Pokemon. This time period just so happens to be when I personally started going on community-focused websites and planted the seeds of what would become lifelong friendships. So, yeah, on a personal level, the mere act of playing and trading online really helped me navigate social waters I wasn’t even perceptive of at the time.

After such a huge step forward, what comes after feels unsurprisingly tame by comparison. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl took the franchise online, and with Black and White, it kept a majority of Gen 4’s functionality. Black and White also went in a lot of different directions in terms of silly gimmicks GameFreak likes to try generation to generation. Remember the Dream World? You’d go to an actual website on your computer or phone to meet other Pokemon and get unique items, but I mostly remember it being a giant bore. They made up for it with the C-Gear, always keeping online functionality right at that bottom screen - an improvement they would take into the next generation.

The transition from Black and White to X and Y brought us Pokemon Bank, a cloud-based application where you could continue to store your Pokemon for years to come. Pokemon had always made efforts to make sure you were able to transfer your Pokemon all the way back from Ruby and Sapphire through future generations. It’s…not the most elegant process, but with Pokemon Bank, we get a modern solution to an ever-growing Pokemon problem. It’s not a direct multiplayer facet on its own, but in the context of what you do online, it’s a crucial addition to the franchise.

X and Y by far have the easiest to use and most straightforward online functionality. It, too, existed primarily on the bottom screen, but it has a much easier to parse user interface than the C-Gear. By this point, I’m in college, and while robust online features are necessary, the attention to detail on local functionality was equally important. Pokemon X and Y were up to the task, emboldened by the Nintendo 3DS hardware, which itself was also more of a social machine (rip StreetPass).

College is also where I originally got into Pokemon Go, which honestly could use it’s own video. Pokemon Go brings back those organic roots I mentioned the original games thriving in. It’s a different experience, built for mobile devices and once again fostering community and in-person communication. I’ll never forget seeing upwards of 100 people on a cool July evening, swarming our college campus, as there were plenty of Pokestops and gyms in a walkable range. Pokemon Go was the defining social experience of 2016, and in the context of Pokemon’s multiplayer innovation, changed the series forever.

Back in the main series, we get to Pokemon Sun and Moon. I’m wrapping up my college career and the onset of Pokemon Go definitely had the following traditional generation not hit as hard on campus or online. The feature set was…fine, but they GameFreak’d it up by having it work so well in the previous generation, just to shake things up with the Festival Plaza in Sun and Moon. It was more confusing with less features, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have a part in my general apathy to the games at the time. Serviceable, but I have easily the least to say about it. Communication-wise, this was the calm before the storm.

Remember how I said Pokemon Go changed everything? I think it’s one of the most defining aspects of Pokemon’s transition to the Nintendo Switch, as everything from the Let’s Go remakes of the original games, to Max Raid Battles in Sword and Shield, to an entire game built around cooperative experiences, are ripped straight out of Pokemon Go. It’s by far the largest shift the franchise has had since going online.

Pokemon Let’s Go is definitely more of a footnote in the whole multiplayer aspect of Pokemon, as it stripped out a lot of the social features on top of the gameplay being a lot more like Pokemon Go in general. It does still shine a light on where the series goes next in Pokemon Sword and Shield. One of, if not THE best part of vanilla Sword and Shield were the Max Raid Battles, where you and three other people would team up to take down a Dynamax or Gigantamax Pokemon, presented very similarly to Pokemon Go’s Gym Leader battles. It wasn’t perfect, especially if you were forced to have an AI teammate or two, but it’s something they’re carrying over into Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, so you know it was a big enough impact to warrant bringing it forward.

With Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, it really feels like the culmination of a lot of different paths Pokemon has been going through the last few years, communication being front and center. They’re refining Max Raid Battles, expanding the Wild Area to the entirety of the game, and the vast majority of the game can be played cooperatively. It’s genuinely touching to be able to share all the shiny grinding, the item scouring, and every other little goofy thing we do in Pokemon - together.

[theautisticgamer]

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Gets its Final Update

Recently, Nintendo hosted a special Direct dedicated to an update and DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The majority of the upcoming 11/05/2021 Update has plenty of Quality-of-Life updates, such as being able to scoot around furniture in our homes, accessing home storage (not just our wardrobe) from outdoors, and place more structures on our islands, and these are certainly all welcome.

Many players including myself found ourselves pining when the pumpkin-growing mechanic was introduced in October 2020, wishing for this mechanic to be expanded. Nintendo has delivered, farming has now been expanded to a great variety of crops, as well as a new cooking system. This is no small feature; nonetheless I’m afraid it will be underwhelming as a gameplay experience. Shoehorning farming and cooking mechanics into a game that was built without them in mind is bound to create a problem; will there be in-game incentives to do these tasks? Even farming simulators struggle to make cooking “worth doing,” so will Animal Crossing fair any better? It’s not like it can’t be done: cooking meals would be great for Nook Miles Plus missions, as well as for requests from villagers. It is extremely unlikely that the team working on the update thought this far into it, however. At best we may have an achievement to cook one of every available recipe, and depending on the quantity of recipes, it may be worth doing. A lower quantity of recipes may make it worth doing, that is, because the high quantity of recipes in Stardew Valley has made the achievement to cook all recipes an undesirable task to accomplish.

I couldn’t be more excited to see Kapp’n return, and he’s back with all my favorite silly songs. His role in the update concerns me, though, for the reason of the game’s design. It appears his job is to take you to islands for foraging resources, and he appears to do this for free. Dodo Airlines already did this, and purchasing airline tickets with Nook Miles was required. Will these two methods of island travel be at odds with each other? I suspect that island exploration will be terminated from Dodo Airlines’ services, as the airline has other uses, such as multiplayer access, access to Harv’s Island, and as we saw in the direct, it will act as a terminal to open the Happy Home Paradise DLC. If Dodo Airlines no longer does island exploration, I’ll have to say it’s an improvement. Going to Kapp’n at the dock will be much less of a hassle, even less of a hassle if there’s no equivalent of airline tickets required (though I wouldn’t be surprised if Kapp’n charges for his services; he did in New Leaf after all). The only bad thing about the change would be that Wilbur will no longer call the player funny code-names like “Stovetop Glockenspiel,” but if I’m frank, I’d take Kapp’n’s songs over code-names any day.

The rest of the updates are not as notable for me, but this is probably because I only came into the series at New Leaf. If not for the Animal Crossing OVA, I wouldn’t have known about Brewster, but I couldn’t be more excited for my fellow AC fans, as they’ve been begging for his inclusion in New Horizons from the get-go. I look forward to checking out the cafe at least once. I’m also glad about the updates for Harv’s Island, if only for the fact it’ll be easier to track down Jolly Redd for his paintings.

The biggest concern I have about the update is if it will accomplish what Nintendo is hoping for: drawing players back to their islands to play some more. The game industry no longer looks solely at copies sold/install base, but active install base, that is, the number of players still actively playing a game after a given amount of time. This matters a lot to Nintendo in the Switch era, not just evidenced by Animal Crossing, but also Splatoon 2, Ninjala, even Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Kirby Star Allies, as updates have been poured into these titles in the hopes of drawing in players that went inactive.

While I’m interested in returning to the island one more time, it will likely only be to visit the cafe, say hello to Kapp’n, and not play again anytime soon. After putting in 235 hours in Animal Crossing’s first year alone (even more than that since), I’m still in a state of burnout. Life simulators like Animal Crossing, as well as farming simulators, tend to draw players into a frenzy of long play sessions for extended lengths of time. “Too much of a good thing,” as the saying goes. Plenty of players, not just me, have spent hundreds of hours customizing our islands, breeding rare flower types, and exploring islands to recruit our favorite villagers. After all that work, who wouldn’t feel a bit tired! When a new Animal Crossing comes out on the next Nintendo console in five years, we’ll be excited to do it all over again, but what about now? I’ve seen many people on both ends, many still burned out while many others are eager to plunge back into their islands.

Since I just started this tumblr page, I don’t think I’ll get much feedback, but what do you think? Are you planning to return to your islands for the long haul, just a brief visit, or have you said goodbye to your island for good?

[silverjirachi]

Things I really appreciate about animal crossing new horizons:

attention to detail (lights getting brighter as you move toward them, reflecting off of objects)

use for junk you fish up (you used to just have to toss it, now you can make clothes and furniture!)

eating fruit has a purpose now

the ability to play some instruments by holding them, even indoors

item customization (started in pocket camp or new leaf?? but more options)

placing items outdoors and the ability to control basically everything about the layout of your island and avoid having random villagers moving in and destroying your flowers (major improvement

sending letters and gifts to friends online. being able to play remotely REALLY makes the game feel way more interactive with other players (plus idk i have actual friends now)

THE MUSEUM?????????!

THE AIRPLANE DODOS THAT USE ACTUAL FLIGHT TERMINOLOGY????

Overall this game is very excellent and I feel like it made an appropriate level of improvement moving from 3DS to Nintendo Switch, and I can also already see openings for nice- but optional- dlc.

My only complaint is that traveling to the remote islands by and large only gives you slightly more things than you could find at home, versus in New Leaf when there were island-exclusive creatures and fruit. All the fish and bugs on Nook Miles islands so far are the same and it leaves very little incentive to travel to them except to grind resources to build with.

Overall though you can tell this game was made with love and really thats what an Animal Crossing game should feel like.

[super-famicom-star-inactive]

Friday Special #7

January 9th, 2021

So it has come to my attention that when people talk about RPG Maker the series, many aren’t aware of how far back the series goes.

Did you know that series dates back to almost thirty years?

That’s right, next year will be the 30th anniversary of RPG Maker!

So why don’t we have a history lesson into arguably one of the most important franchises in gaming history?

Alright, where does the story begin for this iconic series?

According to sources, there has been games similar to RPG Maker that were made by ASCII (the original company behind RPG Maker) and that were released as far back as 1988, with the following titles:

Mamirin (1988)

Dungeon Manjirou (1988)

RPG Construction Tool: Dante (1990)

Dante 2 (1992)

Chimes Quest (1992)

The very first official RPG Maker title came in the form of RPG Tsukūru Dante 98, released on December 17, 1992. This game, along with its 1996 sequel RPG Tsukūru Dante 98 II, was originally made for the NEC PC-9801 Japanese home computers at the time. It was originally made when ASCII pulled from other games (listed above) and combined them together to create a RPG-making development title with its own toolkit. The genre of RPG specifically was thanks to the rise of JRPGs in recent years like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy to name a few. 

The next major release of RPG Maker was in the form of RPG Tsukūru: Super Dante in 1995, which marked the very first time that the series has landed onto a console. The console was the Nintendo Super Famicom and it was later broadcasted a year later using the Satellaview service. While it did exhibit some restrictions in terms of content due to system limitations, it was famous for providing hundreds of character, monster and scenery assets with color swap palettes to save on memory in the cartridge as well as designing the stats of characters and monsters pre-determined by the player. It was said that the game was popular with players but sources are limited about actual reviews. RPG Tsukūru 2 is the sequel and it was released in 1996 on the Super Famicom as well. 

Windows saw the release of the third installment with RPG Tsukūru 95, which was released in 1997 and was the first of many RPG Maker titles for Windows. Unlike its predecessors, it boasted higher resolution in sprites and tilesets as well as higher screen resolution. It also has the honor of being the first version to have an unauthorized English translation and release due to demand. Also with this version, the number of party members was boosted to 8 people with the first 4 acting as the main battle party. RPG Tsukūru 95 Value! was released not long after with the added bonus of having Windows XP support, which was new at the time and very valuable. 

So when did the West finally receive an official version version of RPG Maker?

On November 27, 1997, Enterbrain released the following title RPG Tsukūru 3 for the original Playstation and chose to release the software simply as RPG Maker in the West three years later on October 2, 2000 under Agetec. This was the first time the West would finally receive a version of RPG Maker and experience the magic of RPG development, but it was reported that a limited run of copies were released outside of Japan. It was also one of thirty games that utilized the now-rare Playstation Mouse (which is usually an arm and a leg to import). Players got to customize their own assets using the Anime Maker that was also built into the game and, like the original Super Famicom versions, utilized color-swap palettes to save on memory. Another cool feature that was a first for the series was saving your created game onto a memory card so that you could share your creation with your friends.

One of the most beloved and popular versions of RPG Maker is next on the list and it is RPG Tsukūru 2000 for Windows on April 5, 2000. Despite the popularity, it was Japan-exclusive and it featured a lower resolution for graphics and assets overall than its RPG Maker 95 predecessor. Despite this, it boasted more functionality with unlimited sprite sheets and tilesets.

The last in that trio was RPG Tsukūru 2003, first released only in Japan in 2003 before being released worldwide in 2015. Improvements to this version included the side-view battle system that was popular in Final Fantasy, and interchangeable resources. From this point, the development company Enterbrain would take over RPG Maker as it was part of the ASCII company. 

Starting with the released of RPG Tsukūru 5 on the Playstation 2 in 2005, Enterbrain was starting to look into developing the series for an international audience of players. They would beginning to craft titles that are now iconic in the RPG development community, with the first of these releases being RPG Tsukūru XP (RPG Maker XP as it was known world-wide) released on Windows in 2004. While many of the simplified features have been removed from this version, it was the first RPG Maker game to use Ruby, a type of programming language first seen in 1995, and it was the first title to distribute assets online amongst the community thanks to the rise of the Internet. It allowed greater control over sprite size other gaming aspects, which helped it become more versatile than previous titles. However, a drawback is the steep learning curve, which was intimidating to new players. It was released to Steam in 2015.

The next modern RPG Maker title was the release of RPG Tsukūru VX (RPG Maker VX as it was known world-wide) in Japan in 2007, world-wide in 2008. It has the one-up over XP for its more user-friendly layout and faster framerate of 60fps over XP’s 40 fps. The programming was completely done over to be more accessible in scripting and the battle systems were now similar to Dragon Quest with a front-view battle system and detailed text. Because of these aspects and other improved features, it became a popular choice for modern developers since release. However, one of the biggest drawbacks was the lack of support for multiple tilesets when mapping that frustrated players. It was released to Steam in 2016.

Right after that, RPG Tsukūru VX Ace (RPG Maker VX Ace as it was known world-wide) was a direct sequel to the version mentioned above. Described as an “overhauled version of RPG Maker VX”, it removed the multiple tileset issue that plagued players in the previous version and re-introduced battle backgrounds during battle scenes. Magic and skill systems were re-worked to have their own recovery and damage formulas in the programming, and a new set of music tracks were accompanied in the database files. It was released to Steam in 2012.

Having the distinction of being released by Degica for the first time world-wide, RPG Tsukūru MV (RPG Maker MV as known world-wide), underwent quite a few adjustments by introducing multiplatform support as well as side-view battles and high resolution features and assets. For the first time, JavaScript replaced Ruby as the default programming language. Players also saw the return of layered tilesets, which were missing from the previous installments. Not only was it released for Windows, but also for PS4 and Nintendo Switch (A XBox One version was planned but unfortunately scrapped), giving players new ways to share games. It was released to Steam in 2015.

The newest installment to the famous series is RPG Tsukūru MZ (RPG Maker MZ as known world-wide), and it was just released last year in August of 2020. Reviews for the game were mixed as players noted that the trailers leading up to release were very similar to RPG Maker MV. It did have some positively-received features such as autosave functionality and XP-style autolayer mechanics. It was released to Steam in 2020. 

So with the history side taken care of, what about some of the most iconic games ever made using the software?

Good question! Given the extensive list of successful games to come out of RPG Maker, that will be a separate Friday Special so I can cover them more in-depth. Maybe next week perhaps?

So there you have it, a comprehensive history of RPG Maker!

(Now, there were some older Japanese titles that weren't mentioned because of lack of sources, I do apologize. I also wanted to stick more to the major installments of the franchise itself.)

Thoughts From The Head

I was formally introduced to RPG Maker by some mutuals of mine on Discord a few years ago when I expressed interest in wanting to create scenes like a movie of sorts. My software of choice is RPG Maker VX Ace as it was suggested to me for being better at creating events than any other version. It's understandably intimidating at first, especially for newcomers, but there are hundreds of tutorials on Steam, Youtube and all over the internet.

I also have other copies of RPG Maker, including the PS1 version of RPG Maker and even RPG Tsukūru: Super Dante for my Super Famicom that I just received a few days ago! It's definitely wild how much the series has grown and improved upon over the years.

From what I have been recommended by friends who are long-time players of this series, either go for RPG Maker MV (if you're interested in mapping) or RPG Maker VX Ace (if you're interested in creating events). From what I have seen, those two are some of the more popular choices. In terms of platform, always go for Steam (and get them on sale when you can) because you will have better accessibility and it's more user-friendly than the console versions. The abundance of community-generated assets also help.

To end this post, here's some pics from RPG Tsukūru: Super Dante!

[corsolanite]

Pokémon Sword & Shield Reviews are in! ⚔️ 🛡

Areajugones - Ramón Baylos

Score: 8.8 / 10

The new Game Freak game will please both newcomers and more experienced players because, although some sections of this new installment have received less polish, it still has attractive enough content for every trainer to find his place in the new region of Galar.

Gamespot - Kallie Plagge

Score: 90 / 100

In collecting, battling, and exploring, Sword and Shield cut out the bloat and focus on what makes these pillars of the Pokemon games so captivating in the first place. You're not held back by overly complicated back-end systems or hoops to jump through; from the outset, you can start wandering the Galar region, seeing its new Pokemon, and trying out its new battle strategies with very little in your way. This leaves you free to enjoy what Pokemon is all about, and that makes for an incredibly strong showing for the series' proper debut on Switch.

Gamesradar - Sam Loveridge

Score: 90 / 100

Gameplay tweaks and attention to detail make Pokemon Sword and Shield the most compelling Pokemon world to date!

EGM - Ray Carsillo

Score: 80 / 100

The first new-generation Pokémon game to release on a proper home console does not disappoint. New features like Dynamaxing and the Wild Area are fun additions that make the experience of becoming a Pokémon champion still feel fresh. It’s just a shame that Game Freak didn’t lean into the new features more than they did.

Nintendo Life - Alex Olney

Score: 8 / 10

Pokémon Sword and Shield succeded in bringing some new ideas to the table, but they also somewhat guilty of not pushing things far enough. What’s done right is done right, but what is done wrong feels like it’s come from a decade old design document. There are moments contained within that are best the series has ever been, but the joy is at times spoiled by contrasting moments that left us disappointed and did not match up to the rest of what these games can offer. What we’ve got here is an experience filled with highs and lows, from the unadulterated wonder and joy of seeing brand new Pokémon in a stadium full of cheering crowds, to the monotonous and dragging out dialogue we want to skip.

Ars Technica - Andrew Cunningham

Unscored

The short version of this review is that Sword and Shield are fun, good-looking Pokémon games with a solid story mode and some welcome changes to the game’s mechanics.

Daily Star - Dom Peppiatt

Score: 3 / 5 stars

Pokémon Sword and Shield are not bad games. But fun character arcs and inventive, creative designs of new ‘mon are often offset by poor pacing and restrictive world design.The world of Galar is charming, and is a Pokémon interpretation of Britain I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid, but between gating what Pokémon you can catch behind Gym Badges, some half-baked route/City designs and a modest amount of post-game content, Sword and Shield can only be called ‘good’ Pokémon games… not ‘great’ ones.

Eurogamer - Chris Tapsell

Unscored

Pokémon Sword and Shield add some brilliant new creatures, but like their gargantuan Dynamax forms, the games feel like a hollow projection.

Game Informer - Brian Shea

Score: 8.8 / 10

The compelling formula of simultaneously building your collections of monsters and gym badges has proven timeless, but the new additions and enhancements show Pokémon isn't done evolving.

GameSpot - Kallie Plagge

Score: 9 / 10

Pokemon Sword and Shield scale down the bloated elements of the series while improving what really matters, making for the best new generation in years.

GameXplain

Score: liked

Video Review - Quote not available

Gameblog - Julien Inverno

Score: 7 / 10

With these new games Pokémon, Game Freak proceeds as usual in the evolution of the series, small touches, all the more welcome this time they seem absolutely necessary today, like the boxes PC accessible everywhere. Without major disruption but with significant improvements, in terms of game comfort mainly, and while some will probably deplore the reduced number of Pokémon referenced base in the Pokédex Galar, new region that enjoys a care of atmosphere and staging undeniable, Pokémon remains faithful to its formula still winning for over twenty years, at the risk of missing the evolutionary step offered and hoped for by its convergence with the so popular Nintendo Switch. That said, the proposal is still effective for those for whom risk taking is secondary and of course the newcomers, especially children, the first public concerned and whose generations succeed and always succumb to the charm of those offered over the years by Pokémon.

GamesRadar+ - Sam Loveridge

Score: 4.5 / 5 stars

Gameplay tweaks and attention to detail make Pokemon Sword and Shield the most compelling Pokemon world to date.

IGN - Casey DeFreitas

Score: 9.3 / 10

Pokémon Sword and Shield are the best games in the series, streamlining its most tedious traditions without losing any of the charm.

Kotaku - Gita Jackson

Unscored

The magic of Pokémon is that it lets you tap into a sense of wonder that becomes more and more difficult to access as an adult. Sword and Shield do that more successfully than any Pokémon release has in years. It won’t be everything to everyone, and it will not make everyone happy. I’m not sure it needs to. It’s a portal to a new world.

Metro GameCentral

Score: 7 / 10

The furore over Dexit may be overblown but even without it this is an underwhelming and unambitious attempt to modernise Pokémon and expand its horizons.

Polygon - Nicole Carpenter

Unscored

The surprise in Sword and Shield is that I’m still finding things that surprise me, even after putting in so many hours. It’s in how Game Freak has made a linear game feel so much less linear.

VG247 - Alex Donaldson

Score: 3 / 5 stars

Pokémon Sword & Shield is all too often a bit disappointing, and in some places actually feels a little unfinished, but it also fully provides that warm, fuzzy feeling that one expects from the series. Crucially, even through frustration, never once did I think about putting it down, which is to its credit. It comes recommended almost for the Galar setting and new Pokemon alone, but with a long list of caveats indeed.

JeuxVideo - L'avis de Kaaraj (French)

Score: 80 / 100

Pokémon Sword / Shield is offered some new very appreciable. Its artistically beautiful world, its more pronounced work on the realization, but also its new generation of Pokémon as well as several additions like the presence of a last part slightly reworked compared to the precedents make it a convincing opus. Its still very classic structure, its overall lack of difficulty and its technical shortcomings - aliasing in docked mode, clipping - however prevent it from claiming the status of unavoidable. The model of the wild lands and faults present there, however, brings a real good idea to the certain potential for the rest of the series, which we hope to see return in the next games.

Everyeye.i - Francesco "Cydonia" Cilurzo (French)

Score: 85 / 100

Pokémon Sword and Shield are complex and convincing games: a solid plot, a more varied gameplay and a very thoughtfully-created level design are the hallmarks of this new pokémon generation.