Greetings and Merry Christmas to you all, dear fellow gamers! I've been writing about general gaming matters since the beginning of december, and you may wonder if I've been playing any game at all during that time. Well, the answer is yes: as a matter of fact, I've been pretty engrossed by a single game these last weeks, and that game is none other than the newly released Pokemon Sun. I've been polishing off two playthroughs of it already, and run reports are very much in the pipeline. But for the time being, I want to write about my overall impression of the game and analyze the many changes it packs in its tiny cartridge. Without further ado, let's dissect the newest Pokemon beast together! (Slight SPOILERS ahead!)
The Sun/Moon
pair means a lot to me, because they are the first brand-new Pokemon entries
released since I discovered the series in 2014. I've been waiting and pinning
for them with a lot of trepidation and anticipation; and oh boy, did they
gloriously fulfill my expectations. I can proudly claim that Sun and Moon
are my favourite Pokemon entries ever and that insular Alola managed
to charm and enrapture me like no other Pokemon region ever did. Heck,
cruising through Alola even awakened in me an overwhelming desire
to visit its real-life inspiration and gorge on deliciously real malasadas.
The early stages of my exploration of Sun, however, were not that
glorious: in fact, my initial feelings about the Alolan entries were lukewarm
at best. The excessive linearity, constant hand-holding and abundance of
cutscenes were a shock to my system, and I think the only reason I was able to
soldier through the first hours of the game without ditching it entirely before
writing a scathing review was because my levels of energy were still quite low
at the time and could thus accommodate an overbearing game. And that's all for
the best, because once I managed to accept that this was the newest Pokemon fashion
and got fully used to it, I fell head over heels in love with Alola. I love the
rural insular setting of that new region and the fact that it sports no huge
and confusing city like entries from generations V and VI. I love the fact that
Alola is so cosy and welcoming, with a nice variety of pint-sized landscapes
that don't take hours to explore. I love the gentle atmosphere and the fact
that the locals are so hell-bent on collaborating and welcoming a complete
stranger like me. Feeling like a foreigner and being routinely challenged by
locals in a slightly antagonistic way in former Pokemon entries was a
thrilling experience, but I definitely prefer the comfy, heartwarming and
welcoming vibe of Sun and Moon, in which every NPC treats me as
an important part of the community. (Of course, it certainly doesn't hurt that
one of the local Guardian Deities entrusted me with a Sparkling Stone that let
me use D-moves five minutes after I set foot on Alola, thus making me a kahuna
in all but name, now does it?) I love this friendliness so much that I simply
cannot help but go out of my way to chat with every single NPC in Alola.
Given that
Alolans are so open and friendly, it makes perfect sense that the game won't
pit you against a hot-blooded rival this time around. For all the wild
speculations on the internet regarding the rival matter—going from the notion that your
character is actually supposed to play the role of the rival towards Hau to the
idea that your real and true rival is Professor Kukui—we have to face the truth here:
there is no traditional rival in Pokemon Sun and Moon. Hau is way
too friendly to be a rival, all the more so as he chooses the starter that's
weak against your own. Gladion appears too unfrequently to be considered a true
rival and has his own goals that have nothing to do with becoming the strongest
trainer around. As for Professor Kukui, he fights you only once and does so as
the resident champion. Sun and Moon take away the good old rival
figure and replace it with a variety of antagonists that fight you for various
reasons and are nowhere near as aggressive and determined to beat the crap out
of you as the rivals of old. And boy, is that refreshing. As much as I enjoyed
showing over-confident pricks à la Barry who was the boss, I relish this
change of pace in all things rivalry.
The resident villain team was also treated to a much-needed makeover. Let's
face it: although they are initially designed to be threatening, villain teams
always come across as foolish and slightly pathetic. Game Freak seem to have
noticed this pattern and taken it in their stride; this time around, they
created a team of villains that were very blatantly designed as laughing
stocks, with hilarious behaviours and one-liners that bring a lot of humour
into the game. On the other hand, they introduced a villain team in disguise in
the shape of the Aether Foundation employees, whose rigid ethos and
self-righteous behaviours, constant meddling and too pristine outfits are bound
to elicit unease and suspicion—which turn
out to be totally justified. It is later revealed that the two teams work hand
in hand for very mundane reasons; and although they do some harm over the
course of the game, neither of them are as inherently evil and rotten as teams
from former entries, which is a welcome change of tone.
That leads
us to the story, which is considerably more fleshed-out than your usual Pokemon
romp. No more "take that pokedex and become the strongest trainer out
there", no more teams of villains with murky and far-fetched motives; this
time, your trainer gets to interact with characters that have believable goals
and sound reasons to act the way they do. Sun and Moon's
storyline is surprisingly grounded and well put together, and all the
characters turn out to be pleasantly relatable. Instead of dealing with
guru-like team leaders that want to get their paws on godly 'Mons for purposes
unfathomable to anyone but themselves, we are confronted with a slightly insane
wealthy woman who collects pokemons she deems perfect for her own selfish
enjoyment. In a region so intent on cooperating and helping one another as
Alola, this comes across as the ultimate treason and a potentially dangerous
behaviour that must be stopped at any cost—and that's obviously a job for your
trainer, along with many helpers. I was very fond of that simple yet
well-constructed story, although I could have done with slightly less cutscenes
and hand-holding along the way, as well as a trifle less linearity. This is the
first Pokemon entry in which the story moves you forward instead of the
opposite, and I cannot help but feel a bit sorry for all the players whose
primary purpose is the hunting and breeding of 'Mons and who must endure heavy
amounts of narrative to reach the next area in line.
I can't avoid mentioning the biggest change of them all, namely the ousting of
Gyms. The streamlined and compact Gym structure with its unmovable eight
milestones has been replaced by the much looser Trial structure. The core goal
is still the same, i.e. fighting strong Trainers and 'Mons and ultimately
getting the upper hand as well as an item that will prove your victory beyond
any doubt; however, Trials have a much more roundabout way to lead you towards
that goal. They come in all shapes and sizes, involve a wide variety of
endeavours and are scattered around the islands in uneven numbers. All this
makes them much more unpredictable than the Gyms of old and thus quite
refreshing for veteran players. Although I slightly miss the thrill of taking
one Gym after the other in an neat and orderly fashion, I have to admit that
the Trial structure is a stimulating change of pace that's perfectly suited to
the more rural and insular nature of the Alolan region to boot.
What's highly interesting about
these changes is that they all target unexpected features and aspects of the
series. Pokefans have been calling for many changes over the years, but I was
never aware that there were massive pleas to change the Gym system, the rival
dynamic or the narrative. All these changes were not only not demanded, but
also not inherently needed: Pokemon games just worked fine the
way they did and could have kept doing so. These massive changes in areas that
were not in dire need of changes can be interpreted as a message from Game
Freak, and by extension Nintendo. They are basically telling us that this time,
they mean business and are ready to usher a new era. This is consistent with
the changes that could be spotted in other upcoming entries of Nintendo IPs,
such as the open world of Breath of the Wild, and it's also consistent
with the innovative and revolutionary image of the Switch. Nintendo have being
consistently accused of resting on their laurels and recycling their old gaming
formulas ad nauseam during the whole 3DS and WiiU era, and they
obviously want to silence such criticism for good and prove that they can
evolve if they put their mind to it. I'm curious—and a bit anxious, I admit—to see where this brand-new
direction will lead them; although this could bring some welcome innovations to
the fold, I fervently hope that I won't ever have to suffer through an
open-world Pokemon instalment.
These were my overall feelings about Sun and Moon, but I'm far
from being done with these games, both in playing and writing. I'll see you
very soon with more Alolan goodness, dear fellow gamers! Thanks for reading,
and be my guest anytime!
7 comments:
Kumiko29 December 2016 at 23:06
When you said "open world
pokemon" I started thinking "well, at least they have enough
different pokemon to fill the world, so it wouldn't be as bad as most empty
open world games". And then I suddenly realized: Digimon World 1 and Digimon
World Re Digitize are open world games. Yes they are. Sure, you have a main
city and digimon get stronger the farther away you get from said city, but
there's barely any restrictions on where you can go (only a few areas are
guarded by a boss, and most stuff you unlock are just shortcuts to make
traveling easier). So if are sneaky enough you can get a bunch of the
recruitable digimon by just walking around, you can also grind for the random
items, start your card collection and fish, all without battling. But on the
flip side, there's no level cap on training, so it is possible to train up your
digimon enough to cruise through the story like it's made of butter. So those
games technically are open world, but we don't usually think of them as such
because their worlds are much smaller, whereas most modern open world games are
huge as all hell.
So if pokemon went in a similar direction, it might not be so bad. Don't worry
though, they had to be dragged kicking and screaming for 20 years to finally
change up their old formula. I'm very doubtful they'll change the game so much
again in a long time.
I have not played Sun and Moon yet because I'm waiting for the switch port, I
heard it runs like crap on the old 3DS and I'm still not done with Alpha
Sapphire (I really hate Hoenn. Not even the remakes save it. Exploring all that
water mass is like torture). But there are a bunch of changes I'm really happy
with. I've been with the franchise for 18 years, so a break from the gym quest
is a welcome place. And it's about time they put a damn story in. They went in
the right direction with Black and White, then completely blew it with X and Y
(oh, but we got 5 useless rivals in that game to compensate, hooray). Pokemon
is an RPG first and foremost, but it never felt like it in that regard.
There are some other changes I know I'm going to love. HMs finally being gone,
knowing which moves are effective with the pokemon you're battling (finally I
don't have to have a type chart constantly open in a tab), pokemon refresh, the
poke Pelago, etc. I also like how unique each Pokemon feels in Alola and a lot
of the new abilities that were introduced, even without playing competitively.
I also know I'm going to hate a few things, namely the lack of the dexnav, lack
of horde battles, pokemon still don't follow you and the fact that they
replaced Super Training with Hyper Training. Hyper training that needs the
Festival plaza to unlock. A festival plaza that needs interacting with other
players in order to advance, grrr. Damnit GF, isn't it enough that some of the
most awesome pokemon are locked behind the trading mechanic in order to evolve
(I'm still so pissed over not being able to have Trevenant and Gourgeist.
Seriously, how mean is it to lock bot grass/ghost pokemon behind that crap? Why
not just one?), that some exclusive pokemon were held ransom in the friend
safari in X and Y, that making poffins alone is a pain, and now training is
locked too? I know Nintendo loves the socializing aspect, but seriously, isn't
it my god given right to be an asocial hermit? I play videogames to get away
from people. There should at least be an option to access those features in
another way, even if it's a way harder option, but nope. Either socialize or
you can't enjoy the game you paid for in its fullest >:(
"Seriously, isn't it my god
given right to be an asocial hermit?" I love that sentence. It pretty much
sums up my own philosophy when it comes to gaming. The only time I've even been
into multiplayer was back in the 16-bit days when it was local. We would huddle
on the neighbour's couch and beat the crap out of each other in Street of Rage,
or I would spend late winter afternoons cruising through Sonic 3&Knuckles
with my sister handling Tails. Those were great days and I have the fondest memories
of them. But multiplayer on the internet with strangers? No thanks. I wanna be
able to look my challengers in the eye--and elbow them if they play dirty.
I think the main issue with open worlds is how big the open world in question
is. Bigger is not always better indeed, and developers tend to go seriously
overboard when it comes to implementing open worlds. I think I would enjoy a
tiny open world, but enormous open worlds a la Skyrim or GTA are just a waste
of time as far as I'm concerned. I mean, if I want to explore a huge open
world, I just have to step outside and cruise the REAL world--and unlike game
open worlds, this can actually bring me a treasure trove of experiences and
benefits.
I also have some fond memories of
playing with others, mainly getting my ass handed in Soul Blade by my older
sister, playing the multiplayer mini-games in Sonic Heroes with a friend, the
one time me and my sister beat Sonic 2 together, and even fond memories of just
beating a part my sister couldn't get through in a Buffy game or commenting
while my friend showed me the Sims 1 for the first time on her xbox.
But I value my experiences alone too. And the big difference is, not only was I
playing with people I like (not strangers online who, let's face it, have a
reputation for being douches), but all those games I mentioned? The multiplayer
stuff was all optional. I could play the game alone and feel like I got my
money's worth. Not so with pokemon, I've always felt that trade evolution were
unfair.
But it doesn't just happen with pokemon. I hated how so many unlockables were
inaccessible to a lone player in little big planet so much I never bought
another game in the franchise. I despised how some costumes in Soul Calibur IV
were locked behind multiplayer achievements, but thankfully they fixed that in
the sequel. I've still never touched SC IV again, while I regularly still go
back to its previous entries.
I'm okay with there being achievements for online stuff, since I don't care for
those and they honestly don't matter, but locked content is horrible. I paid
the same price as everyone else and I feel I should have the choice to play my
single player game alone and get the same content as everyone else who chooses
to play the online. I don't want online features to be gone either, since I
know many people enjoy them, but I want them to be 100% optional like they were
in the good old days. If you have to encourage most players to go online by
locking content behind it, then maybe game developers should consider that
their online content sucks and does not benefit the game, despite what the
marketing department tells them.
This is one thing that has me worried for digimon's future. So far, this is one
other element that it has over Pokemon. There's an online arena, but you can
100% all games without touching it and there's always an offline arena too. But
Habu, who has been the director for all digimon games for 8 years except next
order*, had said that he would like to focus on online features for a future
digimon game. To be fair, he has only said "Like you can play with others
or something, we would put that into the new concept.", so maybe he just
means something like Fable's 3 co-op. And I want to have faith that he wouldn't
lock things like digimon evolutions behind it, but....the DNA digivolutions
(where you need two digimon to get an uber one) make the series ripe for such a
thing.
I dunno, I still have faith in the man. He does seem to know what he's doing.
But it's still so sad that it seems every franchise feels that they have to
cram online features, when it honestly feels unneeded. It feels like they do it
just because it's the "cool, new and hip" thing among games nowadays,
not because it would benefit the game.
As for open world, yes, I agree that
the size of the worlds is the real problem. Not only is it easier to get lost
and lose your goal in a huge world, but its also way harder for the developers
to stretch their resources to make the world interesting. Which leads to the
empty bore fests we have today.
But digimon world shows that if the world is small and the story is flexible
and simple enough, it can work. It worked so well that it never even dawned on
me that it was open world until recently. And small worlds are all most
Japanese developers can afford, and we both know most of them aren't complete
idiots. They know that if they can't provide extremely huge worlds to
"explore", they have to make some effort to make them memorable.
How they will do that and will it be good for us is the question. Honestly, I
think this matter will be settled for me by Koei Tecmo. They're the perfect
example, they're experienced but don't have the resources of say, Square Enix.
They also know they have rabid fanbases to please (mainly the warriors
fanbase). So how they will handle open world in Toukiden 2 and Dynasty Warriors
9 will be extremely important to me, especially since those games aren't even
in the same genre. If even they say "screw it, let's just copy what the
others do" and forcefully cram their franchises into something that
doesn't fit them, then I'll give up for good. But I hope that isn't the case.
Also, being a little optimistic here, but I think linear games will most likely
never disappear completely despite all of our doom and gloom, since those
narratives don't work in an open world no matter how much money they throw at
it. And japanese developers love their huge and convoluted narratives too much
to give them up completely. Maybe we'll see less linear RPGs, sure, but I don't
think they'll go the way of adventure games in the 2000's.
So who knows, maybe even if the switch encourages more open world RPGs it won't
be so bad. Like I said, I'll rest my judgment until I see how KT handles
Toukiden 2 and Dynasty Warriors 9.
I agree with you regarding the fact
that multiplayer options should be optional, especially if they involve online
endeavours. Games are purchased by individuals and should be tailored first and
foremost for a single player, period. Anything beyond the core single-player
experience should be the icing on the cake.
I'll allow myself to be super-optimistic there: I think gigantic open worlds
are just a fad that will disappear with time. Right now gamers are baffled by
the feeling of realism and the immensity of the game worlds that are at their
fingertips, but sooner or later the novelty will wear off and people will get
bored. The exploration of huge open worlds will finally appear as what it
actually is, i.e. a huge waste of time. Developers will adapt and offer more
compact and fulfilling open worlds that don't need a full year to be navigated
and gigantic open worlds will join the long list of past gaming trends.
"Those narratives don't work in an open world no matter how much money
they throw at it": Indeed, even tinier open worlds won't be fit for all
gaming genres. But I'm optimistic too and pretty convinced that as gaming
progresses, developers will learn to use their tools in the best possible way
and manage to craft game worlds that are perfectly tailored to the kind of
gaming experience they want to deliver.
Kumiko29 December 2016 at 23:07
Also, you think Barry was one of the
bad rivals? He is classified as one of the nice ones, and as someone who went
from Pokemon Red to Pokemon Pearl, I can testify that. Barry is the type of
rival the players didn't want, the type they wanted is the asshole bully type
that makes them feel all powerful when they're beaten. I'm not a competitive
player and I personally didn't even find Blue to be that much of a jerk (so I
was never one of those who named him "Dickbutt"), so I'd rather have
a rival with a personality and story significance. Not having played Sun and
Moon yet, I have to say my favourite rival is Hugh from Black and White 2, and
he barely fought the player at all. But predictably, most players hate him,
because who cares about the rival having a stake on the plot and an actual
backstory and motivation?
s
Barry is not bad per se, he's just
supremely irritating. I couldn't take a step without him popping up and
claiming that he would beat me this time around, even though I had wiped the
flour with him the last 156 times we battled. He was supposed to be my friend,
but he felt more like the random next-door kid with a huge inferiority complex
that he tried to compensate for by challenging me constantly. (Ah, the
unexpected depths of Pokemon rival psychology)
I also have to admit that since Diamond/Pearl/Platinum were my entry points
into the series, Barry has somehow become the blueprint for all rivals. And
he's the only rival who actually managed to rough me up, back in the time when
I was not soloing Pokemon games.
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