After the XC2 mishap, I felt like I needed a lighter game to unwind and get back on track; and that's how I found myself picking up UltraMoon, which had been sitting in my collection for a couple of weeks. I unfortunately got the pair too late to get my greedy paws on the exclusive Dawn Rockruff, so I had to make do with the next best thing: Popplio, a.k.a. the last Alolan Starter I had to run solo with. I was lucky enough to snatch a female Popplio (can't help but think that Popplio's looks would have called for an exceptional reversal of the usual female/male Starter ratio); but woe is me, that female Popplio boasted a Sassy Nature — again!!! However, I was not in the mood to indulge in more RNG galore, and I decided to grind and bear it and run with the Popplio fate had granted me, hoping that overleveling would take care of matters on the long run.
As it turned out, there was definitely no need to worry about Popplio&evos' performance. The Alolan sea lion is simply one of the best Water Starters I've ever handled — on par with my beloved Piplup — and he's the most efficient and kick-ass of the Alolan Starters by a very long shot. Popplio's Move pool definitely makes the most of his sky-high Sp.Attack: nearly all the offensive Moves he can learn are Special Moves, and ridiculously powerful ones at that; that makes him a pure special attacker, and a ridiculously good one at that. My Move quartet was pretty much set during the game's second half, with Moonblast (Fairy), Ice Beam (Ice), Energy Ball (Grass — a Water 'Mon wielding a Grass Move, how broken is that??) and signature Move Sparkling Aria (Water): all insanely destructive Special Moves with a power in the 90s and beyond. Popplio's Move pool is also nicely diverse, with Moves that can take care of a wide variety of 'Mons; in fact, Ice and Fairy Moves alone can wipe out most of the Alolan fauna. Also, I've never encountered a 'Mon with so many Moves that can target several opponents. I swear that at one point in the game, all of my four Moves were multi-targeting Moves — quite handy in Trials, indeed.
Talking about Trials, the order in which they unfold is definitely in
favour of Popplio, with little to no Typing roadblocks along the way. Not that
it would change anything, mind you: the Popplio line, and more specifically
final form Primarina, is so ludicrously overpowered that running solo with them
entirely annihilates Ultra Sun&Moon's famed ramped-up difficulty and
makes the games feel as plain sailing as X&Y. I can count on
literally half the fingers of one hand the number of times I've used a stat-boosting
item over the course of my entire run, none of these times including an Elite
Four battle — as a matter of fact, I pretty much one-shot my way through the
Elite Four. Long story short, Popplio is one of the most broken Starters I've
ever had the pleasure of cruising with, and you should definitely choose him if
you want an easy ride.
I was initially planning to tackle a single Alolan solo run; however, US&M's
revamped 'Mon distribution made me change my mind faster than you can say
"Gee, that 'Mon is super-duper cute and I've never run solo with it!"
As a result, I have a couple more US&M solo runs lined up, and I'm
going to tackle at least one or two of them in the upcoming days. Stay tuned
for more Pokemon goodness, dear fellow gamers; and as usual, thanks for
reading, and be my guest anytime!
I recently
finished Alpha Sapphire; finally! (I really don't like Hoenn). So I can finally
try out Sun and Moon. I did a short test run and the battle lag isn't terrible
in my old 3DS at all. It's probably worse in Totem battles, but I tried 2 vs 2
battles and it was okay. If I don't end up getting a new 2DS XL, I'll still
play these games.
(plus, I'm still hoping for a pokemon stars on switch)
Thing is, I heard Ultra Sun and Moon is almost exactly like Sun and Moon, story
and all, with only a few things added. Considering how different B&W2 were
from the originals, this huge stepback makes me mad. So in your opinion, is it
worth it to even play the originals at all, or should I just skip to the ultra
versions?
Oh boy, that's
really a tricky question. Guess the answer depends on what you expect from that
instalment and what you value the most in a Pokemon entry.
Although the story unfolds roughly in the same way in both pairs, the actual
narrative content differs significantly, with important NPCs being given
completely different personalities and motivations. Sun/Moon's story is fairly
developped, well-told and moving; on the other hand, it's really invasive and
treats your Trainer as a mere side dish. Ultra Sun/Moon, on the other hand,
lets your Trainer shine much more and cuts down NPCs' screen time. I'd say both
stories are fairly interesting in their own right, and it's actually quite
fascinating to see how GameFreak managed to give the narrative a completely
different twist just by changing lines of dialogues and a couple of cutscenes.
Gameplay-wise, Ultra Sun/Moon is the better game overall, with prettier
colours, better user interface and snappier battles. However, it also
introduces even more unskippable tutorials, as well as two annoying skill-based
minigames that you have to play at least once. Oh, and it locks Move Tutors and
Legendaries behind those darn minigames. So... yeah. One step forward, one step
back. For what it's worth, USM is also a tad harder than Sun/Moon.
USM is undeniably better on the postgame front. It offers a great bonus episode
featuring villain teams from other games and old-school puzzles choke-full of
teleporters and tiles; that bonus episode single-handedly makes the pair worth playing
as far as I'm concerned. There seems to be much more postgame content in USM
overall, although I didn't touch most of it.
Last but not least, the fauna is obviously a bit different between the two
pairs. I obviously dig this as a solo runner, but even regular players could
find some appeal there, as some formerly rare 'Mons have been made available in
the wild in USM. For instance, you can catch wild Zoruas fairly early on, as
well as high-level Larvestas (lv. 40-45) before the last Trials.
In a nutshell, both pairs have their strengths and weaknesses and are worth
playing. How about
purchasing one of each? ^^
Oh, I already
have one of each; I have Moon and Ultra Sun. It's just with the plethora of
games I have to play on 3DS alone, never mind with all my other consoles, I
don't think it's worth playing 2 barely different versions of one game. Feels
like a waste of time. I might go back and try the version I skip in later
years, but certainly not before the switch Pokemon game comes out.
As of now, I'm leaning towards Ultra; if the game's story is as invasive as
I've heard it is, then my character better well be involved, or else it just
adds insult to injury. I almost never use move tutors, and legendaries have
been extremely boring to me since gen 6, so heh. Not sure if I care for the
post game episode though; I didn't in Alpha Sapphire. Though in that game it
was about legendaries, which I just said are boring to me, whereas in US&M
it's about the villain teams I have affection for, so I might enjoy that.
Personally I'd rather have a battle tower like in the old Pokemon Emerald and
Platinum though :/
I guess it comes down to the mandatory skill based games, but the mantine
surfing looks fun to be honest. Plus, if I hate it, I only have to do it once,
so it's not too bad.
Laversta is a huge plus; my favourite bug Scolipede is only available in
Sun&Moon though, but even then it's only through the boring island scan
thingy. So I guess my centipede is just out of luck in this gen. No Venomoth
either. Oh well, there's a few interesting bug types introduced in this gen, so
I oughta try them out instead.
Thanks for your input! I'll go for Ultra Sun then, as soon as I'm finished with
Ever Oasis that is. Shouldn't take too long, since I'm really enjoying that
game and playing several hours of it a day. Or maybe after I'm done with Shin
Megami Tensei IV; I've put that game off long enough since the story is meh for
a MegaTen game from what I've heard, but SMT IV Apocalypse fixes it, so I gotta
get through IV someday.
(gotta ignore how good the Strange Journey remake looks before that. Man the original on the DS is
soooo good)
Well, have fun with your Ultra Sun run! I have a couple more posts about USM coming soon, so don't hesitate to drop a comment there to let me know how your run's going and what you think of the game. ^^
I certainly
will! Especially since you have so much experience with gen. 7, whereas I have
none.
Might take a while though; I'm searching for a better job and finishing a huge
writing project I started a year ago. So gaming time has gone down a little.
BTW, did you play enough Ever Oasis to write a post about it? I remember you
told me you were disappointed by it not really being an RPG, but I'm totally
loving it! Granted, I completed ignored any info about the game; I just saw
"3DS game, has cute animal people, certain purchase" so I had no
expectations to disappoint. But I'd really like to know your further thoughts
on it! Especially since I have a lot of gripes with it as well despite loving
it.
"I'm
searching for a better job and finishing a huge writing project I started a
year ago": good luck with that! I'm the type of gamer who just cannot play
at all when I have to deal with important real-life issues, so I totally
understand your position here. ^^
I played 5-6 hours of Ever Oasis, which would technically give me enough
material to write about it. However, my feelings for the game were so tepid
that I just didn't feel like it. Playing Ever Oasis bored me to tears, and the
prospect of writing about it felt even more boring. Some games are just like
that!
That being said, here's a quick rundown of my impressions about the game:
-I loved the graphics, but the chara design left me cold. I felt they were
trying too hard to give characters a cutesy look, and it came across as cheesy
and Disney-ish.
-I hated the music, which reminded me of the soundtrack of a bad adventure
flick. I played with the sound off the whole time.
-I loved the fighting system, but really hated the ability system and the dungeon
puzzles. Having to backtrack constantly to reexplore dungeons was more than I
could bear - all the more so as, as far as I could see, the game didn't offer a
marker system à la XC2 to keep track of inaccessible areas and allow you to
revisit them later.
-The game was a bit too linear and restricted my freedom way too much for my
taste. Maybe it gets better later for all I know, but I really couldn't stomach
the arbitrary gameplay limitations I had to endure in the early stages.
Okay, so I
finally finished ever Oasis, so here are my final opinions on it:
-Recruiting citizens and seeing them open shops and do other things around the
Oasis is extremely fun; it reminded me of the original digimon world, and the
lack of such a feature is why I don't like the 3DS/PSP sequel to that game;
-The story, while nothing new in of itself, did make me care enough about the
characters that I did become emotionally invested in the game.
-There's actually quite a meaty post game, with more residents to recruit,
ultra hard dungeons, more festivals to throw and booths to max out.
-I didn't mind the music. Nothing memorable, but it did fit the desert theme
and there are a few tunes I liked.
-I really enjoyed the character designs, minus the seedlings. I don't know why,
but for the past 10 years human-animal characters have become extremely rare; I
don't know if it's a consequence of the push for realistic graphics or because
those characters are considered "furry bait" now, but I'm glad to see
them slowly come back.
-The ability and exploration system truly was awful, but it never gets as bad
as the dungeon for the second lumite; especially if you ignore extra treasure
chests, and really, there's nothing ever too important in those.
-There's a limit to how many bloom booths you can have!! I'm sure they thought
it would add some "strategic" value as the player has to figure out
how to max them all while keeping all the citizens dependent on certain booths
happy but they were so, SO wrong! It ruined the feeling of seeing the Oasis
grow completely!
-Why can I only have one active sub-quest at all times? And why can I only
activate quests in the oasis? Why must I even activate a quest that I already
have all the items to fulfill, especially when the games automatically prompts
me to deliver the items as soon as I activate it? This cumbersome quest system
made me feel I was playing a game made in the 90's. Convenience is good Grezzo.
And that's it. Overall I really liked it; it was a game I felt I would have loved
as a child. And I've had a really hard time finishing games this year, with
only 32 tittles under my belt when I usually have 50 by now. So I was really
grateful to find a game that I didn't have to make a chore to complete. I'd
very much like to see a sequel on the switch that irons out all the issues and
gives us all the races from the start (cause seriously, the last race you get
the Langora/bunny peps IS SO GOOD! Honestly, the hardest thing about replaying
this game will be knowing I have to spend half the game without one).
I don't know
about you, but I really hated the way they handled the introduction sequence.
So your homeland is destroyed, your brother is left for dead and you're lost in
the desert, and yet your character gets on their feet the next morning as
though nothing happened and gaily start building up a new oasis? Really? If the
developers were not going to comment on the introduction's events and show the
MC's reaction to said events, it would have been better to skip the intro
entirely and let us start from scratch with no narrative.
And since I'm mentioning this, does the MC gets back to their homeland at the
end, and is their brother still alive?
Meh, I've seen
much worse introductions, so it didn't bother me. I'm just glad it was over
quickly. And as for the MC not reacting much, at least they emote a little as
the story goes on; I've seen some spoilers for pokemon S&M and US&M
story (because I really wanted to see if it was really the same thing) and
those games are much worse. How can the MC keep the same dumb smile during the
argument between Lusamine and Lillie, between many other moments? At least Ever
Oasis is a more humble game; Pokemon is the biggest franchise on the 3DS and
already doesn't give a shit about dumping framerate in exchange for stupid crap
like seeing the other trainer, and yet, they couldn't emote the MC even a
little bit? Even in the cash grab that is US&M? And in a game that stops
you every 20 minutes for a cut scene?
Yeah, I've seen worse. And my will to play gen.7 goes ever lower.
The brother thing is followed up on; the chaos took over his body and uses it
for the final boss and a few cutscenes beforehand. It does lead to a BS moment
on Esna's part, but let's just say she pays for it in the end, so I ended up
forgiving it. Plus it was necessary for the plot and again, I've seen worse.
You do get a nice moment at the end when his ghost says goodbye to the MC. As
for the homeland, since the brother and the water spirit there are dead, it's
gone for good. None of the NPCs are seen again either, so they are presumed
dead as well. However, thanks to a huge sacrifice, greenery finally returns to
the desert and from then on, it's your Oasis that will become the center of the
land. For one who enjoyed the Oasis development like myself, it was a decent
ending. The settlements for the other races remain in the game though.
In my humble yet firm opinion, the Pokemon series should never have tried to dabble into complicated stories full of secondary characters. Although I love Sun&Moon, the narrative overload left a sour taste in my mouth on the long run; and now that the novelty of Alola has worn of, I'm definitely less eager to play those games again, because I know I'll have to sit through mountains of cutscenes and tutorials to get to the good stuff.
I think Pokemon
could have dabbled in complicated stories; if it was any good at it, which it's
not. I've watched the whole story, and it's basically the same thing as every
other Pokemon story, only with 2000% more cutscenes. They even show two
trainers battling in a cutscene to let you know battles are a thing. Are you
kidding me? This is Pokemon, I don't need anything to show me that pokemon
battles exist. Ugh.
I'm so sick and tired of the "some evil team abuses a legendary, oh noes,
the end of the world naus!". First off, nobody cares about legendarily and
mythical pokemon; there's so amny of them now that none of them matter. Second
of all, they've been doing this for 5 generations now, and barring generation
5, they've never done it well. Mostly because they freaking refuse to show why
the crisis is so bad; in Digimon Cyber Sleuth, you see the world change as the
story progresses and do get to see some consequences. In Pokemon, everything
stays the same, you just have 5 or more people yelling at you about how bad
things are, and please follow this corridor to engage in a series of battles.
Phew, glad that's over, everything is good again now.
The closest they got to showing actual consequences was in Ruby and Sapphire,
where it begins to rain after the legendary is set free. Whoopee. In the end it
doesn't actually change anything.
But I know Pokemon s capable of better, or otherwise the mystery dungeon series
wouldn't exist! Explorers of sky is one of the most heartbreaking games ever!
So, oh why, did they not try to make anything different in the generation that
was supposed to change things up? At least go back to how generation 1 and 2
did things.
Digimon did it a lot better; not only are the plots in Cyber Sleuth, Hacker's
Memory and even Next Order (which is not meant to have a story at all) much
better and varied than what Pokemon has to offer, they're also done in VN
format, so if you don't want to listen, just keep masking circle and X. And the
monster digimon actually look intimidating; a plus for Digimon always having
embraced ugly and creepy designs. It might have made them lose the monster wars
in the early 2000's, but it's paying off now. When I go against Examon, I
actually feel threatened. Generation 7 tried, but it's darn obvious they still
can't commit to making a truly intimidating pokemon.
Not to mention, with Pokemon not only can't you skip fast because the game
insists on playing out all the stupid animations (stupid forever smiling
protagonist), but the camera feels like panning to every little thing. On a
system that clearly can't handle it! At least Digimon is on the PS4 and Vita.
Both games should allow you to skip cutscenes entirely, but I just replayed
Next Order and mashing x in it is way faster than even in Pokemon X&Y.
I was so excited for generation 7, since they were finally changing things up.
The trials look amazing! But everything else looks like a pain to get through
while I try to actually play the game. No thanks!
Pokemon Switch better improve this. Or else my standing with Pokemon is in
serious trouble. E3 can't come fast enough.
I really hate
to rain on someone's parade, but I must warn you though: don't get to excited
about the Trials, because the sad truth is that they suck overall.
Sure, Trials make perfect sense from a narrative point of view, because it
wouldn't make sense for an tiny archipelago nation like Alola to waste
resources on building Gyms for the 2-3 kids that tackle the Island Challenge
every year; but when it comes to gameplay, oh dear, do they fail to replicate
the thrill of Gyms. Here are the main issues I have with Trials:
-They are painfully linear and on-rails, with every Trial unfolding in the
exact same for every player. Gone is the agency of the Gyms, which allowed you
to grind on Trainers or make a beeline for the Gym Leader.
-They hold your hand every step of the way and shove cutscenes down your
throat, as though there were not enough of these already in the Gen VII games.
-They always pit you against two Pokemons in the final round, which is just
purely unfair unless your lead 'Mon wields a multi-targeting move. Obviously
you're going to be overpowered when you're going two against one, and you'll
have to rely on luck a lot more than you'd wish.
-They won't let you exit midway to refurbish, which is something that was
possible in Gyms. For all intents and purposes, each Trial is like a mini-Elite
Four showdown.
-Last but not least, the tasks involved in Trials are often dead-boring;
whether it be following wild 'Mons, taking pictures of them, fetching items or
playing a 'spot the difference' game, they all feel like minigames for
5-years-olds and are not nearly as pleasant to tackle as the puzzles offered by
the Gyms of old.
Fantastic. So
all the changes they made was for the worse. And MORE cutscenes? Pointless
quests to pad things out? Ughhh.
The 3DS generation was so bad for pokemon overall compared to the DS. Even
X&Y feels sorely lacking compared to generation 5 and Heartgold/Soulsilver.
And what happened to all the spin-offs we used to get? No more rangers,
conquest, pokepark...just mystery dungeon and even those went down the drain
compared to explorers of sky. Maybe detective Pikachu is worth something?
Yep, sorry to disappoint since you wanted my thoughts on them as well, but I
think I'm gonna put pokemon on the backburner and focus on SMTIV. Flawed as
that game may be, it kept mostly-awesome gameplay and lead to a fantastic
sequel.
Off topic, but just today I had an experience that lead me to realize I could
die at any moment, so I shouldn't waste my life playing subpar games out of a
sense of guilt over the money I spent. So I won't strive to complete games
anymore, and I'm gonna go replay some favourites without any guilt and drop
them just as fast, because seriously, life is awful. I don't need to make my
hobby awful as well. And sad as it, Sun and Moon don't seem worth my time at
all.
I also need to stop buying every game ever and just strive to buy the ones I
really think I'll love; then my guilt over my backlog will probably alleviate
some. I just hope I don't miss out on some gems like Ever Oasis.
"The 3DS
generation was so bad for pokemon overall compared to the DS": a Pokemon
Youtuber I follow, Silver League Networks, said roughly the same thing in a
recent video. In his opinion, all the 3DS pokemon entries feel rushed and not
polished enough; and although I love those games, I have to agree with that
point of view. Give me the DS Pokemon games, or even the GBA ones, and I'll
take them whole and won't change a thing about them; but give me the 3DS ones,
and I can find a crap ton of things I'd like to change or get rid off entirely.
I think that says it all.
"So I won't strive to complete games anymore, and I'm gonna go replay some
favourites without any guilt" / "I also need to stop buying every
game ever and just strive to buy the ones I really think I'll love": a
million times amen to that. I came to the exact same conclusion lately,
although in a less dramatic fashion than you. Hope you're okay, by the way.
I also watch
Silver League Networks, though I haven't watched that particular video of his.
I'll have to check it out. But it's true that the 3DS games are underwhelming
to say the least...I mean, I had to take a two year break to finish Alpha
Sapphire. I had to start 3 playthroughs to finish X. And I played half an hour
of Ultra Sun to test the framerate on an old 3DS and I don't have the will to
pick it back up again. That's not normal...
I'd say it's just because I'm becoming old for these games, but that's not
true, since I still replay the DS games all the time. And you're relatively new
to the series, so fatigue shouldn't have settled in yet. Not to mention I love
the digimon games, Yokai Watch and even Moco Moco friends so I'm clearly not
tired of monster raising games.
No, something is clearly wrong with Pokemon. I still maintain that if they
still had so many good spin-offs as they had in the DS era, the franchise
wouldn't be so tired out. But now all we have is mystery dungeon, trozei
(mobile grind trash) and GO (worst mobile trash ever). The switch has montion
controls so it'd be perfect to bring back pokepark, but instead we get a port
of GO and even more fremium crap. Detective Pikachu and Pokken don't count
since I seriously doubt we'll ever see sequels. I'm honestly worried for the
series.
I'm physically okay, so don't worry. But thanks for asking! Hopefully things
pick soon, but I'll take these lessons to heart. Finally started SMT IV today
and I'm loving it. I don't care if I should be finishing Shadow Hearts 2, the
grinding in that game has tired me out for now.
It's the video
called "Five pros and cons of Ultra Sun & Moon". It's quite
spoiler-free if I remember correctly, so you can watch it and get a better view
of what to expect in US&M... If you ever play them, that is. :P
My main issue with the 3DS entries is that they are too long, too hand-holdy
and too full of fluff and gimmicks, and that makes solo runs more of a hassle
than they should be. I can pick up and polish off old entries in a jiffy,
getting my fill of solo Pokemon action; with the 3DS entries, on the other
hand, I have to waste time watching cutscenes, petting my lone 'Mon for better
performance in battle and higher friendship, going through tutorials, yadda
yadda. I still haven't managed to wrap up a solo run of the 3DS entries in less
than 20 hours, and that truly bothers me; because as far as I'm concerned, the
ideal length for a Pokemon solo run is 15-ish hours. 20-25 hours is definitely
too long and leaves me with lingering Pokemon fatigue more often than not.
That's true for
most games when they transition to 2D from 3D though; compare 2D Zelda to 3D
Zelda for one. There are some exceptions, like Sonic mostly feels as fast to
play in 3D as he did in 2D, but I think that might just be because speed is an
essential part of his identity.
Most of Pokemon's (and a lot of other game's) issues could be fixed if they
just swallowed their pride and let us skip the cutscenes. Games are meant to be
replayed, or used to before making never ending games with micro transactions
became the norm, and no matter how good your story is, no one wants to sit
through it 4-5 times. And if your story is crap like Pokemon's, then I don't
want to sit through it even once. And tutorials should always be skip-able; no
excuses.
At least SMT IV understands this, and has an awesome fast-forward button to
boot.
"Let us
skip the cutscenes" / "tutorials should always be skip-able":
this, so much this. I would kill for skippable cutscenes and tutorials in the
3DS Pokemon games, especially Sun & Moon.
I don't wanna be that old fart grumbling that things were better before; but
for me, gaming lost something essential when moving to 3D. This was the turning
point when developers started pushing for more cinematic experiences and
somehow forget what makes gaming unique, namely interactivity and player
agency. That sorry trend has only gotten worse over time, and that's how we are
now stuck with games that try to be both video games and movies and fail
utterly at both. There you go, my two ranting cents of the day. ^^
This might be
because of my own personal age, since I mostly remember the saturn and psx eras
(though I did start gaming seriously extremely young), but I still think the
ps1 and ps2 era was very good. I can certainly see how things started to change
and how that turned some people away, but it had way too many good things to be
seen as a loss in my books. There was a lot of variety in genres, cute 3D
platfomers and JRPGs ruled the land, quirky games were everywhere. And some
things, like the BS difficulty from the previous eras, was gone while not
falling into patronizing hand-holding at the same time, so that was nice. And I
just can't hate 3D when my favourite trilogy, Spyro the dragon, helped
popularize it in the first place. Call it bias, but it's true.
No, the real bad part started in the PS3 era for a lot of reasons; graphics
became everything, pretty much any genre that wasn't FPS fell to obscurity, and
everything became connected online, which brought DLC, season passes, micro
transactions...the single player games suffered a sudden and undignified death
that we're only now starting to recover from. And we'll never get a complete
experience anymore; patches and DLC for life, so says the industry.
Didn't help that Nintendo had their most awful consoles during that time, so
the only company interested in giving us non-FPS games couldn't reach an
audience. This is why I turned to handheld gaming; the DS, PSP, Vita and 3DS
were the only bastions of hope for a while. But things are changing now, since
development costs rose so high that most developers can't deliver the
open-world multiplayer experience that apparently most gamers want, so they
went back to doing more experimental stuff. The indie market is now a big part
of the industry, and that helps a lot as well.
Of course, Nintendo is now also falling to the online BS as well. Did you hear
that you can't trade pokemon anymore unless you pay for their awful online
service? This just makes trade evolution pokemon even more garbage; now you
can't even do the old trick of buying two systems and two copies, nope, an
additional 40$ on top of that please.
If anything, it's online functionality that ruined gaming for me. And gaming
critics, who I single-handedly blame for the patronizing tutorials and the
non-skipable cutscenes. Just look a the whole cuphead debacle; they want a
button to skip boss fights in a bullet hell game, seriously? The fact that the
industry relies on metacritic scores that these clowns give out is laughable
and worrisome at the same time.
Well, don't we
all have tons of personal biases when it comes to which gaming eras and trends
we deem best. ^^ The Saturn/PSOne gen was the one that drove me away from
gaming for a really long time, so obviously I tend to see it as a harbinger of
gaming doom.
"Did you hear that you can't trade pokemon anymore unless you pay for
their awful online service?": Really?! Buuuut, I traded 'mons locally
between my copies of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon a mere couple of weeks ago... Do
you mean that I cannot do that anymore? Now that would piss me off, because I
had a couple of appetizing solo runs based on traded 'mons in the pipeline. :/
I meant with
let's go Pikachu and Eevee, and any future games on devices that support
Nintendo's online subscription model. The 3DS and older devices do not fall
under that model, so the older games are safe. But forget it for any future
entries, unless the backlash is huge, but I doubt it. Nintendo's online looks
like a pathetic joke, and they don't have a lot of multiplayer games either, so
their only way to compete is to pull crap like this.
To each their own bias, but the saturn and PSX still had a good mix of old
style games and new 3D ones; plus a lot of the biggest changes came to new
genres like collectatons, whereas others mostly stayed the same but with new
graphics, AKA most RPGs. It may have seemed for a while that 3D was the only
style to be done anymore, with Mario, Zelda, Sonic, etc, all making the leap,
but we know now all those big franchises would eventually offer 2D games again
as well, so I really think you should give emulation the PSX a go; there's a
lot of awesome RPGs that never made it out of there. Like Suikoden, for one.
*Breathing a
giant sigh of relief* Sheesh, you had me worried for a second there. But yeah,
that sucks. The Pokemon series was always based on exchange and co-op, and it
stings to see Nintendo suddenly slap a paywall on that most crucial aspect of
the series. But hey, they tested the waters with the Pokemon Bank, and fans
took that change rather well; so why not take it a step further, hey? There's
now a whole generation of gamers that deem perfectly normal to pay extra bucks
for game features that should have been included day one, so better milk them
to death, right? (*seething sarcasm*)
Well, you'll be happy to learn that I finally overcame my PSone revulsion after
my stellar experience with the PSP and Vita; as a matter of fact, I even own a
couple of PSone RPGs - including, funnily enough, Suikoden and Suikoden 2. ^^
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