December Bonus Review #2: Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

I’ve talked about the Pokémon franchise a lot. Both in anime form and in terms of the games. And why not? It was part of my childhood and it’s a franchise I still regularly revisit for relaxation. Except Sword & Shield as they were rubbish. But let’s look at the latest main instalments. Like with Sword & Shield, I’m not going to discuss Gamefreak’s lazy and consumer unfriendly decision to leave certain Pokémon out of the game. I will however be discussing the sorry state of the games at launch. Let’s get started.

Story:

We open with our protagonist moving to the Paldea region and beginning their new life at The Pokémon Academy. After a brief introduction, our young hero is set loose on a treasure hunt which has them challenging gyms, raiding bases of the seemingly delinquent Team Star and chasing down massive Titan Pokémon for mysterious herbs.

The story in this instalment is actually among the best in the franchise. If not the actual best. All three story arcs are really compelling and feature unexpectedly tragic elements that add some serious depth. They also each have their own climaxes and they come together in a really strong way for the game’s finale.

Characters:

This title has some of the strongest characters in the franchise’s history as well. You have Nemona in the gym challenge, Penny in the Team star story & Arven in the Titan hunt. I’ll be completely honest. At the start, I didn’t much like any of them as characters. They all seemed kind of flat but the game does an excellent job of slowly peeling back that superficial impression and showing you the hidden motivations and layers of the characters.

Nemona, for example, starts out looking like an over-eager battle maniac. However, as you progress it becomes clear that she wanted you to love battling and rise to become a formidable trainer because she feels stifled by success. There isn’t anyone around who can give her a good challenge and that’s gradually causing her to become disinterested in something she used to love. Which is a very interesting take on a strong trainer and a compelling way to tackle burnout. Arven and Penny likewise have some highly interesting layers hiding beneath your initial perception of them. Which I wasn’t anticipating because Pokémon characters are usually exactly what they appear to be.

Gameplay:

Let’s begin with the big aspect that needs to be discussed. The state of the game at launch. This game started out with a lot of bugs, glitches, lag issues (even when playing offline) and crashes. We may live in a world where that isn’t uncommon. Where, in fact, games are frequently released in an incomplete state and patched into a more playable framework. For me, this is still unacceptable. Being able to patch games post-launch does not give companies carte blanche to half-ass their releases.

That isn’t the only issue with the gameplay. The open world may be a good idea but they didn’t execute it well. The issue being that the levels of trainers, Titan Pokémon, & Team Star bases are all stagnant. They don’t change based on where you are in the game, how much you’ve completed or your level. What that means is if you start out going to the right of the Academy and clear out a bunch of events there and return to the left side later, the left side will be far too easy unless you want to completely change your party. Which happened to me. I went right at the start and by the time I headed left I could beat anything in one hit. On the opposite end, you can also go too far while exploring and wind up facing opponents who are virtually impossible. This also happened to me. I nearly got wiped by a trainer with a single Pokémon because it was twenty some levels higher than anything I had.

The game also removed the convenient GTS system where you could deposit a Pokémon for trade and someone could take the trade at any time. Which made it so much simpler to get trade evolutions since you could just put in a Machoke, request a Machoke and both you and your trade partner would get Machamps. Some of the new Pokémon also have really annoying evolution methods. There are multiple monsters that evolve from taking steps while walking with you which is just time consuming. The worst, however, is Gimmighoul. Gimmighoul is basically a mimic Pokémon, if you’re dealing with a really ugly mimic. To evolve it you have to find 999 Gimmighoul coins around the map. What makes it more insulting is that its evolution is bloody hideous. It looks like the mascot for tearaway cheese but you have to get it on your Pokedex if you want to complete it and get the shiny charm.

Let’s move on to the positive aspects. First of all, being able to see the Pokémon wandering around on the map is still a positive improvement. I also really like the movement mechanic of having this legendary Pokémon you use as a mount and helping it regain abilities in order to traverse various areas. It’s a good way of blocking player access to certain areas until they’re ready without resorting to something annoying like HMs. The way they do TMs in this is also a better compromise between giving them unlimited uses and just having them break than they’ve done before. What they do is give you the ability to make TMs using items you find and LP. So, you can make whatever TMs you want so long as you’ve had the TM in question. Though I still would prefer to just have unlimited uses like they did in Sun/Moon. I also appreciate the game giving you prizes throughout for Pokedex completion. It makes it more immediately awarding to go through the whole process of catching them all than just doing the whole thing and hoping they’ll give you a prize after. The whole lecture and testing process at the Academy is also a nice touch. It’s like an optional tutorial that offers you rewards for doing it and doesn’t take up too much time.

Then we have the Terastal mechanic. Honestly, it might be the best new game gimmick the franchise has had in a long time. The way it works is that you can use your tera orb once per battle to change a Pokémon into a specific type, at which point it looks like a crystalline figure, and give it extra damage when using moves of that type. What makes it interesting is that you can change a Pokémon’s Tera type. For instance, you could take Gyarados and make it a ground type with all the weaknesses and strengths thereof. So, it’s not broken and over-powered like getting three powerful attacks that also give you boosts. Nor is it team limiting like Megas were. It’s a lot more strategic.

Art:

The issue with the art is that the game has a lot of weird graphical glitches. They’re especially obvious if you watch random people in the background and their janky movements but you’ll also notice bizarre perspective. Like, you’ll battle a child trainer and the grass behind them will be taller than they are. It’s also disappointing that you can’t buy cute outfits for your trainer. You can buy hats, gloves, shoes, glasses, socks and bags but you don’t get shirts, skirts, trousers. Instead you’re stuck with one of four school uniforms. I miss Sun and Moon where you could change your outfit daily and find all kinds of interesting outfit pieces in the shops.

There are some positives. First off, the important trainers (Elite Four, Gym Leaders, Important NPCs) all look really good and unique. Even if they are a little pandering with characters like Iono, the gym leader who streams. Her design is still fecking adorable. The opening character customisation for hair colour, eye colour and hair style is also really good. The Pokémon models have some very nice details. Unlike Sword/Shield, these ones actually look like they’ve been updated and not just lazily imported from the prior generation. The Tera effect is also really nice looking. Like I said, Tera Pokemon look like crystalline figures with little added flair for the tops of their heads. The animation to Tera is also fairly quick and clean unlike the overblown Dynamax animation.

Sound:

The music is pretty solid. It can get a bit repetitive during longer gaming sessions. While there is some unique music for gym battles and such, you’re going to hear a lot of the same music for travelling, wild battles, random trainer battles and such.

Areas of Improvement:

1. These games never should have released in the state they did. If Gamefreak needed an extra month or two to get everything fixed, they should have pushed back the release date.
2. The game needed the GTS system in place. Especially if they’re going to keep the whole trade evolution mechanic.
3. The game needs a proper open world with scaling difficulty.

Final Thoughts:

For me, the state of the game on release definitely hurts it. The big question is how much does the game itself make amends for that huge misstep? Well, it has one of the strongest stories in the franchise and some of the best characters. It also does take some steps forward and some notable steps backward as well. I would still say these are good games. They’re also a bit disappointing because they could have been masterpieces. With more development and features this could have been one of the best generations. But it released incomplete, suffers from a lack of GTS, improperly executed open world and lack of outfits. I’m still going to give them a 7/10 for everything they do get right. I just really would have liked the effort that went into the story and characters to have translated into effort put into programming.

September Bonus Review: Miitopia

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a big fan of Rpgs. I’ve been playing them since I was a small lad and I’ve invested more time in them than any other game genre. Enter Nintendo’s latest attempt to make Miis relevant, the RPG Miitopia.

Story:

We open with our first mii, who is just a random traveller. They arrive in town and talk to people when the Dark Lord descends and steals faces from most of the townspeople. Our hero goes out to retrieve them and is visited by the voice of god, who gives them a class and abilities. To start out with, you can choose from Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Mage, Pop Star or Chef but you get more as you progress. Three other adventurers join you and you go on a quest to stop the Dark Lord from stealing faces like a total wanker.

The story is very basic. Which isn’t bad, given that this is basically set up as an early RPG for youngsters. What is a problem is that it gets repetitive. There’s a pattern where you start alone, get your companions joining you one at a time at the conveniently placed Inns and then you chase after the Dark Lord until he unleashes something powerful. Then, once you’ve accomplished something by beating that, he captures your companions and you start back at level one and have to pick a new class. This plot point is repeated twice, thrice if you count the final time where he takes your companions but doesn’t seal your class, with your original character ultimately travelling with three different groups.

Characters:

Here’s another issue with Miitopia. With most RPGs you’ll get a group of defined characters with their own personalities. Even if you create the main lead, as you do in the Fallout games or Knights of the Old Republic, you generally get defined companion characters and choices with your lead to give them a sense of character. In this, you assign every random role to Miis that you’ve made or you can pick one that someone else has made. And the “characterisation” consists of picking from a list of seven personality types: Cool, Kind, Stubborn, Air-headed, Cautious, Energetic or Laid Back. And their effects are largely shown through quirks in combat. For instance, a stubborn character might attack a second time, defend against incoming attacks or refuse to let themselves be healed. There’s no connection to the narrative.

Character relationships are similarly unimportant. You build up your Miis relationships by having them room together. Which doesn’t serve the plot whatsoever, but does unlock behaviours in combat. Such as the ability to help an ally attack, perform a pincer attack rise up and avenge a fallen ally, take a hit for an ally and others. Your Miis can also end p in a quarrel, which causes problems when they’re together in battle. Which makes the Pop Star super useful since they have a class ability that instantly ends quarrels.

Gameplay:

I’ve already discussed the personality system  a bit. But I do want to add that I do like the idea behind it. I do like the idea of your characters building relationships and having quirks that affect their performances in combat. I just think it could stand to be more robust. As it stands, other RPGs have had systems where party members build relationships with actual characters that impact their combat performances and they’ve worked better. The Neptunia franchise and the bonuses you get from raising your Lily ranks comes to mind. For that matter, Fire Emblem gives you increased bonuses when two characters with higher support ranks work together.

The gameplay, overall, is pretty basic but kind of addictive. You basically have an over-world where you move from stage to stage. You go through a stage, possibly encountering monsters and random events or treasures, choose from branching paths and eventually arrive at the Inn and move on to the next. Or you can go back and check the path you didn’t take.

In combat, you’ll get to select the actions of your main Mii. The others will act independently. Actually, here’s something I have to praise Miitopia or. As a rule, the AI is really good about taking actions that make a lot of sense. It’s very rare for them to make a move that’s just a bad idea. Usually they make moves that are pretty optimal. Which is nice when you compare it to the AI in a lot of games where you basically have to babysit your party because they royally screw up otherwise.

I also do like the class system. I like that you’ve got your kind of standard classes but there are some strange classes in this. I’ve already mentioned Pop Star & Cook but later on you also get Imp, Scientist, Cat, Tank, Flower & Princess. It’s interesting trying different ones and seeing how their abilities work. I also like that you can change how your Mii looks so that if you get stronger armour, but it looks awful, you can make it look like your older armour while keeping the increased stats. And there are some absolutely terrible looking pieces of armour in this. The “Macho” equipment, for example.

One thing that is annoying about the classes is that some of them get abilities that damage their relationships and can cause quarrels. The Cook can feed everyone spicy dishes to make them breathe fire, which makes everyone mad and the Tank can shoot one of their companions at an enemy. Which the companion is not going to like.

But that brings me to the shopping situation. Shopping in Miitopia is a pain in the arse. What happens is you have to wait until your Mii wants new equipment and you have the money for it. Then you give them the money and they go off to buy the next upgrade for either their weapon or armour. And there’s a chance they might return with a healing item instead. In which case they return the extra gold and you have to wait until the next time they want their upgrade or until you find it in a treasure chest. It gets incredibly frustrating when you’re sending the same Mii to buy the same armour you’ve sent them to buy twice before only to have them come back with candy like a small child with no impulse control.

Although, speaking of the candy, I do like that you keep the same restorative items throughout the game but they upgrade after you use enough of them. It does get a little tiring in other RPGs when you have an inventory full of a hundred types of healing items and some are useless because you’ve far outgrown them. This is an elegant solution.

The game is very easy and not all that long, when compared to most other RPGs. You have a safe spot that heals status ailments, sprinkles that restore HP, MP, grant a free revive (one only), shield you from damage and can grant a berserk status effect for your Miis, although they don’t call it that. You also have the ever upgrading HP bananas & MP candies. If you have any healer, Cleric, Cook or Flower, in your party it’s going to be easy to not have your party wiped out. The only times I ever had trouble were when I encountered these shadowy imps who have an instant kill attack. Even then they became easy to handle once I got the shield sprinkles.

Art:

I’m not super fond of the artwork in this. I don’t really like the whole Mii aesthetic and the game is very much built around that. I do like the super sentai-inspired armour you get for the characters and there are other interesting looking armour and weapons here and there.

Sound:

The music composition is quite nice. I liked hearing the new tracks when I got to different areas. The squeaking sound of Miis talking, in contrast, gets a bit grating after a while.

Final Thoughts:

In terms of simple, introductory RPGs for younger audiences, Miitopia does its job really well. In terms of appeal for your more serious RPG fans, I don’t know that it has it. The very basic plot, non-characters & lack of difficulty are probably going to be a problem for your more seasoned veterans. It’s still a bit of a laugh to play around with and I would like to see a sequel that better refines its better ideas but, now that I’ve beaten the Darker Lord, I’ll probably erase my data and give it to my little niece instead of doing the post game stuff. For myself, the final rating is going to be a 6/10. It’s okay.

Five Changes I’d like to see in Fire Emblem

So, Fire Emblem Fates finally released two weeks ago. At least it did in the EU. The American version’s been out for months. The Japanese version’s been around for close to a year. Anyway, I’ve managed to ply through both routes and I’ll play the third when that comes out in the 9th. Overall, I quite liked it. I like some of its new concepts, liked the story and it had some strong characters. That being said, there are some things I think could or should be done a bit better. So, here’s my list of those. As is my usual, they’re in no particular order, except with some points coming earlier because they’ll factor into later things I discuss. 

1. An Improved A+ rank.

I actually really like the idea of assigning your characters “best friends” with the whole A+ thing. However, I also think it could be done better. For one thing, I’d like to see some support conversations to go with it, actually elevate it above the A rank in a more meaningful way. For another, I’d like to see some potential male/female A+ ranks. Not every possible permutation of a male/female pair has romantic chemistry but they always go S-rank with the possible options anyway, unless they’re related. So, why not forget about trying to force romantic chemistry and just have them be friends instead? There are certainly plenty of best friend pairs like that in real life, including ones where both people involved are straight. 

2. On the Subject of support log unlocks… 

In both Awakening & Fates, you have an avatar character who can be male or female. And, in both games, the support conversations for most of the characters are the same regardless, except regarding who you can reach S-rank with. It’s always been strange to me that 1. you have to unlock these support logs separately when the only differences are whether you can reach S-rank at the end and whether they use feminine or masculine terms to refer to you. 2. That there’s somehow potential romantic chemistry in one case but not the other. If Gaius, Tharja or anyone else has the exact same conversation with your avatar regardless, why does your avatar being the opposite gender suddenly give it romantic potential? 

That brings me to what I’d like to see. First off, I’d like to see the support conversation unlock in the library’s viewer for both the male and female avatar in cases where it’s the same, regardless of which one you actually unlock it with. On the positive side, it would make things much easier for completionists. And, if one of these characters is romance-able, I’d like to see them be romance-able regardless because if one of these conversations illustrates potential chemistry, then they both do. As they are the same conversation. 

3. Group Activities

One addition to Fates I actually really liked is that you can invite a character to your avatar’s “quarters” to interact with them and build your support conversation in a more relaxed environment, as opposed to having them just bond on the battlefield. However, I think this could be expanded on. I think the series could, in fact, really benefit from giving you the occasional option to invite two different characters to spend time with your avatar and have the support ranks go up all around. It would make it much more viable to try and unlock the supports for your other allies without necessarily having to join them at the hip during battles. It would be especially helpful for routes like the Nohr one where you don’t get random encounters and the amount of time you have to get those supports up is very limited. 

4. No more child characters. 

Here’s the thing about having your S-rank characters’ children join your party and fight alongside you. It worked just fine in Awakening when the story was about that. However, in the Fates routes it seems really contrived. Almost like it’s only there because it worked in Awakening. It’s not even necessary since you can beat the game without having a single S-rank couple, or while having your only S-rank couple be male Corrin & Zero/Niles. So, I’d like to see them not keep coming up with flimsy justifications for the children of your characters to show up. 

That being said, the missions to unlock these characters are kind of a big part of the game. So, what do I suggest, besides just having more missions in the story? Well, I’d actually suggest having an apprenticeship system. Have certain characters who, once they reach a certain number of kills, or unlock a certain number of supports or whatever, take on an apprentice. You can have whoever that character is S-rank, or A+ rank if they don’t have an S-rank support, with help them out, hence resulting in a unit with both their skills. On the positive side, it would be a more compelling explanation for the shared skills than them somehow being inherited. Plus, it would provide more potential for interesting skill combination sets. 

5. About the Avatar’s Romance Options…

There’s actually a good reason some people call the newer Fire Emblem titles “waifu simulators.” Your avatar character can marry anyone of the opposite sex and, in two cases for Fates, some characters of the same sex. Including your siblings in Fates because Nintendo & Intelligent designs are a bit fucked up like that. Yeah, that’s actually my biggest criticism of Fates.

Frankly, there are two possible ways I’d like to see this changed. The first is for them to just let your avatar character marry anyone they aren’t related to, regardless. Here’s the thing, if you’re going to just open it up for basically all the romance options, you might as well just open it up for all romance options. It doesn’t make sense to say “Oh, anyone of the opposite sex is fine but when it comes to same sex options, those have to make sense. Gotta have those strict standards.” Clearly, you have no standards as far as that’s concerned. Might as well embrace it and have all the yaoi/yuri/het your players could want. And if this was combined with the second point I made it wouldn’t even be harder for completionists. So, that’s good. 

The second possible thing I’d like to see happen, and the one I’d honestly prefer, is to have a more limited number of romance options but have them all well developed and make sense. Have some characters your avatar can only be friends with and a limited number that they can marry. Preferably with some being same sex or het only and others being available regardless. Because, frankly, in some of the cases where the support conversation is different based on the avatar’s gender, it’s not the opposite sex one that has romantic chemistry. 

So, that’s my list of things I’d like to see in upcoming Fire Emblem titles. On the off chance that someone from Nintendo or Intelligent Designs reads this, feel free to steal any and all of these ideas. If you have your own ideas for the franchise or berate me for my eccentricities, feel free to leave a comment. I’m going to get back to my second Nohr play through. I’m really close to getting Corrin and Peri up to S-rank.

Five third party characters who won’t be in Smash, but would be awesome in it.

Recently Nintendo announced that they would be taking ballots for a new DLC character. Even more recently, they stated that they would be okay with any nominations whatsoever. Third party or otherwise. As such, I’ve compiled a list of five third party characters who I would love to see make it into Smash, but who stand virtually no chance of doing so. The list isn’t going to be in any particular order. For each character I’ll describe what a trailer for them might look like, talk about why I think they’d be an awesome addition and why they almost certainly won’t make it.

5. 

Link, Samus, Mario and Pikachu make their way across a grassy meadow. A draconic shadow flits over them. Pikachu sees it and looks up, shocked and cries out in warning. The shadow grows larger and the group turns to face it. Bleu swoops into Battle. 

Yes, the first choice is Bleu from Shining Force. A little dragon who walks like a person. He could use a wide variety of breath attacks and his final smash could be him upgrading to his great dragon form and hurling lightning on everything. A character like Bleu would be awesome because you’d be playing as a freaking dragon and, unlike Ridley, he’s not such a massive dragon that the size scale would be an issue. Plus he’s just a great character who has to grow up quickly under harsh conditions and transforms into a character of great strength, and not just in terms of physical power.

Why he almost certainly won’t be in Smash:

Let’s face it, Shining Force probably isn’t going to have a character appear in Smash. It may very well be a cult classic, but it’s not as well known in that regard as Earthbound. Even assuming that the fanbase got together to pull for a character from the franchise, the likely candidates would be Max, Narsha, Bowie or one of the other major characters. Not one of the many awesome side characters like Zylo, Mae, Tao, or Bleu.

4:

A solitary raven sits on a stump. The animal crossing villager creeps up on it, net in hands. It looks at him but appears unafraid. The villager stands poised to capture it, but is interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. He looks back and a burst of lightning sends him flying. The raven moves onto the shoulder of the woman who zapped the villager. Alisia joins the battle. 

Alisia from the classic Mega Drive title, Alisia Dragoon. Not only would she be cool to play as on account of her lightning powers, but she has four diverse animal companions who could be used to great effect for her special attacks. All in all, a great character with a great range of abilities.

Why she almost certainly won’t be in Smash:

It’s simple enough, Alisia Dragoon was not one of the Mega Drive’s great successes. It received critical acclaim, but didn’t enjoy good sales. In fact, I’m betting most of you are only vaguely familiar with it if even that. As such, the game never got a sequel nor has it been remade or even released on the Virtual Console. It’s too far outside of popular consciousness for Alisia to stand much chance of appearing in any modern game, especially one like Smash. 

3. 

Sonic races across the open plains, past several other smash competitors. He glances to the side for a moment and slams right into a speed bump, tumbling to the ground. Bowser and Ganondorf advance towards him. Things look grim when a massive boomerang flies through the air and slams into them. We follow it as it moves backwards, towards a red-haired girl with goggles atop her head. She smiles and catches it. Aika enters the fray. 

Aika, from the classic Skies of Arcadia would make a great entry into the Smash roster. Even if you put aside the fact that she’s a great character she’s got a great design and has a lot of abilities that would be interesting to see in something like Smash. Seriously, how awesome would it be to have a sky pirate with a giant boomerang weapon and fiery special attacks?

Why she probably won’t make it:

Skies of Arcadia is another title I don’t anticipate seeing characters from in Smash. While it was fairly popular, both on the Dreamcast and when it was remade for the Gamecube, it’s been quite a while since it came out and I don’t think the fanbase is going to rally around it for something like this. Even if they did I’d anticipate seeing Vyse over Aika.

2. 

Bowser enters his castle, his servants are in a bustle, ignoring him completely. Annoyance is apparent on his face. He follows a koopa who delivers a drink to a figure underneath a parasol sitting on his throne. He looks up, baring his claws. His rage is replaced by surprise and a surge of flames slams into him. We finally get a glimpse of the smirking face beneath the parasol. Debora Briscoletti joins the battle. 

I’m sure a lot of you think I’m crazy for this one. After all, out of all the characters in the Dragon Quest franchise why would I pick Deborah? Because she’s awesome! I’m not exaggerating when I say that V is my favourite Dragon Quest title and Deborah is my favourite character in the franchise. She’s delightfully snarky and I personally adore most of her dialogue. As a character in Smash she would offer a highly physical play style with some strong ranged attacks.

Why she almost certainly won’t make it:

Honestly, I think Dragon Quest VIII is the most likely to get a character into Smash simply because it was a highly acclaimed release worldwide Even assuming that Dragon Quest V was the big choice, I’d anticipate The Hero or Bianca being the ones to get votes. Personally, I can’t stand Bianca and find her incessantly annoying, but she is the popular choice which is why I highly doubt that Deborah would stand a chance.

1. 

Peach and Zelda stand back to back, the menacing figures of Bowser and Ganondorf advancing on them. A cry rings out and the to villains turn their heads, a yo-yo hits Ganondorf in the face. Bowser lunges at their unseen assailant, a blur is seen and he too collapses. Peach and Zelda look down at their rescuer who grabs each of them by the hand and gazes into their eyes with hearts appearing in hers. In her quest for a wifey, Red has entered the battle. 

After playing the Vita remakes of Neptunia 1 & 2, Red has become one of my favourite video game characters of all time. She’s just so incessantly endearing that virtually every time she gets a line it’s something amazing. I would dearly love to see the young yuri girl appear in more games, including Smash.

Why she almost certainly won’t make it:

Yeah, the Neptunia franchise is pretty big. However, Red only appears in two titles in it and she’s a secondary character. If anyone from the franchise stands a chance at getting into Smash, I’d bet on Neptune herself. Possibly Blanc since she represents the Nintendo analog. As awesome as Red is, I’m not counting on her joining the Smash roster ever.

So, there’s my list of third party characters who I’d love to see in Smash, but who almost certainly won’t ever be. Feel free to leave a comment with who you’d like to see, whether you think they stand a chance or not, or just to tell me I’m crazy. Or you could leave a comment agreeing with me on one of these, we can be crazy together. I’m putting in a poll as well to gauge whether or not you’d like to see me do more posts like this in addition to the weekly reviews. So, be sure to vote on that.