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nautiscarader · 4 years

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Pokémon Sword and Shield, Dexit, and why something good may be sometimes bad.

For the last month or so I have played SwSh extensively, finally being able to play it in a decent way. In mid-april yuzu, a phenomenal Switch emulator finally fixed the Sword/Shield softlock issue, (ironically with a single line of code, without which the title would be playable on day 1-ish), and then at the start of May a multi-core support was added, which gave on my machine stable 30 fps.

And having played the game extensively, I can say this... it’s a pretty good game! And that is a bit unfortunate. I was gonna write a review, but I have to first gather my thoughts about the most controversial part of these games, so it doesn’t clutter it too much.

It is impossible to talk about SwSh without addressing its biggest controversy: limited Pokédex, called by fans “Dexit”, which never happened in the main line of games before. When it was announced, we raged, and some people mocked us, calling us “entitled”, for feeling we deserve something we deserve. Again, there were actual people out there thinking you are not entitled to something you own.... yeah.

Here is, once again, why those counter-arguments were bullshit. Or maybe bullshite, since it’s British.

Pokémon is a franchise for kids. Yes, we may be old pricks, caring about IVs and EVs, but these are games for children. As a very sporadic gamer, I have been observing the gaming industry from distance with rising worries, as it has been slowly poisoned by corporate greed for at least a decade and a half if not longer: microtransactions, bullshit cut-content DLCs, broken early access, draconic DRMs, etc.

Most of the above problems can be consolidated into two issues: whether you own the game and its content you’ve paid for, and whether you need to pay a second time for something that is already yours.

And the collective rage of Pokémon fans was born from the simple fact that this trend has finally reached one of the most popular children franchises ever, and it is dangerous.

Sword and Shield was not the first case of it, though; Pokébank forced you to pay ransom to transfer your Pokémon from your game into another of your games. But, at the very least it was also a Battle Point mine, so I begrudgingly gave it a pass.

And then the news hit that Switch will follow Microsoft’s and Sony’s asinine model of online play, forcing you to pay for the privilege of connecting to the internet you are already paying for.

And I can already hear people saying “Oh, bUt iT’s OnLy X pEr mOntT!”. yeah, but that X > 0. The notion that you HAVE to pay for something you already had is a dangerous one, and the fact that it now exists in a family console that is Switch is blood-boiling. And if you still think you need to pay to maintain servers and whatnot: make the game more expensive. But you will have to pay for it once.

And then, in the Pokémon E3 demo, we got the disastrous information that not all Pokémon will be available in the game (and what’s worse, that it was already planned but dropped in gen 7). Pokemon Home would be a Bank 2.0, and will point-blank refuse to transfer non-Galar Pokémon up, holding them hostage indefinitely. This was strike 2, a metal-gear-like alarm if I have ever heard one.

The Pokémon we have trained, even if they are just strings of data, ethically belong to us. The fact that some of them would be treated as worse was disgusting. And again, I can already hear “Hurr, durr, the updates add more of them and are free!”. But again, it’s the idea that is dangerous. The idea that to suddenly lose, temporarily or not, something that was yours is now normalised. Can you see the problem?

And as for the updates that will coincide with the DLC coming in around 24h - who knows if they were going to be free? You can try to gamefreaksplain to me all you want, but we do not know if it wasn’t our rage that pushed that decision forward.

And besides, the updates only prove dexit was a BS move to begin with - the games could have handled more Pokémon, animations, moves, etc., so that was a lie designed to lure you into the DLCs.

Oh, and speaking of DLCs themselves - again, it’s impossible to say for sure if they really made it in the two months since release (trailers for DLCs dropped in January), or if it was a case of cut content...

Oh, who am I kidding, it IS cut content, plain and simple. Again, it’s the concept of selling you one thing in pieces, slowly seeping into children’s mind that is the problem here.

Because Sword and Shield is a fun, cool, addicting game, and sadly it will lure many people into buying it, giving in to the cancer that destroys the gaming industry. I feel the pain of gamers, even though as I said, I only play occasionally.

And... paradoxically the solution to all of the above problems is given in every Pokémon game ever by the first NPC you meet:

Because it is technology, a fan-made, counter-culture one that allows me to play it the way I want.

Pokebank? I stopped paying for it the moment I installed Homebrew on my 3Ds, which allowed me to backup and edits saves and transfer pokémon for free, as I should have been able to. If I had Switch, I’d install it there in a heart-beat there. But I don’t have to own it, since as I said, yuzu got me covered. As for the cut Pokémon, modders have already fixed that, since, spoilers, animations from 3ds games can be utilised on Switch, which says a lot of about them (though those mods will be obsolete with the patches, thank Arceus). But I still use BSoD’s texture pack which fixes incredibly low-res ones of the vanilla game (those trees still give me nightmares).

And it is thanks to fans that this game, and many others have been changed or fixed, and are better, whether the companies that created them wanted it, or not.

And you know - that is incredible.

#pokemon #pokemon sword and shield

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kingdomblade · 4 years

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Pokemon DLC thoughts!

Good!

We got more info out of this direct than we did from the entire leadup to SwSh and it was WAY MORE EXCITING, GAME FREAK

Adding the new DLC pokedex into the main game as a free update is a huge step up from SuMo and honestly something I never expected they would do. That’s a huge relief, so kudos to them!

Between this update and a potential new Sinnoh remakes, we’ll potentially have almost all of the Pokedex back

Seemingly no Teams/battling evil, just pure adventuring and exploring

Concept art for both new areas looks beautiful and more interesting than 90% of the main game

First time Moltres has looked as cool as Articuno and Zapdos, sorry Team Valor. Regional Legends are a neat idea! I love regionals so I’m glad we’re getting more.

Venusaur and Blastoise have Gigamax forms too so people can chill the crap out about Charizard

Gigamax Galar starters too, finally

Being able to explore with friends has the potential to be very exciting

The author of Pokemon Special is crying tears of joy because he doesn’t have to add an entire new game arc

Trees might be fixed??

Bad!

Those who were waiting for SwSh 2.0 now just get to buy one expensive game all at once

Considering the amount of content in the base game, feels a little like stuff that should have been in the main game/feel like $60 for the base game is still a bit too much

DLC (likely) won’t fix how lackluster things were in the main game - no add-ons to existing story etc.

Why does Calyrex look like that

Other!

While I still think they could have handled the Dexit announcement better, this was likely all planned from the very beginning and if they wanted to keep the DLC a surprise Game Freak’s hands were probably more tied than we initially thought.

I’m a little bummed that they added more Legendary pokemon to Galar because just having the two doggos was a plus to me, but it’s kinda necessary with DLC like this anyway haha

So yeah, I think I can say I’m mostly optimistic about the DLC, its kinda nice to feel that was after being kinda disappointed by the main games. We’ll see what happens!

#Kingdom Contemplations #Pokemon

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scithemodestmermaid · 5 years

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I’m going to talk about Pokemon Sword a bit, and you know I’m serious because I’m actually using proper capitalization. Warning: it’s a pretty long review.

I’m several hours in and up to Route 5, and while the game does have flaws it’s still a good game. That’s the short version. The long version is going to be pretty long.

Now I’m going into this game a despiser of Dexit. The only reason I bought the game is because this is the first gen where I’ve been at the very least content with all the new designs and because I wanted to see if Gamefreak could put out a good game without all the Pokemon before decrying them for being unable to do so. And I know a lot of people have been attacking the game and every positive thing said about it, saying that the devs are lazy, and there’s no soul in the game, and the people who buy the game should just kill themselves because they alone are what’s wrong with the world, etc etc etc.

And let me just say, if you’re one of those people telling others to kill themselves because they did or did not buy/like the game....shut the fuck up. You are not helping your side, whichever side it may be. And don’t ever, ever, tell someone to commit suicide. Especially over something as trivial as a game. This is not singling out Pro-Dexit or Anti-Dexit or whatever; I’ve seen some pretty abysmal things said on both sides towards both sides. And that needs to stop. If you can’t discuss your side like a mature human being, then go back to your playroom and let the grown-ups talk.

Now that THAT’S off my chest, to discuss what I like and dislike...

What I Like:

Visuals are leaps and bounds ahead of USUM, and there have been several spots where I’ve just been impressed with how pretty everything is. Granted, the Wild Area visuals are a step below the traditional routes. The trees in the Wild Area do, indeed, all look like the infamous N64 tree that was floating around. But here’s the crazy thing, I didn’t really notice unless I was specifically staring at it. Otherwise, it all just blends into the background and doesn’t matter in the end.

The new Pokemon designs. Like I mentioned, this this the first gen where I have been okay with the newly-introduced mons, if not outright adoring them and calling them my new faves. Impidimp line, Toxel line, Hattena line, Yamper line, Nickit line, Rolycoly line...all have stolen my heart. The Galarian forms bear mentioning, as well; so far I’ve only encountered G. Zigazagoon and G. Meowth and technically Giga Meowth (I mean, I’ve seen all the leaks, but still, it’s honestly different finding them yourself), and they are just so fun. The design team absolutely knocked it out of the park this time around.

The new Mons’ animations. Yes yes, I know I know, all the crap animation memes. But, talking specifically about the new Mons...they move really nicely. An example would be Nickit’s attack (as seen here): after the attack, it deftly brushes away its tracks before settling back into its idle animation. It’s such a small little detail that adds so much to Nickit’s personality. There’s several other mons with little visual details like that: Yamper’s little jump after a tackle, Drizzile pulling water balloons from its tear sacs and tossing them, Toxel’s lil temper tantrum, and the list goes on. The new guys look and move great.

The Wild Area. Now, if you go in expect the entirety of Breath of the Wild, then yes you will be disappointed. But the Wild Area is definitely a step in a neat direction for Gamefreak. There’s a variety of Mons to find, Raid Battles to participate in, and things to just uncover. So far, most of my time with the game has been spent running around to see what new Mon I’d find. The area is a bit small, but there’s so much to see that it feels a lot bigger.

Camping. There’s something so charming about sitting down and seeing all my Mons walk around and interact with each other. Calling one or two over to talk to them and play fetch. Enjoying curry together. It’s so cozy and comfy, and honestly the only thing that would’ve made it better was if they kept actual patting in (but honestly, that’s such a minor thing compared to what all they did add). But as it is, it adds such a nice, relaxing atmosphere to the game.

Hop. Lots of folks say that he’s Hau 2.0 (and if we’re talking about a tendency to interrupt the story with cutscenes, yes he is (more on that later)), but I disagree. Where Hau was easygoing to the point of aloofness, Hop is driven and determined. He pushes himself and the player character to their limits, trying to become greater than everyone else and make a name for himself. So strangely enough, Hop shares a lot in common with Blue: aggressively pushing himself and the player forward. Only difference is that Hop tries to be polite about it. I’m interested to see where he ends up.

Leon. Yeah, I’m not beating around the bush here, he’s handsome. Hot dang. Bravo. And even though I know it’s cool to hate on the fact that he uses a Charizard as his ace, the fact that he absolutely adores his Charizard is something I can respect.

What I Dislike:

The old Mons’ animations. Yes, it turns out that they lied about the remade models (a AAA company lying? shocking!). But I was hoping they would’ve updated more of the animations like the other excuse they’d had for cutting Mons. Honestly, I think I saw just one new animation, and even then I don’t know if it’s genuinely new or new to me (Nuzleaf’s Tackle animation is different than I remember). The rest of it is the same old, same old. And it makes the old Mons stand out from the new ones, and not necessarily in a good way.

CUTSCENES. OH MY GOSH NO PLEASE. WHY. Why did Gamefreak decide to bring back the cutscene-heavy storytelling from Gen 7? Nobody liked getting stopped constantly to read pages of text. NOBODY. LIKED. IT. And yet, here it is again. And this time, if the spoilers I read are to believe, the story doesn’t go down dark corridors like Gen 7 did. Heck, if those spoilers are right, the story doesn’t go anywhere (can’t confirm until I’ve beaten the game myself, so I’ll probably talk more than that in another review)! So why these cutscenes?!

Dynamaxing. When I was fighting the Dynamaxed Eldegoss during the first gym, and she used a move that did huge damage, added Grassy Terrain and healing to everyone on the floor, and did that several times in a row...the thought popped into my head, “Wow, this is stupid.” How is what I just described more balanced than Mega Evolutions or Z-Moves? Because it’s only three turns? And why is the sound effect SO LOUD when they Dynamax? Genuinely, every raid battle that I did, I’d get jumpscared by the Dynamax’d Mon’s cry. Honestly, instead of adding a new gimmick every 3D gen, they should’ve chosen one and stuck with it. Improved on it. Not replaced it. And especially not replaced it with this. (As implied earlier though, Giga forms are neat...would’ve made great mega evolutions, oh but what do I know)

Music. Now, usually when I play handheld games, I’ll listen to music on my computer. But for the heck of it, I decided to listen to this game’s music. And it’s...well, it’s no Splatoon 2 soundtrack, that’s for damn sure. A lot of it is this really bland and forgettable trance beat, or it’s a calliope of sound effects mixed in with the music (case in point: the music that plays when Zacian meets you in the forest). I know that Toby Fox did a song for the game, and hearing the song it’s honestly the best song in the game and he should’ve just done the whole soundtrack.

Pop-in. The draw distance is a bit weird, and NPCs will just pop into place once you get close enough. This can get a little distracting, especially if you’re like me and your reaction to pop-in is to go back and forth and watch them appear and disappear over and over. To be blunt, though, pop-in is a problem many beloved Switch games have (I’ve seen it several times while playing Breath of the Wild), but I suppose it’s still worth mentioning.

Also, you can’t actually pat any of your Pokemon anymore and Rotomdex is no longer a character that you interact with it’s just a phone.

And there’s other things in the game that aren’t a problem now but who knows what will happen later on (story-related issues, Exp. Share, long-term Y-Comm usage, etc), but I guess that’s a ramble for another time.

As it stands so far, Pokemon Sword is a fun game. It is no Sonic 06. It is no Breath of the Wild. It is Pokemon. It is nice. It is fun. It is better than the entirety of Gen 7 in my humble opinion. I enjoy it. I think it’s a nice looking game, and it’s a nice time playing it. And at the end of the day, that’s why I play Pokemon. To have a nice, fun time with virtual critters.

#sci plays vidyagaems #fluffly pokey mons #gen 8 spoilers #this is the most in-depth review i have written for anything in awhile

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