Fairy tail has the most obnoxious capture watermark of any switch game i have played so far.
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
edited August 2020
So I tried playing more Pokemon Sword... it's just... really really boring. Like there is no challenge to any of the stuff I'm doing in the story and capturing pokemon feels more like an exercise in patience/frustration than anything else - so I pretty much only tolerate the game when I have quick balls. There is a non-existent bland story of some predictable nonsense going on and I just can't manage to care.
Are all pokemon games this bland and rote or is this not typical of the series?
They've gotten blander and blander and more predictable as the series has progressed. I felt the same as you in Sun and Moon, arguably even one of the most interesting and creative settings the series has had. Turned me off of the whole series until I see or hear something particularly remarkable.
Like, more specifically, I don't particularly care for Call of Duty or Madden, but lots of people do like those games. It doesn't necessarily mean the games or the people are bad or wrong.
Yeah Pokémon games aren't really about the challenge. The challenge is there after you beat the game (as is tradition in a bunch of Nintendo games). If the concept of capturing and raising your perfect Pokémon buddy and watching him grow with you isn't appealing then the series is not really for you.
Yeah, Pokemon's mostly about the endgame and the PvP battling post-game. And it's great there. But getting to that point is an experience that's not for everyone (which is fine).
If you're looking for a monster-collector with challenge and a story I'll forever recommend Digimon: Cyber Sleuth and the Shin Megami Tensei series.
The inane and endless dialogue and predictable characters/plot is what wears me down very quickly. Why would I want to grow alongside a buddy in an uninteresting world?
Yeah, Pokemon's mostly about the endgame and the PvP battling post-game. And it's great there. But getting to that point is an experience that's not for everyone (which is fine).
If you're looking for a monster-collector with challenge and a story I'll forever recommend Digimon: Cyber Sleuth and the Shin Megami Tensei series.
I really want that SMT tactics game series released on switch.
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
edited August 2020
I will be getting both SMT games as soon as they put them out on switch. I have played through about half of Nocturne and definitely want to finish it.
Yeah, Pokemon's mostly about the endgame and the PvP battling post-game. And it's great there. But getting to that point is an experience that's not for everyone (which is fine).
If you're looking for a monster-collector with challenge and a story I'll forever recommend Digimon: Cyber Sleuth and the Shin Megami Tensei series.
I really want that SMT tactics game series released on switch.
A new Devil Survivor would be cool, yeah. But they already did one remake of them for 3DS. Still love the second remake's subtitle.
Yeah Pokémon games aren't really about the challenge. The challenge is there after you beat the game (as is tradition in a bunch of Nintendo games). If the concept of capturing and raising your perfect Pokémon buddy and watching him grow with you isn't appealing then the series is not really for you.
I think Pokemon Let's Go zeroes in on this experience better and that's a hill I'll die on.
I'd tried a few Pokemon games, and like Aegeri, always found them tedious, boring, and weighed down with lengthy milquetoast dialog. Let's Go actually got me excited enough to attempt Sword... and the same damned thing happened.
Let's Go though, man. It was breezy, light, had enough trainer battles to scratch my turn based battle itch, but the catching mechanic being turned into a throwing minigame prevented the "Training the perfect pokemon team" or "Catching all the pokemon" part from turning into a Sisyphean task. I mean, especially if the excuse is "Pokemon games aren't challenging until the post game", the core game has no excuse to be as tedious as mainline game are, and Let's Go largely fixed that.
It basically hit all the notes I'd always been told Pokemon was always about, without the endless boring tedium that mainline games appear to wallow in.
I won't begrudge anyone coming into the Pokemon series as an adult for not enjoying it. It gets said of a lot of different games, but in Pokemon's case it's really, seriously true: they're designed for children. Literal actual children. Based on some of the stories I've seen in Reddit threads themed on "What was the silliest thing you ever did/believed in Pokemon as a kid", these are players who, say, put every Fire move on their Charizard and nothing else, or play the whole game with some Pokemon that evolves by stone or trading at the head of their party. They are designed to be beaten by people who understand maybe a tenth of what's possible in the battle engine. Where Pokemon becomes worthwhile for adults is the competitive aspect, and I can totally understand not wanting to grind through the story for forty-plus hours just to get to the actual fun part of the game without an existing attachment to the series.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
I will say that there is something to the new games being too damn easy. I've played through fire red recently and it is not nearly as much of a cakewalk as anything that has come out in the last several years.
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
Pokémon was only ever fun for me when I play with a complete randomizes and nuzlocke rules. Suddenly that attachment becomes a much more significant aspect.
Pokemon is comfort food. Sometimes you just wanna capture make a bunch of slaves friends and take a bunch of children's money become the best like no one ever was.
I won't begrudge anyone coming into the Pokemon series as an adult for not enjoying it. It gets said of a lot of different games, but in Pokemon's case it's really, seriously true: they're designed for children. Literal actual children. Based on some of the stories I've seen in Reddit threads themed on "What was the silliest thing you ever did/believed in Pokemon as a kid", these are players who, say, put every Fire move on their Charizard and nothing else, or play the whole game with some Pokemon that evolves by stone or trading at the head of their party. They are designed to be beaten by people who understand maybe a tenth of what's possible in the battle engine. Where Pokemon becomes worthwhile for adults is the competitive aspect, and I can totally understand not wanting to grind through the story for forty-plus hours just to get to the actual fun part of the game without an existing attachment to the series.
They are designed for children yes, but the designers of the games somehow think children are getting dumber and less clever as time goes on, as they've continually made the newer games even simpler and easier and with less dungeons/mazes/puzzles over time.
I will say that there is something to the new games being too damn easy. I've played through fire red recently and it is not nearly as much of a cakewalk as anything that has come out in the last several years.
Also they've felt too toothless ever since your rival became an encouraging friend. As a kid I wanted to beat Gary, it felt great to beat him every time. I don't want to fight some nice girl with self-esteem issues who is kinda depressed when I win.
And in recent games the Teams, Team Rocket etc., went from being a semi-serious threat to laughable goons while some completely different person is the true villain.
Ruby/Sapphire was the pinnacle of the Team antagonists, that story actually got serious.
It might have been because it was the first Pokémon I’d touched since Red/Blue (which I never finished), but X/Y really hooked me all the way through the main story and then some.
I bounced off Shield shortly after it went pseudo-open world. Absolutely plausible that I’ve just got a real low satiation point for Pokémon that comes due every couple decades, but it really did feel glacial and shallow in a way that Y did not for me.
I will say that there is something to the new games being too damn easy. I've played through fire red recently and it is not nearly as much of a cakewalk as anything that has come out in the last several years.
Also they've felt too toothless ever since your rival became an encouraging friend. As a kid I wanted to beat Gary, it felt great to beat him every time. I don't want to fight some nice girl with self-esteem issues who is kinda depressed when I win.
And in recent games the Teams, Team Rocket etc., went from being a semi-serious threat to laughable goons while some completely different person is the true villain.
Ruby/Sapphire was the pinnacle of the Team antagonists, that story actually got serious.
Then again, turning Team Yell into a bunch of soccer hooligans is hilarious and perfect for not-England.
It's funny. People keep saying pokemon games get easier, and yet I would say Sun/Moon was the highest average degree of resistance a pokémon game presented me with in the entire series. As well as probably the best writing and story. I wouldn't trade one Lillie for ten Team Magmas, thanks.
Sword and Shield left me a bit cold mostly because it didn't run with what it was best at. Which is the Gym Challenge. In a lot of ways, SnS was a bit of a return to Blue (after the more plot-focused angle of SuMo), in which your objective is to win the league, and the shenanigans in the way are obstacles - you're here to win the pokemon football world cup, not smash the mafia or whatever. Like people remember Giovanni from the anime, but in the actual game Team Rocket are literally just a thing you smash because they're blocking your way, and Giovanni is a literal nothing. And the gyms in SnS were the coolest they've ever been! I was genuinely hyped at many points, they nail the atmosphere perfectly. So many of the gym leaders are very cool personalities and designs.
But instead of just going all in on that, I guess someone said "people will complain if we don't have a Plot With Legendaries"? So we have this thing with Zacian and Zamazenta and Eternatus that is, well, nothing compared to the League stuff, and feels so very extraneous and just sorta dilutes the game.
I did appreciate Ultra Space and how wild those themes were to explore for pokemon. But by contrast, Team Skull was boring and silly.
I'm looking back on like, Team Flare and what Lysandre accomplished. I didn't even love X/Y but I remember Lysandre. Or looking back to Team Galactic and Cyrus and his crazy plan.
Yeah, playing both of them for the first time as an adult, I actually really enjoyed the writing in Pokemon Black/White and in Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby. I played Blue and Silver growing up, and was expecting the same more or less non-story, but they're pretty fun! There's a lot of weird zany quotes from random NPCs that are actually kind of funny, and the plot was fun enough to keep pushing me along. The presentation values in Alpha Sapphire were pretty top notch too.
Sword/Shield....did not feel that way. Some of the characters are alright, but overall it's just very sanitized and boring. I made it about 3/4 through the gym league stuff and eventually just lost interest. They're just not the best designed Pokemon games -- I don't know what it would be like approaching the series for the first time ever as an adult, but I feel like Sword/Shield is a bad introduction and I wouldn't expect someone new to the series to enjoy them. It feels to me like playing Alpha Sapphire around when it launched actually felt good and got me excited, and that would have been a better point to catch on. But they're older now, and it would have been nice if the first console entry in the series felt like it had that much love poured into it. Overall, it just didn't. For games that make such massive amounts of money, it really did seem like we were owed more for the console launch. But ultimately we're not owed anything by game devs -- even a moderate budget for a $60 blockbuster entry in the most profitable IP of all time, as lame as that feels.
The one thing sword and shield does right is the character customization. I mean come on have you ever seen a trainer looking this good? Story wise it's more of the same honestly.
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Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
The one thing sword and shield does right is the character customization. I mean come on have you ever seen a trainer looking this good? Story wise it's more of the same honestly.
If you weren't trying to out-terrible the in-game designs, were you even really trying?
"Yes, I fed the hundred reject hamsters into the woodchipper, and I'll do it again without a second thought."
I did appreciate Ultra Space and how wild those themes were to explore for pokemon. But by contrast, Team Skull was boring and silly.
I'm looking back on like, Team Flare and what Lysandre accomplished. I didn't even love X/Y but I remember Lysandre. Or looking back to Team Galactic and Cyrus and his crazy plan.
Honestly, the more time passes, the more I am convinced Team Skull may well be the best thought out Team in pokémon.
Like, the Team du jour is always going to be silly. They can't not be. These are always going to be hilarious mooks with two-bit pokemon that get humorously stomped by the protagonist. At most the boss is going to have some actual screen presence, but the grunts are always going to be dumb. So you kinda have two choices. You can try to sell them as legitimate criminals, or you can just go "fuck it" and let them be silly obstacles and not feel like you have to marry the Actual Villain With Screen Presence to the mooks. Then you can just have them be regular nuisances throughout the game without actually detracting from the threat of the primary antagonist the way the bumblers in Team Aqua detracted from their thing.
Plus they're so very quotable :P.
(Also, full honesty, I legit do not remember the Galactics' deal. Like, I remember the Magma vs Aqua stuff, I remember N and Ghetsis perfectly well, but I need to stop for a while to remember who was the baddies in Diamond and even then I remember nothing about their supposed plan)
Before Pokémon Sword and Shield I think the last time I finished a Pokémon game was... Red? I think. Maybe BW2 but I don't remember honestly. I buy them all and get bored after a while but the gym battles in this one were something else.
Before Pokémon Sword and Shield I think the last time I finished a Pokémon game was... Red? I think. Maybe BW2 but I don't remember honestly. I buy them all and get bored after a while but the gym battles in this one were something else.
I bought black and white got stuck on the first gym and noped out
I liked X/Y for various reasons and played Sun/moon/Ultra but I got tired of the rather linear nature of the game
I had hoped in Sword Shield they finally got away from it {I do understand that the Final Four is part of the end and you should not be able to skip ahead to it but it's the other gyms you should be able to skip around but complete them how you want
AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
I guess I had very high expectations for switch Pokemon, because I hadn’t played one before and hadn’t really read much about the series. I just found it really grindy and not interesting.
Also after Final Fantasy XIII, I no longer accept a game being a terrible experience for 20+ hours until some end game finally makes it worth playing.
I have so many games that are engaging from hour 1 onwards to play instead.
Bethesda sale. Caved and bought Doom ('93) and Skyrim for the umpteenth time.
I know it's a nine year old game that runs happily on hardware from 2005. But seeing Skyrim on a handheld feels like some kind of literal magic.
Also glad that Doom had its initial issues patched, and it's now also an exemplary port. There's a particular itch that game scratches that nothing else does. There's few games that are such a nostalgia trip (playing it in December '93 remains seared into my memory) yet also hold up so well as a shining example of near-timeless game design. And it's currently going for less than a cup of coffee.
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Are all pokemon games this bland and rote or is this not typical of the series?
If you're looking for a monster-collector with challenge and a story I'll forever recommend Digimon: Cyber Sleuth and the Shin Megami Tensei series.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
I really want that SMT tactics game series released on switch.
Digital Devil Saga.
Although to be honest, I'd be content with just getting DDS 1, because I liked that one better.
Beautiful song.
Loved that series
A new Devil Survivor would be cool, yeah. But they already did one remake of them for 3DS. Still love the second remake's subtitle.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
it's even 10x as touching when you get the lyrics within the context of the game (it's Edelgard singing)
the previous 2 FE games have equally as amazing songs, too. Almia and Fates.
I think Pokemon Let's Go zeroes in on this experience better and that's a hill I'll die on.
I'd tried a few Pokemon games, and like Aegeri, always found them tedious, boring, and weighed down with lengthy milquetoast dialog. Let's Go actually got me excited enough to attempt Sword... and the same damned thing happened.
Let's Go though, man. It was breezy, light, had enough trainer battles to scratch my turn based battle itch, but the catching mechanic being turned into a throwing minigame prevented the "Training the perfect pokemon team" or "Catching all the pokemon" part from turning into a Sisyphean task. I mean, especially if the excuse is "Pokemon games aren't challenging until the post game", the core game has no excuse to be as tedious as mainline game are, and Let's Go largely fixed that.
It basically hit all the notes I'd always been told Pokemon was always about, without the endless boring tedium that mainline games appear to wallow in.
I'm a huge fan of turn based RPGs though so I really enjoy the slow grind and battles.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
They are designed for children yes, but the designers of the games somehow think children are getting dumber and less clever as time goes on, as they've continually made the newer games even simpler and easier and with less dungeons/mazes/puzzles over time.
Sword/Shield is incredibly linear.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Also they've felt too toothless ever since your rival became an encouraging friend. As a kid I wanted to beat Gary, it felt great to beat him every time. I don't want to fight some nice girl with self-esteem issues who is kinda depressed when I win.
And in recent games the Teams, Team Rocket etc., went from being a semi-serious threat to laughable goons while some completely different person is the true villain.
Ruby/Sapphire was the pinnacle of the Team antagonists, that story actually got serious.
I bounced off Shield shortly after it went pseudo-open world. Absolutely plausible that I’ve just got a real low satiation point for Pokémon that comes due every couple decades, but it really did feel glacial and shallow in a way that Y did not for me.
Then again, turning Team Yell into a bunch of soccer hooligans is hilarious and perfect for not-England.
Sword and Shield left me a bit cold mostly because it didn't run with what it was best at. Which is the Gym Challenge. In a lot of ways, SnS was a bit of a return to Blue (after the more plot-focused angle of SuMo), in which your objective is to win the league, and the shenanigans in the way are obstacles - you're here to win the pokemon football world cup, not smash the mafia or whatever. Like people remember Giovanni from the anime, but in the actual game Team Rocket are literally just a thing you smash because they're blocking your way, and Giovanni is a literal nothing. And the gyms in SnS were the coolest they've ever been! I was genuinely hyped at many points, they nail the atmosphere perfectly. So many of the gym leaders are very cool personalities and designs.
But instead of just going all in on that, I guess someone said "people will complain if we don't have a Plot With Legendaries"? So we have this thing with Zacian and Zamazenta and Eternatus that is, well, nothing compared to the League stuff, and feels so very extraneous and just sorta dilutes the game.
I'm looking back on like, Team Flare and what Lysandre accomplished. I didn't even love X/Y but I remember Lysandre. Or looking back to Team Galactic and Cyrus and his crazy plan.
Sword/Shield....did not feel that way. Some of the characters are alright, but overall it's just very sanitized and boring. I made it about 3/4 through the gym league stuff and eventually just lost interest. They're just not the best designed Pokemon games -- I don't know what it would be like approaching the series for the first time ever as an adult, but I feel like Sword/Shield is a bad introduction and I wouldn't expect someone new to the series to enjoy them. It feels to me like playing Alpha Sapphire around when it launched actually felt good and got me excited, and that would have been a better point to catch on. But they're older now, and it would have been nice if the first console entry in the series felt like it had that much love poured into it. Overall, it just didn't. For games that make such massive amounts of money, it really did seem like we were owed more for the console launch. But ultimately we're not owed anything by game devs -- even a moderate budget for a $60 blockbuster entry in the most profitable IP of all time, as lame as that feels.
Kamek: "I used to carry you like this as a baby"
Daww..
If you weren't trying to out-terrible the in-game designs, were you even really trying?
"Yes, I fed the hundred reject hamsters into the woodchipper, and I'll do it again without a second thought."
Honestly, the more time passes, the more I am convinced Team Skull may well be the best thought out Team in pokémon.
Like, the Team du jour is always going to be silly. They can't not be. These are always going to be hilarious mooks with two-bit pokemon that get humorously stomped by the protagonist. At most the boss is going to have some actual screen presence, but the grunts are always going to be dumb. So you kinda have two choices. You can try to sell them as legitimate criminals, or you can just go "fuck it" and let them be silly obstacles and not feel like you have to marry the Actual Villain With Screen Presence to the mooks. Then you can just have them be regular nuisances throughout the game without actually detracting from the threat of the primary antagonist the way the bumblers in Team Aqua detracted from their thing.
Plus they're so very quotable :P.
(Also, full honesty, I legit do not remember the Galactics' deal. Like, I remember the Magma vs Aqua stuff, I remember N and Ghetsis perfectly well, but I need to stop for a while to remember who was the baddies in Diamond and even then I remember nothing about their supposed plan)
I bought black and white got stuck on the first gym and noped out
I liked X/Y for various reasons and played Sun/moon/Ultra but I got tired of the rather linear nature of the game
I had hoped in Sword Shield they finally got away from it {I do understand that the Final Four is part of the end and you should not be able to skip ahead to it but it's the other gyms you should be able to skip around but complete them how you want
Also all the music and Pokémon designs in Sw/Sh kick ass
Also after Final Fantasy XIII, I no longer accept a game being a terrible experience for 20+ hours until some end game finally makes it worth playing.
I have so many games that are engaging from hour 1 onwards to play instead.
I know it's a nine year old game that runs happily on hardware from 2005. But seeing Skyrim on a handheld feels like some kind of literal magic.
Also glad that Doom had its initial issues patched, and it's now also an exemplary port. There's a particular itch that game scratches that nothing else does. There's few games that are such a nostalgia trip (playing it in December '93 remains seared into my memory) yet also hold up so well as a shining example of near-timeless game design. And it's currently going for less than a cup of coffee.
Steam | XBL