Thoughts on The Legend of Zelda

Okay, I’ll start off by saying that I have been a bit braindead lately. So I really wasn’t sure what topic to go with for this month. I have also been feverishly trying to complete at least three different games and so my mind has been in absolute shambles. So I decided that we are going to play it safe again this month and keep things casual by running back to Nintendo, the poster boy for casual gaming. I figured I would go with one of their other big series that I really enjoy and talk about The Legend of Zelda franchise this time. The thing about this franchise that really sticks out to me is it’s exploration aspect where you can go around finding things to make you stronger. However it feels different from the Metroid way of doing things where you roam around the area in search of things you need to find. For most Zelda games you can find everything you need to beat the game just by exploring each dungeon you find and getting the required item. You can feel yourself grow stronger and get a better arsenal, but you always know what to expect when you enter a dungeon. The process is you go through until you find the item needed to defeat the boss, then you defeat said boss. At least that was how I felt until they made The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and I was reminded about how much exploration helped with progression since with the new ability in that game I could explore every nook and cranny that I wanted to and constantly find something new. Most of the time I just found money which is par for the course, but I find that game to be one of the few Zelda games where accumulating money is actually useful. And then to surprise me even further they came out with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This game takes exploration to a whole new level. The reason being that this game leans heavily on exploration as a way of completing the game, something that hasn’t been done in a similar fashion since the first game in the series. However, it feels both different and similar to that game and I will explain why.

Now I will be honest and say that I have never beaten the original game. It isn’t as though I don’t like the game, but it is more like while the game has a solid focus on exploration, it is not structured in a way to fully make use of it. For instance, when I first played the game the first dungeon was actually the third dungeon I found in the game. The first two were the fifth and the sixth dungeon respectfully. Unfortunately for me, there were certain items I needed to progress further in those dungeons that I didn’t have access to yet because I had skipped four dungeons. It is the exactly same situation as going through a Pokémon game except you manage to skip four gyms ahead by accident and can’t go any further because your Pokémon will get wrecked. However, in the latest Zelda game, you can run off after finishing the tutorial to do whatever you want because you already have everything you need at that point to defeat the final boss. It will definitely be a difficult fight, but it is not impossible to do it as long as you have a decent amount of determination. You see, I feel as though that whenever I have found myself enjoying Zelda games, it is because of the freedom with which I am allowed to explore. The more I can explore and go at my own pace, the more enjoyable I find the experience to be. After all, I am the type of person whose first thought in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was to dump my points into stamina so that I couldn’t climb any mountain even if it was raining. Of course this includes Zora’s Domain because why not right? I just really enjoy the feeling of conquering obstacles in my way, what can I say? I just appreciate that the game allowed me the freedom to do that rather than trying to railroad me. While I don’t have any ill feelings towards the first Zelda game, since I can find all these secrets and heart containers without getting closer to finding the last dungeons, it can be a bit disheartening knowing the biggest obstacle I have to face is the map (if you can even call that a map). I appreciate that more recent games in the franchise are still laying out a path for us to take while not forcing us to go down that same path each time.

If I am admitting to Zelda games I have yet to finish, another one that I will eventually probably sort of get around to maybe finishing at a later date. In case you couldn’t tell, I don’t have much enthusiasm to return to this title right now. There are many reasons for this. In fact, this game could and probably will be a blog post just by itself. However, the main reason is how repetitive the game feels. Now only does the game hold your hand constantly, but it feels like you are going through the motions even more than usual in this game. Which is a shame because I actually do find some of the dungeons to have interesting designs. I know I have been talking about exploration over puzzle solving which is a key component of any good Zelda game, but I feel as though the best parts of a Zelda game are when both exploration and puzzle solving go hand-in-hand. That being said, I would say that since the game is constantly railroading you and is often quite linear, the game’s puzzles never truly shine for me which is a shame. You go to get an item at a dungeon in one of the same three areas over and over again and the sky world looks so barren that there is barely any reason to want to explore. I am all for having go dungeons in Zelda games, but can we at least have it so that the puzzles don’t just start and end with the dungeons. And for the record a puzzle is not finding the item I need to get to the next area. At least get a little more creative than that. I am glad that Zelda games seem to be breaking away a bit from the old formula. I don’t know how long it will last, but I am fine with it as long as there isn’t someone constantly screaming at me to tell me how I should progress with my fantasy videogame adventure.

As a side note, I realize this post is later than usual. I did not mean for this to happen and since I feel guilty I will shamelessly place the blame on Tainted Lazarus who frustrated me to no end this week and as a videogame character, cannot defend himself in any way. I mostly just wanted to get a little dig at him before the end of the week. Especially tomorrow.

Thoughts on Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky

If I’m being honest I didn’t really have anything planned for this post. I always seem to forget that sometimes the month ends up with five Fridays and so I have to come up with another new post. Now I could write a post about the next generation and keep up the trend I have been going with for the past month. What stops me from doing so is the fact that I may want to return to another month of Pokémon in the future to cover the other four generations and doing one of the generations now would mess things up. So instead let’s consider this Gen 4.5 as I talk about one of the spinoff games that I truly love in Gen IV and that is Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky. This should be obvious but I am going to gush a lot so be wary of spoilers. The reason why I love this game so much is mainly because the story is really well thought out and engaging. I can’t even begin to describe how ecstatic I was on my first playthrough of this game. To begin with let’s start with the fact that the game decided to actually do something interesting with Pokémon that are essentially gods. The whole main story revolves around trying to prevent the flow of time from being distorted to the point where it stops entirely. Now it sounds a lot more impressive and high stakes than just bad guys trying to take over the world in a very incompetent manner. As far as time travel stories go, I find this one to be pretty decent and it actually allows for some interesting questions and character moments. It is amazing how I actually feel like I am saving the world more than I ever did in any mainstream Pokémon game. It really feels like an actual RPG.

Well, when I say that I mainly mean in terms of scale since the gameplay feels kind of like a mix between an RPG and an RTS I guess? As you move through mystery dungeons, which is a fun way of saying go through procedurally generated dungeons, you encounter Pokémon that spawn in and they move as you move through the dungeon and encountering them leads to a battle. It is possible to be ganged up on multiple Pokémon at once because of this which I think feels a lot more realistic that walking into some grass and encountering one Pokémon at a time. Then again what is realistic about Pokémon anyway? What can get annoying is when Pokémon with weather effects spawn and constantly do damage to you. This is especially bad when you have run out of food and are going hungry. Yes, there is a hunger meter and yes I usually do run out of food. It’s fine though since most dungeons aren’t long enough for this to be a considerable issue. All the battling feels more complicated and yet familiar and so I find it to be a lot of fun. That is until I end up finding a monster house where twenty Pokémon spawn in around me and I pray to Arceus that I won’t get wiped. I think my favorite thing about the gameplay though is the fact that the areas are procedurally generated which I’ll admit is a bit weird. The reason why I like it so much is because I can play the same levels multiple times to find different Pokémon and it never feels that tedious since the layouts are different each time. If I am going to grind, I would rather have it so it doesn’t feel too repetitive so having the environment changing each time is a nice way to help with that. Of course be able to fight multiple Pokémon in quick succession really helps with that.

Let’s go back to the story for a bit. The main story as I mentioned is quite great on its own and unlike the first games of the Mystery Dungeon series, your role is more significant to the story than just telling Rayquaza to look up. Your presence in the game is mysterious, but you learn more about why you are there as time goes on. You even have a special role to play by being able to see into the past and the future. Now you end up finding out as the game goes on the circumstances that led to you traveling through time and eventually becoming a Pokémon. You don’t even get the full picture until after beating the true final boss of the game. Yes, there is a true final boss. in fact there is a lot more story after the initial ending. By the end I really felt a connection to the different characters and I felt like I was a part of this world. How is it that I can be more involved in this story than I am trying to be a Pokémon trainer. Although to be honest, don’t you think it’s weird. Nowadays why do we go out on a journey again? We go out to complete the Pokédex right? Just think about how the professor of the region entrusts you with a task and somewhere along the way not only does that get pushed to the side and forgotten about entirely, but you also end up stumbling into saving the world and becoming the champion. Then the game ends as if to say that this was everything you set out to achieve. When did that even happen? In the Mystery Dungeon games the plot is simply save the world, but everything is based around that idea. Mainstream Pokémon games have no idea what they are doing when it comes to the story. Saving the world should not be a mild distraction on your way to becoming the champion. At least have a little bit of worldbuilding so that I care about what is happening. To be fair, all of this is mainly directed at Gen IV, a generation that can have such entertaining spinoffs and yet has one of the most basic and safest Pokémon experiences imaginable. I guess at the end of the day the reason why I like the spinoffs in Gen IV is because they choose to actually focus on the Pokémon. Look, I just wanted to get my thoughts across to highlight more about my blogpost last week. I promise next time I will do something more lighthearted such as why most Pokémon trainers are forbidden from having dads.

Unlikely Story Cliché (Gen IV)

You know, if I am being honest I find this generation to be the hardest to write about for this month. It is not due to lack of experience or anything. In fact I can say I really enjoy this generation and it was the generation I spent the most time on in my Pokémon phase when I was in high school. However, I felt when I was going to write about this generation that there wasn’t really anything introduced in this generation that hadn’t made an appearance in previous ones. It isn’t a bad generation, it is just one of those generations that doesn’t have anything about it that is particularly special. All that was done was smoothing out the edges of some things from Gen III to make things more streamlined. At least this was still before they smooth things out so much the cartridges may as well have been circles for how challenging the games ended up being in later generations. And that is considering that these games are already pretty easy to begin with too. So I figured that I should talk about an issue that has plagued Pokémon games for the most part and I feel that this generation is the perfect time to elaborate on this idea. I have mainly been talking about gameplay and game mechanics for the majority of my posts which is a bit unlike me. I usually like to talk about the story or at the very least poke fun at it somewhat and I have mainly strayed away from that this month. The main reason is the story campaigns in the main series Pokémon games are so basic that there is not much really to talk about in that department. However, I will not let it get a free pass any longer. This cliché needs to be addressed once and for all. First, let’s talk about how we got here.

Now the first two generations had villains who were essentially just a group of thugs in the Pokémon universe who tried many different schemes to profit off of Pokémon. That was a pretty standard storyline and while it is unrealistic that a ten-year-old child could easily defeat the leader of a criminal organization like that, at the very least he isn’t dealing with Pokémon that are legendary in order to foil some grand scheme. Then Gen III follows the example of Pokémon Crystal from Gen II and now all of the games after that have the bad guys’ evil plans revolve around trying to control a legendary Pokémon for their schemes. Now I can sort of give the third generation a pass because at least the whole land vs. water thing was something that was reflected in the actual game to a certain extent and the legendary Pokémon weren’t so overpowered in the lore that is didn’t make sense for you to stand up to them. Gen IV has no excuse. Not only did they add in a cult to mess with the Pokémon of time and space, but you even have the Pokémon devil and even the creator itself. Like just think about the fact that you can essentially catch God. Before it was kind of like the legendary Pokémon were gods in their own right but this generation really took it to a whole new level. It sounds so ridiculous that they can even think of trying to stop beings at this level in the Pokémon universe. However, by virtue of being the main character in this story, you can accomplish anything no matter how unlikely it might seem. You know, this particular cliché is one that I come to expect from a Pokémon game and doesn’t really bother me, but it just feels so lazily done in this generation.

The problem here is that the only explanation for why you encounter these troubles or even why you are able to take on these deities is solely because you are the main character in a Pokémon game. The game itself doesn’t give anything to suggest why you, some little nobody from a town so insignificant even I can’t remember it, can manage to talk on legendary Pokémon so easily. In other generations they would either have them not be part of the story or make it so you at least had some connection to the Pokémon beforehand. In Gen III and Gen V they gave you items that allowed you to connect with the Pokémon is battle at least and later games at least tried to give you at least some sort of contact with the legendary Pokémon beforehand. The story is not well told even told it could be done so much better. Now you may be thinking that I am crazy for nitpicking how the story is told in a Pokémon game. While it is true that I am crazy, I think I can expect more from stories in Pokémon games because later generations gave at least an attempt to try and have stories be more engaging. Well, most of them. And not just that, but I really want to point out that the spinoff Mystery Dungeon game for this generation has some of the best story I have seen in a Pokémon storyline to date. If the main games had even half of the creativity of some of the spin-offs, man wouldn’t that just be fantastic. Look, everything I say here is out of love, because I know they can do so much better and with those Gen IV remakes on the horizon now is the perfect time to do just that. I know there has been a lot of criticism for the style of these new remakes, I personally don’t mind it, but this could be a great opportunity to make the Sinnoh region more fleshed out. They sort of did this in Pokémon Platinum but since those aren’t the games we are getting a remake of then I can only hope for the best. Look all I ask is that the remake has a bit more effort put into it. You can have your gods all you like, but at least let them be in an interesting story. Please. I am growing tired of this cliché and I can’t have more basic stories like this whether it be in the remake or future installments. Nintendo only has themselves to blame for giving us such good stories in the spin-off games. This is just reaping what they sow.

Thoughts on Pokémon Battles (Gen III)

This week let’s talk a bit more in depth about Pokémon battles. There is only so much you can talk about when the games aren’t quite balanced yet so I see this as a good time to really jump right in there. My thoughts will probably be all over the place on this one, but that should not come as a surprise anymore. Before we delve even deeper into the rabbit hole let’s take a look at two mechanics added to the Pokémon themselves. The first is that each Pokémon now has an ability that gives them some type of advantage. Some of them can be used in the overworld but most exist to give a Pokémon an edge in battle. Usually a Pokémon can have two different abilities so now there is a reason to catch a Pokémon more than once to try and find the one with the ability you want for your team. The bigger change to the Pokémon themselves I believe lies in them now having natures. Depending on what natu, to xre a Pokémon has, one stat will receive a boost while another will be reduced. For instance a Pokémon with a calm nature will have increased special defense and have decreased attack. Just something to take to take a note of since in a casual playthrough it won’t affect things too much, but the option is there if you want to optimize your Pokémon, but I will get to more on that later. Next up we have a new mechanic.

Now if I’m being honest, which by the way I always am in these posts seeing as how there is no reason for me to want to lie to you, this next mechanic is probably my favorite new mechanic introduced in this generation. That mechanic is team battling. Every now and then you will get the opportunity to fight two trainers and the same time in a two-on-two Pokémon battle. The fun thing about this mechanic is that you can coordinate with your Pokémon to bully two different Pokémon at the same time. Obviously there is more to it than that, but there is nothing more satisfying to me than tag teaming one Pokémon with both of mine as soon as it steps onto the battlefield. They never stand a chance. There is more that needs to be considered in these battles since there are moves that can affect everyone and you can use moves on your other Pokémon as well, presumably to help them out instead of wiping them out. Sorry did I say wipe them out? I meant causing them to faint gently. Always was funny to me that Pokémon could get hit by literal meteors and then just need to rest at the Pokémon center for a bit with no consequences. Can I get some of that for me please? Well at the end of the day I guess I doesn’t make me feel too bad for ganging up on Pokémon during a battle so that they don’t even have a chance to get their moves off. However, I want to address the change in how battles are carried out. You see, in this generation Pokémon becomes a lot more complex which definitely livens things up, but there are certain things you have to pay attention to such as not using Surf on your other Pokémon in the middle of a team battle. It’s more than just that though as pretty much every mechanic is in some way geared towards competitive battling. By adding new variables to the mix Pokémon can grow even stronger and specialize in different styles depending on whether it’s sent out for single or double battles. if you don’t believe yet you will after I talk about EV training.

For those of you who are unaware EV training is the type of mechanic that I won’t even touch in a game. I am a casual gamer, it is literally included in the name of the website. So I don’t rally focus on this type of thing so I don’t really like to talk about it. However, for the sake of argument, that is what I’ll do. Essentially the bare minimum on how it works is that you can fight certain Pokémon to increase your effort values which in turn make your Pokémon stronger since the higher the effort values of the Pokémon stats, the more likely it is to have an edge over those of the same level. Basically it is something you do to focus your Pokémon to be stronger in different areas of expertise. You can achieve double the effect with the Macho Brace item so you can train more efficiently and then to train even more efficiently there is the Pokémon virus which is commonly referred to as Pokérus. This virus also doubles the amount of effort values gained when fighting so it is probably the only virus you ever hope that something contracts. The only problem is that it is exceedingly rare, even rarer then shiny Pokémon. Come to think of it, did I mention shiny Pokémon in Gen II last week? I can’t remember so I’ll just quickly say for the one person who doesn’t know what we are talking about here. Shiny Pokémon are just Pokémon with alternate colored skins. They usually look pretty cool though. They are also quite rare and yet Pokérus is like eight times rarer and it doesn’t have any visual queue when a Pokémon you are fighting has it. Honestly, I have only had my Pokémon contract the virus once and so unless you are really into this kind of training I don’t think it is worth it.

The reason why I bring all this up is because this generation to me was the start of when competitive battling really became a thing. The Pokémon had so much detail added to them and battling became so much more complex to the point where I won’t even dream about touching the competitive scene. It feel a bit weird that by giving all these different things to help Pokémon grow, they end up being used more like tools. Now that the battling has grown more complicated there need to be different strategies going into the game. As soon as the battle system gets fixed, we start doing everything we can to have more entertaining and suspenseful fights. Where does it stop? Clearly not anytime soon since every single generation after this one feels like it needs to tweak the battle system in some way. I am not saying all of these tweaks are bad, but I will say that there is no reason to keep messing around so much. Ever since this generation it feels as though all the games want to experiment with is the battle system. Everything is about optimizing the Pokémon experience. Here’s a thought. Why not just make a fun game? I am not saying Pokémon isn’t still fun, I am saying that there is no reason why I should have to learn about new mechanics every single time a new game comes out in order to enjoy the game. At least in this game, the new additions are optional. In later games though, not so much. So if there is anything I want you to take away from this, it is that even though I like these games, battling has become just a bit too complicated for my liking. Maybe that’s just me though. Oh right, and my starter is usually Treecko or Mudkip. Especially Mudkip considering how much you need to surf in this game. Not that I have ever personally minded that though.

Now Hear Me Out: Great Sequels (Gen II)

Now as you may remember from previous posts, Pokémon Silver was one of my first games growing up. I will be honest and say that I wasn’t really that good at it. Actually, that is me putting it mildly. Truth be told, I was awful. I was not going to be the very best that ever was without figuring out that types were a thing. I eventually got better and was able to become a casual Pokémon gamer. I am not good enough to ever attempt competitive battling, but I can at least get through the general campaign of a Pokémon game with not much difficulty. I will say that I consider this generation to some the best sequels Nintendo have created for any of their franchises at the time. Many of their franchises all seemed to have some drastic changes to the formula around the second game for some reason. However, they decided they would refine the formula with the new generation and add post game content on a scale that was nearly thought to be impossible. So I just want you to understand what makes it such a good sequel. First let’s start off with the mechanics.

The mechanics were vastly improved from before adding things like an actual experience bar so you can actually keep better track of how much experience your Pokémon need to evolve. You can also manage to battle psychic types without having to be at a total disadvantage. For you see, they added two new types to this generation. The two types were the steel type and dark type with the latter being immune to the tyranny of psychic Pokémon. Steel type was added mainly to make fighting types more viable to parties. Did it work? In my opinion, not a ton still there were still some balancing issues that needed to be sorted. You see the game did more than just adding dark types as a way of nerfing psychics. They also split the special stat to be comprised of special attack and special defense. That way the battles are not solely reliant on who has the higher special stat and special defense can counter special attack. However, it still meant that if the Pokémon you fought had a low enough special defense, then type advantage was not an issue when battling certain Pokémon. In the end, special attacks tended to be more useful for battles overall, but it wasn’t as if physical attacks weren’t useful either and things were at least much more balanced compared to the first generation. Of course there are many other new mechanics that were added such as shiny Pokémon and breeding, but let’s talk about the new region to better understand how this game feels like a sequel.

The thing about sequels that I find to be the most important is showing that the connections to the previous game. It feels strange to make a sequel game that doesn’t really connect to its predecessor in any way so I feel that having at least some connections to the previous game is necessary such as characters, or themes, or at least the genre. I know that sounds super obvious, but back then I swear Nintendo experimented with every sequel they had to the point where they could feel like entirely different games. Looking at you Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. So seeing they went traditional for this game is refreshing to say the least. We got Professor Oak making an appearance, we have the return of Team Rocket who are trying to reunite and find their boss, and let’s not forget the post game content allowing you to explore the previous region three years after the first game, where you encounter all the previous gyms from before. The only gym leader to have changed is the last one since Giovanni has disappeared ever since Red dismantled Team Rocket so instead you fight Blue, his rival. You even get to fight Red, the trainer from the first generation after clearing Kanto region. That is probably the coolest final boss Pokémon is ever going to get and I doubt anyone can change my mind. It’s insane the amount of content they managed to fit in this game for the sequel and I can’t helped but be impressed. This goes without saying, but they added 100 new Pokémon to the formula and that was big at the time. Remember when catching them all was actually feasible? Man, those were the days. Anyway, one last thing before I move on. I glossed over it earlier, but I really like how we got the reappearance of Team Rocket trying to band together in last ditch efforts to be taken seriously only to one again be brought to their knees by a ten-year-old. Some things never change am I right?

Now this last part here will include some of my personal experiences with this game. I know you are all wondering which starter I use when I play Generation II and I feel an obligation to let you know. Before I start with that, I need to explain something. Now it should be common knowledge that there were fifteen different types in the first generation, eight of which were used in different gyms throughout the region. In order the types used at each gym were: rock, water, electric, grass, poison, psychic, fire, and finally ground. Now the second generation as you know added two more types bringing the total to seventeen different types, not adding another until Generation VI. What is interesting is that there are no types repeated from the previous region, probably because you end up going there later. The new gym leaders types are: flying, bug, normal, ghost, fighting, steel, ice, and lastly dragon. This brings us to a total of sixteen different types used for each gym with only dark type being left out. Interestingly enough, they seem to forget about creating a dark type gym for a while and only get around to it during Generation VIII. Now the reason I listed out the different types is not just to show you another cool way the game reflects being a sequel, but to show the absolute disadvantage the grass starter, Chikorita, has in this game. While grass may have been a viable option in Generation I as it at least could get you through some of the gym leaders early on, it has no chance to do much of anything in the new region. Unfortunately, as a kid I didn’t know that and got thrashed more ways then I can count. It got to the point where I eventually rage quit and because I was angry for losing so much with Chikorita and due to my frustration at the fire starter, Cyndaquil, for beating me so much, from then on I always chose the water starter, Tododile. And I have been carrying that grudge for nearly twenty years. So while I will say that this sequel is great for making many improvements to the formula and adding many interesting Pokémon as well as great post game content, I do have to say that they really did the grass starter dirty. So to end off I will say that I still consider this to be the best direct sequel Nintendo made during its early days due to the sheer amount of content, so long as you don’t choose Chikorita. Ever. Thanks for hearing me out.

Thoughts on Pokémon (Gen I)

To those of you who fell for my April Fools joke… you got pranked! Ha! To those of you who didn’t fall for it, it seems as though you have a discerning eye that managed to be able to see through to the truth of the matter by looking at a calendar and making an educated guess. It is possible you managed to see my masterfully hidden message as well, but I find that very unlikely. However, it is true that I am feeling pressed for time this month in part thanks to Monster Hunter Rise and also in part thanks to Edmund McMillen or as I like to call him: evil incarnate. Not only does this man add on yet another DLC to The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth which he knows I have to get, but he adds two hundred more achievements for me to get so now I have to fully complete this game for the fourth time. Or is it the fifth time? I don’t know anymore. Anyway, that is where my gaming life is at right now. So I decided to fall back on Pokémon and even do a whole month of it this time. I figure I can just go through each generation one at a time and give my general thoughts on each generation since mechanically the games have barely differed from each other since the original Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green first came out in 1996 (Pokémon Blue if you aren’t Japanese). So with all that being said let’s get into it.

Now I just have to say that I forgot how absolutely broken the first generation was to play. It isn’t broken so much in the unplayable sense though. It is more like one of those games where you try to see just how much you can break it. Usually that lasts until after one too many encounters with MissingNo. It really makes you appreciate how far we’ve come. Like can we take a second to thank the developers for adding an experience bar in later games, because man is that something you really need in an RPG based solely around leveling up. And let’s not forget the psychic types essentially breaking the game because back then they did not have a difference between special attack or special defense and so all specials were so broken that psychics basically won you the game. I’m assuming the broken special stat is why people picked Charmander as their starter. I will admit that I rarely pick Charmander because he starts out at a disadvantage and then becomes essentially busted by the end of the game. He’s fun to use if you want to break the game which is really the best way to enjoy the first games and yet I have never really felt the need to have a Charizard to do it. Maybe it’s because I am too lazy to catch a water Pokémon that I need to teach the move Surf to so I can make progress. Sometimes I choose Bulbasaur too since he makes catching Pokémon at least a bit easier, not that it makes much of a difference. After all, you can just wait until later to clone a bunch of master balls instead.

Being honest here, I don’t have a lot of attachment to the first generation. I started with Generation II since the first generation came out the year I was born. I do appreciate how it started the series, but the game still has some issues that won’t be resolved until later games and so there isn’t much reason to go back to it. That is unless you actually want to try and catch them all since this was back when it was actually realistic enough for you to do that. And if I’m being really honest with myself, despite the fact that the game balance is terrible I still have more fun playing it than I do some of the newer generations. You know why? It’s because this game has teeth. It can be unforgiving and cheap with its RNG and some Pokémon are way stronger than others, but that adds to the challenge of it. Many recent game have had to rely on specific gimmicks to feel more challenging so its nice to go back and have an adventure that makes you feel like you’re going to be the very best etc. etc. you know how the song goes. So I take back what I said earlier. It is fine to go back to Generation I to have a bit of a challenge. Sure, there are most balanced games to play, but where’s your sense of adventure. And hey if you are really looking for some other fun challenges you should play some of the spinoffs like Pokémon Snap and Pokémon Stadium. Catching them all with a camera is a fun challenge and the battle tournaments are quite lively and entertaining. It is weird how it took years for one of these games to get any sort of sequel treatment though. Just saying. That about sums up my thoughts on Gen I. Again I don’t have a ton of experience with this generation, so I can only talk about so much. However, that will most certain change next time. Tune in to see if I pick the fire starter next time or settle for the water starter out of laziness once again.

Announcement #2

Announcement time everybody! Seems like it has been a while since I have done this huh? Pretty sure the last time I did one of these was at the beginning of the year in January. Really feels like time flew since I started doing these posts on a regular basis for this blog. It pain me to kill the momentum I’ve had so far, but I have decided to go on hiatus for now. Look, I understand this may not convincing considering the day I decided to announce this. For you to even suggest this as a prank is foolish in itself, pun absolutely intended there. Observe closely and you’ll see that this post doesn’t have the statement you’re expecting. Obviously, even if this was a joke post, I would want to be a bit clever in acknowledging it. Look and you’ll see there are no tricks at play here and that I will be on break for a while. See you soon, I mean later! I definitely won’t see you tomorrow. Nope. Not a chance.

Thoughts on the Batmobile in Batman: Arkham Knight

Now before I end this month dedicated to one of the most satisfying game series of the last generation, know that I have very little experience with it. Shocking I know, why would I avoid a series that has been so great over previous years and not rush towards the conclusion? Well that is because the newly released game brought with it certain fears, and not because of the main villain. Scarecrow unfortunately was relegated to one of those villains who does a lot of telling and not a lot of showing. So what were the thoughts in my head that traveled down my spine causing it to tremble uncomfortably in my anxiousness? Well, of course it was the big new mechanic that was going to be introduced during the game: the Batmobile. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I felt that Batman: Arkham Asylum was pretty contained in terms of what in wanted to do and while Batman: Arkham City was a lot more spread out and felt less cohesive, it somehow felt like it was trying to get closer to what would be the definitive Batman experience. I believed that was what their intentions were again when adding in the Batmobile to this game, but I still couldn’t help but be worried about it. Also I didn’t have a lot of money at the time and so my empty wallet sat me down and told me to sit this one out. After it did come out and I heard different opinions, I wasn’t sure exactly what to make of the game. However, coming back to this game now, I have learned that my fears weren’t entirely groundless.

When I say that I don’t mean that the game is bad. This game is still a solid addition to the Arkham series of games and still manages to deliver in both the stealth aspects as well as the fighting aspects. Although I feel as though that could be because after a while the fighting style eventually becomes second nature. However, the game isn’t just about those two aspects anymore. I thought Batman: Arkham City was being ambitious with how much was added to the game and then Batman: Arkham Knight wanders up throwing in entirely new game mechanics into the fray. Talk about innovation. You have to give some respect for bringing in entirely new game mechanics in this late in the game. However, the question is whether the new mechanics enhance the game. For that, I will say I do think the control of the Batmobile is good and it is entertaining to blaze through the streets of Gotham in it. If the majority of what the Batmobile was used for was chasing down criminal scum through the bleak streets of Gotham then I would be calling shotgun on that ride. However, they decided not to fully take advantage of the capabilities of having a fast car and decided to make the Batmobile more like a one man army vehicle. The Batmobile may be the most versatile piece of equipment at Batman’s disposal, and yet that also make it one of the game’s biggest pace breakers. Let me explain.

For those who need a refresher, the Batmobile is not just a means of cruising around quickly in Gotham City to apprehend criminals. It also functions as a tank as I mentioned before so you can deal with the army that has invaded Gotham City thanks to the help of the titular Arkham Knight. In fact, since the Batmobile is your only line of defense for fighting enemies in vehicles then you spend a good portion of the game in the Batmobile just for combat sections. The combat involved with using the Batmobile is nearly the same type that was seen a lot in Batman: Arkham Asylum where sometimes the game had nothing better to do than throw waves of enemies at you. I will credit to the sequel game for spacing out the amount of time it feels like you are doing nothing but fighting wave after wave of disposable grunts. Although that game is still guilty of it to an extent. In this game, instead of random bad guys we have changed things up with random tanks. I appreciate trying to mix things up but the combat in the Batmobile isn’t as enjoyable as the combat while fighting as Batman. The big reason for that is the flow isn’t there. With the ability to counter and jump around dealing out damage, there was a lot more control with your input whereas the Batmobile essentially is just lock on dodge and shoot. There just isn’t enough in the combat in my opinion to keep the combat in the Batmobile engaging for the whole game. However, that isn’t the real pace breaker here. No, the thing that grinds the game to a halt is the puzzle sections involving Batman’s favorite ride.

I say puzzle sections, but what I mean is that there are times when you cannot progress without the Batmobile so you have to find ways to maneuver your tank over rooftops so that you can proceed on in the story. Now not only are these sections incredibly slow paced, but they also feel so bizarrely out of place. I can understand that the Batmobile needed its own action moments to make it feel like more than just an extra toy, but did they really need to have it get its own platforming sections as well? It just feels kind of weird honestly to lug a tank around to do platforming and it is even more ridiculous to think about how people would react to seeing such a thing. The puzzle honestly feel more like a way to pad out the use of the Batmobile, something we already have plenty of in this game. It just kind of feels like they had the idea for the Batmobile, but they weren’t sure how best to use it in the game. However, unlike in Batman: Arkham City, the extra stuff they included that felt kind of forced wasn’t something that you needed to deal with in the main game. I am not saying that the Batmobile is a deal breaker, all I am saying is that I wish it had more polish and focus is all. You see the reason I started off this month talking about the stealth in these games is because I wanted to highlight that what Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City nail is the fear enemies feel for Batman while in stealth and in combat. the problem with the Batmobile is that while it is cool, it does nothing to add to that fear factor that the series is so well known for and is relegated to blowing up tanks. I guess if I were to sum my thoughts up I would say it is a fun extra that starts to get old when the tank kill count increases. Anyway those are my final thoughts on this series and we are now concluding the Month of Arkham. Yes, calling it the Month of Arkham has always been a thing and not something I came up with just now when the month is ending. That would be ridiculous. Also it is me or did the posts get longer as the month continued? Nah. I’m probably just imagining things. Anyway, see you next time!

Arkham Origins and the Prequel Cliché

I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t looking forward to writing this particular blog post. Typically when talking about certain types of games on this blog I would try to hold back my criticisms so I could have an open discussion about my thoughts on particular games in particular genres. I also try not to make it seem like I am heavily favoring one side. I am not always successful, but I at least try to sound impartial. This month made it especially hard though because both games I’ve covered so far have been very good. I tried to downplay this when I talked about them, but there is no denying they were good games. Obviously they have some flaws, but they were solidly make games and at such I could only really add nitpicks when I talked about them. Most of my insistence on trying to do this is related to next week’s topic which can probably be generally understood with basic pattern recognition skills at this point. However, I get a break before that and get to talk about this game and how it is so cliché. So without further ado, let’s just dive right on in.

Let’s first start with the story. You know I can’t resist a good story and so by law I have to try and spend at least some time looking at it. Usually that is because story contributes to the flow of the game and contributes to its pacing. However since this game is a sandbox, pacing doesn’t really mean anything and story is more than content to cry in a corner for a few hours while you search for collectibles. Essentially the story involves eight assassins after Batman’s life after a hit put out by the Black Mask and as the story goes on you find out that a mysterious someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes. Nothing really wrong with it in terms of story except for one minor detail. As you should know, this game is called Batman: Arkham Origins, which by the way is the one of the cliché names for a prequel game ever. So since it is so obviously a prequel game, you know that none of this matters since obviously Batman appears in later games anyway. There are never any stakes involved when you use a existing character in an earlier game. However, since it is a sandbox that barely matters anyway. What does rile me up a bit though is the “plot twist” in this game. You know how in Batman: Arkham City, Joker dies at the end (spoilers) and you are like wow they aren’t going to rely on Joker for the plot of the next game. Well guess who the mysterious person is working behind the scenes is in this prequel game. That’s right, it was Robin all along! Not really of course but that twist would have been amazing and I would pay for the game just for that. No the bad guy is actually the Joker (spoilers) and so once again the story falls into predictability. It this doesn’t reek of cliché then I don’t what else could qualify. So for a change of scent let’s see if the gameplay is just as stagnant as the story.

Now I could go home early going with the short answer of yes and calling it a day, but that would be a bit misleading. The combat and stealth as fun as they were in Batman: Arkham City. The problem is they are the same as they were in Batman: Arkham City. There has been no significant change in the gameplay structure that hasn’t already been done in previous games, which is a weird thing to say for a prequel game. Of course, being a prequel game it isn’t allowed to do anything crazy anyway since it come before two different games. However, Batman: Arkham Origins still has abilities or alternate versions of gadgets from Batman: Arkham City. One example that really sticks out to me is the glue grenade which acts exactly the same as the freeze grenade from Batman: Arkham City. You can’t make me believe that for both games he left such a useful piece of technology just collecting dust in the Batcave. This is the most paranoid man on the planet so there is no way he is only bringing some of his arsenal. Oh and before I move on from talking about how the people that made this game essentially copy and paste pretty much everything from Batman: Arkham City and made it bigger, I should note they added a fast travel system with the Batwing. However, when a game built around gliding off rooftops gives me the option to do it less, it makes me wonder if they are doing it because the map is too big for the game or it isn’t interesting enough to explore. I don’t want to call anyone out so I will begrudgingly say that is was probably both.

Before we end I do want to say that not all prequel games are cliché. Prequel games can be used to tell more about a world that you didn’t know before and can give you insights into characters that you didn’t know about before. It becomes a cliché prequel when the game play is the same as before and the story is inconsequential. The game just plays it safe so the people who made it can made some money off an existing franchise. I do acknowledge that this was not made by the same people who made the Arkham series, but if you want it to not have a connection to the main series, then just make a spin-off game instead. It definitely leaves a lot less room for plot holes in the story and gameplay. Maybe one day I will cover a prequel that actually enhances a series rather than just wallowing in its success. for now though, this falls under the prequel cliché because the developers just wanted to use the name of an already existing franchise to make a quick buck. If you somehow are still not convinced about this game not having an original idea in its coding I will say one last thing before signing off. The game takes place during Christmas Eve. See you next time for the end of Arkham month.

Now Hear Me Out: Batman Arkham City

Now I think it goes without saying that Batman: Arkham City was an improvement on the solid Batman: Arkham Asylum in just about every way. The combat was updated so that is a lot easier to keep a good flow going when taking down enemies and it still remains every bit as satisfying as before. The game is even bigger with a map filled with areas to explore and sidequests to do. The all important stealth element is still entertaining and allows for some interesting new ways to “apprehend” thugs. They even managed to spend some time in varying the boss fights and making them entertaining enough to want to fight. The game is essentially bigger in every sense of the word. However, I want to ask whether bigger means better? We can all agree that many of the tweaks from the previous game did increase the quality of this one. My question is did the big changes lead to us losing something else? Let just take a moment to look at the two games for a moment.

Now the biggest difference between the two games is in how they are structured. Batman: Arkham Asylum is a much more linear game having you go from one objective to the next, although not always in the most straightforward manner. Batman: Arkham City is an open sandbox where you can freely explore different areas by grappling and gliding through the city. Each one has it’s advantages and disadvantages. On one hand Batman: Arkham Asylum has more structure to it but less freedom to explore. Due to this the game tends to be more narrative focused with you encountering more and more set pieces as you further the plot. Batman: Arkham City on the other hand allows for more exploration before proceeding with the main plot and because of the number of sidequests that can open up, you may very well forget about the main plot entirely. Heck, even if you are playing through the main story you can forget about the main plot entirely because while Joker was the clear villain in the previous game, Hugo Strange barely has any presence at all throughout most of the main campaign. The only reason I didn’t forget about the main objective is because he the game kept reminding me with his announcements. Honestly, we might as well consider Joker the main villain considering how much his story affects the main plot. So the story is Batman: Arkham City is a bit all over the place compared to its predecessor.

Now the story suffering isn’t a huge deal since we play games for gameplay. It just feels like the game had just a little too much going on. That is especially if you have the DLC where you play as Catwoman. Don’t get me wrong when I say I don’t have any problem playing as her for fun. I’m just saying that not only do her sections break up the story even more, but for some reason she has to collect Ridder trophies as well. I understand from a game perspective it’s to collect experience, but give me one good reason why the Riddler finds the need to challenge Catwoman. Did they have some secret rivalry in the comics I didn’t know about or something? Or maybe Riddler wanted to make sure that Catwoman can’t take Batman’s attention away from him so he gave her some challenges to complete to distract her. I have no idea what the reason would be story wise, but I can bet it would sound absurd. Catwoman probably should not have had her storyline mixed into the main campaign. Heck, if they wanted to make her into a Batman clone, then just give her a spin-off game. Maybe one with a heavier focus on stealth since that is probably the best part of the series. Instead they put her into an already pretty full sandbox without using her full potential. Again, this isn’t really a big issue and yet I want you to remember that small issues can still lead to bigger problems down the road.

Now Batman: Arkham City was made to be bigger and better than Batman: Arkham Asylum and I would say that it pulls it off. However, there is evidence that the game had a lot of ideas and didn’t quite have the space or time for them. The problem with building a sandbox is that next time you might want to build a bigger one to fit in all your ideas. Batman: Arkham City managed to balance things out really nicely, but the sequel and prequel games definitely had some balancing issues. I am not saying it is the game’s fault, but even if they had kept a number of quests to keep you occupied in the later games, traveling would get boring due to the scope. The sandbox for this game was relatively contained and allowed you a grapnel boost early on to speed up travel time. That is great at keeping the pace flowing and yet the pace could still be thrown off due to hunting for sidequests. Imagine an even bigger sandbox with even more things to do and it would be overwhelming. Granted that is only if you choose to go for this stuff since sidequests should be and are by nature optional. However, cutting out sidequests from a sandbox is like cutting out half a movie’s runtime. It’s such a waste since you are only depriving yourself of content. It would also make the game a lot more boring since you are just going from one objective to the next. That works when the game has a heavier emphasis on plot, but not so much when the main plot disappears for half an hour while you collect Riddler trophies. To close off, Batman: Arkham City was able to pull of a cohesive sandbox and have an entertaining game that was a worthy successor to Batman: Arkham Asylum, but there were already signs that the narrative of the games was starting to suffer and they weren’t sure what to do to keep a good story and gameplay balance. Just as a warning about sandboxes in general know that the bigger you make it, the more sand you need to pile into it. Thanks for hearing me out everyone. Oh and Riddler needs to learn that bigger isn’t better so that I don’t drive myself crazy with Ridder trophies ever again.