Like, the series isn’t famous for its writing, but I absolutely loved the last part of Arceus. The Volo fight hit me out of nowhere, and the fact the fight itself was actually challenging was a very pleasant surprise. I wish we got a little bit more of an explanation for potato mochi guy, but the game has just the right balance of mystery and allusion to D/P to make you think. The isekai elements also reminded me of the first Mystery Dungeon games in a really good way.
I really liked most of Black/White, but I think it got a little weaker at the end. Exploring the idea that maybe this isn’t really different from cockfighting, that maybe it’s wrong to capture Pokémon and perhaps force them to fight was an interesting idea even if the game pumped the breaks on exploring it with “nah Ghetsis is just evil lol” at the end. (I never played BW2, so not sure if it’s any better there.)
On the opposite end of things, Sw/Sh are just absolute fucking slop. I played them stoned as shit, which usually makes me very easy to impress, but no. Chairman Rose is stupid and I don’t even remember why I fought him. Team Yell might as well as come from an episode of Johnny Test. I already came in pissed about Dexit, and nothing about those games seemed to go beyond the tier of entertainment and challenge that I’d expect from an iPad game for a toddler.
Sw/Sh were a real low point. They boiled the story down to “Let the adults handle it” and left you just running between gyms the entire game.
It’s honestly been too long since I’ve played the older games to judge their writing… but I did play Scarlet recently, and have to give props to Arven’s storyline. It is a shame the game is at Resident Evil 6 levels of unfocused, and brain-dead levels of easy.
masuda is the reason behind this, he said he was tired of pokemon so hes going to make half-assed game going foward, that is the reason i never got a switch.
I set Scarlett to be in Chinese because I assumed the story would be as forgettable as Sw/Sh’s and I’d get some easy practice just mashing yes on dialogues, but lo and behold it looks like there’s actual choices and stuff? I’m surprised at a mainline Pokémon game actually needing you to be able to read, and I have no idea how to set the game back to English, so I haven’t played it much at all.
You cannot change a pokemon game’s language in the middle of a playthrough. You choose the language at the very beginning of the game. This is because a breeding pair of Pokemon with different language origins have a higher chance to breed with each other and produce eggs faster - I think the eggs may also have a higher chance to be shiny, but I’m less sure of that. Either way, it’s supposed to motivate you to trade online.
If you wanna change your language, you’re gonna have to wipe your save and start over.
I don’t recall any choices that mattered. They are all fake choices like “Do you want to be rivals: yes/no” and choosing no just repeats the question.
I only singled out Arven because his character started out kind of bratty and my opinion of him flipped completely by the end of the game.
It’s the classroom quizzes I can’t do. My vocab does extend to “yes” and “no,” but the lessons are bit beyond my first grader knowledge of Chinese.
Is there any reward for the classroom stuff? I completely skipped it thinking it was all tutorial.