GamingGrandpa
Bio
i take Gaming extremely seriously. dont go joking around about Games when im within earshot, because i will NOT be happy.
i take Gaming extremely seriously. dont go joking around about Games when im within earshot, because i will NOT be happy.
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1 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year
Favorite Games
010
Total Games Played
000
Played in 2024
011
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wanted to rate this higher because this was my shit when i was younger (had like 400 hours in it) but retrospectively it just doesn't hold up as well as i remember.
graphics-wise it's probably the best looking of the 2.5d pokemon games. the visuals are a bit more samey than the sinnoh games but it still has a great feel to it. and seeing your pokemon walk behind you is a great feature they really should've brought back.
now for the criticisms. first off, this game is sloooowwwwwwwwwww. even compared to platinum i feel like it's just a complete slogfest. someone really needs to make a rom patch or something that speeds up the animations/makes them play at the same time as the battle text/ etc., because even just a basic grindy encounter is going to take like 30 seconds each.
and more on grinding: you'll be doing that a lot. the wild encounters' and trainers' levels ramp up slower than the gym battles, which even then have a pretty shallow level curve. and once you get to kanto? i don't think there's a single trainer with pokemon over level 30. if it werent for the pokegear letting you do rematches, this game would be borderline unplayable.
hoping someone makes some sort of speeding up/balancing patch that fixes the more glaring issues because there is a really solid game beneath all that jank. otherwise i can't really see myself playing it again.
graphics-wise it's probably the best looking of the 2.5d pokemon games. the visuals are a bit more samey than the sinnoh games but it still has a great feel to it. and seeing your pokemon walk behind you is a great feature they really should've brought back.
now for the criticisms. first off, this game is sloooowwwwwwwwwww. even compared to platinum i feel like it's just a complete slogfest. someone really needs to make a rom patch or something that speeds up the animations/makes them play at the same time as the battle text/ etc., because even just a basic grindy encounter is going to take like 30 seconds each.
and more on grinding: you'll be doing that a lot. the wild encounters' and trainers' levels ramp up slower than the gym battles, which even then have a pretty shallow level curve. and once you get to kanto? i don't think there's a single trainer with pokemon over level 30. if it werent for the pokegear letting you do rematches, this game would be borderline unplayable.
hoping someone makes some sort of speeding up/balancing patch that fixes the more glaring issues because there is a really solid game beneath all that jank. otherwise i can't really see myself playing it again.
one of the first real games i remember playing. much more of an "arcade-y" game than super mario world. you sorta just turn your brain off and play it for an hour or so and before you know it you've either beaten the game or accidentally flung yourself into a pool of lava that you didn't see coming.
it saved the series, but at what cost?
for me the difficulty never really hits that sweet spot between "boring" and "frustrated" like the gba games do. and the pair-up mechanic turns a squad of 14 or so units into ~5-6 walking tanks. for everything i dislike about the fates games, they at least rebalanced the pair-ups so it wasn't always the most optimal thing to do. and also tone-wise this game is a complete 180 from previous games, turning the "anime-meter" up from "mild" to "downright criminal" (eg. nowi). paved the way for the franchise to become the fanservice hellscape it is now.
so yeah, i guess im glad this game exists, it's fun but it's far from the best game in the series.
for me the difficulty never really hits that sweet spot between "boring" and "frustrated" like the gba games do. and the pair-up mechanic turns a squad of 14 or so units into ~5-6 walking tanks. for everything i dislike about the fates games, they at least rebalanced the pair-ups so it wasn't always the most optimal thing to do. and also tone-wise this game is a complete 180 from previous games, turning the "anime-meter" up from "mild" to "downright criminal" (eg. nowi). paved the way for the franchise to become the fanservice hellscape it is now.
so yeah, i guess im glad this game exists, it's fun but it's far from the best game in the series.