like the base game, there is plenty of annoying stuff to pick at here, but the best bits of it provide an experience unlike anything else. the art direction is fromsoft's best, the slate of bosses are the most fun, challenging and interesting in the whole game, the new weapons and mechanics (notably the deflecting hardtear) freshen up the gameplay while also addressing some issues with the combat of the base game (although, I will say it'd be way better if the deflect mechanic had just been added to the core moves instead of being tied to the physick), and the legacy dungeons feel like old school fromsoft in the best way imaginable. it good.

Damn dude, you shit with that ass???

Spore is the type of game you should never turn your back on, for when you do, there will be something much more twisted waiting for you to reveal your face again. Do not make eye contact with a creature’s one eye lest you’ll be sent into the inner shackles of your own mind, imprisoned for an eternity of suffering from your own morbid curiosity. Having owned this game as a kid, I was never able to actually get it installed and therefore the disc was doomed for a life of collecting dust in a storage unit. Today however, I was finally able to raise the question, “What does it truly take to transform from just a lil’ guy into peak performance?”

I want to first give Spore a lot of credit for just being itself. Let your freak flag fly, brother!!!! With the main priority being the evolution of your own species through 5 stages of wildly different gameplay. Starting with the cell, where you’ll have to decide whether you want to eat fruit or tear the heads off of everything you meet moving forward. Me? I’m a peaceful creature. I had suspicions that playing as a carnivore would technically be the easier choice that probably everyone makes, so I veered left. Turns out, I was actually right because playing as an herbivore in the first two stages is asking for your spine to get ripped out. Ow!! Ow!! My beautiful creature has gone extinct before it even has a chance to live. I’m being bullied for eating green leaves!!

But, nevertheless we persevere and hardened creatures grow into monsters. The Creature stage is what separates the boys from the men who still laugh at penis jokes. The Creature stage is where most of the meat of the game lies. As you obtain DNA through befriending or killing your neighbors, you’re tasked with adding on unlockable additions to your creature that will truly mold them into an animal in their own right. Being an herbivore, this stage is still pretty difficult since other creatures seem to really love bum rushing you out of nowhere. But guess what, it’s harder to be oppressed when you’re strapped with an Ankylosaurus mace for a tail. Keep it moving, buddy. My friends and I are breakdancing the house down and you’ll never be up to our speed. Try evolving better next time.

I genuinely love the idea of this stage just from a creative standpoint alone. Although it can feel repetitive after a while, there’s nothing quite like transforming your abomination into something even more cursed. You really do get a decent range of warping the animal’s appendages and body however you want, although bear in mind that messing with the legs will definitely mess with your movement. But, who cares!! It’s funny. Probably the most interesting occurrence though was when I was befriending some random guy and out of nowhere, a spaceship came and abducted him right in front of my eyes. Skill issue tbh, but put a pin in it though. The curtain hasn’t been lifted quite yet. You’ll be spending a pretty decent amount of time as a creature, which is why it’s probably taken over most people’s memories of this game. It’s also definitely the best stage out of the 5, as it’s the only stage that allows you to use the creature creator in-game, the main draw of the whole thing. What’s unfortunate is that you can’t really unlock the best parts, like gliding, until late into the stage so in reality you only get to use the abilities for an incredibly short period of time, unless you forgo evolving when asked.

Personally, I didn’t really mind the Tribal or Civilization stages as much as everyone else. It is, however, disappointing that the act of editing your creature falls to clothes, buildings, and vehicles only from that point onward. Where I think Spore falters the most is how it’s constantly changing genres between life stages and never properly explains any of the gameplay changes. One stage you’ll be in a fully controlled third-person creature romp around and then in the next, now it’s an RTS civilization-esque city builder with conquest mechanics. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, although I do think it is quite ambitious. I would be lying though if I said that playing through a whole life session didn’t come with recurring confusion. Aside from the basic movement controls, the game never goes any deeper than the surface and just sort of makes you wing it in terms of how to build your tribe or city. Because of this, the Tribal stage was nothing but pure chaos the moment it actually opened up. Eventually, it will come naturally though as the game is piss easy anyways and the strategy portion of each stage is completely doused by just simply giving gifts to every tribe as soon as they appear and decking out your vehicle to extreme levels of weaponry no matter what route you’re playing as. Nonetheless, they’re not terrible stages to play through but they definitely aren’t challenging enough to be super memorable either.

I was actually cruising real good in my playthrough until I hit the brick wall that is the Space stage and that is where I think the game takes a nosedive for me. Here you’ve pretty much hit the apex of all life and it turns out that being on top is rather… boring. Again, the playstyle shifts into what feels like a business tycoon set in the Mass Effect universe and while the tutorial is longer, I still found myself seriously lost with all the new shit the game just throws at you in the final inning. It’s still really funny to stumble upon a worse looking creature than the last, but traveling from planet to planet and trading spice for badges or items to purify the atmosphere is dull enough to put the game down before you even hit the halfway mark of the progress bar. It doesn’t help that there is also an extremely eerie lack of music and ambiance for a game that was made by Maxis, often leaving you with nothing but pure silence a lot of the time. With that I decided we probably saw what we could and put it to rest, but I was genuinely curious if playing as a carnivore offered up a challenge or noticeable differences to any of the game’s stages.

Nope, in fact it’s actually way easier since eating everything you run into is 500 million times more convenient than playing the prey avoiding all the danger. Who woulda thunk? What I did learn though was that the game saves every creation you’ve ever made and will slip them into any new playthroughs you create, which I found quite endearing. I got to murder the shit out of my previous creature in the Tribal stage, which made me realize that the space abduction I saw before was supposed to be a placeholder for myself since, at the time, I hadn’t built my own spaceship yet. It turns out that I was the bad guy, which is actually.. a really fucking cool idea. Not to mention, the Civilization stage just tosses in these kaiju freaks of nature that don’t really do anything other than throw a wrench in your plans sometimes. I love them so much though because they’re usually ugly as sin and shoot massive fucking fireballs, one shotting everything they touch. It’s these things here that make Spore really special despite its flaws and it’s really unfortunate to see that we still haven’t seen anything quite like it ever since. I did however get to the Space stage again and immediately fell off for the second time though. It was crazy for me to read that there were apparently supposed to be several more stages that were scrapped and I honestly can’t tell if they would have made the game any better or worse. We’ll never know!!!

So yeah, it’s not the greatest game ever made but I really like the ideas that were attempted here. It’ll probably be sticking with me for a while anyways since it was a the perfect amount of goofy to get me through a shitty week, but at the end of the day it really just made me want someone new to pick up the mantle and create a similar Spore-like game to mess around in. There’s definitely a foundation here for something to build off of and there’s gotta be some weirdo game designer out there who played the fuck out of this game as a kid.

Also hey, if you’re photo-sensitive just be careful streaming or watching someone stream this game. For some reason in a game capture, it’ll turn every black screen into a crazy fucking rainbow light show of glitched textures. I ain’t posting an example, but I did not know this would happen and got clotheslined by a wall of radioactive lava lamp fluid. Not really sure why this happens, but it is a common bug apparently tied to the game’s v-sync and resolution settings. From what I experienced, it does not do this if you play it normally and only happens in the video capture while recording it. Just doing my part for whoever finds this information relevant. 👍

I like Pokemon XD. I don’t think I like it as much as I should, though. While there are a lot of significant improvements upon Colosseum across the board, I think there are some noticeable weaknesses that should have been addressed. It also doesn’t feel as distinct of an experience despite feeling more polished and well-rounded in most regards. At this point, I’ve played about 45+ hours or so and ultimately, I feel like I’ve met the same burnout that I experienced a year and a half ago. As such, consider this write-up a sort of companion piece to my earlier review for Colosseum. I’ve explained most of the core concepts for this spin-off series there, so I’ll be using this space to cover the major similarities and differences between the two games.

Pokemon XD takes place five years after the events of Colosseum. The desert region of Orre is slowly recovering from the prior scourge of Team Cipher, though recent suspicious rumblings have put the region on edge after the kidnapping of the SS Libra and sighted appearances of more Shadow Pokemon. Wes, the ex-Snagem 17-year old spiky haired protagonist from Colosseum with a badass hover motorbike, is nowhere to be found. Instead, you play as a kid named Michael who has a scooter. It’s a bit of a shame that the edginess is toned down in XD, but perhaps that speaks to how peace has really dulled the wariness of Orre; you’re the region’s last hope to restore balance to this troubled land and succeed against the vestiges of Cipher who have “fallen back upon their criminal ways.”

In general, catching Shadow Pokemon has been significantly streamlined. Shadow Rush, the one move that opposing Shadow Pokemon loved to spam in Colosseum, no longer deals recoil damage, so they won’t be ending their lives in despair once you whittle down their HP. In addition, it’s now possible to catch Shadow Pokemon at any point in the battle, whereas previously in Colosseum you had to eliminate all other non-Shadow Pokemon in the fight before you could throw a Poke Ball. To account for this, Shadow Pokemon are now much tougher to fight; they’re capable of using other Shadow attacks such as Shadow Sky (which creates a damaging weather effect that hits all non-Shadow Pokemon) and Shadow Hold (which prevents you from switching out your current Pokemon) to catch you off-guard. In addition, multiple Shadow Pokemon are capable of showing up in a single fight, which is both a good and bad thing for reasons that will become clear soon.

It’s also possible to catch wild Pokemon in XD, though I have mixed feelings on its execution here. According to the game’s lore, wild Pokemon have begun to reemerge in Orre thanks to the relative peace of the past five years and general humanitarian efforts. To catch them, you can leave PokeSnacks at any of the three PokeStops and wait for your Spot Monitor to notify you that a Wild Pokemon has shown up, making your way to the PokeStop before they eat all the snacks and run away. Alas, I find this rather intrusive; the Spot Monitor notifications are completely random over real-time and will often alert you while you’re in the middle of a dungeon exploring or while you’re on Mt Battle grinding. In a game with no instant fast travel while in the middle of locations, it is extremely obnoxious to put down what you’re doing at that very moment and walk out of the area to bag the Pokemon before it flees. You’ll likely have to do this over and over, because you can only catch one Pokemon per notification and some of the rarer catches such as Trapinch only show up 15% of the time. Still, I’ve willingly put up with this in the early game given that some of the best Pokemon (such as Zubat -> Crobat) have to be obtained this way, and it’s possible to trade with Duking of Pyrite Town for some particularly rare finds such as Larvitar and Meditite.

Grinding has also been substantially reduced in XD in comparison to Colosseum. For one, it is far easier to purify Shadow Pokemon because you can stick multiple Shadow mons in the Purify Chamber (setting up type-trumping loops with non-Shadow Pokemon) and have their gauges automatically diminish over time while you do something else. Even if you choose to manually lower the gauge in battle, fighting with Shadow Pokemon is far easier given the expanded Shadow Move toolkit and that Hyper Mode has been replaced with Reverse Mode, which doesn’t randomly take your turn away or cause any effects of disobedience. Finally, there isn’t as pressing of a need to level grind in XD for most of the game, since the level scaling between areas is far more reasonable (instead of the 3-5 level gaps of Colosseum), nor is there as pressing of a need to cash/BP grind since Genius Sonority has added more Pokemon Centers/heal machines nearby to refresh your team and there’s an alternate method to earn BP aside from grinding on Mt Battle.

This is where we get to the side content of Pokemon XD, which I would say is the game’s strongest suit. For example, Battle Bingo at Realgam Tower, the alternate method of earning BP, is a particularly interesting minigame. In this mode, you have to clear lines of four in a bingo card by flipping adjacent tiles using Entry Points (EP) of caught Pokemon. You start with one set Pokemon, and can clear tiles by defeating opposing Pokemon on that tile or catching them with Master Balls. Since each Pokemon has access to just one move, it becomes an exercise of picking fights with favorable type advantages/matchups, though dual type Pokemon and Pokemon capable of using non-STAB attacks can complicate the strategizing further. The downside to this mode is that you might get occasionally fucked over by the RNG from crits/status/missed attacks even with the type advantage, and there isn’t much appeal to replaying cards since the cards become randomized after the first clear, making Battle Bingo feel more like a crapshoot. Still, it’s a welcome change of pace from the standard double battles of the main game and is certainly a lot more fun than going through Mount Battle constantly.

The other notable sidemode in Pokemon XD is the Battle Sim. The Battle Sims at the Pokemon HQ Lab are great at teaching the player the basics of Pokemon battling and doubles (such as utilizing moves which target multiple Pokemon and teaching tactics that abuse status conditions), but it’s the Battle CD sims at Realgam Tower that really take the cake. By collecting Battle CDs all over Orre, Michael can engage in what is essentially the puzzle mode of Pokemon XD in set scenarios. For example, one Battle CD teaches how to avoid telegraphed set-up attacks such as SolarBeam and Sky Attack by timing Dig and Dive. Another one teaches you the effects of Snatch and Encore to exploit opposing Pokemon using set-up moves before they sweep you with their own attacks. Admittingly, some of these Battle CDs involve a significant degree of luck (looking at you, Metronome CD), but I really appreciate how these simulations force the player to think outside of the box and teach players about the nuances of Pokemon battling that they likely wouldn’t be familiar with even from competitive modes.

I’ve mostly been complimentary of XD up to this point. I’m very pleased with the improved pacing (outside of the PokeSpot notifications), the environments have more features to explore outside of otherwise empty trainer-ridden corridors (though I admit box puzzles aren’t a significant step up) and I definitely enjoy the additional minigames that really test my knowledge of the mechanics with exotic fights. Unfortunately, as much as I’ve praised everything outside of the battling, that points to the biggest issue in itself; I don’t actually remember much of the main game’s many battles.

faea highlights this issue by pointing out the differences between Colosseum’s Dakim and XD’s Gorigan, though I’d like to expand upon this further. Firstly, most boss fights in XD now revolve around utilizing tons of Shadow Pokemon rather than distinctly difficult doubles mechanics (i.e. setting up weather sweepers, spamming Earthquake with one mon while protecting with the other, etc). While Shadow Pokemon are still tougher to fight in XD than in Colosseum, they’re still not as interesting to fight as unique doubles tactics given that much of the admin fights centralize around me weakening and catching the Shadow Pokemon instead. Secondly though, this also comes with the caveat that I would need an incentive to catch all these different Pokemon as pointed out by faea, and this is where Pokemon XD’s expanded roster backfires.

You see, many of Colosseum’s fights are made significantly harder because your original roster is composed of just Espeon and Umbreon, two Pokemon with relatively poor type coverage. Additionally, Colosseum’s early catches are mostly “shitmons” such as Furret and Dunsparce with middling stats, forcing you to really understand and abuse their limited toolkits (i.e. Skiploom’s Sleep Powder to status enemies and Cotton Spore to slow down foes) to succeed against all odds. Take this with a grain of salt because I’m one of those individuals that enjoys sweeping randoms on Showdown with Delibird, but there’s a real satisfaction to maximizing every potential use of overlooked Pokemon and bodying opponents with Qwilfish and Stantler. Granted, you’re not likely to defeat final teams with Flygon and Starmie using such Pokemon, but it at least provided an incentive to catch stronger Shadow Pokemon such as Piloswine and Heracross so that your team could scale accordingly to the tougher boss fights.

This is not the case with XD, which can overwhelm you with choice from its much larger and generally stronger roster (i.e. Shroomish/Breloom, Baltoy/Claydol, Houndour/Houndoom, etc). I’ve already alluded that most of the best Pokemon can be obtained relatively early in the game from PokeStops. Additionally, having Eevee as a starter as opposed to Umbreon and Espeon immediately gives you a lot more leeway to adapt your team when there’s a trainer in Gateon Port that will give you any evolution item you want for it within the first hour of the game. The result is that XD is a game that doesn’t really force the player to experiment as much, given the lack of difficult and unique doubles boss fights during the main story and the expansive and immediate selection of strong Pokemon in the first half of the game. The only real incentive I had to catch more Shadow Pokemon once my team was fully developed was that the back-up strat was even more tedious. Missing any Shadow Pokemon means that you have to wait for Miror B to randomly show up at a PokeSpot (same exact mechanic as the Spot Radar), and then interrupt whatever you’re doing to hunt him down and catch up to two missing Shadow Pokemon at a time until you have to repeat the process anew. As such, I’m forced to conclude that a lot of the game's fights bleed into one another for me. Sadly, XD feels like a game more fixated upon catching rather than battling.

I wouldn’t say that XD is a bad Pokemon game, far from it in fact. Genius Sonority had the tough task of balancing Colosseum’s demanding battles with the casual Pokemon experience of catching em all while targeting player complaints of bloat from the original. In that sense, I’d say they mostly succeeded given XD’s larger and more colorful roster, and I can certainly appreciate that rarer Hoenn Pokemon such as Surskit and Delcatty are far easier to obtain in XD as a concession. It’s a much more accessible and expansive spin-off for most of the fanbase, but unfortunately, I felt that the aspect I enjoyed the most from Colosseum was somewhat lacking for most of XD’s runtime. By the time I got to the tougher Orre Colosseum and Mt Battle doubles fights that reminded me of what the series was capable of (using Teeter Dance to confuse everyone but the enemy’s own Pokemon with Own Tempo, for instance), I was once again confronted with that same massive level gap typical of Colosseum that would have forced me to spend more hours grinding up my team to even stand a chance at matching that firepower. How poetic that even after layers of polish and streamlining, it looks like Pokemon can’t escape its greatest weaknesses at the end of the day.

Que ótima surpresa, Esse é o tipo de jogo q deveria ter um pouco mais de reconhecimento, Mas ter sido exclusivo Stadia por um tempo foi um enorme desperdício
Tenho a destacar o design dos personagens são muito originais e bonitos, A trilha sonora é excelente e ajuda bastante na imersão da cidade abandonada, E a ambientação não é nada acima da media mas cumpre bem seu papel
A gameplay é simples, Passar escondidos dos monstros, Mas felizmente ao decorrer do jogo vc vai ganhando novas formas de passar e não deixa o jogo ficar enjoativo e a duração ajuda tbm
E pra concluir a historia é boa e passam uma boa mensagem sobre o Bullyng e os personagens dos 3 q tem são otimos.

As a veteran of FromSoftware's titles, having played almost all their games except Bloodborne and Demon's Souls due to the lack of a PlayStation, I found the Elden Ring DLC "Shadow of the Erdtree" to be an experience that evokes deep nostalgia. It's evident that Hidetaka Miyazaki wanted to offer a kind of reward to the more veteran players of the "souls" franchise, something that's felt throughout this additional content. In this review, I'll explore the positive and negative aspects of the DLC, sharing my perspective based on hours of gameplay and personal experience.

One of the most notable aspects of "Shadow of the Erdtree" is undoubtedly its world building. Just like in Elden Ring, the DLC presents a meticulously detailed map with visually stunning and distinctive areas. This attention to detail creates an immersive and entertaining environment, inviting exploration without the fear of missing important elements, given that the map isn't excessively large. This balance allows for a gameplay experience that feels rich and rewarding.

The difficulty has been a contentious topic. Some players find certain bosses excessively difficult and unfair. Personally, I've experienced this frustration, spending around eight hours on a single boss, consuming my entire Saturday. However, it's precisely this difficulty that fascinates me about FromSoftware's games. The sense of personal achievement, of improving with each attempt, even though it sometimes feels like you're regressing, is what makes these games unique. This perseverance, patience, and discipline required touch a deep chord within me, making this DLC a memorable and meaningful experience.

Despite how visually impressive the map is, it often feels empty. The lack of interaction beyond going from point A to point B diminishes the immersion. Although the castles and structures are visually distinct, the repetition of enemies and the lack of variety in interactions make the map, although beautiful, feel lifeless.

The recycling of enemies from the base game is noticeable, and the new enemies added are excessively repeated throughout the DLC. This lack of originality in encounters reduces the freshness of the experience. The castles, though beautifully designed, often present the same structure: a wave of generic enemies followed by a "mini boss / powerful enemy", which can become predictable and monotonous.

Dungeons make their return in this DLC, and my opinion about them has not changed since the base game. I didn't like them then, and I don't like them now. Once you've completed one, the rest feel the same or even worse. Fortunately, there are few in this DLC, minimizing their negative impact.

In conclusion, despite its flaws, "Shadow of the Erdtree" has offered me a rewarding experience, which stands out as one of the most significant in my life, leaving me with indelible memories.

If you've read this far, thank you for reading my opinion/experience/reflection.

Miyazaki, release Bloodborne on PC, damn it. :)