I decided to check this out after seeing CD Projekt Red had done a soft re-release of the game, and included a free 5 hour trial, and this was an incredibly pleasant surprise. Considering the disastrous initial launch, and the way in which the game was marketed towards a more unpleasant subset of gamers, my expectations were absolute zero.

What I got instead was an incredibly compelling, well written story about ghosts, mortality, and humanity. I think during the trainwreck leading up to and including the launch of the game, we all forgot that CD Projekt Red has a damn good writing team, and now that the game is in a playable state I'm really glad I got to experience it. The main story is thematically compelling, the character writing is excellent, and the romantic storylines are some of my favourite that I've ever seen in a game.

I get why people would want to write the game off even now. The initial launch is the worst of any game I can remember, and the marketing really did not sell the strengths of the game. But I hope people do go back and see the game for what it really is; a well told, interesting story, with an excellent cast of characters, and themes that will stick with me for a long time.

While PLA is a breath of fresh air for Pokemon I don't think that alone is enough to make this the best game in the series.

I was skeptical going into the game but when I first got my hands on the game I played for 10 hours straight. It was refreshing and fun to focus on catching Pokemon, the new battle system was interesting and the story seemed to be focusing on the mythos of Hisui which I hoped would lead to a more interesting story.

While I initially had a lot of fun with PLA, I eventually started to feel how monotonous the game was which led me to feel a burnout about 30 hours into the game when I was about halfway through the 3rd area. I'd say a few factors played into this.

For starters, the catching system can get old pretty fast. I still really enjoy sneaking up on Pokemon and throwing items and balls at them. Running into a rare Pokemon like Eevee and trying your hardest not to startle them was a lot of fun and trying to catch Alpha Pokemon was even tenser. Unfortunately, I'd started to get bored of the sneaking and catching by the point I'd started to feel burnout because of how much I'd been doing the same motions for the same Pokemon. I don't think there's enough to break up the catching for it not to eventually become tired.

I would say that battles and boss fights are good breaks for the catching but I think this game is a huge step back when it comes to the turn-based battles. The agile and strong style moves barely add anything to the game. Agile style moves might give you another turn eventually or they might not. I think it's speed based and I know that priority moves also affect turn order but the way these mix together isn't clear. Strong style moves give you more accuracy and power but guarantee you lose a turn so I only ever use them when a one-shot is guaranteed or after I get a bonus turn with an agile style move. I wish there was more to the trainer battles so I could actually experiment with this press turn system but trainer fights (and fights in general) just boil down to who moves first and can land a strong style attack. It got to a point where I threw team building out the window and just put bulky high leveled Pokemon on my team that wouldn't get one shot since fragile Pokemon can barely do anything. Along with the removal of abilities the battle system just feels very shallow. I've heard people say that this game is challenging and difficult but I feel like that difficulty is all artificial. It's difficult because of the poor system rather than the game crafting unique challenge. I really hope this battle system is either improved drastically or completely removed from the next game.

One thing I do really like about the game is the Noble fights. I really enjoy dodging and throwing balms but I wish there was more to them than what we got. The final boss of the main game is one of the easier Noble fights which is really disappointing considering the stakes. The alternative would be to have these fights be turn-based battles but that would just fall to one-shotting each other which would be even less enjoyable.

The last aspect of the gameplay that I ended up having an issue with was the main reason why I was doing any of it. Typically in Pokemon games I catch and train Pokemon with the intent to use them or breed them to use their offspring in online battles after I beat the main campaign. This game having no multiplayer and now battle facility makes me wonder why I'm even catching and training Pokemon in the first place. The obvious answer would be to say that I'm doing it to complete the Pokedex, which is true. That's the main goal of the game and something you need to do to even have a chance to catch Arceus. This would be fine if the experience getting there didn't end up feeling draining and repetitive so when I look at everything I have to do I realise that I'm catching and training Pokemon so I have the ability to catch the strongest Pokemon only to have nothing to do with it. You could argue that the reward for catching Pokemon is within the action of catching itself but when you have to catch hundreds of Pokemon multiple times over that reward ends up feeling empty. It's hard to bring myself to continue completing the Pokedex when I know the grand reward at the end of everything won't be anything satisfying.

The last topic I want to touch on would be the story and by extension the characters.

Holy shit. What happened here?

Initially, I thought that the story and ti's characters were going to be fresh and interesting considering the setting of the game. These are people that experience the dangers of Pokemon first hand in a world where some exist as guardian deities. I had thought that the story would be a lot more mature and interesting because of this.

It's not.

Their idea of mature storytelling is constantly telling you that you can die. I must've heard "Pokemon are scary" remixed in different ways about 10 separate times throughout the game. The 'conflict' between the Diamond and Pearl clans could've been really interesting considering that they aren't outright fighting but just have different views but it comes across more like some petty beef because of the dialogue. Kamado randomly decides that he can't trust you and kicks you out of Jubilife even after almost every character says his decision makes no sense, the potato mochi dude is actually a ninja assassin, and by the end of the postgame story it's revealed that Volo is actually evil and has been hiding a ridiculous Arceus looking get up under his clothes. Naturally, it's a Pokemon game so I shouldn't expect much but it's still shocking how little sense this story made.

At the end of the day, I still think PLA was a step in the right direction for the series but there are so many things that hold it back from being the game it should be. The caveat is always "well considering it's a Pokemon game this is great" when I think it should just be good without that. I absolutely had fun and I don't fault anyone that continues to have fun but I can't see myself playing this game any more than I have.

O que mais me impressionou em Sideswipe foi o quão bem ele traduz o gameplay de Rocket League para a segunda dimensão - por mais que um jogo como esse precisa ter controles simples pelos limites naturais do hardware, fiquei rapidamente bem confortável com os controles simples e intuitivos que retém muito do que fez o jogo original clicar pra mim. Logo nos primeiros minutos consegui fazer truques que ainda nem cheguei perto de fazer no jogo de PC. Acho que o que vai diferenciar um jogador bom e um ruim aqui vai ser menos a dificuldade mecânica que separa parte da playerbase do Rocket League (Principalmente do Diamond para o Champion), e mais habilidades voltadas para o game sense geral. O que me vem à cabeça quando digo isso é o gerenciamento de boost de ambos os jogadores, uma vez que, em Sideswipe, o boost regenera automaticamente quando você está no chão, o que dá aos jogadores mais controle sobre o seu boost e o do oponente.

Estou comparando Sideswipe com o Rocket League original porque, por mais que eu goste bastante das ideias apresentadas nele, não acho que ele consegue voar pelas suas próprias asas. Afinal, é só um jogo de mobile, e grande parte do público vai rejeitá-lo pela tal falta de uma dificuldade mecânica que vem com o hardware (Com razão). O sistema de progressão (praticamente idêntico do jogo de PC) não vai segurar muita gente, e para um veterano da série, desbloquear carros e chapéus que já tenho no jogo base há anos foi bem broxante. Se você for um fã de Rocket League, baixe e jogue apenas como o que o jogo é: Um passatempo rápido que você joga por umas semanas e depois deleta do celular.

yeah not hard to tell this was originally a completely different game and the end result we got is a horribly stripped-down and retooled version of what said original game would've been

i could go on for ages about SFA's history and its orginal Dinosaur Planet incarnation, but SFA by itself is an Okay zelda-like. yes, the combat is repetitive and terrible. yes, the arwing sections were obviously just there to attempt to make the game more "Star Fox"-y. yes, the pacing shits the bed hard in the latter half of the game. and yes, the Test Of Fear is awful and the final boss was a huge letdown.

but the first half of the game is fairly solid, and the locales and visuals are some of the best of early gamecube.

am i biased? yeah i'd probably blame that on researching dinosaur planet for years and slowly growing a fondness for this weird child of the star fox franchise. but SFA's an Okay game even with its flaws. you're still better off playing an actual zelda game, though.

at face value, oblivion isn't too much to write home about considering the general story premise, the main quest, and the "standard fantasy" (though admittedly very lush) setting of cyrodiil. it's when you go off the beaten path and explore and do the side quests where you realize just how oddly surreal and unhinged everything is. nobody in this game acts like a normal person.

the quests are arguably some of the most fun in the series though. guild quests especially, but i may be biased because Whodunit exists. dark brotherhood for life.