Morghini89
2014
After playing gen 3 for a couple months prior to this game, this almost made me feel nostalgic the most in comparison to other remakes like FireRed and HeartGold, since I've spent so much time in Hoenn and enjoyed the region a lot. With the jump to 3D and music transitioning outside of chiptune hits, Omega Ruby was such a treat to look at, both presentation and audio wise.
As a remake of Ruby and Sapphire, ORAS had changed so many features since that era with the many features added over the years, but also new elements to the story which is unique for a remake in Pokemon. Alongside seeing familiar characters and Pokemon returning in this game, we also have new faces like Zinnia and...oh, just Zinnia? Well, one new character. And we see her in the brand new post-game called the Delta Episode, which I'll get to in a second.
With X and Y being a hit back then, they also decided to add some functions from that game into this remake as well, with exp share functioning exactly how it did in Kalos. In the previous game, I stated that this wasn't that bad to me as I could easily balance out my team to avoid overlevelling. Well, throw that out of the window as I was 15 levels over with just my starter by the time I got to Mossdeep City, not because I wanted to use my starter being Swampert, but they still kept almost the same amount of HMs needed for your travels, which I cannot wait for them to scrap them later on, these are forever stupid to handle. As well as exp share being an easy mode, mega evolutions return as well, with some new ones found only in ORAS, such as Sharpedo, Garchomp, the Hoenn starters, the box art legendaries dubbed as Primal Reversions, and even Diancie got a mega too: the only mythical to ever have a mega form. I never really used these much unlike X and Y, since you get the mega bracelet after the Southern Island to get one of the Eon Pokemon 5 gyms later.
Yeah, that brings me to what else the remake offers. They added the Pokedex functions back from X and Y like Pokemon-Amie, Super Training, and the PSS, but they also added new functions like the PokeNav, which acts as a tracker for Pokemon in the area, beeping if you're near a wild one - making it easier to find some of the rarer Pokemon and even some with different moves. Later on, it allows you to find Pokemon outside of the Hoenn dex from Kanto to Kalos which is great, and became a very big help after I got to the post game for some of my favourites. Another thing they added was PokeBuzz which is basically the news feature, but it also incorporates StreetPass in this game, which I couldn't use unfortunately since it's 2024 and I have no one using StreetPass near me.
As of the post game itself, this was muuuuuch better compared to Kalos' post game. When becoming Champion, you hear about a meteoroid heading to Hoenn and you're thinking of some way to stop it while running into Zinnia, one of the Draconids who wishes to awaken Rayquaza to stop it. This was a really cool storyline near the end as it dives further into how Mega Evolution came into all of this and even adds context to the ancient war in Kalos. But you also get Deoxys as a reward for destroying the meteor which was a nice treat too, a space virus for free...how generous!
ORAS was so much fun to play through, although I kinda wished the HMs would've been gone in this game or at least shrunken down, but still holds up for a 3DS game 10 years later.
As a remake of Ruby and Sapphire, ORAS had changed so many features since that era with the many features added over the years, but also new elements to the story which is unique for a remake in Pokemon. Alongside seeing familiar characters and Pokemon returning in this game, we also have new faces like Zinnia and...oh, just Zinnia? Well, one new character. And we see her in the brand new post-game called the Delta Episode, which I'll get to in a second.
With X and Y being a hit back then, they also decided to add some functions from that game into this remake as well, with exp share functioning exactly how it did in Kalos. In the previous game, I stated that this wasn't that bad to me as I could easily balance out my team to avoid overlevelling. Well, throw that out of the window as I was 15 levels over with just my starter by the time I got to Mossdeep City, not because I wanted to use my starter being Swampert, but they still kept almost the same amount of HMs needed for your travels, which I cannot wait for them to scrap them later on, these are forever stupid to handle. As well as exp share being an easy mode, mega evolutions return as well, with some new ones found only in ORAS, such as Sharpedo, Garchomp, the Hoenn starters, the box art legendaries dubbed as Primal Reversions, and even Diancie got a mega too: the only mythical to ever have a mega form. I never really used these much unlike X and Y, since you get the mega bracelet after the Southern Island to get one of the Eon Pokemon 5 gyms later.
Yeah, that brings me to what else the remake offers. They added the Pokedex functions back from X and Y like Pokemon-Amie, Super Training, and the PSS, but they also added new functions like the PokeNav, which acts as a tracker for Pokemon in the area, beeping if you're near a wild one - making it easier to find some of the rarer Pokemon and even some with different moves. Later on, it allows you to find Pokemon outside of the Hoenn dex from Kanto to Kalos which is great, and became a very big help after I got to the post game for some of my favourites. Another thing they added was PokeBuzz which is basically the news feature, but it also incorporates StreetPass in this game, which I couldn't use unfortunately since it's 2024 and I have no one using StreetPass near me.
As of the post game itself, this was muuuuuch better compared to Kalos' post game. When becoming Champion, you hear about a meteoroid heading to Hoenn and you're thinking of some way to stop it while running into Zinnia, one of the Draconids who wishes to awaken Rayquaza to stop it. This was a really cool storyline near the end as it dives further into how Mega Evolution came into all of this and even adds context to the ancient war in Kalos. But you also get Deoxys as a reward for destroying the meteor which was a nice treat too, a space virus for free...how generous!
ORAS was so much fun to play through, although I kinda wished the HMs would've been gone in this game or at least shrunken down, but still holds up for a 3DS game 10 years later.
2013
Upon reaching the 3DS era of Pokemon, I feel like I am close to reaching the end goal of the past generation Pokemon games that I haven't played at all, and I have been enjoying the ride through this franchise. But now as I entered the first half of gen 6, my thoughts on X and Y are mixed.
This game back then was when I was in the phase of not caring about Pokemon at all in high school, zoomer moment. But I did admit that the jump to 3D looked amazing for a handheld back then, which the models in future games are reused from X and Y.
In terms of what I thought the game really excelled with, was the Pokemon designs as I think these look really nice to me, even if I think other generations have better designs. Yeah sure, you have some stinkers like Klefki, Barbaracle, and Diggersby, but most of the new mons are unique and incredible to look at like Aegislash, Malamar, Dragalge, and Goodra whom I used later on in the team as it's my favourite dragon type in the franchise. And speaking of which, we got a brand new type added in this game being the Fairy type which would become another mainstay. It seems to be that when Pokemon adds a new type, they end up being overpowered, and that's what the Fairy type is in this game...and the next...and the next...and the next. A lot of old Pokemon were converted to pure fairy type or half fairy like Jigglypuff, Whimsicott, Clefairy, Gardevoir, but most of the new mons are also fairy type, with the mascot being a brand new Eeveelution, Sylveon. Just a shame that there are only 72 new mons this time, the lowest any game has gone being a max total of 721 mons at that time.
What I didn't expect from this game, was that the region of Kalos had some underrated music in several areas like the battles against the gym leaders, Team Flare, champion, and the legendaries, Victory Road, Lumiose City, Snowbelle City, and even Santalune City. Plus, the region itself having a huge design basis from France was stunning with what the designs of each area and town looked like, with Lumiose City being the biggest area in the game; having 3 sections you can head through plus a gym you fight at later on. This area is mainly the hub of Kalos and has a lot of areas and shops interconnected with it, with routes divulging in every direction. Cannot wait to explore this in Legends Z-A coming out.
Now the negatives...I really did not find the story to be engaging. Now the story formula is the same as usual, you get the picture already, but now they make you have 4 friends that journey with you. You got your neighbouring rival Serena or Calem, Shauna, the dex fanatic Trevor and the worst character Tierno. The story really wants you to like these characters but they come across as boring and annoying especially with the last two. Team Flare felt like a weak villain organisation, wanting to rule the world after firing a weapon some king made 3000 years and be the only ones left to live...yeah great plan. And do not get me started on the post game, holy hell this is so lame. You have a 2 hour long mission with Looker in Lumiose, and you can get the new mega stones, plus 2 returning legendaries and that's it. SO WEAK!!!
One new thing added in this generation was the birth of the 'gimmicks' seen nowadays in Pokemon, with the first one being Mega Evolutions. Megas are essentially new forms specific Pokemon can take in battle that grant them a huge boost in their stats and sometimes can even change their typing like Mega Gyarados for instance. While these were really cool, these immediately made the game a cakewalk since your attack stats would go stupidly high with these. And that brings me to my next point...this game was very easy to overlevel in.
They changed the exp share feature from being a held item into a key item this time, like in modern games, but they made this incredibly busted as you can easily go over levelled if not careful. You can turn it off and be like classic Pokemon, but I didn't and wanted to switch Pokemon if I felt too high levelled.
Overall, X and Y are not bad, but they aren't good either. While I thoroughly enjoyed exploring Kalos and loved seeing the pretty areas of the game, the low amount of new Pokemon was rather disappointing for me, the story was extremely dull and lame, and the exp share made the game way too easy at times. But the megas were a really cool addition, and I'm honestly surprised to see them return again. Here's hoping they nerf them then. X and Y are pretty low in terms of wanting to play them again, but they are fun if you just don't focus on the story and want a shorter Pokemon game on the side.
This game back then was when I was in the phase of not caring about Pokemon at all in high school, zoomer moment. But I did admit that the jump to 3D looked amazing for a handheld back then, which the models in future games are reused from X and Y.
In terms of what I thought the game really excelled with, was the Pokemon designs as I think these look really nice to me, even if I think other generations have better designs. Yeah sure, you have some stinkers like Klefki, Barbaracle, and Diggersby, but most of the new mons are unique and incredible to look at like Aegislash, Malamar, Dragalge, and Goodra whom I used later on in the team as it's my favourite dragon type in the franchise. And speaking of which, we got a brand new type added in this game being the Fairy type which would become another mainstay. It seems to be that when Pokemon adds a new type, they end up being overpowered, and that's what the Fairy type is in this game...and the next...and the next...and the next. A lot of old Pokemon were converted to pure fairy type or half fairy like Jigglypuff, Whimsicott, Clefairy, Gardevoir, but most of the new mons are also fairy type, with the mascot being a brand new Eeveelution, Sylveon. Just a shame that there are only 72 new mons this time, the lowest any game has gone being a max total of 721 mons at that time.
What I didn't expect from this game, was that the region of Kalos had some underrated music in several areas like the battles against the gym leaders, Team Flare, champion, and the legendaries, Victory Road, Lumiose City, Snowbelle City, and even Santalune City. Plus, the region itself having a huge design basis from France was stunning with what the designs of each area and town looked like, with Lumiose City being the biggest area in the game; having 3 sections you can head through plus a gym you fight at later on. This area is mainly the hub of Kalos and has a lot of areas and shops interconnected with it, with routes divulging in every direction. Cannot wait to explore this in Legends Z-A coming out.
Now the negatives...I really did not find the story to be engaging. Now the story formula is the same as usual, you get the picture already, but now they make you have 4 friends that journey with you. You got your neighbouring rival Serena or Calem, Shauna, the dex fanatic Trevor and the worst character Tierno. The story really wants you to like these characters but they come across as boring and annoying especially with the last two. Team Flare felt like a weak villain organisation, wanting to rule the world after firing a weapon some king made 3000 years and be the only ones left to live...yeah great plan. And do not get me started on the post game, holy hell this is so lame. You have a 2 hour long mission with Looker in Lumiose, and you can get the new mega stones, plus 2 returning legendaries and that's it. SO WEAK!!!
One new thing added in this generation was the birth of the 'gimmicks' seen nowadays in Pokemon, with the first one being Mega Evolutions. Megas are essentially new forms specific Pokemon can take in battle that grant them a huge boost in their stats and sometimes can even change their typing like Mega Gyarados for instance. While these were really cool, these immediately made the game a cakewalk since your attack stats would go stupidly high with these. And that brings me to my next point...this game was very easy to overlevel in.
They changed the exp share feature from being a held item into a key item this time, like in modern games, but they made this incredibly busted as you can easily go over levelled if not careful. You can turn it off and be like classic Pokemon, but I didn't and wanted to switch Pokemon if I felt too high levelled.
Overall, X and Y are not bad, but they aren't good either. While I thoroughly enjoyed exploring Kalos and loved seeing the pretty areas of the game, the low amount of new Pokemon was rather disappointing for me, the story was extremely dull and lame, and the exp share made the game way too easy at times. But the megas were a really cool addition, and I'm honestly surprised to see them return again. Here's hoping they nerf them then. X and Y are pretty low in terms of wanting to play them again, but they are fun if you just don't focus on the story and want a shorter Pokemon game on the side.
Gonna be real honest with you, Pokemon Black 2 is probably the best Pokemon game in the franchise and the best 2D Pokemon game as well. I don't understand why this generation was hated back in 2011-2012, as I really enjoyed my time with the previous game and the sequel. One thing I forgot to mention with gen 5 is that the sprite work is some of the best sprites we have ever seen in this franchise, by far. The Pokemon just pop out so much more in this game, it's great!
So where do I begin with the final DS Pokemon title? The plot of course. To give a brief summary, two years have passed since Black and White, and you control either Nate or Rosa (aka the best protag design fight me). You are sent off on your Pokemon journey with your rival, Hugh, who is...something else. He's a shounen character through and through, very hot headed, and very cringey with his dialogue at certain moments, but be warned cuz "he's about to release his rage". He's not the worst rival by far, but we'll get to them later in the franchise. Among your travels, you will encounter Team Plasma once again, led by Ghetsis who still desires to rule Unova in an icy winter, with a captive Pokemon under his control for power; Kyurem. But what's cool is that you'll meet former Plasma members who have their minds changed after what N went through, but I wish they played more on that part with the plot. Oh and N? Yeah, N is not a prominent character in this game, just serves a role against Kyurem, and in the post game, and that's it.
So with the plot being not a big part of this game compared to the first game, what's the gameplay like? Well, it is literally just the same as it was but with a few tweaks in there. Obviously, you're catching Pokemon, beating the gym leaders, and becoming the Champion, but there's a few more things you can do in this game, and boy...Unova sure has a lot of things to do, and some features return which I forgot to mention from my Black review. In terms of battles first, you still have your bread and butter formula of how battles work, but you also have the odd Triple/Rotational Battles every now and then. Again, I kinda wanted to see these more in the game, but they are more prevelant in the post game with the Black City & White Forest returning. Pokemon can now have hidden abilities introduced this generation, and are more accessible with this game's Hidden Grottos, scattered around Unova, but back in the day, you could possibly get those with the web browser, Pokemon Dream World. Unfortunately, the servers shut down about 12 years ago so I couldn't try it out, but you can also use Pokemon Dream Radar on 3DS, a side game where you capture Pokemon inside dream orbs to then transfer into gen 5.
What I found really cool with players returning from the first game is the Unova Link feature, a method where players can transfer their Pokemon from Black/White into Black 2/White 2 via the infrared technology on the cartridges, but they can also view cutscenes of certain events between the two years which is just flavour text, and even trade keys which give you more difficulty choices, transfer the Black City and White Forest, etc. In terms of post-game and side content, there's so much more to do. What I didn't talk about in the first game was the Musical Festival, and this mode was okay. It replaces the pokemon contests where you can dress up your mon and partake in a musical to earn items. You could also do the Battle Subway in Nimbasa City where it is treated as a battle frontier in a way, fighting strong trainers and even Ingo and Emmet.
New to the post game is the Black City/White Forest I keep mentioning where this is this game's battle hall but is exclusively tied to triple and rotational battles. Climbing higher and higher earns items, money, and when you reach the top, a free Shiny Pokemon which is most definitely worth it. You can explore the starting areas of Unova from the first game now all souped up in levels, you can collect medals new to the series where any tasks you do net you collectible medals like trophies or achievements, although you can't do all of them now as some of them required Dream World, and the GTS to trade Pokemon over the internet.
The three big features that I think of immediately in terms of side content for this game are Pokestar Studios, the Join Avenue, and the Pokemon World Tournament. The Join Avenue you experience early on, where you can make NPCs join your avenue and become merchants, and even request other NPCs to make the wares more popular. But what was really cool is that you can net more NPCs over through the C-Gear with other players, gaining more popularity with your shops. To me, this is basically the only DS game to have a StreetPass function in a way, especially since this game released a year in the 3DS's life, which was really cool, but now in 2024, you are definitely not gonna be getting many at all.
Next is the Pokestar Studios, a movie studio where you and your Pokemon are sent in to make movies for the big screen, netting you items (and medals) based on how well your movie went. You film with rental Pokemon at first, but you can also use your team if you do more films, and you are tasked with following the script in order to make a good ending. But you can also change it up and go for a strange ending if you wanted and see what results you got. While some of the movies are...interesting to make, looking at you giant lady with rope, the rest of this feature can get a little tedious and even boring at times.
But the best one, is the Pokemon World Tournament. You do a tiny portion of this during the story, but in the post game, there are so many battle options you can do. It is essentially a tourney mode against trainers with your team, and you choose who to use in the battles, you are locked at lvl 25 throughout; locking at lvl 50 later on, you can't heal mid fight, and you also gain BP this way outside the Battle Subway. While it is a cool mode, what really makes it shine is the fact that you can fight the Unova Leaders again in their own tournament, and even some gym leaders you don't fight in the story like Lenora, Brycen, and Cilan. But after you beat those, you also unlock the tourneys against Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh gym leaders all with their original teams and remixed music! Plus after that, you can fight the Champions across all regions to see who is the ultimate champion, and this is what made me fall in love with the battle scheme in Pokemon again. I loved the double battle feature in gen 3, but the battle mechanics entirely in Black 2 at this point clicked with me that point on.
Do I recommend this game? Hell yes I do, if you have the money of course as this is also pricey. But is it also necessary with playing the first game before this game? Honestly no, not at all. The Pokemon are all the same, only except the available Pokemon found in the regional dex is a mix of all regions now rather than exclusively Unovan mons, the story loosely calls back to the first game until the end a tiny bit, and the Unova region is the exact same layout wise. But this game is up there now in my top 3 Pokemon games.
So where do I begin with the final DS Pokemon title? The plot of course. To give a brief summary, two years have passed since Black and White, and you control either Nate or Rosa (aka the best protag design fight me). You are sent off on your Pokemon journey with your rival, Hugh, who is...something else. He's a shounen character through and through, very hot headed, and very cringey with his dialogue at certain moments, but be warned cuz "he's about to release his rage". He's not the worst rival by far, but we'll get to them later in the franchise. Among your travels, you will encounter Team Plasma once again, led by Ghetsis who still desires to rule Unova in an icy winter, with a captive Pokemon under his control for power; Kyurem. But what's cool is that you'll meet former Plasma members who have their minds changed after what N went through, but I wish they played more on that part with the plot. Oh and N? Yeah, N is not a prominent character in this game, just serves a role against Kyurem, and in the post game, and that's it.
So with the plot being not a big part of this game compared to the first game, what's the gameplay like? Well, it is literally just the same as it was but with a few tweaks in there. Obviously, you're catching Pokemon, beating the gym leaders, and becoming the Champion, but there's a few more things you can do in this game, and boy...Unova sure has a lot of things to do, and some features return which I forgot to mention from my Black review. In terms of battles first, you still have your bread and butter formula of how battles work, but you also have the odd Triple/Rotational Battles every now and then. Again, I kinda wanted to see these more in the game, but they are more prevelant in the post game with the Black City & White Forest returning. Pokemon can now have hidden abilities introduced this generation, and are more accessible with this game's Hidden Grottos, scattered around Unova, but back in the day, you could possibly get those with the web browser, Pokemon Dream World. Unfortunately, the servers shut down about 12 years ago so I couldn't try it out, but you can also use Pokemon Dream Radar on 3DS, a side game where you capture Pokemon inside dream orbs to then transfer into gen 5.
What I found really cool with players returning from the first game is the Unova Link feature, a method where players can transfer their Pokemon from Black/White into Black 2/White 2 via the infrared technology on the cartridges, but they can also view cutscenes of certain events between the two years which is just flavour text, and even trade keys which give you more difficulty choices, transfer the Black City and White Forest, etc. In terms of post-game and side content, there's so much more to do. What I didn't talk about in the first game was the Musical Festival, and this mode was okay. It replaces the pokemon contests where you can dress up your mon and partake in a musical to earn items. You could also do the Battle Subway in Nimbasa City where it is treated as a battle frontier in a way, fighting strong trainers and even Ingo and Emmet.
New to the post game is the Black City/White Forest I keep mentioning where this is this game's battle hall but is exclusively tied to triple and rotational battles. Climbing higher and higher earns items, money, and when you reach the top, a free Shiny Pokemon which is most definitely worth it. You can explore the starting areas of Unova from the first game now all souped up in levels, you can collect medals new to the series where any tasks you do net you collectible medals like trophies or achievements, although you can't do all of them now as some of them required Dream World, and the GTS to trade Pokemon over the internet.
The three big features that I think of immediately in terms of side content for this game are Pokestar Studios, the Join Avenue, and the Pokemon World Tournament. The Join Avenue you experience early on, where you can make NPCs join your avenue and become merchants, and even request other NPCs to make the wares more popular. But what was really cool is that you can net more NPCs over through the C-Gear with other players, gaining more popularity with your shops. To me, this is basically the only DS game to have a StreetPass function in a way, especially since this game released a year in the 3DS's life, which was really cool, but now in 2024, you are definitely not gonna be getting many at all.
Next is the Pokestar Studios, a movie studio where you and your Pokemon are sent in to make movies for the big screen, netting you items (and medals) based on how well your movie went. You film with rental Pokemon at first, but you can also use your team if you do more films, and you are tasked with following the script in order to make a good ending. But you can also change it up and go for a strange ending if you wanted and see what results you got. While some of the movies are...interesting to make, looking at you giant lady with rope, the rest of this feature can get a little tedious and even boring at times.
But the best one, is the Pokemon World Tournament. You do a tiny portion of this during the story, but in the post game, there are so many battle options you can do. It is essentially a tourney mode against trainers with your team, and you choose who to use in the battles, you are locked at lvl 25 throughout; locking at lvl 50 later on, you can't heal mid fight, and you also gain BP this way outside the Battle Subway. While it is a cool mode, what really makes it shine is the fact that you can fight the Unova Leaders again in their own tournament, and even some gym leaders you don't fight in the story like Lenora, Brycen, and Cilan. But after you beat those, you also unlock the tourneys against Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh gym leaders all with their original teams and remixed music! Plus after that, you can fight the Champions across all regions to see who is the ultimate champion, and this is what made me fall in love with the battle scheme in Pokemon again. I loved the double battle feature in gen 3, but the battle mechanics entirely in Black 2 at this point clicked with me that point on.
Do I recommend this game? Hell yes I do, if you have the money of course as this is also pricey. But is it also necessary with playing the first game before this game? Honestly no, not at all. The Pokemon are all the same, only except the available Pokemon found in the regional dex is a mix of all regions now rather than exclusively Unovan mons, the story loosely calls back to the first game until the end a tiny bit, and the Unova region is the exact same layout wise. But this game is up there now in my top 3 Pokemon games.
This review contains spoilers
Generation 5 was the one that everyone wanted me to play when I started going through all the Pokemon games, and I never really understood the hype around this title, and Black 2/White 2 which I also am looking forward to playing.
Going into this, I wasn't looking forward to much within this RPG as I was just expecting the same old plot, with the same battle mechanics that I was used to with this franchise. So where do we start with the plot? Well, you play as either Hilbert or Hilda moving out of Nuvema Town with your childhood friends Cheren, a boy keen on becoming the strongest out of your friend group, and Bianca, a sweet girl who isn't keen on fighting and wants to help Professer Juniper out with her research. While you are becoming the very best by making your way through all the gym leaders and to make it as Champion, you come up against Unova's threat being Team Plasma. We'll get to them in a minute. Already I was interested in seeing what Unova had to offer as this was the first region to not be based off an area in Japan, but rather based on America, more particularly New York. Now there was nothing wrong with the previous regions, but you could tell that they all were based on Japan in some way. But Unova seemed to have broken the mold and changed the geography of what we know about regions up to this point.
The locations within Unova were rather memorable to me, like Accumula Town being the first area you visit past Route 1, Castelia City with its breathtaking skyscrapers and the bridge that was impressive on the DS at the time, and Opelucid City with its almost futuristic design. One area that stood out to me was in the post game being Black City/White Forest, which marked the first time a location changed based on the game you played...although it was a more lacklustre place as its where you would train your Pokemon up, but hey, that's just me.
The music for this game is magnificent, one of the best soundtracks the series has to offer going back to each generation. Some tracks that stand the tests of time are Driftveil City's theme, Accumula Town, Nimbasa City, the Gym Leader theme, N's battle theme, and the Reshiram battle theme. All of these are such bangers!
The gameplay is the same, you catch Pokemon, beat gym leaders, and become the Champion. Only Black & White changes the formula a little. First, the Pokemon themselves. Instead of finding your classics like Pikachu, Ralts, or Machop, you are stuck with the all new 158 Pokemon found in Unova. You are limited to these until the post game, the trainers use just these guys, the gym leaders use only Unovan mons, and it's all to make the player stick and familiarise themselves with these new critters which is a very bold move to make at the time since the designs were controversial. But some of these wound up as my favourites to use for the final battle, my starter being Emboar, Zebstrika, Krookodile, and my favourite Pokemon of all time - Whimsicott, the perfect grass Pokemon in my eyes.
Next, the battles. In terms of battling, it's all the same as it was in gens 1-4, but with generation 5, they added an all new type of battle. In Black it is Rotational Battles, a structure where three Pokemon are sent and you can swap a Pokemon to the lead to attack. And in White it's Triple Battles, where it's like double battles, but triple. While these were very fun when the moment occurred, the game actually doesn't use these much...only for a few battles and that's it. Which is a shame cuz I really liked how these turned out and that I think they should use these more in the game, maybe dedicate a whole gym to it.
Finally, the pace of the game. Let's get back to the story with this. During the time with this game's region, the gang end up going against Team Plasma, a group who is both royalty and has an actual cool plotline against it all. N, the king, has the ultimate goal of liberating Pokemon away from the Trainers as he considers the ideals of what the Pokemon feel towards being commanded by the Trainers and used for their activities/battles. The leader of Team Plasma, Ghetsis, wishes to instead use these Pokemon to be used under his control and so that no one else could become a trainer. While Ghetsis was a little weak within his character, N was actually the more stronger character; fighting you over the truth behind Pokemon's morals and desires, and becoming a better rival than Cheren ever could. The biggest twist in the end of the story is when you are about to fight the Champion, Alder, but end up seeing N being victorious, making you have to fight him with a ZEKROM IN HIS TEAM, having you catch the opposite dragon to then battle him one last time. It was such an epic battle and N is becoming one of my favourite characters in the series. But you do get to fight the Champion in the post game, which is still good if you wanna become the champ, just be wary of the high levels.
Black & White I now respect within the Pokemon community and I think it is one of the greatest games I've played within the series. Looking forward to playing the sequel next, experiencing more of Unova, and if you are able to play this (or if you find a cheap copy cuz good lord it's gotten expensive), I highly recommend it.
Going into this, I wasn't looking forward to much within this RPG as I was just expecting the same old plot, with the same battle mechanics that I was used to with this franchise. So where do we start with the plot? Well, you play as either Hilbert or Hilda moving out of Nuvema Town with your childhood friends Cheren, a boy keen on becoming the strongest out of your friend group, and Bianca, a sweet girl who isn't keen on fighting and wants to help Professer Juniper out with her research. While you are becoming the very best by making your way through all the gym leaders and to make it as Champion, you come up against Unova's threat being Team Plasma. We'll get to them in a minute. Already I was interested in seeing what Unova had to offer as this was the first region to not be based off an area in Japan, but rather based on America, more particularly New York. Now there was nothing wrong with the previous regions, but you could tell that they all were based on Japan in some way. But Unova seemed to have broken the mold and changed the geography of what we know about regions up to this point.
The locations within Unova were rather memorable to me, like Accumula Town being the first area you visit past Route 1, Castelia City with its breathtaking skyscrapers and the bridge that was impressive on the DS at the time, and Opelucid City with its almost futuristic design. One area that stood out to me was in the post game being Black City/White Forest, which marked the first time a location changed based on the game you played...although it was a more lacklustre place as its where you would train your Pokemon up, but hey, that's just me.
The music for this game is magnificent, one of the best soundtracks the series has to offer going back to each generation. Some tracks that stand the tests of time are Driftveil City's theme, Accumula Town, Nimbasa City, the Gym Leader theme, N's battle theme, and the Reshiram battle theme. All of these are such bangers!
The gameplay is the same, you catch Pokemon, beat gym leaders, and become the Champion. Only Black & White changes the formula a little. First, the Pokemon themselves. Instead of finding your classics like Pikachu, Ralts, or Machop, you are stuck with the all new 158 Pokemon found in Unova. You are limited to these until the post game, the trainers use just these guys, the gym leaders use only Unovan mons, and it's all to make the player stick and familiarise themselves with these new critters which is a very bold move to make at the time since the designs were controversial. But some of these wound up as my favourites to use for the final battle, my starter being Emboar, Zebstrika, Krookodile, and my favourite Pokemon of all time - Whimsicott, the perfect grass Pokemon in my eyes.
Next, the battles. In terms of battling, it's all the same as it was in gens 1-4, but with generation 5, they added an all new type of battle. In Black it is Rotational Battles, a structure where three Pokemon are sent and you can swap a Pokemon to the lead to attack. And in White it's Triple Battles, where it's like double battles, but triple. While these were very fun when the moment occurred, the game actually doesn't use these much...only for a few battles and that's it. Which is a shame cuz I really liked how these turned out and that I think they should use these more in the game, maybe dedicate a whole gym to it.
Finally, the pace of the game. Let's get back to the story with this. During the time with this game's region, the gang end up going against Team Plasma, a group who is both royalty and has an actual cool plotline against it all. N, the king, has the ultimate goal of liberating Pokemon away from the Trainers as he considers the ideals of what the Pokemon feel towards being commanded by the Trainers and used for their activities/battles. The leader of Team Plasma, Ghetsis, wishes to instead use these Pokemon to be used under his control and so that no one else could become a trainer. While Ghetsis was a little weak within his character, N was actually the more stronger character; fighting you over the truth behind Pokemon's morals and desires, and becoming a better rival than Cheren ever could. The biggest twist in the end of the story is when you are about to fight the Champion, Alder, but end up seeing N being victorious, making you have to fight him with a ZEKROM IN HIS TEAM, having you catch the opposite dragon to then battle him one last time. It was such an epic battle and N is becoming one of my favourite characters in the series. But you do get to fight the Champion in the post game, which is still good if you wanna become the champ, just be wary of the high levels.
Black & White I now respect within the Pokemon community and I think it is one of the greatest games I've played within the series. Looking forward to playing the sequel next, experiencing more of Unova, and if you are able to play this (or if you find a cheap copy cuz good lord it's gotten expensive), I highly recommend it.
With a rather cool, yet disappointing first wave for the DLC, I was having high hopes that Side Order would be the next Octo Expansion from the last game. And the second wave was...okay.
The story without going too much into detail, is that it follows back with Agent 8, our trusty Octoling who is wondering what happened with Inkopolis Square; the hub world from Splatoon 2. Alongside that, you are reunited with Pearl who is now a drone, and later on Marina, who was prisoner behind this new threat. And now it is up to you to save Inkopolis.
Now in terms of gameplay, is it like the mission structure from Splatoon 2's DLC and like base game Splat3? No. This is a roguelike campaign where you have to survive through hordes of enemies called Jelletons and reach the final boss at the top of the tower. If you lose all your lives, you start all over again. You meet up with Acht who takes you up one floor at a time, with each floor based on what you choose.
The tasks themselves are mediocre as they are fun to figure out what to do, and some are even based on online modes like splat zones, tower control, etc., but after you have played them all, they become somewhat mindless. The only thing engaging with them after the amount of runs through them are the difficulty choices and the variants of each task based on the room.
You gain Membux based on clearing the floor and you can use them for buying stuff at the vending machines, or keep them for when you fail. Upon failing, they turn into Prlz that can be used for acquiring upgrades like increased damage, more slots for Pearl to use weapons, or even more lives and a continue.
However, the real fun is the replayability. With each 'palette' gives you different weapons and more chances of seeing certain colours for boosts. Some of these are incredibly broken, like the charger takes purple colours and with a combination of quick charge, boosted damage from a distance, and homing shots, you can easily make it into the final room. Speaking of bosses, they are mind-numbingly easy as I think these are more simple than the base game's bosses. The final boss was the only one to give a hard time, but with a combination like that? A literal joke.
If you are talented at the game, you could potentially beat this DLC on your first run. But, I don't think you will be able to, as with no upgrades, this is a hard trek. Does this wave increase my thoughts on the Splatoon 3 DLC being a little bit worthless? Or is it actually the saving grace? I honestly think this is what the DLC was for honestly. Although it is short, this is a fun DLC to play through
The story without going too much into detail, is that it follows back with Agent 8, our trusty Octoling who is wondering what happened with Inkopolis Square; the hub world from Splatoon 2. Alongside that, you are reunited with Pearl who is now a drone, and later on Marina, who was prisoner behind this new threat. And now it is up to you to save Inkopolis.
Now in terms of gameplay, is it like the mission structure from Splatoon 2's DLC and like base game Splat3? No. This is a roguelike campaign where you have to survive through hordes of enemies called Jelletons and reach the final boss at the top of the tower. If you lose all your lives, you start all over again. You meet up with Acht who takes you up one floor at a time, with each floor based on what you choose.
The tasks themselves are mediocre as they are fun to figure out what to do, and some are even based on online modes like splat zones, tower control, etc., but after you have played them all, they become somewhat mindless. The only thing engaging with them after the amount of runs through them are the difficulty choices and the variants of each task based on the room.
You gain Membux based on clearing the floor and you can use them for buying stuff at the vending machines, or keep them for when you fail. Upon failing, they turn into Prlz that can be used for acquiring upgrades like increased damage, more slots for Pearl to use weapons, or even more lives and a continue.
However, the real fun is the replayability. With each 'palette' gives you different weapons and more chances of seeing certain colours for boosts. Some of these are incredibly broken, like the charger takes purple colours and with a combination of quick charge, boosted damage from a distance, and homing shots, you can easily make it into the final room. Speaking of bosses, they are mind-numbingly easy as I think these are more simple than the base game's bosses. The final boss was the only one to give a hard time, but with a combination like that? A literal joke.
If you are talented at the game, you could potentially beat this DLC on your first run. But, I don't think you will be able to, as with no upgrades, this is a hard trek. Does this wave increase my thoughts on the Splatoon 3 DLC being a little bit worthless? Or is it actually the saving grace? I honestly think this is what the DLC was for honestly. Although it is short, this is a fun DLC to play through
The last Pokemon game that I play before taking a small break from the Pokemon marathon. Couple months back, I played gen 2 for the first time and I loved exploring both Johto and Kanto connected together, battling all the gym leaders and catching new Pokemon.
Well, Game Freak did it again but in generation 4 with the remakes HeartGold & SoulSilver...and it is way better than the originals. No further questions. The game was tweaked to match current Pokemon back in 2009, the music slapped hard with trumpets everywhere as a hint to what the next game's music will be, the battles are the same as you know them, this remake proves that it is the true definitive way for gen 2.
Some changes that were seen were the gym leader's challenges were significantly altered! Although some like Falkner and Brock's were unchanged, every single gym leader had their rooms changed for these games in some way, big and small. An all new building was added called the Pokeathlon Dome, an area which allows you to play minigames with your Pokemon, and you could rack up points to win items like evolution stones for instance. There were also changes to the PokeGear too, as the inclusion of the national dex come postgame makes this tool really handy. The radio for starters had an overhaul as the touch screen allowed you to change the channels easily, and even had music from Hoenn or Sinnoh based on the day to get returning mons from those regions. Plus, more Pokemon to grab for the dex too, like the gen 3 legendaries, starters from past gens, and even the PokeWalker!
One last addition I cannot avoid that was most definitely not in the OG games were new routes leading to...the Safari Zone. While this is one of the best Safari Zones in the entire series, as it allows you to customise the area at your will and have no step limits anymore, it is still a very confusing area. Especially with designing the layouts giving you points and how keeping the layout adds more points which means more Pokemon...didn't help it increases every 10 days!
One thing I didn't get to try was the PokeWalker accessory bundled with the remakes. The accessory allowed players to take their lead Pokemon with them for walks as a pedometer, rewarding the players with items or even exclusive Pokemon found through the device. A cool concept that definitely didn't inspire GO in any way, but hard to get yourself.
HeartGold and SoulSilver is a must play for old Pokemon goodness. Whether it's for good ol' nostalgia for the Johto region, or coming across it the first time.
Well, Game Freak did it again but in generation 4 with the remakes HeartGold & SoulSilver...and it is way better than the originals. No further questions. The game was tweaked to match current Pokemon back in 2009, the music slapped hard with trumpets everywhere as a hint to what the next game's music will be, the battles are the same as you know them, this remake proves that it is the true definitive way for gen 2.
Some changes that were seen were the gym leader's challenges were significantly altered! Although some like Falkner and Brock's were unchanged, every single gym leader had their rooms changed for these games in some way, big and small. An all new building was added called the Pokeathlon Dome, an area which allows you to play minigames with your Pokemon, and you could rack up points to win items like evolution stones for instance. There were also changes to the PokeGear too, as the inclusion of the national dex come postgame makes this tool really handy. The radio for starters had an overhaul as the touch screen allowed you to change the channels easily, and even had music from Hoenn or Sinnoh based on the day to get returning mons from those regions. Plus, more Pokemon to grab for the dex too, like the gen 3 legendaries, starters from past gens, and even the PokeWalker!
One last addition I cannot avoid that was most definitely not in the OG games were new routes leading to...the Safari Zone. While this is one of the best Safari Zones in the entire series, as it allows you to customise the area at your will and have no step limits anymore, it is still a very confusing area. Especially with designing the layouts giving you points and how keeping the layout adds more points which means more Pokemon...didn't help it increases every 10 days!
One thing I didn't get to try was the PokeWalker accessory bundled with the remakes. The accessory allowed players to take their lead Pokemon with them for walks as a pedometer, rewarding the players with items or even exclusive Pokemon found through the device. A cool concept that definitely didn't inspire GO in any way, but hard to get yourself.
HeartGold and SoulSilver is a must play for old Pokemon goodness. Whether it's for good ol' nostalgia for the Johto region, or coming across it the first time.
So I finally had the chance to play the OG version of gen 4 Pokemon after playing Brilliant Diamond 2 years ago (which I will revisit later in the Pokemon marathon), and I was anticipating Platinum as everyone says that this game is superior to Diamond/Pearl, and even the remakes.
And they were right! ...For the majority of the game that is, but there were some things the remakes slightly did a little better, but we'll get there later. Platinum is the definitive version to play gen 4, taking place within the region of Sinnoh, as there are countless new Pokemon to get being 107 new additions, alongside the other 386 boosting the number to 493 obtainable Pokemon. Damn.
The story is basically the same: travel across the region, beat the gyms, become champion and stop a threat to the region. This time, we are up against Team Galactic as they plan on obliterating the world with the power of the masters of time and space, Dialga and Palkia, hailing their leader Cyrus. Although coming from the remakes a few years ago, the story was decent but Platinum added new story content and characters that weren't in Diamond/Pearl. We have one of the international police members, Looker, we have the new Distortion World to stop Giratina in, and it was really exciting to see that on the DS.
So new hardware, new gimmicks. Surprised to see that you don't really need to use the touch screen at all, for the most part. In terms of battling, they made a new change with the physical and special split that lingers in the future games. For general gameplay, they added a lot of additions. First off, you have the Poketch, a watch that allows you to check the time, scan for hidden items, check your friendship with your Pokemon, or to act as a calculator.
Next you have the time of day, which was already in the series back in gen 2. But it returns and adds weekly stuff to the mix. So different Pokemon spawn based on the time of day, but in the post game, you get Pokemon appearing on a daily basis through swarms, the trophy garden, and even the Great Marsh, which is the safari zone for this game...still sucks btw.
Finally, we have the Underground, an area where you can play with friends through local wireless play. You can set up secret bases, steal your friend's flags, or even dig through certain areas on the wall and gather treasure through a minigame, like shards, evolution items, tools to aid in battle, or even fossils for more Pokemon. While this was fun, it is very, veeery barebones playing alone, and even with friends it feels almost empty to me. One addition I'll applaud BDSP for.
Overall, this game was nearly flawless either way. Definitely the way to go in terms of playing gen 4, but it is a great start for the DS Pokemon entries.
And they were right! ...For the majority of the game that is, but there were some things the remakes slightly did a little better, but we'll get there later. Platinum is the definitive version to play gen 4, taking place within the region of Sinnoh, as there are countless new Pokemon to get being 107 new additions, alongside the other 386 boosting the number to 493 obtainable Pokemon. Damn.
The story is basically the same: travel across the region, beat the gyms, become champion and stop a threat to the region. This time, we are up against Team Galactic as they plan on obliterating the world with the power of the masters of time and space, Dialga and Palkia, hailing their leader Cyrus. Although coming from the remakes a few years ago, the story was decent but Platinum added new story content and characters that weren't in Diamond/Pearl. We have one of the international police members, Looker, we have the new Distortion World to stop Giratina in, and it was really exciting to see that on the DS.
So new hardware, new gimmicks. Surprised to see that you don't really need to use the touch screen at all, for the most part. In terms of battling, they made a new change with the physical and special split that lingers in the future games. For general gameplay, they added a lot of additions. First off, you have the Poketch, a watch that allows you to check the time, scan for hidden items, check your friendship with your Pokemon, or to act as a calculator.
Next you have the time of day, which was already in the series back in gen 2. But it returns and adds weekly stuff to the mix. So different Pokemon spawn based on the time of day, but in the post game, you get Pokemon appearing on a daily basis through swarms, the trophy garden, and even the Great Marsh, which is the safari zone for this game...still sucks btw.
Finally, we have the Underground, an area where you can play with friends through local wireless play. You can set up secret bases, steal your friend's flags, or even dig through certain areas on the wall and gather treasure through a minigame, like shards, evolution items, tools to aid in battle, or even fossils for more Pokemon. While this was fun, it is very, veeery barebones playing alone, and even with friends it feels almost empty to me. One addition I'll applaud BDSP for.
Overall, this game was nearly flawless either way. Definitely the way to go in terms of playing gen 4, but it is a great start for the DS Pokemon entries.
Although I was admittely burnt out with Colosseum's grindy gameplay, I was a little hesitant with Pokemon XD, as I knew this was a sequel to Colosseum, but also has the same gameplay.
Pokemon XD takes place 5 years after Colosseum as things in Orre are starting to flourish after Team Cipher was allegedly taken down. However, the protagonist child called Michael finds that out the hard way as the professor is taken by them and try to create Shadow Pokemon that can no longer be purified, with one in succession called XD001, or Lugia for short.
While the plot was more lighthearted, I kinda missed the dark storytelling that was Colosseum's a little, but again, was a little forgettable at times. The gameplay was the same like I said, but was made a little better. Not only do you have a lot more shadow Pokemon to catch now in this game; a whopping 83, but there are also Wild Pokemon that can appear in areas called Poke Spots. After you place snacks down at these areas, you can catch certain Pokemon there for your team, which was admittedly really cool. And you coould use these right off the bat too!
In terms of changes, XD adds a new way of purification called the Purify Chamber, a device at the Lab that allows you to surround the shadow Pokemon with regular Pokemon to help speed up the process. Now while this was great to have, you can still do the old methods and even purify them at Agate Village still if you wanted to.
The biggest problem I had in the last game was resolved here! No more grindfests in the slightest. So this arguably makes the game a little more easier in comparison. But I honestly have to say that Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness is a much better game of the two.
Pokemon XD takes place 5 years after Colosseum as things in Orre are starting to flourish after Team Cipher was allegedly taken down. However, the protagonist child called Michael finds that out the hard way as the professor is taken by them and try to create Shadow Pokemon that can no longer be purified, with one in succession called XD001, or Lugia for short.
While the plot was more lighthearted, I kinda missed the dark storytelling that was Colosseum's a little, but again, was a little forgettable at times. The gameplay was the same like I said, but was made a little better. Not only do you have a lot more shadow Pokemon to catch now in this game; a whopping 83, but there are also Wild Pokemon that can appear in areas called Poke Spots. After you place snacks down at these areas, you can catch certain Pokemon there for your team, which was admittedly really cool. And you coould use these right off the bat too!
In terms of changes, XD adds a new way of purification called the Purify Chamber, a device at the Lab that allows you to surround the shadow Pokemon with regular Pokemon to help speed up the process. Now while this was great to have, you can still do the old methods and even purify them at Agate Village still if you wanted to.
The biggest problem I had in the last game was resolved here! No more grindfests in the slightest. So this arguably makes the game a little more easier in comparison. But I honestly have to say that Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness is a much better game of the two.
2003
My first ever side game for the Pokemon franchise. Taking a break from the mainline games, I wanted to try something new for Pokemon, that being another RPG side series. While I should have started this with Stadium 1 & 2 on N64, I'll get around to playing those soon now that they're on Switch. But back to Colosseum.
Pokemon Colosseum is like the Stadium games but with a story attached to it. I never really did battle mode until the end of the game where I did this all for a single Ho-Oh...fun. But the story takes place in the Orre region as you play as Wes, an ex Team Snagem member who wants to stop team snagem's shenanigans and along the way, foils the plans of Team Cipher. While Snagem plan on stealing Pokemon, Cipher plans on closing the Pokemon's hearts and turn them into fighting machines; Shadow Pokemon.
This story was a breath of fresh air for the Pokemon games up to this point back in 2004. Since you no longer played a kid wanting to become champion of the region and to catch every Pokemon. However, while the story was alright, it kinda lost me after a bit, but we'll get to why I kinda just zoned out with the story near the end.
The gameplay is pretty much the same combat wise from the main games, only except you are in double battles ONLY. There are also no wild Pokemon to encounter in this game. So how do you get more Pokemon for your team? You have to literally steal shadow Pokemon from certain trainers to keep them in your team, and there are 48 of them in the game. One thing that you have to do to actually use the Pokemon is to purify the aura around them by either using them in fights, walking around, using the day care, or using scents to massage it. Each time the bar goes down, the Pokemon learns more of its moves and when empty, becomes available with no problems.
The Shadow Pokemon are a cool concept but they have flaws. They can only use Shadow Rush which deals some damage but always causes recoil. It sucks when you try to catch them and they faint themselves after you lower their health. But my real big problem with this game is the difficulty spike. I'm up for a challenge every now and then, but when a boss jumps up 8 levels than what I have, that's annoying. That's more time I have to spend grinding exp just to stand a chance. And that's what I basically defined as in the other half...a grindfest.
The first half of the game, I was enjoying it so much and I got why people have so much nostalgia for this game. But the moment I encounter a big jump in levels, that was when I was starting to not have fun anymore and just saw this game as a grindfest. With exp, with purification, and even with money. It dragged on so long for me. Here's hoping that XD fixes these issues when I play it next.
Pokemon Colosseum is like the Stadium games but with a story attached to it. I never really did battle mode until the end of the game where I did this all for a single Ho-Oh...fun. But the story takes place in the Orre region as you play as Wes, an ex Team Snagem member who wants to stop team snagem's shenanigans and along the way, foils the plans of Team Cipher. While Snagem plan on stealing Pokemon, Cipher plans on closing the Pokemon's hearts and turn them into fighting machines; Shadow Pokemon.
This story was a breath of fresh air for the Pokemon games up to this point back in 2004. Since you no longer played a kid wanting to become champion of the region and to catch every Pokemon. However, while the story was alright, it kinda lost me after a bit, but we'll get to why I kinda just zoned out with the story near the end.
The gameplay is pretty much the same combat wise from the main games, only except you are in double battles ONLY. There are also no wild Pokemon to encounter in this game. So how do you get more Pokemon for your team? You have to literally steal shadow Pokemon from certain trainers to keep them in your team, and there are 48 of them in the game. One thing that you have to do to actually use the Pokemon is to purify the aura around them by either using them in fights, walking around, using the day care, or using scents to massage it. Each time the bar goes down, the Pokemon learns more of its moves and when empty, becomes available with no problems.
The Shadow Pokemon are a cool concept but they have flaws. They can only use Shadow Rush which deals some damage but always causes recoil. It sucks when you try to catch them and they faint themselves after you lower their health. But my real big problem with this game is the difficulty spike. I'm up for a challenge every now and then, but when a boss jumps up 8 levels than what I have, that's annoying. That's more time I have to spend grinding exp just to stand a chance. And that's what I basically defined as in the other half...a grindfest.
The first half of the game, I was enjoying it so much and I got why people have so much nostalgia for this game. But the moment I encounter a big jump in levels, that was when I was starting to not have fun anymore and just saw this game as a grindfest. With exp, with purification, and even with money. It dragged on so long for me. Here's hoping that XD fixes these issues when I play it next.
Already playing through Pokemon Gen 1 was a great time for me, as it was not only kicking off the origins of Pokemon itself as a franchise, but for me, it allowed me to see Pokemon when it began coming from a modern audience, as well as for the living dex I'm working very slowly on.
With the release of gen 3 back in 2003, Pokemon rebooted in a way to change up everything it was known for. Alongside that, remakes of gen 1 were created and thus, FireRed and LeafGreen were born. My thoughts on these remakes after playing the original...
The remake itself is highly superior compared to what the original had to offer. First off, the changes made from Ruby and Sapphire are all here, with new movesets for all the Kanto Pokemon, plus the returning types established already (Dark and Steel), all the held items are back but only through the post game and with berries treated as hidden items, the remake removes many bugs from the original such as the Mew glitch and Missingno, and on top of that, it allowed players to trade with Pokemon from Ruby/Sapphire and even the GameCube games which that was new to me.
One thing that was completely brand new to the remake were the Sevii Islands, where at first you visit only three of these islands after beating the Cinnabar Gym. But when you beat the game and have discovered 60 Pokemon, you not only get the national dex, but also access to the other four islands, allowing the player to catch more Pokemon, mainly Pokemon originally from Johto, which that was pretty dope.
However, I found the Sevii Islands to be mild with content. Yeah, there's more Pokemon to catch here, but it doesn't really capture the magic Kanto has and just serves as bonus content. The additional storyline with Team Rocket was...alright. It did foreshadow their return in Gen 2, but other than that, it really didn't stick out that much to me.
As I said in my Pokemon Yellow review, I said that this will stand as the definitive version of Gen 1 if you're curious in playing gen 1. I'd highly recommend it, but again, Let's Go exists and is also devisive on whether that game is better or not. But I'll find out when I get there. But for now, this is a superior remake and absolutely worth it.
With the release of gen 3 back in 2003, Pokemon rebooted in a way to change up everything it was known for. Alongside that, remakes of gen 1 were created and thus, FireRed and LeafGreen were born. My thoughts on these remakes after playing the original...
The remake itself is highly superior compared to what the original had to offer. First off, the changes made from Ruby and Sapphire are all here, with new movesets for all the Kanto Pokemon, plus the returning types established already (Dark and Steel), all the held items are back but only through the post game and with berries treated as hidden items, the remake removes many bugs from the original such as the Mew glitch and Missingno, and on top of that, it allowed players to trade with Pokemon from Ruby/Sapphire and even the GameCube games which that was new to me.
One thing that was completely brand new to the remake were the Sevii Islands, where at first you visit only three of these islands after beating the Cinnabar Gym. But when you beat the game and have discovered 60 Pokemon, you not only get the national dex, but also access to the other four islands, allowing the player to catch more Pokemon, mainly Pokemon originally from Johto, which that was pretty dope.
However, I found the Sevii Islands to be mild with content. Yeah, there's more Pokemon to catch here, but it doesn't really capture the magic Kanto has and just serves as bonus content. The additional storyline with Team Rocket was...alright. It did foreshadow their return in Gen 2, but other than that, it really didn't stick out that much to me.
As I said in my Pokemon Yellow review, I said that this will stand as the definitive version of Gen 1 if you're curious in playing gen 1. I'd highly recommend it, but again, Let's Go exists and is also devisive on whether that game is better or not. But I'll find out when I get there. But for now, this is a superior remake and absolutely worth it.
I had thankfully recieved this DLC expansion for Animal Crossing: New Horizons via the NSO subscription. When I got access to the Happy Home Paradise DLC, I was almost overwhelmed to what was on offer. To put it in a short summary, it is essentially the spinoff title - Happy Home Designer, but expanded upon.
This DLC is basically meeting up with the Happy Home Academy and teaming up with Lottie to help create homes for animal villagers. That's it. That's the DLC. For what it's worth, it's okay for Animal Crossing DLC. The concept of house making is fun but only if you're really switched off or struggling with anything new to do in the base game.
You do get access to making special facilities like in the spin off, but these sometimes don't offer anything when completed, but some like the final facility allows you to buy clothes exclusive there or items in the HQ with its exclusive currency, Poki.
However, when you make the 30th house for the villagers, you technically 'beat' the DLC by getting a party with DJ K.K., but there's still 400 more houses to make for money. And throughout the DLC, you get more content in the base game related to the housemaking, such as cleaning furniture, being able to customise your residents homes, and even having access to the entire catalogue from Wardell; helping tremendously with getting your catalogue complete.
Overall, the DLC is worth it if you seek more things to do with New Horizons, or if you have a knack for getting homes built. But otherwise, I'd skip this really.
This DLC is basically meeting up with the Happy Home Academy and teaming up with Lottie to help create homes for animal villagers. That's it. That's the DLC. For what it's worth, it's okay for Animal Crossing DLC. The concept of house making is fun but only if you're really switched off or struggling with anything new to do in the base game.
You do get access to making special facilities like in the spin off, but these sometimes don't offer anything when completed, but some like the final facility allows you to buy clothes exclusive there or items in the HQ with its exclusive currency, Poki.
However, when you make the 30th house for the villagers, you technically 'beat' the DLC by getting a party with DJ K.K., but there's still 400 more houses to make for money. And throughout the DLC, you get more content in the base game related to the housemaking, such as cleaning furniture, being able to customise your residents homes, and even having access to the entire catalogue from Wardell; helping tremendously with getting your catalogue complete.
Overall, the DLC is worth it if you seek more things to do with New Horizons, or if you have a knack for getting homes built. But otherwise, I'd skip this really.
Back in late 2016, I had so much fun with what time I had with New Leaf - the previous game in terms of mainline games. And when I heard the news of this game coming soon, I was excited to play it.
Unfortunately, I missed out on this game during its hype and its immense popularity in the COVID era, but better late then never, right? I started my journey in August 2023 and ended on December 2023 for my thoughts on this game with zero time manipulation via the Switch's internal clock.
This game is a blast to play when you need to zone out, relax and talk to your animal villagers. The concept of going on an island for home instead of the usual towns was a fresh idea that I don't think any other Animal Crossing games have done, besides NL for Tortimer's Island. The gameplay is just catching bugs and fish for Bells or the museum, expanding your island with items/shops, buying furniture to decorate your home, and even selling your soul away to Tom Nook to pay off your house debt. It's essentially a game based on real-life...a life sim!
New gameplay changes to this game were the NookPhone that allows you to freely look at apps that give you access to the camera, seeing Nook Miles that you can use to access features like Kapp'n's mystery islands, spending on furniture, and for flying with Dodo Airlines to a Nook Mile Island via tickets. But on top of that, use the NookPhone to freely terraform your island at will, access Nook Shopping at anytime, and even more.
One other new addition that is devisive for the game is crafting your own items via materials at a bench. At first, this was a cool gimmick that was new to this game, but afterwards...the crafting feature was rather redundant when you could buy or claim the items you needed. It was only mandatory when your tools break, which that got really annoying afterwards.
The multiplayer in New Horizons always never disappoints as you can visit your friends islands, or even their dream islands thanks to Luna, and play...2 minigames with them, but you can also make up your own creative games thanks to the terraforming. Only issue with the terraforming I keep mentioning is the unlock criteria needing to be 3 stars on the island, but it can be easily done via planting a stupid amount of flowers.
When it comes to special events in the game, or holidays via the real-time clock, these were rather lacklustre compared to New Leaf and its sheer amount of items you get through them. The fishing tourneys were lame, Halloween was okay...didn't have many rewards, Turkey Day was decent, Toy Day was not as impactful as it was my favourite holiday in NL, and the recent New Year's Eve was mid.
One more gripe I have is the lack of content this game has which is beaten like a dead horse at this point. Yeah, it had free updates later on, but still had less content compared to other titles. Harv's Island was a nice addition, as it can be helpful with getting characters like Kicks and Redd over for special items, clothes, and artwork, but that was an okay area. The Roost added as the last update was bland, but his coffee kicks ass though.
I will still play this game throughout this new year until August 2024 to experience the rest of the holidays and special events, but for what I've discussed, I still stand by to my thoughts for this.
Unfortunately, I missed out on this game during its hype and its immense popularity in the COVID era, but better late then never, right? I started my journey in August 2023 and ended on December 2023 for my thoughts on this game with zero time manipulation via the Switch's internal clock.
This game is a blast to play when you need to zone out, relax and talk to your animal villagers. The concept of going on an island for home instead of the usual towns was a fresh idea that I don't think any other Animal Crossing games have done, besides NL for Tortimer's Island. The gameplay is just catching bugs and fish for Bells or the museum, expanding your island with items/shops, buying furniture to decorate your home, and even selling your soul away to Tom Nook to pay off your house debt. It's essentially a game based on real-life...a life sim!
New gameplay changes to this game were the NookPhone that allows you to freely look at apps that give you access to the camera, seeing Nook Miles that you can use to access features like Kapp'n's mystery islands, spending on furniture, and for flying with Dodo Airlines to a Nook Mile Island via tickets. But on top of that, use the NookPhone to freely terraform your island at will, access Nook Shopping at anytime, and even more.
One other new addition that is devisive for the game is crafting your own items via materials at a bench. At first, this was a cool gimmick that was new to this game, but afterwards...the crafting feature was rather redundant when you could buy or claim the items you needed. It was only mandatory when your tools break, which that got really annoying afterwards.
The multiplayer in New Horizons always never disappoints as you can visit your friends islands, or even their dream islands thanks to Luna, and play...2 minigames with them, but you can also make up your own creative games thanks to the terraforming. Only issue with the terraforming I keep mentioning is the unlock criteria needing to be 3 stars on the island, but it can be easily done via planting a stupid amount of flowers.
When it comes to special events in the game, or holidays via the real-time clock, these were rather lacklustre compared to New Leaf and its sheer amount of items you get through them. The fishing tourneys were lame, Halloween was okay...didn't have many rewards, Turkey Day was decent, Toy Day was not as impactful as it was my favourite holiday in NL, and the recent New Year's Eve was mid.
One more gripe I have is the lack of content this game has which is beaten like a dead horse at this point. Yeah, it had free updates later on, but still had less content compared to other titles. Harv's Island was a nice addition, as it can be helpful with getting characters like Kicks and Redd over for special items, clothes, and artwork, but that was an okay area. The Roost added as the last update was bland, but his coffee kicks ass though.
I will still play this game throughout this new year until August 2024 to experience the rest of the holidays and special events, but for what I've discussed, I still stand by to my thoughts for this.
This review contains spoilers
While the first DLC expansion was a great time revisiting the albeit buggy world of Paldea and visiting the Kitakami section, going into this second DLC chapter was actually exciting.
Heading into the outskirts of the Unova region by visiting the Blueberry Academy, battling the BB League Elite Four and becoming Champion there to dethrone the radish head that is Kieran, whilst also exploring the depths of Area Zero to find Terapagos. This was all incredibly fun to play through, especially the Terapagos fight at the very end.
The DLC's main area this time is the Terarium in the underwater dome at the academy, allowing you to travel through four biomes to catch Pokemon and fill out the new Pokedex here. Along the journey, you'll spend time doing Blueberry Quests, BBQs for short, that net you BP to upgrade your league club room, add more Pokemon spawns in each biome (mainly the starters from gens 1-8), and even an Item Printer that can give you any item or Poke Ball based on what materials you give it and the BP for them. If you're going for everything, do the BBQ's in multiplayer as they net you so much more in comparison to doing them solo.
Alongside that, in the postgame, you can also invite anyone over from Paldea such as gym leaders, your friends from the main game, or the elite four members. While it doesn't offer you much, it was a fun addition to the DLC, where you can trade Pokemon with them, or even battle them for rewards. One thing I most definitely didn't expect was a new type to be added for combat, but only locked through Terastallization; the Stellar type. A new type since gen 6! It was alright when exploring and battling with it, but in Tera Raids, they are the best possible type to have.
Another new set of additions were the ability to control your leading Pokemon, which was admittedly charming at first, but afterwards, why do that when auto-battles are more quicker to do. Plus this also kills shiny Pokemon whereas auto battles don't. Yikes. One big change I welcomed was the ability to fly with Koraidon. Huge game changer for transport and exploration easily.
Lots of returning Pokemon which were great to see, including the GOAT Whimsicott. But also some new ones here too, much more than Teal Mask had which was a huge improvement. Notable ones were Archaludon, Hydrapple, and the four Paradox Pokemon. But on top of that, I already mentioned the starters, and in the postgame, you can also hunt 25 legendaries from the franchise. Big downsides are that you can't shiny hunt for the legendaries, which is incredibly lame, and you can't catch every legendary. In comparison to Sword & Shield's DLC, where everyone was available, this is missing a few like Zacian & Zamazenta, Zygarde, Yveltal, Xerneas, and the Ultra Beasts.
If anyone is wondering if the DLC is worth it, now that I've played both packs, it's a neat addition to play if you could bare through the hiccups gen 9 has. Once again, frame rate and pop ins were not fixed, so there's that answer if you hated that. But this isn't done because, as of the time I'm writing this, an epilogue has been announced for the base game and the DLC, so this is truly not over.
Heading into the outskirts of the Unova region by visiting the Blueberry Academy, battling the BB League Elite Four and becoming Champion there to dethrone the radish head that is Kieran, whilst also exploring the depths of Area Zero to find Terapagos. This was all incredibly fun to play through, especially the Terapagos fight at the very end.
The DLC's main area this time is the Terarium in the underwater dome at the academy, allowing you to travel through four biomes to catch Pokemon and fill out the new Pokedex here. Along the journey, you'll spend time doing Blueberry Quests, BBQs for short, that net you BP to upgrade your league club room, add more Pokemon spawns in each biome (mainly the starters from gens 1-8), and even an Item Printer that can give you any item or Poke Ball based on what materials you give it and the BP for them. If you're going for everything, do the BBQ's in multiplayer as they net you so much more in comparison to doing them solo.
Alongside that, in the postgame, you can also invite anyone over from Paldea such as gym leaders, your friends from the main game, or the elite four members. While it doesn't offer you much, it was a fun addition to the DLC, where you can trade Pokemon with them, or even battle them for rewards. One thing I most definitely didn't expect was a new type to be added for combat, but only locked through Terastallization; the Stellar type. A new type since gen 6! It was alright when exploring and battling with it, but in Tera Raids, they are the best possible type to have.
Another new set of additions were the ability to control your leading Pokemon, which was admittedly charming at first, but afterwards, why do that when auto-battles are more quicker to do. Plus this also kills shiny Pokemon whereas auto battles don't. Yikes. One big change I welcomed was the ability to fly with Koraidon. Huge game changer for transport and exploration easily.
Lots of returning Pokemon which were great to see, including the GOAT Whimsicott. But also some new ones here too, much more than Teal Mask had which was a huge improvement. Notable ones were Archaludon, Hydrapple, and the four Paradox Pokemon. But on top of that, I already mentioned the starters, and in the postgame, you can also hunt 25 legendaries from the franchise. Big downsides are that you can't shiny hunt for the legendaries, which is incredibly lame, and you can't catch every legendary. In comparison to Sword & Shield's DLC, where everyone was available, this is missing a few like Zacian & Zamazenta, Zygarde, Yveltal, Xerneas, and the Ultra Beasts.
If anyone is wondering if the DLC is worth it, now that I've played both packs, it's a neat addition to play if you could bare through the hiccups gen 9 has. Once again, frame rate and pop ins were not fixed, so there's that answer if you hated that. But this isn't done because, as of the time I'm writing this, an epilogue has been announced for the base game and the DLC, so this is truly not over.
Upon completing gen 2 of Pokemon, I was somewhat excited to try generation 3 out with Emerald, as I heard nothing but praise as well for this game and also in the series. Upon booting the game up, the game felt entirely different compared to the other 2 games I've played.
A new generation meant a new console, which immediately boosted the quality of the game and the audio too. Starting in the Hoenn region was great as it was essentially a reboot for the series. The gameplay is still the same; catch Pokemon to build a team, get through all 8 gyms, and stop a villanous team along the way whilst becoming the Champion. Only this time, there are two teams to stop being Team Aqua and Team Magma, which was dynamic for this generation...except they could get better Pokemon. I got so fed up of battling Poochyena and Mightyena...
The rival character, May (or Brendan if you're female), seemed to be not a typical rival you're meant to hate like Blue or Silver, but rather a person who encourages you to keep going and to help their dad, Professor Birch, develop their PokeDex. Nice change of pace which made me like them a lot. In fact, some of the characters were rather cool to see, especially since one of the gym leaders is our dad!
This was the first generation in the franchise to incorporate double battles, where you and your opponents send out two Pokemon at a time and duel with them instead of singles. This opened up to so many new strategies in whether you should focus on one Pokemon, or go and give a buff to your ally and have them be the brute force. So glad to see this stay in future games as this was a nice addition to combat.
The new Pokemon added in this generation were absolute favourites to see here: Absol, Gardevoir, the starters being Mudkip, Treecko, Torchic, Metagross, and even the legendaries got their fans too - Rayquaza, Groudon, Kyogre, and even the Regi's this time. Unexpected favourites of mine during my journey were Sharpedo and Manectric since Pikachu wasn't available in this game.
That brings me to a negative with this game. Yes, I said that this was a reboot, but this was when almost every Pokemon wasn't available per game this time, and wanted you to play multiple games for the complete PokeDex. So you have to play this, the gen 1 remakes AND the two GameCube games to get everything. Which sounds like a chore for a casual Pokemon fan...especially in 2023. And on top of that, this was the first time they did special events; periods of time where Pokemon were distributed for capture by Game Freak, such as Deoxys and Mew. You can't get these Pokemon without glitches nowadays, and they should've really been in the game at the start as a bonus or something.
Overall, this game was a blast to play. Again, this game has had a remake on the 3DS, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, to which I'd prefer playing those nowadays (if you can find a copy), but otherwise, this generation is up there as one of my favourites in the series.
A new generation meant a new console, which immediately boosted the quality of the game and the audio too. Starting in the Hoenn region was great as it was essentially a reboot for the series. The gameplay is still the same; catch Pokemon to build a team, get through all 8 gyms, and stop a villanous team along the way whilst becoming the Champion. Only this time, there are two teams to stop being Team Aqua and Team Magma, which was dynamic for this generation...except they could get better Pokemon. I got so fed up of battling Poochyena and Mightyena...
The rival character, May (or Brendan if you're female), seemed to be not a typical rival you're meant to hate like Blue or Silver, but rather a person who encourages you to keep going and to help their dad, Professor Birch, develop their PokeDex. Nice change of pace which made me like them a lot. In fact, some of the characters were rather cool to see, especially since one of the gym leaders is our dad!
This was the first generation in the franchise to incorporate double battles, where you and your opponents send out two Pokemon at a time and duel with them instead of singles. This opened up to so many new strategies in whether you should focus on one Pokemon, or go and give a buff to your ally and have them be the brute force. So glad to see this stay in future games as this was a nice addition to combat.
The new Pokemon added in this generation were absolute favourites to see here: Absol, Gardevoir, the starters being Mudkip, Treecko, Torchic, Metagross, and even the legendaries got their fans too - Rayquaza, Groudon, Kyogre, and even the Regi's this time. Unexpected favourites of mine during my journey were Sharpedo and Manectric since Pikachu wasn't available in this game.
That brings me to a negative with this game. Yes, I said that this was a reboot, but this was when almost every Pokemon wasn't available per game this time, and wanted you to play multiple games for the complete PokeDex. So you have to play this, the gen 1 remakes AND the two GameCube games to get everything. Which sounds like a chore for a casual Pokemon fan...especially in 2023. And on top of that, this was the first time they did special events; periods of time where Pokemon were distributed for capture by Game Freak, such as Deoxys and Mew. You can't get these Pokemon without glitches nowadays, and they should've really been in the game at the start as a bonus or something.
Overall, this game was a blast to play. Again, this game has had a remake on the 3DS, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, to which I'd prefer playing those nowadays (if you can find a copy), but otherwise, this generation is up there as one of my favourites in the series.
2018
This review contains spoilers
Despite being a game I was incredibly late on to play, Celeste was a fantastic experience 5 years later. The story is essentially a girl named Madeline who is seeking to climb the mountain called Celeste, and that she wants to reach the summit. Nothing too grandiose or detailed, just a simple plot at that.
The real reason why people enjoy this game are the characters and I really don’t blame them at all. Madeline is really climbing the mountain because she suffers with anxiety, depression, and has panic attacks. She wants to climb the mountain because she feels she has no purpose other than to accomplish a challenge. And that a ‘part of her’ is fully embodied being the fear of people accepting her based on who she is and trying to push people away. It’s such a relatable character that is being told for today’s audience, in a tough-as-nails indie game.
The gameplay is quite short, but they always have interesting gimmicks to get through the platforming. Throughout the game, Madeline has the ability to dash in the air acting as either a recovery for a jumping error, or a ways to get to an area further out. But in all of the levels, they all have certain gimmicks like traffic light blocks, orbs that move when you input a direction, or even turning yourself into light and flying around the level. It always made me learn what to do with these and how I should implement them to their fullest.
If you are thinking this will be an easier game to play since it is slightly short, there are plenty of challenges in these levels. You will be dying a lot in this game… If you want harder, there are two more chapters you get in the game that are even more difficult, especially the final one. But there are also collectibles you can grab like strawberries, which do absolutely nothing except affect the rank of your ending, cassette tapes that give you harder variants of levels and if you beat all those, you get EVEN MORE harder levels to play, and crystal hearts that help get through gates within the last two chapters.
All of that stuff is entirely optional but I did just a few B-side levels and chapter 8. I’m not that much of a masochist to do all of them just for chapter 9. But it is a solid recommendation if you or a friend are looking for a hard game to play, especially being a platformer too.
The real reason why people enjoy this game are the characters and I really don’t blame them at all. Madeline is really climbing the mountain because she suffers with anxiety, depression, and has panic attacks. She wants to climb the mountain because she feels she has no purpose other than to accomplish a challenge. And that a ‘part of her’ is fully embodied being the fear of people accepting her based on who she is and trying to push people away. It’s such a relatable character that is being told for today’s audience, in a tough-as-nails indie game.
The gameplay is quite short, but they always have interesting gimmicks to get through the platforming. Throughout the game, Madeline has the ability to dash in the air acting as either a recovery for a jumping error, or a ways to get to an area further out. But in all of the levels, they all have certain gimmicks like traffic light blocks, orbs that move when you input a direction, or even turning yourself into light and flying around the level. It always made me learn what to do with these and how I should implement them to their fullest.
If you are thinking this will be an easier game to play since it is slightly short, there are plenty of challenges in these levels. You will be dying a lot in this game… If you want harder, there are two more chapters you get in the game that are even more difficult, especially the final one. But there are also collectibles you can grab like strawberries, which do absolutely nothing except affect the rank of your ending, cassette tapes that give you harder variants of levels and if you beat all those, you get EVEN MORE harder levels to play, and crystal hearts that help get through gates within the last two chapters.
All of that stuff is entirely optional but I did just a few B-side levels and chapter 8. I’m not that much of a masochist to do all of them just for chapter 9. But it is a solid recommendation if you or a friend are looking for a hard game to play, especially being a platformer too.