if after 7 hours it doesn't really hit I should stop trying to get into this series, right? idk, maybe. I think I gave them a chance, I've played multiple of these for a few hours, I don't think I'm being unfair. Because I don't want to be unfair.

I think the gameplay loop these games offer is fundamentally not for me, every time I hunt a big monster I think "that was really really tiring, please not again", and I also don't know what I'm doing half of the time. I'm considering the possibility that I'm simply too stupid for these games, and it's probably that.

I know this game's structure and pacing is not to everyone's taste, being a fairly divisive game as far as DQ games go, but I do think it is for me. It has an oddly melancholic feel to it permeating most of the stories surrounding the regions you explore, maybe I like it because the seeing the passing of time as something that affects people and places in such a direct way is a theme that always affects me, either way, I vibe with this game. I used to like it fine enough but this replay made me like it a lot more and yes, I do prefer the PS1 version mostly due to the graphical style.

I have never been into Pokémon, I was the person who was mystified by other people's obsession with it as a kid, as everyone around me grew up playing Pokémon Crystal and Emerald, I simply watched. I got into RPGs through games like Dragon Quest VIII on the Playstation 2 so by the time I tried to play them later in life I wasn't impressed, Pokémon's brand of monster collecting RPGs wasn't for me, I thought, and I'd rather be playing Dragon Quest Monsters or SMT if I wanted a fix of that.

Not that long ago I gave Pokémon Red a shot and I found it interesting from a historical perspective, as it's a game that heavily borrows from older RPGs in terms of structure, you can see games like DQ3 influencing how it was designed, but I found it that, mearly interesting, as a game it was just fine. I felt similar with Emerald when I played it last year, it's a fine game that I didn't actually connect with on a personal level any deeper than "it's kinda fun in the moment to moment".

This game, Pokémon Violet, is the first time I have actually connected with a game on this franchise on any level deeper than that. Not only is the gameplay much improved but I actually like the cast of characters and exploration that the more open formula gives it. The game is buggy but I didn't really care aside from the occasional funny visual glitch. I was invested and I was having fun, meeting all these characters and building my team, which is something I seldom engaged with in previous games, I just didn't feel the games were compelling enough to bother. I know some older fans may disagree but since I've never liked Pokemon mostly 1 vs 1 combat system (I thought it was something we better left as an archaic remnant in games like Dragon Quest 1) I think sharing experience with your entire team is a really good move that the newer games do, it incentivizes me to actually use all my Pokémon more, and since I can't have a "in battle party" like in most RPGs, I see my entire team as my "active party" and as such all of them gaining experince feels fair to me.

Anyway. I don't actually have that much to say about it, it was more of a catalogue of my personal story with these games than a review. Good game. I love Penny.