for starters, i find the difficulty in this quite fun. i know there are ways to make the newer games difficult, that at the end of the day these are still games for children, but truthfully when i have replayed older games they still have that sense of challenge even when i'm older and more familiar with how the game goes. everything in the 3d era, while i don't doubt are good and have their own merits, just didn't have that spark anymore. is it just the fact that i've grown up? most likely, but i just felt like it was easy to turn my brain off in recent times when playing these games. i've probably stopped buying and anticipating the new pokemon games after usum, my brother had stopped after oras.
i don't even play particularly seriously. i prioritize favorites over meta. after mega evolutions and fairy types it felt like the developers were afraid to change the formula (but what i've seen of scarvio looks really cool as well as legends). if it ain't don't fix it, would make sense. and i wonder if that fear was instilled after the backlash of gen 5. but it feels stagnant. most likely due to utilizing the same development plan for the past few years even though their new games can no longer be properly polished within those constraints.
ramblings aside, here's where my point comes in, i find fields to be a wonderful mechanic and playing this gave me the same difficulty rush i had when facing whitney for the first time in soul silver. it gave a new type of meta to expand upon and had me using pokemon i've never used just in case they were useful. i can't speak for the rest of the game truthfully because i had stopped around the time i was locked under with titania, i know in my heart however that i had fun.
the story... i won't lie, it's edgy in the parts that i played. i heard it gets way better in the second half. i'll see if i change my mind the day i pick this up again. but i don't really have... a favorite or so. no character really stuck out to me. and the player character feels so distant from the story that i feel more like a bystander then part of it. you're just there. i think cain and victoria are supposed to be my friends and the group i start with but i kind of don't care that much about them, the villains, i think i only cared about the kids since i just wanted them to get out of there. the story was probably extraordinary when it first dropped since a lot of people wished for pokemon to take up darker topics. to me, i already think nintendo is capable of it with cases such as n, lillie, pokemon colosseum, etc. it's just on the subtle scale and not so put in your face. i don't think things need to be gorey or sexual in order to be considered dark in all honesty. but i'm sure the creators already recognize these past writing choices and have grown past them.
it's clearly a fan project with a lot of passion. i love that you start the game off with such a small pool of pokemon, and that the encounters you have with the 'best' ones are behind events far off that make you question if it's even worth getting them with the team you have assembled at that point. pachirisu and kricketune were such god damn carries for me and i typically never use them ever.
that being said, very fun as a game if you've been playing pokemon for a while. and i commend anyone being able to complete a fan game of one of nintendos stingiest properties. that's a lot of time and effort for something that can so easily recieve a ceast and desist. i say give it a shot for the gameplay, it's free after all.
the ost is fucking fire btw
i don't even play particularly seriously. i prioritize favorites over meta. after mega evolutions and fairy types it felt like the developers were afraid to change the formula (but what i've seen of scarvio looks really cool as well as legends). if it ain't don't fix it, would make sense. and i wonder if that fear was instilled after the backlash of gen 5. but it feels stagnant. most likely due to utilizing the same development plan for the past few years even though their new games can no longer be properly polished within those constraints.
ramblings aside, here's where my point comes in, i find fields to be a wonderful mechanic and playing this gave me the same difficulty rush i had when facing whitney for the first time in soul silver. it gave a new type of meta to expand upon and had me using pokemon i've never used just in case they were useful. i can't speak for the rest of the game truthfully because i had stopped around the time i was locked under with titania, i know in my heart however that i had fun.
the story... i won't lie, it's edgy in the parts that i played. i heard it gets way better in the second half. i'll see if i change my mind the day i pick this up again. but i don't really have... a favorite or so. no character really stuck out to me. and the player character feels so distant from the story that i feel more like a bystander then part of it. you're just there. i think cain and victoria are supposed to be my friends and the group i start with but i kind of don't care that much about them, the villains, i think i only cared about the kids since i just wanted them to get out of there. the story was probably extraordinary when it first dropped since a lot of people wished for pokemon to take up darker topics. to me, i already think nintendo is capable of it with cases such as n, lillie, pokemon colosseum, etc. it's just on the subtle scale and not so put in your face. i don't think things need to be gorey or sexual in order to be considered dark in all honesty. but i'm sure the creators already recognize these past writing choices and have grown past them.
it's clearly a fan project with a lot of passion. i love that you start the game off with such a small pool of pokemon, and that the encounters you have with the 'best' ones are behind events far off that make you question if it's even worth getting them with the team you have assembled at that point. pachirisu and kricketune were such god damn carries for me and i typically never use them ever.
that being said, very fun as a game if you've been playing pokemon for a while. and i commend anyone being able to complete a fan game of one of nintendos stingiest properties. that's a lot of time and effort for something that can so easily recieve a ceast and desist. i say give it a shot for the gameplay, it's free after all.
the ost is fucking fire btw