#Back when pokemon games released in Japan first

[casseabun]

Days 1 & 2 of me drawing sewaddle for my redemption shiny hunt.

Full odds, random encounter hunt in Black 2

#Back when pokemon games released in Japan first #i downloaded a rom of White2 in Japanese and found a shiny sewaddle on the first few routes #He's been lost to time but I will have my son back #sewaddle #pokemon #bug type #bug pokemon #gen 5 #unova #pokemon art

[atelier-slime]

DRAGON QUEST'S LOCALIZATION SUCKS, ACTUALLY. PART 1

There's a thread blowing up on Japanese twitter right now about the poor quality of localization. It's the first time I've ever actually seen a japanese perspective on the topic, and it's been extremely gratifying to see a ton people from over there talk about specific translation issues they've seen or learn for the first time that japanese media is often given the short end of the stick here in the USA.

Most of the time over here in the US, criticism of localization gets shouted down as whiny fans who think they know better than the translators. It's been heartening to see that people from japan are also annoyed by it, and its inspired me to write up a whole long-ass rant I've had simmering in the back of my mind for years, so buckle up, long post(s) incoming:

Let's start at the beginning with the first thing that ever caused me to start thinking about localization. This little guy:

If you've played Dragon Quest in the past 2 decades, you probably know this guy by the name "Spiked Hare." Not me though! I got into DQ on the game boy, in the brief window of time where DQ's localization was handled by Nob Ogasawara, the same guy responsible for translating every pokemon game up until Platinum. In the DQ games Nob worked on, he chose to translate this guy's name as "Almiraj." Why the huge difference in translation? I'll get to that in a minute.

The almiraj is an extremely minor enemy in Dragon Quest 3. It's pretty weak, and it's only real defining feature is that it can occasionally cast sleep spells on your party members. It's just one of hundreds of monsters in that game, and aside from it's cute design, it's pretty forgettable. As a weird kid overly obsessed with linguistics though, its name always seemed odd to me. You don't really see words that end with a "J" in english. It stuck out enough that one night, when I was bored, I decided to google "almiraj" to figure out what the name meant. It sent me down a rabbit hole (almiraj hole?) that taught me all sorts of cool shit, and permanently altered the way I looked at localization. The path I tumbled down that night went something like this:

The Dragon Quest almiraj is named after the almiraj, a "real" mythical creature described as a hare with a large horn on its head.

The original inspiration for accounts of the almiraj (as well as the jackalope, wolpertinger, etc.) is likely the Shope papiloma Virus, which causes rabbits to grow weird, horn-like growths on their face and head.

It was described by Zakariya al-Qazwini, an Iranian lawyer, author, and all around knowledgeable guy who lived in the 13th century.

al-Qazwini described it in the Aja'ib al-Makhluqat, a massive cosmographical treatise that attempted to describe basically everything in the known universe at the time. It was so popular in the Islamic world that it was copied and translated into dozens of languages, which meant plenty of copies have survived intact to modern times.

The almiraj was brought into the limelight in modern fantasy when it was introduced in the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons, as a relatively weak and unassuming monster as part of a campaign to expand the game with monster suggestions from fans of the series.

Dungeons and Dragons-style role playing games were brought into the digital world with the release of the first Wizardry game in 1981.

Yuji Horii was a massive fan of Wizardry, which he first discovered as part of a developer exchange program when he visited America in 1983. Three years later, he decided to try and recreate the things he loved from the series for console gamers in Japan, and the the original Dragon Quest was born.

One little name was all it took to open up this entire through-line of history that I had no idea even existed before that night. It's a tapestry of human experiences over 800 years in the making, spanning continents, cultures, languages, and medium. It's probably because I'm the type of person who sits around thinking about stuff too much, but I honestly get a little emotional wondering what al-Qazwini would think if he could see the mythical creatures he described all those years ago as little dudes hopping around inside a computer.

And the thing is the tapestry doesn't end there! Dragon Quest is still pretty niche in the west, but in Japan it's fucking titanic. There's an urban legend that the Japanese government banned Square Enix from releasing Dragon Quest games on a weekday, because so many people would skip work or school that it would impact the economy. (It's not true by the way, but the fact that the rumor exists at all is a testament to how huge the series' influence is over there.) I don't think it would be an overstatement to say that what Lord of the Rings did to modern western fantasy, Dragon Quest did to modern Japanese fantasy. Almost every JRPG, manga, or anime with a fantasy setting has the fingerprints of Dragon Quest on it. Countless other works have been inspired by DQ, and those works will go on to inspire others. A million different threads weaving tapestries back and forth across time and borders, all over the globe. And the almiraj is a part of that! It might just be a single, tiny, white and purple thread, but it's still in there helping to tie things together.

So back to the question I asked earlier: Why is it "Almiraj" in Mr. Ogasawara's translation but "Spiked hare" in the current one? Simple: Nob actually translated the name.

You can see on the DQ wiki that the original japanese name of the monster is "アルミラージ" which is literally just "almiraj" written in katakana:

The current DQ team has instead decided that all monster names should be puns. I'm not against puns or anything. "Spiked hare" for a rabbit with a horn is great! I might even raise my eyebrows and exhale slightly if I read it for the first time. Dragon Quest in general tends to have a lot of goofiness in it, so it's not like puns are out of place or anything. My problem is that, by deciding to replace monster names arbitrarily like this, all the little threads start to come unraveled. You lose the ability to look back down the line and discover all these different connections to history and nature and art that you might not ever learn otherwise. The almiraj isn't the only monster to get this treatment. A huge portion of the monsters in Dragon Quest are taken from mythologies around the world, and many of their names are literally already in English, just written with katakana.

The almiraj sticks out in my mind as a particularly egregious example because of just how much I learned because of the foreign-sounding name, but there's plenty of other name changes that have resulted in straight up confusing, ambiguous, or otherwise stupid outcomes in the current localization.

CONTINUED IN PART 2

#dragon quest #localization #translation #long post #rant #almiraj

[leggerefiore]

Back in your inbox to discuss Cyrus bullshit again lmfao. I am normal. Totally normal.

So media literacy decline aside (no really, the reports are scary, less people can interpret nuance and hints), I blame 1) how young most of us were when we first played the games, 2) the OG Diamond and Pearl characterization (because it was a little different than Platinum's) and 3) the Pokemon Anime.

Largely skipping over the age thing because it speaks for itself. A good number of players were probably too young to catch all of the hints or grasp how irrational and emotionally driven Cyrus really was. Like, a legit Trauma Meter for our age group (20s) would be to ask if Cyrus freaked them out, or if they thought he had a point. Whatever the collective's first impression was would've colored YEARS of discussion and content. And I'm pretty sure I remember his reception being negative. Of course, the theory that he wrote the old notebook and that the old man was his Grandpa (meaning Cyrus was an abuse/neglect survivor) always existed. But before USUM and PokeMas added more implications, they were treated as "Just Theories" or after Platinum, retcons. Likewise, I think a good number of the older players WANTED Cyrus to be evil, so they kinda ignored it. Though there was an equal faction WISHING for a well written Sympathetic Villian. They missed Giovanni and had little hope GameFreak could write a worthwhile sympathetic villian because while Maxie and Archie weren't evil, their plan was just so stupid? Maybe it's because I grew up in a rural area at the start of the Going Green era, but I can remember being taught basic ecosystems in like 3rd or 4th Grade Science and learning that major changes to the environment were bad? And they were supposed to be super smart scientists?

On to game characterization, D/P Cyrus and Platinum Cyrus were portrayed slightly differently and I don't know if it was intentional or not, given how subtle the changes in the overall story were. But it boils down to a matter of A Means to an End, where D/P Cyrus seemed like he was changing the world to become a God, while Platinum Cyrus wanted to change the world and has to become a God to do so. Likewise, I don't think the implications that Cyrus was the abused/neglected grandson of that Old Man and the author of the old notebook were as strong. Also every scene with Cyrus in the Distortion World didn't exist in D/P so you didn't witness his breakdown or him admitting to his own faults. Charon/Pluto also wasn't in D/P, nor was the Rotom Room which was the first thing to give the "Cyrus wrote the Old Notebook Theory" any credibility.

My last reason was the Poke Anime and I talked a bit about it in a comment the other day. I have since looked it up and the D/P Anime aired the same day as the D/P Game Release, in Japan at least. So the 2nd most prevalent and remembered version of Cyrus is an ASS. The Anime did a great job of showing us the double life he was living, smiling and dressing/acting normal, albiet hammy, in front of Cynthia and that one old lady. But for a cold, stoic villian, he was super agressive, loud, short-tempered and dismissive in the anime. In that clip you shared, he wasn't calmly explaining why fighting was useless, he was about to snap on his admins. He yelled at someone else to (Ash I think). So it didn't even do a good job of portraying him as the kind of villian he was supposed to be, though this may have been because the series ended in 2011, so it may have been affected by the Platinum retcons.

But yeah, I'm also kinda sad about how people see Cyrus, but it isn't surprising. For everyone who "grew out of" pokemon or just never played Platinum, USUM, PokeMas or BDSP, they have to go back and relearn everything and not everyone does that. Nor will everyone want to because again, some people wanted Cyrus to be genuinely evil. And even if they do want to learn what changed and are open to it, they have to sift through years of content saying he was actually that bad.

It was a nightmare explaining to two of my homies why I was suddenly trying to write fanfic and draw fanart of him because they didn't get the memo.

Quick correction - It is not a theory that the old man is Cyrus's grandpa. It's confirmed from my understanding. Which it means Cyrus is likely an abuse victim (though, what Cyrus was going through was never entirely specified. Just that it was bad enough to concern his grandfather.)

I will note that his characterisation did change between Diamond-Pearl and Platinum (and now BDSP has introduced younger people to the pre-Platinum story), so I will give them that. But specifically, I was on the USUM battle theme still seeing it. (Interestingly, not at all on the BDSP rendition, though. Maybe because it's just Sinnoh fans who already know everything.) One of the top comments was ironically a joke about him seeing the Rotom Dex and wanting to kill everyone.

I think his character is really just generally misunderstood because of how subtle everything was is what I was originally trying to say. Like you said, some of it is general literacy issues. It just makes me sad to see him so misunderstood... I think Game Freak did a really good job writing him. Though, he does clearly read as emotional in both Diamond-Pearl and Platinum. At least, seeing his little chibi march up to you in BDSP after you ruin his plans really shows how emotional he truly is. While the Rotom Room journal is clearly only a theory, I do truly think he is the only logical character who fills that role so well. (Charon 100% would use Cyrus's childhood trauma journal for its precious Rotom research without a doubt seeing how quick he was to try to take over Team Galactic.)

I am glad that they gave him depth rather than just making him a generic bad guy... Actually, considering that Platinum was just before BW (well, a few years but development wise, I mean), I think it might have been their first steps into more character driven plots. I do hope people end up looking more into Cyrus, but I know he isn't the most popular villain at all. (I believe that crown goes to either Archie or Guzma. Or. Well. Lusamine, actually, probably.)

I convinced my friend by telling her about the Rotom Room stuff, actually. She already liked Cyrus since she is super into Sinnoh, but apparently, learning that he was besties with Rotom when he was a child sold her. Now she bravely helps me write for him sometimes lmao. My other friend, however... She still doesn't believe that he's actually 27.

Granted. Youtube comment section opinions should probably always be discarded.

Except maybe... This one. This is the only good and acceptable one lmao

#cyrus.ima #long post

[elendsessor]

ok ok didn’t know there was a new smtv rising revengeance preview so i decided to check it out and here are my thoughts

everything’s below the cut so if you don’t want spoilers at all skip this :)

first off MY WISH CAME TRUE!!!

your partners can summon demons!!!! i mean i don’t really know how to feel about partners taking up party slots but

hey they brought back a cool thing from 4a and i’m here for it look at the silly bird and dazai channeling his inner pokemon trainer

then of course there’s the new drip and imma be real (and this is not the last time imma bitch) this uh. doesn’t vibe with me. i mean it’s fine??? i guess??? the new move looks cool but something about the design doesn’t really fit the serenity of the nahobino’s design. i really liked not having some completely edgy vibe especially since it contrasted with the other nahos so well. feels like its being taken away. though this may be more aogami dominant or something idk. i like a lot of 5’s demon designs so this was a bit of a letdown.

side note i like how the protag and aogami sitting on a bench are included in a lot of press release screenshots it’s just. really funny to me.

now here’s a really hot hot hot take

i hate this. i hate that they brought mastema back the way they seem to be doing. hear me out for a moment—

it has a lot to do with the law bias megaten has. i like mastema in strange journey but god they fumbled him in the chaos route by turning him into another angel who openly admits they just want complete control and i’m really fucking tired of it. he was basically a drug dealer in 4 and did like. absolutely nothing and was a whiny bitch. i wouldn’t mind him returning as a strictly summonable demon, but due to his framing in the trailer, he’s either going to be a part of the main plot or part of a sidequest.

the problem is that due to how much megaten pushes “law bad” it requires butchering characters. a lot of it definitely has to do with japan’s history with christianity and whatnot which is 100% valid. i don’t think i need to explain how abrahamic religions have impacted the world pretty negatively due to the evangelicals, but the fundamentals of religion are actually well intended. what matters is who preaches them. how it is often portrayed in megaten is controlling and sacrificing individuality when law as a concept is a lot broader and also comes with other downsides often overlooked and also often depicted as being almost downright exclusive to abrahamic religions when that couldn’t be further from the truth. heck japanese society is conservative af and punishes “underperforming.” so basic capitalism. as such, many of the angels in smt are also often depicted as slaves to god’s system or wanting something to be gained, and a lot of law reps are either depicted as being blindly complicit with things they were shown to be against or be made just as mindless.

law has been done well before. getting amane’s ending not only makes a lot of thematic sense but leads to one of the best written scenarios in the franchise along with one of my favorite exchanges in gaming. dsrk2 handles law stuff in a completely unique way that asks a lot more questions than any mainline game has ever done. it’s just a shame that status quo tends to be kept.

i’m not entirely worried since there’s a chance he could be handled well. abdiel is still the best written angel of them all because she wasn’t looking for control, rather approval, even if it meant committing a taboo/tearing herself apart to please god, which is a perfect commentary in it of itself and fits her namesake. law in 5 was actually pretty tame and not nearly as extreme as it usually is. though, considering how mastema’s character has been reduced to being an untrustworthy ass as opposed to just being relatively hands off when it came to pushing the good word of the lord, i don’t think that’ll change anytime soon. again have to stress i don’t dislike his inclusion because i don’t like him as a demon (i really do), i’m skeptical about his inclusion because of his character being assassinated in the name of the generic law bad thing and he clearly is going to be given a role outside of possibly usable demon.

to end on a good note tho

the ability to play as nahobeeho is very welcome in every reality

and though i already made a post on them gonna show them again

I LOVE AMABIE!!!!

#shantien rambles #smt #smt 5 #megaten

[acquired-stardust]

Game Spotlight #3: Digimon World (1999)

Today is a special day and as such it is is only fitting that today marks the first Acquired Stardust Game Spotlight brought to you by me, Larsa. What makes today special? Well that’s because it’s August 1st, better known to many fans around the world as "Odaiba Memorial" or more simply "Odaiba Day", a day which marks the 24th anniversary of the chosen children, the “Digidestined”, who first made their way into the digital world. No matter when you became a fan of Digimon this date holds a deep meaning to all of us in the Digimon fandom for being the day that the original chosen children started their journey. 

                                                  “ ! “

This is a universal day we in the fandom celebrate the world over and it is an eventful day like this that puts on full display how caring the Digimon fanbase is of the series. Whether you can visit the man made island of Odaiba in person on this day or you are browsing through your social media apps embracing the meme this is our day fellow "Digi-fans".  Digimon is the franchise that kick-started my imagination and truly meant the most to me growing up as a child back in 1999 when "Digimon Adventure" first aired on Fox in North America. It is no exaggeration to say years in my childhood that Digimon was very much my life. It was what I most often thought about when I would daydream at school, or soccer practice. I would even find the spare time as a child to desecrate an innocent sheet of paper with my personal crudely drawn original Digimon. ( We all did this am I right? )   As a way to make me happy with my childhood obsession the first home console game that my older brothers bought me was Digimon World for the original Playstation. The game blew my mind with how large it felt at the time and as a result was what largely consumed my summer vacation that year. I happily say that this game has been an absolute adventure to revisit to this day~!

                                “ This was innovative at the time! “

Digimon, shorthand for " Digital Monsters ", started as a virtual pet toy created by WiZ and Bandai in the year 1997 as the more "masculine" companion to big sister toyline " Tamagotchi ". These new Digital Monsters weren't just adorable pets wanting for you to take care of them they were born fighters and you the player would tame these creatures from birth to battle other players of the game through connecting devices. It turns out many children did become tamers because the Digimon v-pet toy was an instant hit selling many toys right away. Immediately after the launch of the original toy-line it was clear that Bandai was very confident that they could shape Digimon into a successful multimedia franchise. The Digimon toyline was quickly followed up with a more expanded toyline, magazines, manga, trading card game, and several video game projects - the first notable home console video game release being "Digital Monster Ver. S" for the Sega Saturn in Japan.  The first globally released Digimon video game would be "Digimon World" for the Playstation console and this game was developed alongside it's own sequel "Digimon World 2" in an ambitious project by Bandai to ensure in their minds global domination. 

“ Digimon World “ was originally was released on January 28th in the year 1999 in Japan to a successful launch.  The following year it would be first released in May to North America(NTSC) and shortly afterward in July to European(PAL) regions. Both of these version would both go onto be big selling hits on the console earning the Playstation's "Greatest Hits" label in North America and likewise "Platinum" status in Europe because quite frankly Digimon was that big of a deal already. By the year 2000, it was clear outside of Japan that Digimon would not just go down as another another contender to Pokemon’s reign. The Digimon series had become a champion in it's own right establishing itself as a rival even for Pokemon at the time. Digimon World was the first Digimon video game most of the world experienced. So the question is after all this time how does the game hold up 24 years later? Was it worth the hype in a crowded platform like the Playstation?

                      “ Sidenote: They were pushing the original Digimon TCG  “     

                                  “Welcome to The Digital World “

 The Digital World is a vast and mysterious place that exists both within our world and outside of it. You insert the Digimon World disc then go through the Playstation start up sequence where you are greeted by that haunting yet relaxing boot up sound of the console. After a brief load time you are shown in wonderfully aged FMV from a typical afternoon of the year 1999 in Japan complete with children battling virtually through the Digimon V-Pet toys. Before long the battle between the two players go from toy to imagination in our main character's head, daydreaming of the fight between two Ultimate level Digimon: the proud MetalMamemon and the imposing MetalGreymon. After the cut-scene you hit start to officially start your own journey to the digital world albeit an unintentional one for our avatar as they are forcefully whisked away into the Digital World itself through their own V-Pet toy.

                                      “ MetalMamemon wants to fight! “

Once the scene finishes playing then you are confronted by Jijimon, an elderly wise Digimon who asks the players some background questions which determine your starter Digimon. You see depending on the answers you gave Jijimon you will receive Agumon or Gabumon as a companion both Digimon whose potential take different shapes. After being introduced to your partner you are then given reason for why you were brought here to the Digital World: it turns out maybe you really do just love Digimon so much that it made you a chosen child yourself? At any rate you the player are tasked by Jijimon with the serious task of rebuilding " File City ", a village where Digimon used to live in peace with one another until recent times where the formerly peace loving Digimon fled the city after having forgotten their own past. As you guide each new Digimon back to the city you may uncover the truth behind the current ongoing mystery of File Island.  Those who re-join the new File City  will offer something helpful to the city whether it to run a Bank, Item Shop, Clinic, or much more.  Ideally you will help the village grow from its humble roots to a true city but it won’t be easy, tamer.

                           “ Becoming Garurumon is gonna be tough... “      

                        The game truly begins now as you are set on a journey to explore File Island, a wondrous land of mystery with many different ecosystems filled with many diverse Digimon and just as many wires emerging from the soil unlike anything you may have seen before anywhere else. And now with this journey comes responsibility - while your primary goal for being here may be to help File Island at large your more immediate task is to care for and raise your Digimon properly. It is up to you the player to decide how you raise your digital partner as each day passes by in a linear manner through morning, day, dusk, and dawn cycles. It is at this point you can immediately with courage choose to venture outside the city into the unknown or spend some time building the combat stats of your Digimon partner at The Green Gym section of File City. At the gym you can put your Digimon through a variety of training tasks which is typically focused on increasing one stat at a time primarily. These stats are known in the game as HP which effects how much damage they can take before fainting. MP which determines the amount of points how many combat techniques your partner can use in a battle. Off(ense) which is the stat the game uses to figure out how hard a Digimon hits another. Def(ense) which works as the opposite, this stat determines how much damage a Digimon takes from being hit in which the higher def means less taken away from HP. SPD which determines how often a Digimon attacks with a technique (this caps at 300 SPD), how often a Digimon guards against an opponent's technique, and how fast your Digimon's Finishing Move charges through their own actions. And last but not least is Wis(dom!) which can give your Digimon the ability to listen to more commands in battle. Each training session causes an hour to pass by in the digital world but this is time well spent because these stats are the key to success in combat.

                                     “ Yup, it really won’t be easy. “               

If you raise your Rookie-rank Digimon improperly they will eventually become a rather weak Champion-level creature known as "Numemon" hardly fitting for the moniker at first glance. However if you raise them well they can become something greater through digivolution and every Digimon has multiple evolutionary branches which are driven conditionally by how you raise the Digimon whether it be through hitting stat thresholds, battles, the amount (or lack of) care mistakes, techniques learned, or even body weight.  The game even has additional secret methods of reaching digivolutions that may surprise a player the first time playing and even longtime players who have yet to experience everything the game has to offer in their time with it. You may not always get what you want through Digivolution without proper planning so keep that in mind.

           Outside the city you may run into hostile Digimon that can quickly become challenging for your partner had they not been prepared properly for the dangers of the wild. Once in combat you have to leave the battling to your Digimon partner as you stand on the sidelines making commands or supporting them with various healing items. It is at this early point you learn that you cannot directly control what your partner does in battle you can only offer them orders to influence their behavior in a battle system akin to something known as an "auto-battler" today. Your partner when they achieve victory can learn techniques from their foes, obtain items, and Bits (currency). On the other hand your partner can fall in battle and for each time they fall in battle they will lose a heart which will result in them passing away upon losing three hearts. Between any battles that can occur your digital partner needs food, they need to use the bathroom, and your digital partner needs rest. Every time your Digimon uses the bathroom outside of a stall or porta-potty it will result in a "Care Mistake"  which the game will remember for that Digimon's lifespan through an in game counter. 

                       “ Forget it. This dino is more cuddly than any wolf. “

  I mentioned lifespan earlier, right? Well every partner Digimon generally needs to be cared for with love before unavoidably they pass away sooner or later. And when that time comes Jijimon will be there to reincarnate your partner Digimon into a Digi-Egg where they start life all over again. Due to the nature of this game you form a bond with your Digimon that you may not find yourself having with other similar monster raising video games such as Pokemon. The time you have with your Digimon in the Digital World is fleeting and it's quite sad. As a tamer it is with love inside of your heart that you must juggle that fleeting time between making your buddy stronger and spending their same limited time saving the Digimon outside the city alongside the player. There is a real somber feeling when you know your Digimon might be on your last day as you run a frozen tundra for the final time at night knowing it might be their last one with you. Everyone who has played this game enough understands that heavy feeling and it is that feeling which drives you to do better for your next partner.

                              “  This land is labeled correctly. “

This game world has its own logic and rules that are rewarding to learn to get past the harsh difficulty curves.  And now with that being said it is this same "gameplay loop" which I laid out in detail leading up to this which would often overwhelm me as a child. Many times I would aim for my Agumon to become the mighty Greymon only to get another alternate digivolution like Monochromon instead of the one which I planned for. This would happen to younger me even with the official Brady Strategy Guide by my side because a guide can only help you through so much - this was a game you had to experience and learn yourself back in the day to get the most out of it.

                                  “ Time flows differently here! “

The Digital World in this game is all about discovery. Often you may have no idea what to do next exactly if you are playing the game blind though with enough discovery you will figure it out.  You may find that next Digimon you need to bring back to File Island in a place you never thought to check. You may even find a random item on screen you have walked by hundreds of time without ever having seen before that hundredth visit. Digimon World balances elements of a pet-simulator, and maybe more impressively a world that feels like it is really one of a kind.  The environments in this game are beautiful, populated with all kinds of digital critters, and accompanied by often fitting ambient sounds which fit the atmosphere the game presents to us.  There is nothing quite like walking through File City at nighttime with your Digimon partner as that lovely song plays away in the background. Composers Koji Yamada and Yuko Ishii outdid themselves with this game’s score, most songs being geared to the environment at hand and some others geared towards pulse pounding combat as your partner is locked in a fight for survival. For example the musical themes of Factorial Town feels daunting and mechanical in nature.  We now live in an era full of "open world" video games everywhere and yet sometimes Digital World feels more alive to me than even some modern AAA offerings. It says a lot about a game’s quality when it can stick with someone positively years later.

                                      “ Make the right choice. “

Speaking of the way the game looks all together it is a pretty nice looking game for the Playstation. It is the first time that the original Digimon which famed Digimon designer Kenji Watanabe created were being presented in a 3D environment within a video game. These 3D models are a huge leap in technology over the V-Pet sprites and these over several dozen designs really shined in this iteration of The Digital World. Often the monsters in this series are known for looking "cool" such as Leomon so it is worth mentioning even the cuter designs like Monzaemon look absolutely adorable in this game. The graphics, soundtrack, and presentation of this game are pretty strong in my opinion.        

              “ This chart helps you raise every kind of Digimon available! ”

 I truly appreciate this game even more today then I did in the year 2000 when I played it for the very first time and there is so much more that I could muse over with this game. Now with all this being said there are many bugs and glitches in this game so be warned this gemstone can be rough around the edges.   Overall I will cut myself short to say proudly that this game stands up to the test of time and the influence of this game is felt to this day. Worth mentioning that "Digimon World: Next Order" serves as a true sequel to this beloved PlayStation title and yet as good as it may be the new title does not replace the original game. I'm urging anybody who has not played this game yet to seek it out and give it a chance. Better yet find the Digimon World Randomizer created by the game's devout community which adds many features and fixes nearly every game bug, all things in service of making the experience even better. There is even chatter from the current producer of Digimon video games that we can expect either a remaster or remake of this beloved title someday. Which makes sense considering Digimon is even more popular globally than ever now. No matter how you experience this game it is worth playing for any Digimon fan even just one time. 

Digimon World is an incredible adventure worthy of being called stardust.

-- Larsa

#Digimon #Gaming #Video Games #Retro Gaming #PSX #PSOne #PS1 #Bandai #Acquired Stardust #Game Spotlights #Bandai Namco #Odaiba Day #Digimon World #Game Recommendations #Playstation #1999 #Digimon Day

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #2808: Feraligatr (Neo Genesis #5)

While the Neo Genesis set had 2 Feraligatr cards, one clearly stood out. With the limited quick drawing options that weren’t shuffling cards back into the deck after the first three sets rotated out of play, set-up could be rather slow. Most decks also didn’t want to make use of something like Misty’s Wrath since card recovery options weren’t the best. Feraligatr was the rare exception, being fueled by having tons of Energy in the discard pile, and having to shuffle Energy back into the deck when attacking tended to work as a way to recycle resources due to another card that had been mostly overlooked. Everything seemed to be in Feraligatr’s favor in the new format, and as people tried out new decks it seemed to be one of the most popular choices.

120 HP was the highest available at the time, and was certainly bulky enough to take hits. Blaine’s Arcanine was the notable exception here, and Feraligatr was the main reason that card saw play. Grass as a type saw more use than it otherwise would have simply to help deal with Feraligatr, with Crobat ending up as the popular choice to pick on that. Pokemon like Erika’s Victreebel and Meganium got some use for that as well, and Dark Weezing was something to keep an eye on even if not very common. The Retreat Cost was 3, so Warp Point was probably a good option if you could fit it.

Downpour was a nice Pokemon Power that went well with Feraligatr’s attack. You could discard a Water Energy from your hand as often as you wanted during your turn, as long as Feraligatr wasn’t Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed. This was here to help Riptide hit really hard, and it did a pretty good job.

Riptide required 3 Water Energy on Feraligatr and, realistically, a lot in the discard pile. The attack did 10 damage plus 10 more for each Water Energy card in the discard pile, then said Energy was shuffled back into the deck. You’d think this would be hard to use consistently, but you could use Misty’s Wrath and Secret Mission to get through a lot of the deck, followed by Trash Exchange on the turn after a Riptide to likely get a lot of the Energy back into the discard pile. It was quite effective to say the least.

The shift to the Neo-On format needs to specifically be noted here. Feraligatr lost all of the Trainers just mentioned in that rotation, and back then people used Parasect to force the Energy to stay in the discard pile for repeated attacks. The way Feraligatr was translated made that work. In modern times, people tend to play them as the original cards were worded on first release in Japan, and the correct translation would have required the Energy to be moved to the deck to increase damage. The strategy would result in 10 damage from Riptide, making Feraligatr useless in modern Neo-On games.

Feraligatr was the star of the best deck in the old Rocket-On format, with Slowking being the only thing to challenge the role at the time. It’s still a top deck in that format even with erratas getting rid of Slowking, but other decks, such as those using Dark Crobat or Dark Gengar, have been able to reach a similar level. It was common to see the majority of top results in tournaments be Feraligatr decks at the card’s peak, and was one of the more dominant cards for its time. Being able to set up relatively quickly was very powerful and made for a deck that everyone had to prepare for... and often even that wasn’t enough to stop it.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #feraligatr #neo genesis

[shoppncarticles]

Generation Five Retrospective

Generation 5 saw its release in 2010, releasing on the still active and highly successful Nintendo DS system, as Pokemon Black and White versions. They’d be sure to sell well, Pokemon never tends to come up short, but it’s possible the developers realized they couldn’t just reuse the same Pokemon format with the same sets of tried and true Pokemon and regional aesthetics. They’d technically be competing with themselves since Diamond and Pearl already existed on the system. So, Game Freak took a leap, and created a Generation almost wholly detached from the previous four.

Gen 5 as a whole was wildly unique for the time. Unova, its region, was the first in Pokemon’s main series to not be based on a region of Japan, and instead took its inspiration from New York City and its surrounding land, over in America. Gen 5 also saw the largest new introduction of Pokemon to date, a whopping 156, beating out even the original set of 151 from Gen 1. This was likely in part because Gen 5 restricted all available Pokemon during its main story to those new to the region, reserving all returning ‘mons for post-game areas and trainers.

That isn’t even to mention all the changes brought about by Gen 5 as well. Gen 5 introduced Seasons, allowing the overworld to change dynamically based upon the month you were playing in. It finally allowed TMs, items used to teach Pokemon moves, to become infinite use rather than limited to their quantity. Pokemon sprites finally animated during battle continuously rather than just on entry. HM usage was drastically toned back compared to Gen 4. Routes and caves were overall more streamlined, making for easier traversal while still offering several side paths and secret areas for players to explore or revisit once progressing further in the game. Even the experience system was optimized, to give players more EXP based upon the next major boss opponent, and softly plateauing them from overleveling past that. Pokemon Black and White would even be home to Pokemon’s strongest narrative yet (in my opinion), driving most of the game’s playthrough beyond just the need to Be a Pokemon Master, and giving the player character some actual stake in the story and villainous team rather than just being a trainer who was in the right place at the right time.

And man. People hated Gen 5 when it came out. Really, truly despised it. When I say ‘people,’ I mean extremely vocal old-school Pokemon fans online who played the games when they first released in Japan and had the benefit of driving most of the discussion before the rest of the world really got their hands on the games. What happened to old my old Pokemon, they decried. Where’s Pikachu and Charizard, how come all the new Pokemon are just bootleg repeats of old ones? Roggenrola? That’s just a worse Geodude! They seriously made a TRASH BAG and ICE CREAM Pokemon?! Man, Pokemon designers are creatively bankrupt. This game is awful.

Honestly I can’t fathom this mindset whatsoever. You can criticize Trubbish and Vanillite for ‘just’ being normal objects all you want, but that kind of thing has existed in literally every Pokemon generation. Geodude is just a rock, Sunflora is just a sunflower, Luvdisc is just a heart, Drifloon is just a balloon. And so what if Gen 5 has some repeated concepts among its roster? In real life there isn’t just one Horse or one Bat or one Stone. Pokemon like Roggenrola, Timburr, Woobat, Blitzle, and more follow similar ideas to their Gen 1 counterparts, but take them in different directions that helps flesh them out as more original, and often more creative, creatures. Roggenrola isn’t just a living rock, it’s an extreme troglobite that evolved without eyes and instead a central ear. Blitzle isn’t another flaming horse, but instead an electrical zebra, playing off the animal’s striped pattern, like how Ponyta may be a play on the term 'trailblazer.'

Even as a kid who grew up with Generations 2-4 before playing 5, I saw listings of the new Pokemon on sites like Serebii and were enamored by them, designs like Galvantula, Scrafty, and Chandelure instantly captivated me. Even seeing the conceptual repeats didn't bother me, because they were still new designs that were breaking the mold from the stuff that had been used for years prior. Gen 5 felt different. It felt fresh.

I’m not the one who made this observation first, but I think the reason why people got so angry with this new Pokemon roster is that they were forced to use ‘mons they hadn't seen before, and couldn't fall back on familiar ones they understood. They couldn't just box whatever starter they were required to pick up and use a Gyarados and Pidgeot like they always had, and being forced to use new Pokemon made those players hate them just out of principle.

On one hand, I kinda get it, it may feel claustrophobic to have to use Pokemon you don't like because no other options exist. Personally though, this is more or less how I try to experience every Generation, at least the first time I play them. I want to at least give the new guys a chance to prove themselves, and on my first playthroughs I always use that Generation's newbies, and don't fallback on what I already know. After all, the rest of the Generation, its locations, its characters, and more are all new and unfamiliar, so why shouldn't the Pokemon be also? I'd love it if every new Generation was like Unova, forcing you to start fresh with all-new Pokemon, but such a philosophy would require a plethora of new design work to be done at Game Freak that just isn't practical with these games' rigid development paces. It makes Black and White all the more special, I guess.

Even beyond just the new Pokemon, Gen 5 is great in nearly all its aspects. Unova sets itself apart from previous regions by its large, flashy urban expanses and varied landscapes, combining both Hoenn's strong suits and improving upon Kanto's larger cities. Something about Unova and Gen 5 as a whole still feels incredibly modern and up-to-date for me, even over a decade after its release. Maybe it's to do with several cities' fascinations with high-tech machinery and glowing neon lighting, or all the merchandise and promotional material using sleek hexagonal black-and-white grids as backdrops for all their art.

Gen 5's also where Pokemon's got its strongest story, in my opinion. As I previously mentioned it feels like the first time the player character actually matters to the narrative, even if they're still a silent protagonist that doesn't really give input on the events that happen. Still, your Pokemon journey is given a little more context and stakes, being that you've got to beat your main rival N - who also happens to be the ruler of the local villainous organization Team Plasma - from reaching the Pokemon League and becoming the Champion, and commanding trainers across the region to give up their Pokemon, separating the connections between people and Pokemon and making both groups as distant as the colors black and white - ha. I won't give an extremely detailed plot summary - these articles are supposed to be on Pokemon designs rather than the games as a whole - but I still think it deserved mention since, alongside the strength of the new designs, such large improvements on Pokemon's general presentation and content is what makes me like Gen 5 so much all these years later.

Oh man, I didn't even get to Black 2 and White 2 yet, the first games since Gold and Silver to be direct sequels, and the first to be set in the same region. They add so much to to the Unovan experience, expanding the region with new locations and content, adding stuff like Pokestar Studios and the Pokemon World Tournament (where you can fight every previous Gym Leader and Champion in tourney brackets!!), adding old Pokemon back into the main game's areas, piling on even more post-game content to do after the credits roll, and a plethora of new and helpful UI and QoL changes. As I said before, these aren't meant to be gameplay critiques or anything, but at least come away from this article knowing that I think Black 2 and White 2 are the strongest games in the series by a wide margin.

With ALL THAT preamble out of the way, let's wrap things up in summation. Gen 5 is an extremely strong way to reinvigorate Pokemon's core style and aesthetic, and gave us a wide helping of unique, creative, and dynamic designs, and even those that retread on concepts already portrayed in the series, usually did so with a new angle or creative spark that helps them to stand separate. It was a great way to usher in a new 'era,' of Pokemon, and did an excellent job wrapping up the first, coincidentally also being the last Pokemon game portrayed in classic 2D.

I haven't tallied it up myself, but I think this Generation has the strongest density of S-B ranks of all Gens so far, wildly impressive considering its size.

My Personal Favorites

Despite all my heaping praises for this Generation, picking my top six is actually pretty easy. Then again, that's due in part to just how much I've thought about it and how much I love all these little freaks, and the ones residing at the top of my list have remained unchanged for quite a while. The newest addition though is Eelektross, who I already like a good deal before writing the reviews but found a lot of new appreciation for once getting to its article. Honorable mentions also go out to Samurott (I still like Dewott better, sorry!), Jellicent, Volcarona, Reuniclus, Leavanny, and more. There were a ton of S Ranks this time around. I could honestly make a top twelve favorites if I really wanted to...

My All-Time Favorites

And would you look at that! Wow! Four additions to my top 10! That's unprecedented! Gen 4 and even 3 only had an impact of three 'mons! Gen 5's just that good, I guess. I should mention, for the record, as time goes on my appreciation for Porygon-Z continues to grow, so consider it tied with Eelektross, just tucked off to the side out of frame.

My Black/White Team

At least in the in-game playthroughs I can show some of my other favorites some love, so let's all give appreciation to the other star members that didn't get included in the Top 6. But wait - where are my other favorites?

My Black 2/White 2 Team

There they are. Usually I don't include two separate teams depending on a game's slightly different versions, but Black/White 1 are pretty substantially different to Black/White 2, so I wanted to give both games some team compositions for fun.

The Coolest

This was THE Generation for radical Dark types - they're even more chock-full of character and badass prowess than normal. Even besides those, you've got real slick heavy hitters like the scarred, sharp-bladed Excadrill and eerily beautiful Chandelure as well. Coolest Gen 5 'mons is another category I could do twice over, but I'll spare you the excess listings.

The Cutest

Another tough contest. Most of these are pretty safe picks, I feel like anyone with a heart will agree on these guys' cuteness, but I also had to give Roggenrola a chance in the spotlight too. YES, I find the little rock pebble cute. Is that so WRONG.

The Most Creative

All those no-fun fuddy-duddies who say Gen 5 is when Game Freak ran out of ideas clearly have no idea what they're talking about. I'm sorry the Nazca-line sentry drone and shedded-skin hoodlum lizard don't tickle your inspirational bone, maybe you just need to expand your palette or something.

Also yes, I put Garbodor on my list of most creative designs. I honestly think the idea of a shambling garbage monster with an exposed rebar skeleton and squirting nozzle-fingers is quite the interesting and special design, SORRY.

My Least Favorites

I struggled to fill this one out. Besides Landorus and the monkeys, I had to go back and check what 'mons I really disliked. Pignite is kinda stretch, I'm perfectly willing to accept its existence but definitely wish it could've been better.

Also yeah, sorry elemental monkey fans, I'm still not big on them. It's nice that you like them, I'm glad they have their fans. Still not for me though.

Gen 5 in a Nutshell

In my mind, Gen 5 has several iconic Pokemon, but I think when you really get down to the nitty gritty and consider all the advertising and promotional material, these are the six that best represent what this region's got on offer, and all six are pretty strong, noteworthy designs. They've got everything, from impressive elegance, to cute charm, and appealing cool factors. And Trubbish, who's there because it's delightful and what everyone thinks of when Gen 5 comes up in discussion. I'm NOT saying Gen 5 is trash. I LIKE Trubbish and do honestly think it represents the region's feel, in a way.

Gen 1 Parallel Hall of Fame

For better or for worse, as I've stated a dozen times before, Gen 5 is well known for its repeat of Gen 1 concepts and ideas, but most of the time the end product is a pretty charming and interesting retooling of the core idea. Seen above are the six I feel do the best jobs with the ideas they're revisiting. I wouldn't say all of them are explicitly superior to their originals, but all are at least successful at standing apart and being unique, fresh designs based on old concepts.

Well, that does it then. Gen 5's all wrapped up and finished. It felt nice revisiting all these designs, putting into words what I really loved about all my favorites, and finding what I appreciated from the more unlikely specimen. I really do think Gen 5 is the best Pokemon's ever gotten... which also means that it's kinda all downhill from here. Oops. It's not all bad, the next two Generations have got some real good stuff I'm looking forward to talking about. So, always... stay tuned! There's always more where this comes from.

[Gen 5 Archive]

#pokemon #pokemon review #gen 5 #pokemon bw #pokemon bw2 #retrospective

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Eh, One Piece is on break but I have time to write so I kinda wanted to do this. It'll be interspersed with more traditional fare for the blog. Since I'm finally playing Dragon Quest 11, which is a love letter to its predecessors, I want to take the first nine and do the same. (X was a Japan-only MMO.) So what do you say about where it all began? The original Dragon Quest is a weird one, released for the NES in 1986. It was innovative and would provide the template for so many console RPGs to follow. 10yo me had never played a game like this before other than Pokemon, and it felt like a grand adventure.

But sadly being first makes it the most basic as well. You don't even have an adventuring party yet. Just you hacking and slashing through a wave of monsters until you finally reach the Dragonlord. Chasing the former hero Erdrick/Loto's* legend and finding their relics. This will be a defining hallmark of the series though. It may be simple, but it is tight. 10 Dragon Quest RPGs I've played and I can't name many blemishes in terms of bad system design. But we'll expand on that more with III because for now the experience is kinda too simple to have much to criticize. I love the design for this first foray, built around an always fun concept to explore. Early-installment weirdness.

You only have one safe place to save, Tantagel Castle where you begin. Every adventure is a foray out and there's an item to return home quickly. It's also one of the few RPGs I've come across that really nails the idea of like, managing consumable adventuring gear. Keys and light sources. Rudimentary yes but it could have been cool to see this expanded on rather than written off as a fun killer. I don't go back to this one much, but when I have it was a fun time. And I'm glad I got to play it organically as a series. I get why this kicked off such a phenomenon. So many hallmarks like great final bosses and really needing to talk to people but not falling into being too cryptic are set up and executed well from the start.

(*Especially on these early ones, there's some translation differences. I'm just using what I'm familiar with from here.)

#dragon quest #draconic musings #dq1

[doubleddenden]

Honestly I really hate when people say there's something reasonably wrong with a Pokémon game and then bring up sales numbers, and then specifically bashes gen 5 for not selling "well"

An essay I guess

First off the gen 5 games sold pretty well for games in general, just not that well for a Pokémon game and certainly not by today's standards with a wider and accessible audience.

Second, there's a multitude of reasons gen 5 didn't sell as well but still are praised by millions. One of which is why we now have near simultaneous world launches.

ROMs.

It's actually pretty easy to run ROMs, so easy in fact that western side fans were playing new Pokémon games the week of release in Japan. This goes back as far as Platinum, but was getting better as of HGSS. People were (and still are) happy just spamming A, so the language difference didn't matter- even so, fans were translating the games faster than TPC was localizing them. Popular mods was something like a basic battle translation- just translating the names, types, and descriptions of moves and abilities. Given time, and especially by the time BW would release, fans also made translation mods for the games' plots, usually a couple of months before it hit stores.

So with all of this in mind, do you think it's just a coincidence that sales shot up when XY released world wide at the same time?

Of course I realize that's not the only issue. Nah, see BW released at a pretty low point for fans.

I don't think it's unreasonable to say most people who play the games have been fans since they were kids- at the time for gen 5, this was definitely still the case, as most fans of the franchise were in high school at the time, assuming they got into the games when they were 5 or so around gen 1 or 2. There was definitely a handful of fans picking up the games for the first time with gen 3 and 4, usually around the ages of 5 to 7 as well, but the main audience at the time was a little older- hence why the games started getting more complex plots and themes, and the characters for BW reflecting that by being older than usual as well.

Maybe it was just me, but by middle school everyone was beating me up and making fun of me for the SLIGHTEST thing, let alone high school. It wasn't cool to like pokemon at the time- shocker when you compare it to 2016 when people were breaking into yards and government properties and shit for a Cubone in PoGo. High school was the era everyone was trying so hard to fit in and seem more grown up than they actually were, still is from what I'm hearing.

Not to mention, pokemon fans at the time did not defend every little thing Game Freak did like they do today. These days they could sell a Switch game that's just a JPEG image of Pikachu, charge it for $70, and a good chunk of fans will defend it and call it art, and it would sell for millions. Not everyone, obviously, but people who speak out against it would get screamed at by defenders. Hell you still can't point out the very obvious, GLARING issues with the Switch games from a technical and consumer standpoint, let alone point out the bad corporate politics, without some twitter user screaming at you until they're red in the face.

That's actually a pretty common fandom thing these days- even Sonic the Hedgehog has people defending it now, and that fandom was putrid toxic before the movie. You gotta understand, people would get doxxed on forums for saying they liked SA2 and not Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It was bad. Really bad. Compare this to your average pokemon fan, and pokemon is actually pretty lovely.

Back in 2010, this defensive fandom behavior was not the case at all. Teens and early 20 somethings were much more cynical and edgy- this includes pokemon fans. 1 garbage and ice cream pokemon was all it took to make it a laughing stock- completely ignoring worse pokemon like Mr Mime and Jinx from when they were kids. Adults too hopped in on this, and genwunners ESPECIALLY hounded it to hell and back. Not to mention normal people thinking you're weird or outright being hostile and antagonistic towards you if you hinted at liking it.

In short, being a pokemon fan just wasn't IN at the time. This, despite there being a ton of effort to write a more complex plot and include an entire region of some pretty amazing new designs like Samurott, Haxorus, Gigalith, Krookodile, Whimsicott, Braviary, Carracosta, etc.

So of course when X and Y dropped, they began what is now a DECADE of nostalgic Kanto pandering to bring back old fans. Charizard got TWO new megas, and one was black and cool and had blue flames, and Mewtwo got 2 new Megas and one looked like goddamn Frieza. You got Kalos starters, sure, but you'd get Kanto starters after your first badge. Your first encounter was a Pidgey, Santalune Forest was just a shorter 3d Viridian forest- it was very clear who they were pandering to. Whether it was vindication for the petty genwunner that refused to play a game without Pikachu, or it was that jock that saw Blastoise getting a Mega and remembered loving his pokemon cards as a kid, the strategy worked and the momentum would carry further with GO in 2016. Not to mention the games were extremely easy, even without EXP share, so the person that couldn't understand why fire isn't killing this water type could just win via bigger numbers.

The prime chunk of audience at the time would be in college or older at the time, too. Unlike high school and middle school, suddenly it was cool to have interests outside of your stereotypical high school party movie. I mean, it was still prime time for alcohol and trying/failing to get laid, but now your friends had 3ds's and a shiny Machamp they want to show you. Yeah you could go to parties, but you could also freely participate in dorm wide pokemon tournaments and people would excitedly gather to watch, fan or not. Hell, they'd combine the two sometimes by having pokemon battles and beer related stakes. Hell, your college professor might even have a Pokémon day for fun.

Plus, there was the whole novelty that Pokémon on a handheld was ***THREE DEE OOOOOOO~~~~***

College in general was just a time for people to realize that life is way too shitty to try to constantly keep up a fake adult aura. Shit, it was not out of the ordinary to have dorm watch parties from anything including Naruto, The Walking Dead, and Pokémon movies. It was cool to actually like things again!

Now. All of this in mind- plus keeping in mind that they would have a SIMULTANEOUS world wide release on the exact same day- keeping further in mind that it's harder to emulate a 3ds or Switch game that it is a DS game.

THAT'S why gen 5 sold "poorly" in comparison to other gens. Tldr: roms and the target audience thinking pokemon wasn't cool at the time.

In comparison today, it's way more popular due to the novelty of the Switch anyway which not only has the casual Smash Bros, but a god damn dragon's hoard of amazing originals like BoTW or Mario Odyssey, and amazing ports like The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption- basically people would usually buy a ds or 3ds for Pokemon- MAYBE Kingdom Hearts or Mario, but now people are buying it for Donkey Kong, CoD, FIFA, etc, so you have a wider audience that might consider buying it as well.

This, and the outright milking of nostalgia. The average fan is a working adult now, not having to beg their parents to buy a system or game for them- not to mention we're now in an era where pokemon fans RAISE pokemon fans. Whether it's the guy that had cards as a kid thinking it's a good idea to have his 5 year old play Blue for their first game (in this day and age? Not really, but go off), or a mega fan getting the current game for their kid, that's the fandom right now, which guarantees more sales. Add in more influencers from Twitch and YouTube and throw in sponsorships to Vtubers or a standard streamer or animator- it is everywhere right now. Hell, I'd argue it's even more popular with adults than kids these days. It really isn't unreasonable to invite friends over for a movie night in your apartment and whip out pokemon to 1v1 one of them.

The games practically sell themselves now. You never really see a TV ad for pokemon, the majority of marketing is now by fans for fans online or in person.

Compare this to 2010, social media is still pretty young, smart phones are barely a thing, looking things up online wasn't as easy as reaching in your pocket, and again, cynical teens and adults think pokemon is uncool, and being seen with a DS could ruin your reputation.

And I'm already prepared for the eventual Unova revisits not selling as well as whatever new gen came out at the time- enhanced versions and remakes hardly ever sell as well as new gen pokemon games. But I think people will be very surprised by how well it actually does in this day and age sales wise.

Unova as a whole was just a wrong place and wrong time scenario. If it released today instead, it would have been praised for it's storyntelling, characters, pokedex, locations, hell even the mc designs.

Sales numbers do not denote whether something is good or not. Most Marvel fans agree Endgame sucked ass, but it sold pretty well. Most people will agree the Gamecube was cool, but it sold poorly. Boycotting doesn't work for Pokemon either because it's too big to fail, and people will literally buy multiples of each game for some reason or another. SwSh sold the best out of the franchise, but that doesn't excuse its piss poor story, empty wild area, annoying characters, and poor route design. Scarlet and Violet have a great story and are pretty fun, and are selling very, VERY well, but that doesn't mean it's not the poorest performing pokemon game on any system when there's hundreds of glitches and poor visuals that hamper enjoyment for a lot of people.

Anyway that's my piece

#pokemon

[themattress]

Pokemon Adventures - 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23, 25, 26

3. No, I have not. That's generally not something I do, with only rare exceptions.

4. I’m not sure how popular it is, but one of my big all-time NoTPs is Silver/Green. They’re siblings, people. Yes, not by blood, but siblings all the same. Also, Blue/Green is fairly popular and I get the appeal, but I just can’t get into it. I don’t feel as though the chemistry is there, especially when compared to Red/Blue (also, Green just....doesn’t strike me as straight.)

5. Nope. Canon kind of ruined Ruby/Sapphire for me, though!

6. Can’t say that it has; shipping isn’t that big a deal to me with this series.

7. Faba. I liked him when he first showed up and it looked like being the one who cheated Sun’s grandfather out of his island was the farthest he was going to go in terms of plot relevancy. But then Kusaka dumbfoundingly made him single-handedly responsible for the Aether family tragedy and had him usurp Lusamine’s rightful position as the arc’s main human villain. As far as I’m concerned, he can stay in Ultra Deep Sea; I don’t want him back!

9. On a moral level, Ghetsis and Lysandre. But on a character level: Emerald, Norman, Courtney (the original one), OG!Archie and Maxie, the aforementioned Faba, and Carr. Professors Juniper and Sycamore were also pretty bad until the last stretch of their arcs.

10. I’m perpetually torn between the Ruby/Sapphire arc or the Emerald arc. The former because it was going fairly well despite the inherently flawed set-up but then all went to absolute shit, and the latter because it, like its title character, just wasn’t very interesting.

11. Blake doesn’t seem all that well-liked from what I’ve seen, but I really appreciated his character. To have a straight-up sociopath as one of the lead characters and not in a villainous capacity is a unique creative choice that I can’t help but admire Kusaka for.

12. I’ve seen a lot of division in the fandom over the Sword/Shield arc, primarily due to Schilly seldom getting to battle on-panel due to her handicap of missing Pokemon and Soudo being considered not that interesting (at least, until that happened), but I really like it. To me, this is what the games’ story and depiction of the characters and setting should have been like.

15. The Ruby/Sapphire arc wasn’t good (a particularly unpopular opinion in Japan!)

16. I could change many things, but if I had to choose one, I’d change the whole Faba thing. Although if Kusaka doesn’t damn well rectify the lack of Moon/Lillie interactions in the volume releases, then I’d begrudgingly let Faba slide and choose more Moon/Lillie as my answer.

17. Instead of the infamous Celebi Ex Machina happening, I’d have Norman, Courtney and Steven remain dead, with only Steven later being resurrected via Infinity Energy in OR/AS.

19. I guess how much many of them take this manga for granted. It’s not perfect by any means, but for it to run for as long as it has and usually be of high quality is no easy feat.

22. I don’t hate Ruby, but I’ve never fully warmed up to him either.

23. Isn’t this just 11 all over again? But I’ll answer differently this time and say that Soudo is a good character and shouldn’t be shit on just because Schilly is understandably more popular.

25. Instead of Sird’s Darkrai clashing with Mewtwo causing five Dex Holders to become petrified, I’d....not do that. Then we could move on to a self-contained Emerald arc focusing on the Battle Frontier with Wally as the main character and no Guile Hideout shenanigans.

26. Green and Crystal, they both lend themselves well to a lot of different ships.

#Pokemon #Pokemon Adventures #Opinion #Meme

[kaileeandag]

Meet Saya Kageyama!

A more recent (but still historical) immigrant. Time to meet Saya!

Full Name Saya Kageyama

Born August 6, 1992

Series Location Springvale Maine

Series Timeline August 2003 to March 2005

Father Yoshimitsu Kageyama

Mother Hiroko Kageyama

Sister Ayaka Kageyama

Brother Hinata Kageyama (younger twin)

Best Friend Aino Eskola

Other Friends and Peers Victoria Markos

More Info: -was born in Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward. Immigrated to the United States with her family in late June of 1998. All of their electronics (save for games) had to be replaced due to how different outlets in America look compared to Japan. -was born at 8:15 AM, the time that Little Boy was dropped onto Hiroshima. Saya and her twin brother Hinata were also born on the 47th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.  -managed to lose her accent quicker than her older sister, losing it around the start of 3rd grade. -Saya’s favorite J-Pop artist is Ayumi Hamasaki, known as the ‘Empress of J-Pop’, while her favorite idol group is Morning Musume. Her favorite Japanese boy band is SMAP, with her favorite member being Goro Inagaki. Thanks to a friend back in Japan, Saya gets each bands’ and Ayumi Hamasaki’s CDs whenever they are released. -still has her copy of the Japan only Pokemon Green. Her older sister Ayaka sent a copy of the game to her penpal and friend Erika Bourassa in the spring of 1997. Saya’s first American Pokemon game was Pokemon Blue, which is based on Japan’s Pokemon Blue which was released as Red and Blue in the US. -her favorite American cartoon is Cow & Chicken. -is the opposite of a Yamato nadeshiko, the personification of an idealized Japanese woman. Her older sister fits this description to a T, while Saya has more of an American attitude, even when living in Shinjuku.

#american girl #american girl doll #American Girl dolls #american girl oc #american girl fan character

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 121

One of the things about this whole situation with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet that has confused me is why Game Freak released the game at all this month. For those not familiar with the Pokemon series, Game Freak actually released a Pokemon game back in January of this year called Legend of Arceus.

While I get that Game Freak probably didn’t feel like the game was a mainline game, because it was a spinoff by nature, it was a big enough game that they didn’t have to release a mainline game this year. The Legend of Arceus sold 1.43 million units in Japan alone at launch, and by May when the first trailer for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet was released 12.64 units were sold globally for Arceus. And while this is a drop in the bucket considering Scarlet and Violet has had over 10 million units sold since launch, the fact is, Arceus did very well.

And people were very happy with how Arceus turned out with its new gameplay mechanic, expanding on the wandering Pokemon introduced in Pokemon Sword and Shield. The reception towards Arceus was so good, that Game Freak could have just quietly delayed Scarlet and Violet until Fall of next year.

Now, admittedly, there was probably a lot of corporate bullshit involved. Like the Pokemon mainline games have always traditionally released around the Thanksgiving season, either using Canada’s Thanksgiving, or US’ Thanksgiving, and this is probably done so it’s ready in time for Christmas sales. And that is, in the end probably why they released when they did, was because of Christmas sales.

But here’s the thing, in the long run, it wouldn’t have done Game Freak any harm in delaying the game and actually would have helped it. First off, having two large Pokemon games released in the same year, is actually quite a lot. They really did run the risk of fatigue with their target audience by having two large games in the same year.

And of course, obviously, delaying it by a year, would have given them more QA time. Which, again, I get that would have cost the company more, but this ‘open world’ with full multiplayer was a new concept for the Pokemon series. It was a more complex game than they had done previously, and on a gaming console known to not be as powerful as it could be.

No one in the fanbase would have held it against the company. With the success of Legend of Arceus, the fans would have been more than satisfied in waiting another year. Unfortunately, I recognize this isn’t about the customer, the player, and with the series having sold 10 million copies so far I don’t know if Game Freak will learn unless no one buys the next game at launch.

#pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon #pokemon thoughts #sad truth is Game Freak won't change #it took me writing this to realize Christmas was why they released it this year in November

[pkmnprideflags]

Let's read the original Lavender Town creepypasta!

It's Halloween time, so I figured as a spooky scary special here at pkmnprideflags, let's read (and make fun of) "Come Follow Me," the original Lavender Town creepypasta. Is it scary? Is it any good at all? Let's find out!

Content/trigger warning: "Come Follow Me" contains descriptions of violence, blood/gore, use of guns, death, grief/loss, and suicide.

During the first few days of the release of Pokemon Red and Green in Japan, back in February 27, 1996, a peak of deaths appeared in the age group of 10-15.

I'm pretty sure what the author means to say is that deaths happened shortly after February 27, 1996, but the way they wrote it implies that everybody died on the same day. But I'm being pedantic, let's continue.

We're told that not every child who played these games were affected, but those whose suicide attempts were intercepted showed "sporadic" behavior, like scratching their eyes. When asked why they attempted to kill themselves, they only screamed. They would be calm when in a room with a GameBoy, but not if someone put a cartridge for Red or Green inside it. Well, actual psychology shows that stimulus generalization is actually more likely to happen in this sort of situation, but whatever.

They[the police] decided the first thing to do was to talk to the programmers themselves. The first person they met was the director of the original games, Satoshi Tajiri. When told about the deaths surrounding his games, he seemed slightly uneasy, but admitted nothing.

I've never met Satoshi Tajiri, but he sounds like a very sweet man and I refuse to believe his reaction to mass child suicide because of his game would be this nonchalant.

He [Tajiri] lead them to the main programmers of the game, the people responsible for the actual content.

The detectives met Takenori Oota, one of the main programmers of the game. Unlike Satoshi, he did not seem uneasy, but very kept.

Sure, that's a sentence that makes sense.

Oota insists that it would be ridiculous for a game to be causing mass death like this, but the police suspect he is hiding something. Eventually he mentions hearing a rumor that the Lavender Town theme had made some children sick, so the detectives go to visit the games' composer, Junichi Masuda. Masuda proves his innocence by playing the song in its entirety in front of the detectives, with no one showing any ill effects.

Going back to the cartridges they had seized from the homes of the children, they decided to take a slightly more direct look at the games. They knew that it was these games that gave the children the ill effects, so they took extreme caution. Popping in the cartridge and turning the console on, the game screen booted.

I'm sorry but the idea of someone starting up a Pokémon game with this much fear is hilarious to me, no matter the context.

The detectives note that in all of the afflicted kids' game files, the tracked time was very low, and the players only had a single Pokémon in their inventory. Therefore, the Lavender Town theme could not be the cause of the childrens' behavior, because it would be impossible to get to Lavender Town that quickly.

Well, considering that this is Gen I, I'm sure there's some obscure glitch you could pull to get there, but I won't blame the detectives for not knowing that since they're not exactly gaming experts.

Also, take note that in the "original Lavender Town creepypasta," Lavender Town is not the cause of the actual spooky thing happening. Since the entire thing is a conspiracy theory/hoax, that's kind of fitting.

If it wasn't the music, nor the title screen, it had to be something within the first few minutes of the game itself. They had no choice but to turn off the game now and go back to the programmers. Asking for a list of all the programmers from Takenori, they found, surprisingly, that one of the programmers had committed suicide shortly after the game was released. His name was Chiro Miura, a very obscure programmer who had provided very little for the game. Even more interestingly, he had requested his name did not appear in the credits of the game, and so it was not.

The only Google results for Chiro Miura are connected to this creepypasta, so I'm guessing the author just completely made this person up. Also, fun fact, in a lot of fanart about this creepypasta he is portrayed as a creepy bleeding Mew. 'Cause Miura, get it?

The police investigate Miura's apartment and find a bunch of crumpled-up notes with ominous messages like "Watch out" and "COME FOLLOW ME" written on them. Definitely a great sign. They also find out that he was a close friend of Kohji Nishino (whose surname is misspelled as Nisino), so they go to talk to him.

Kohji Nisino, since the release of the game, had locked himself in his apartment, barely leaving in the dark of night to fetch anything he might need. He told his friends and family he was mourning for his dear friend Chiro, but they didn't believe this, since Nisino had locked himself up the day the game was put in stores, a few days before Chiro had killed himself.

I'm not an expert on Nishino's life or anything, but I'm pretty sure this is incorrect, as he was probably working on Pokémon Stadium & Yellow at the time.

The police manage to coax Nishino into talking with them. When asked about Miura, he says that his friend had an exciting idea for the project. Miura was a little-known programmer, but Nishino was on good terms with Oota and was able to pull some strings to get his friend on the team.

They asked what Chiro's idea was, why he wanted so badly to have a part in making this children's game. Nisino told them that Chiro never told him much about it, other than a few details every now and then. He wanted to insert a special Pokemon in the game, one completely different from all the others. It would serve as an extra, a kind of out of place thrill for the player. It wasn't, however, Missing No.

Remember the halcyon days of the internet when MissingNo was considered scary? Good times.

The detectives pushed him more and more, searching through his mind for any and every scrap of knowledge this man had no game and Chiro... and Chiro's intentions...

Sure, that's also a sentence that makes sense.

It was when they asked about the notes found in Chiro's home that he snapped. From under the couch Nisino was sitting on he whipped out a pistol, pointing it straight at the police while backing away a few steps.

Sure, that's possible under Japan's very strict gun laws.

Nishino says, "Don't follow me," then shoots himself dead. And that's the point where this story loses what little credibility it had, because Kohji Nishino is still very much alive. He worked on Sword & Shield, for Arceus' sake.

It seemed all leads had finally died. The team who had created this original game were splitting up, becoming harder to find. It was as if they were keeping a secret.

Or as if the developers weren't expecting the game to get popular and have sequels, so many of them left Game Freak to work on other projects.

The police continue to interview various staff members for the game, but most of them had only briefly met Miura. All they knew is that he had worked on something towards the beginning of the game, but they didn't know the details. Several months in, it seems like they are out of leads, until one of the detectives is approached by a frail woman on the street and given a mysterious letter that she says he needs to read urgently. It is a letter written by Miura to Nishino, asking for permission to join the staff of Red & Green. It starts off business-like, but soon goes off the rails.

As the letter continued, the handwriting seemed to grow more jittery. He talked about a glorious idea he had, a way to program something unseen in any game before. He said it would certainly revolutionize not only the gaming industry, but everyone. He went on to say that it was a very simple procedure to program this idea into the game. He did not even have to add any foreign programming, but could use what was already given in the game itself. This would, the detectives agreed, make it impossible to notice any obscurities in the programming itself. It was a perfect way to hide whatever this was.

The detectives also discover (separately from the letter and offscreen, btw) that the programmers for the game had worked in pairs. I haven't been able to find anything to confirm or deny this claim, so I'm going to assume the author made it up. Anyway, Miura's programming partner was Sousuke Tamada. His interview with the police is presented to us in the format of an audio recording taken by one of the detectives. Tamada is acting overly nice, which creeps the detectives out. When asked about Miura, he says:

"I don't know him that well, really. We didn't meet up frequently, only every once in a while to trade data, or when the entire group was called up for a meeting... That's the only times I really ever saw him. He acted normal, as far as I could tell. He was a short man, and I think this affected his consciousness.. "

SHORT KING MIURA LET'S GOOOOOO

Anyway, he says that Miura was desperate for recognition and appreciation from his peers and the world, but Tamada didn't think he was anything special. When asked what Miura worked on, he answers that it was mostly Professor Oak's segments at the beginning of the game - "welcome to the world of POKeMON" and all that.

The police start getting more desperate and press Tamada harder.

"What else?" pushed the police. They could hear it in Sousuke's voice. He knew something. "We know you know about the children and the deaths. We know it was Chiro who did it. He programmed something in the game. "What are you implying?" asked Sousuke. It sounded like he was trying to maintain his voice. "We're implying that since your his partner, if you're hiding something from us then you could just as much be responsible for those children's deaths as Chiro is himself!" "You can't prove anything!" Sousuke shouted. "Tell us what Chiro did to the game!" they shouted back. "WHAT I TOLD HIM TO."

Tamada says that Miura was very easy to manipulate, and apparently so is Oota?

"I could control his [sic] flawlessly. He's a lot like Takenori... Of course none of you knew this, but I was the one who brought up the idea of the game, the idea of the entire operation. I just told the fellow what to do, and he followed me without doubt. He knows nothing, just like Chiro."

Well, we all thought Pokémon existed because of Satoshi Tajiri's love of bug collecting, but I guess it was all some mustache-twirling scheme by Sousuke Tamada. Who, I must remind you all, IS A REAL PERSON and likely does not deserve this level of character assassination.

In the audio recording, we hear the sound of the detectives cocking their guns and a window opening. Tamada decides to give the detectives a hint as to what's going on:

"At the start of the game you have to walk into the grassy area before Oak appears and you receive your first Pokemon, understand me? Under normal circumstances, it was programmed that even though you're in a grassy area, no Pokemon will spawn... I made it different. I manipulated that Chiro, told him what to put in the program, gave him all the instructions on how to do it, and he did it flawlessly. It's rare, but it can happen.. Stepping into that grass, one can spawn..."

What, a Pikachu?

Tamada says that Miura killed himself after learning the true nature of what he had programmed in, but Tamada stops his explanation, telling the detectives to play the game for themselves to find out. A bunch of noise is heard; we switch out of the audio-recording format when reinforcement police arrive, only to find the two detectives and Tamada both dead. The detectives were shot around ten times, while Tamada was shot only twice. Did Tamada take their guns from them? Did they go mad and shoot each other? That might be the implication, since Tamada is heard saying "Come follow me" on the recording, and I doubt you even need to get to the end of the story to guess what that means.

This game was causing a massacre. At least a hundred children were dead.

I'm sorry, HOW many? You did not specify how many at the start of the story, so I was thinking like twenty, and now you're hitting me with this?

Since Tamada confessed to being behind it all, the detective leading the case decides to close it before anyone else ends up dead. All the evidence is locked up, and no one speaks of the case much more...until the ten-year anniversary of the games' release. The lead detective is reminded of the case by something, and decides to go digging through the evidence container. He finds a container filled with exactly 104 copies of Pokemon Red & Green. (Did he count them out?)

He reached in and pulled one out, Pokemon Red. He hadn't seen one in a long time. He didn't know what he thought next, but he reached in his desk and pulled out an old Gameboy. He received it a long time ago, but it still worked. It was his son's, but he had died a few years ago. His wife was gone too. That was then though.

The detective starts up a new game, and even though he was not present at the meeting with Tamada, he can hear his voice saying "come follow me" in his head. He enters the grass, and the game freezes for a moment, then resets with this text onscreen:

"Come follow me, come follow me, come follow me. I miss you dad, I miss you my husband, I miss you so much."

More and more text along these lines keeps appearing. The man gets the sense that this is his wife and child speaking to him, and he begins crying. The text onscreen begins emphasizing that the detective should "come follow " them, so they can be with him forever and ever...

"Don't stay away. You can see us too.. We miss you.. Come follow me. We love yo--" A black screen. The detectives eyes grew wide, his jaw dropping. The screen lit back up, and Oak was leading him out of the grass. "Come follow me," said Oak. "NO!" shouted the man, dropping the game onto the floor.

I'm sorry, but that mental image is just objectively hilarious.

Also, can anyone confirm if Prof. Oak says "Come follow me" in his regular dialogue? If so, that's actually a nice recontextualization of something that's normally not scary.

The detective starts yelling at the game to bring his wife and son back. In the room with him appear the ghosts of children, many with injuries, begging the game for their lost parents or pets back.

So, did Tamada and Miura program ghost-sense into the player, or is the detective just supernaturally gifted? Or is he just going insane?

"Come follow me..." said a voice. The lead detective looked over, and in the corner of his room, next to an old desk, was Sousuke. He stood in the corner, tall, handsome, clean. A smile was on his face, stretching across his face.

Ah yes, the smile on his face stretched across his face. The floor here is also made out of floor.

Tamada tells the detective he can reunite him with his family, and pulls out his old gun from a desk drawer. Saying that he will follow his family, the detective shoots himself.

It was a few days before the body was discovered. It lay on the floor, blood everywhere. In one hand held an empty gun, and in the other was a classic Gameboy with Pokemon Red on the back. The battery had long died, and only an empty, black screen was left.

Notice how more sentences in this paragraph are given to describing the GameBoy than to the dead body. Lesson for writers everywhere: keep track of what you have put focus on, so your horror story doesn't turn into an unintentional comedy.

After this final death, a detective took all 104 copies of the games and burned them. So, this is the end of the incident.

However, this is not the end of the story. The code was said to have survived, and was even passed on to other language versions of the games. If you have an old Pokemon game, you can place the cartridge in the back of the classic Gameboy, turn on the system, and roll the wheel who knows? Maybe you'll learn the secret for yourself.

In the age of data-mining, this story is really rendered hilarious. If there really was some secret code in these games, TCRF would have found it already.

---

And that marks the end of this story! Wow was it bad!!!

Got any other hilarious PokePastas? Might just turn this into a Halloween series~

#tw violence #tw blood #tw death #tw suicide #pokémon #lavender town #creepypasta #lizzie reacts #tw guns

[clownkiwi]

did Yokai Watch break your heart? if its ok to ask

ehhhh

i mean. i love it. i love whisper and jibanyan, i love the silly jokes & shenanigans they get into, nate is very mid (& thats the point) but like. i really loved how yokai watch was before yw3 was released

i used to be a yokai watch blog & massive fan for at least two years before my brand jumped around everywhere because i've heard of how weird the yokai watch brand was getting in japan (from 2017-now, they jumped from this edgy sequel to a remake of the original show, to a my hero academia/sentai ripoff, back to another remake of the original show. and this all barely happened within ten years of the original game)

but i think what did break my heart was hearing about how our thoughts about level 5's weird management were practically confirmed when a bunch of ex-level 5 localizers & translators came out about the weird communication issues between them & level 5's execs in japan, & how they pretty much killed yokai watch & any other chance to get a new installment in any of their more beloved series (ni no kuni hasnt gotten a new game in about a decade if you ignore the mobile games. professor layton's future is unknown at this point)

they're just stuck in the 2014 window where yokai watch was more popular than pokemon in japan, which currently isnt as big as it was back then

but yea. yokai watch was really important to me in high school when it first dropped in america, it was a huge part of my brand before & i loved the first game & first two seasons of the show. its just tragic to see how they fell from grace and refuse to listen to anyone's complaint's about the franchise now, & how honestly they should just move on from it

#ruby answers tag #ALOT HAS HAPPENED MIND YOU there was alot that happened that i didnt even mention here #yw4 was pretty. disastrous. since only 10% of the full yokai cast was in the launch game #compared to poke swsh's controversial launch dex #the anime dub got a recast when yw3 dropped in the west. but even then it didnt get too much attention #level 5 pretty much killed their western offices when they released yw3 for the 3ds in like. 2019 (& snack world) #ITS ALOT ive barely followed it bc nobody really talked about it except like. really small niche circles #its a series that still means alot to me but i pretty much rarely think about. unless its to lament its death #sorry if this got overdramatic yokai watch still means alot to me somehow lol & its really alot #max #friend tag #flowerkidlove #long post #also apologies if this got too long LMAO

[medea10]

My Review of Bibliophile Princess

How did I get into this anime? I think I was in the need for some romance during the fall 2022 season. No offense to that season of anime, but not everything has to involve testosterone, blood, and chainsaws.

Elianna Bernstein comes from a family that loves books. The family would forego food for just one more book to read. Elianna is pretty much that. She has no interest in anything else. What do you think would happen if a prince asks for her to be his fiancé? First of all, huh?!

As it turns out, Elianna comes from a family with some nobility. Crown Prince Christopher Selkirk Asherald wants Elianna to be his fiancé…in name only. Chris has no intention of getting married so early like what his parents want for him. He thinks if he gets a phony fiancé and every so often pushes the wedding date away, he’ll get them off his back. Prince Chris entices Elianna with giving her all the free time in the world to read the rarest books only meant for those of highest nobility. For the next four years, Elianna spent her time mostly reading but getting to know the people around her ‘fiancé's’ inner circle.

Good things do have to come to an end. It seems as though the prince might have intentions with another woman. Is this the end of Elianna’s weird fairy tale? And why should she care? She only cares about reading and nothing else. Unless she’s grown to like, even love Prince Chris. But does this possible love go both ways?

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Sentai Filmworks nabbed this one. Whether they decide to do something more with this or not is up to them. It’s not like they had a lot going on back in October. Nowadays, Sentai’s got its own cash-cow to milk. So, chances are it’ll be a while before we see this anime get anything other than a proper home release. I gotta say in the first episode, I thought that was Mamiko Noto voicing Elianna. But then I saw that it was Reina Ueda and I’m like, never mind, that was an honest mistake. Still good work! Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Elianna is played by Reina Ueda (known for Mallow on Pokemon SM, Kisa on Fruits Basket 2019, Kanao on Demon Slayer, CereCere on Sailor Moon Crystal: Eternal, Jasminka on Little Witch Academia, and Young Hideyoshi on Tokyo Ghoul)

*Chris is played by Ryouhei Himura (known for Hinata on Angel Beats, Takizawa on Eden of the East, Kohaku on Yashahime, Grey on Black Butler, Shouma on Penguindrum, Tsubasa on Rinne, and Hiyori on Free!)

SHIPPING: Boy, anime really loves to give us fake-ass relationships these days. Either coincidence or Japan hopping on this trope’s bandwagon, 2022 had a lot of animes with that concept.

We get confirmation early in the series that both Prince Chris and Elianna have some (though awkward) feelings for one another. After living with the prince for 4 years, we see Elianna’s fear of this engagement ending. But was it because she will no longer have access to the rare books she’s yearned to read or is it that she really has feelings for the charming prince? As for the prince, Chris seems to have history with Elianna when they were younger. Elianna scolded the young prince for the mistreatment of a book. After that, they spent time with each other in the library.

Chris remembers. Elianna does not!

After Chris cemented this relationship by declaring there were no more objectors to the marriage, he started showing more affection to Elianna. And I gotta say, it started playing off like one of those rom-com sim games. You get that cute shoujo male and the cute, blushing girlfriend. It constantly felt like that. And when it wasn’t feeling like that, it was feeling like a setup for an old Popeye cartoon. Elianna gets in more trouble than Olive Oyl, no lie!

Now, there were other women in the picture that Elianna felt threatened by. It’s really nothing more than Elianna’s imagination getting the best of her. The prince really loves her and no other girl will do.

ENDING: You would think that after all that has gone down in the past 10 episodes, Elianna would see that Christopher is genuine when he only wants to be with her. Okay, maybe not. Hell, I would have been hella sus if I were in Eli’s shoes. Elianna has had to endure a lot of hearsay behind her back. Add to that, Elianna’s overall worry if she’s worthy of being the wife of a crowned prince. Girl, you have won over nearly everyone in that palace by episode 3, including the queen. Accept this as a win.

But a few daggers are out in plain-sight trying to set the soon-to-be-princess up. There are some women who hate Elianna so they do things out of pure vanity. You know them, catty bitches! But then you keep seeing this one chick named Sharon who keeps insisting to Chris to marry her sister Mirielle. We keep hearing about this woman but we don’t even see her. So naturally Elianna is concerned about everything. But then this thing about concubines comes up. It’s quite the norm for the royal family to have mistresses, concubines, etc. This family is no exception to that dirty little secret. Let’s just say that the concubine talk was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Elianna told Chris that to once again postpone the wedding and runs off. No matter what, Chris always comes to Elianna’s aid whenever she gets in an altercation. At the end of the episode 11, Elianna expressed her worry to Chris and asked him to make a promise to be loyal to her only. Chris makes it clear that Elianna is the only one for him.

Okay, final episode time. Is this the episode where Elianna and Chris finally get married? Nah, we’re getting this Holy Night Banquet. We still get some certain instigator wanting to push Elianna away. And it’s that Sharon chick that I mentioned prior. She even dangled a rare book in front of Elianna to entice her of giving up her fiancé. Episode 1 Elianna wouldn’t hesitate pushing some prince out of the way for a rare book. Episode 12 Elianna on the other hand has gone through some things. So yeah, there is no tearing up this couple. No need for affairs, mistresses, or rebound concubines.

They end with this annual banquet with some good notes for the prince and his soon-to-be-bride. No more objectors. No more sus women after the prince. The monarchy is happy for these soon-to-be newlyweds. The queen however wishes for Elianna to be more wary of suspicious folks and not be taken advantage of or get in too much trouble that would cause a ripple for the family. But she still gets a little choked up being called mother from Elianna. We don’t get a wedding. Just Elianna asking for some vacation time so she can read books. And we end with looking at trees lit up with pretty patterns. It was good timing when I saw it because the finale aired three days before Christmas.

Eh, this was an okay anime. Nothing to write home about. I honestly thought this was going to be one of those animes where the two characters were eventually going to fall in love for real instead of being fake fiancés near the end. As it turns out, Chris unveiled his feelings for Elianna in episode 2 or 3. The rest of the time was Elianna slowly falling in love with the prince with bumps in the road causing her depression and self-doubt. A LOT of self-doubt! There were a lot of characters featured in this anime and most of them do cause hiccups that make Elianna question her relationship with Chris. I honestly don’t remember most of these people. That’s how little of an impact they had.

Eh, it’s a toss up! There are many other romance animes out there I would watch before this one. But it is a short series if you want something small to watch. Hidive has the entire series available for streaming.

#anime review #elianna bernstein #bibliophile princess #mushikaburi hime #christopher selkirk asherald

[spinnerlockeplay]

New Nuzlocke Announcement!

So, here's a problem regarding myself. If I have the motivation to do it, then I would do it. If I don't, then I couldn't find any joy in it at all. But if I have a lot in mind, then that's asking for trouble. That's the same with Nuzlocke playthroughs. I planned to continue my FireRed Nuzlocke, but... Ever since I finished playing Pokemon Violet's main story, I'm thinking of starting another one, namely with Pokemon Violet. Well, there is Pokemon Sword, but that's another story.

Okay, for clarification, I will still do the FireRed Nuzlocke, but a bit delayed. But there are several reasons why I want to do a Violet Nuzlocke. One is that I never seem to put it down no matter what, especially when completing my Pokedex. And two, it's a bit of a dedication playthrough to a certain boy from Pallet Town.

As you already heard by now, a new Pokemon anime mini-series called "Pokemon: Aim to Be a Pokemon Master" will be released tomorrow in Japan by the time of this writing and it will be Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu's final chapter in the anime. After the mini-series is finished, Ash will retire as the main character and he will hand it off to two new main characters in the next. On one hand, I'm sad that Ash won't be continuing forward to the Paldea arc. On the other, it's been 25 years and the eternal 10-year-old kid already became World Champion or Monarch depending on dubbing. So yeah, I think Journeys and by extension, Aim to Be a Pokemon Master is a perfect send-off for Ash. I'm hoping that the two protagonists succeeding him will do justice where he left off.

So to celebrate Ash's last few months with us, I decided to start a Violet Nuzlocke and maybe Sword later down the road. If Ash won't be going to Paldea, then I might as well take his place and try to beat all the main story in dedication for him. And yes, when I said the main story, I mean all 3 storylines and the ending. Turns out, doing a Twitter poll about it will give only one vote and that vote goes to completing the WHOLE GAME EXCEPT POST-GAME! Ed Sheeran's Celestial flashbacks are coming back and it's not because it's sung by Ed Sheeran!

I'm still working out the rules other than the Classic ones and I may need some extra clarification help and suggestions, but I do want to add a few caveats since this is dedicated to Ash's swan song from the anime.

I'm adding what I call the "Ash Ketchum Clause". If I find a Pokemon that Ash already caught in previous seasons including Journeys, I can catch it regardless of the area I'm in already had an encounter. Of course, if I make it faint, then that's an encounter loss. So basically, some areas that have said Pokemon will have technically two encounters depending if they have that Pokemon available. However, I am allowed to evolve them.

So if I caught a Gible, I'm allowed to evolve it up to Garchomp despite Ash's didn't. However, if I encounter Gastly, it won't count toward the Ash Ketchum Clause and will be treated as a first encounter only because Ash never caught it before. He befriended Haunter and owned a Gengar, but never a Gastly. So that doesn't count. And that's the same with Pichu and normal Tauros.

Obviously, the Paldea Pokedex restriction is in effect along with Dupes Clause, so I have a limited amount of Pokemon I can catch in that list. And that's not even including other factors due to being the first open-world main series game of the series. Let's just say it might take a while for me to list all of the areas in my Notepad and I may start seeing shinies along the way.

As for the custom rules still ongoing for FireRed, I may plan to put it in, but only as the "Time Reversal Rule" because there is no way I can survive with all 18 rules set upon myself, including the 8 gyms!

I will put out the full rules of the Nuzlocke very soon, so stay tuned and let's enjoy what we have left with Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu. See you in Paldea, treasured friends!

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