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#well ig i could run around in botw for a bit
arimarushunya Β· 1 year
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I just finished pokemon violet, and while I have many many gripes with how it runs and certain mechanics, I'm with nearly everyone else I've seen talk about this game in that it's probably my fav.
What makes me really sad tho is that this game had so much more potential to be absolutely phenomenal, had it not been rushed like it was. Imagining what kind of game it could have been with more time and attention,,,, almost makes me hate it as is lmao
stream of consciousness and spoilers under cut
Area Zero man. None of the rest of the scenery really wowed me, but going thru Area Zero... my initial enjoyment of it was a bit dampened by not being able to use Miraidon to get around, but it was still just a cool area and I can't wait to explore it more thoroughly later.
I really liked the rpg-ness of having friends traveling with me. It made the game feel fuller and more impactful. Like a lot of the game until that point was traveling vast expanses of just pokemon, with very small chunks of story happening at ocassional checkpoints. Having people traveling with me who were moving the story along while I traveled made the game flow better and feel like my traveling was part of the story, if that makes sense. Wish it had been a mechanic during any other part of the game (tutorial aside).
Story wise, I guessed the big twist pretty early on, but I think it actually aided my enjoyment? like, the tension of probably knowing Turo's fate while traveling with Arven, who just wants to see his dad.... 😭😭😭
The first Turo fight was cool, I'm a sucker for AI goes rogue but good stories. Everything after that fight tho was kinda,, eh. I didn't find Miraidon's arc super compelling, and the ending felt weird. Idk how to explain, but AI Turo's decision felt more selfish than sacrificial, which didnt tonally mesh well with me. But, it's a kids game, it need a somewhat feel-good ending ig.
Now, my main gripes:
- Performance. This honestly goes without saying; this is everyone's biggest gripe with the game. It's extremely unpolished and runs like shit. I don't think I got over 20 frames at any point. Considering BOTW and Odyssey both came out YEARS before this, there really shouldn't have been this much of an issue making a large open world switch title. This is likely cause by how rushed the game was, and it's so sad to see.
- it's pretty empty. like I said above, there's vast expanses of land to travel thru, but once you've caught the pokemon in the area, it can be a drag to explore because there's nothing else really compelling. Having more story beats outside of towns, or having a traveling companion might have fixed this, but as is it feels like a slog to explore.
- Character customization. I'm getting fucking blue balled by Nintendo, having all these clothing shops in scarvi that they don't do shit bc you're forced to wear one of four outfits the entire game. Like, they were so close. I have to imagine this was due to time constraints, bc the other option is they did it out of spite to prevent boys wearing skirts.... I just was so turned off by the shops as a whole bc this sucked so much ass.
- various QOL: - would have loved repels to prevent small ass pokemon spawning underfoot while I'm trying to get somewhere. - shiny indicator, some of these pokemon are impossible to tell apart (<strike>tandemouse</strike>). - Being able to see the previews of picnic items before you buy them like every other shop item??? - FOR MY POKEMON TO MATCH MY WALKING SPEED IN LETS GO MODE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. YOU CANT PUT A POKEMON IN THE GAME THAT NEEDS WALKING TO EVOLVE AND THEN HAVE IT NEED TO GO BACK IN ITS POKEBALL EVERY 4 SECONDS.
I don't really have a closing note for this, it's just ramblings at 1am after having binged pokemon for the last week, but I do want to touch on the terastal/paradox pokemon designs. tbh I hateee how the terastal pokemon look. their hats are so so so so stupid looking. but, once I realized that you can change the tera typing, I'm not as mad about it. I get they can't do custom forms for every type for every pokemon, but God are the UGLYYYYY.
As for the paradox pokemon, they look cool, but I think with the premise of future pokemon, it would have been more interesting for them to be organic rather than robotic. I think there was supposed to be a theme of AI thru the game, bit they didn't really dive deep enough into that. It would have been much cooler for the pokemon to be like, crystallized somehow. bc of their relation to the tera crystals and all. idk, future = robots just feels uninspired. Buttttt, they look cool enough, and they paradoxed my fav pokemon, so I think I can let this slide. for now.
EDIT: after I hit post I remembered that Clavell said "cheugy" at me and it made me have to explain cheugy to my wife and I have never been so fucking blindsided by a video game
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