Pokemon Violet First Thoughts vol. 5

Okay, so I honestly didn't expect the lake to be the Endgame Area. Tried to go there first, but level 50 was a big step up from the high 30s where my team was at. Turns out you're supposed to do the mountain first! I also went back to the Psychic gym in the South, which is disappointingly the only example of Moorish architecture in the game.

In fact, hardly anything about this game seems representative of Spain. Yeah there's the Sagrada Familia, (transplanted from Barcelona to Madrid) and the Four Towers (transplanted from Madrid to Valencia) but that's about it for famous landmarks. There's no Alhambra, no Alcazars, no Mezquita... but maybe Gamefreak didn't want to risk stepping on any toes by including ersatz versions of these Islamic buildings? although they used the Sagrada Familia, a Catholic cathedral, without any qualms.

See, I've traveled through Spain, and Paldea just looks like Galar 90% of the time. Which, to be fair, just looked like Kanto 90% of the time. It's nothing new, that Pokemon games are only loosely based on their region. And honestly, I'm fine with that. It's important that we get a forest, a desert, a lake, a mountain, a beach, and some grasslands in every game. They could base the game on Kansas, and still be obligated to shoehorn in the ecological diversity necessary to house a proper region of Pokemon.

But at the same time, I'm kinda disappointed that they didn't take advantage of some of the cool things Spain has - the aforementioned Alhambra of Granada, a wonder of Moorish architecture with beautiful gardens. The Alcazars of Segovia, Seville, or Toledo, classic medieval fortresses. The Mezquita of Cordoba, a mosque so big they built a cathedral inside the mosque; the minarets are so large that horses could be rode up the spiral stairs. And the ruins that dot the Paldean countryside are a poor comparison to the Roman ruins found at Italica or Cartagena, which feature full amphitheaters. 

And then the Iconic Spanish Food of this game: sandwiches. That was the best they could come up with. Skipped right over paella, tapas, and empanadas - all of which could be customized for your little cooking mini-game - and went with a bocadillo. My guess is that they originally wanted to do tacos, but then somebody pointed out that those are Mexican, not Spanish, and then they said "ok how about enchiladas", and found out those are Mexican too, and they realized that nobody knew what actual freaking Spaniards eat, so they panicked and went with "sandwiches".

See, this is the same studio who thought Malasadas were THE standout food of Hawai'i. Yeah, forget about saimin, moco loco, kalua pig, poke bowls, spam musubi... I'm surprised they didn't go for the plate lunch, because it resembles a bento box (at least philosophically). Meanwhile, curry was chosen for England, because Japan also loves curry! Nevermind that English curry is just imported Indian curry, and a different style than Japanese curry. They saw one food item they recognized and clutched on to it for dear life. I would have gone with one of the UK's many savory pastries - a pork pie, Cornish pasty, beef wellington, etc. Fish and chips, or a spin on the Proper English Breakfast, might have worked as well.

The point is (now that I've made myself hungry), Gamefreak sends a few people to a foreign country to take pictures and try the food, and they report back with a half-baked understanding, upon which they cram those typical environmental features that they have to put in every game. Someone comes up with a few cheeky Pokemon that reference the region. They give the buildings a light dusting of regional flair. And that's about it. It just stings more when it's some place you're familiar with, I suppose.

Of course, I was only a visitor. Any native Spaniards are more than welcome to sound off about how well Gamefreak butchered/paid tribute to your homeland.

Pokemon Violet First Thoughts vol. 4

so I'm 45 hours into the game and have 220 in my Pokedex. I'm at 10/18 badges. I'm sure other people have already blitzed to the end by now, and probably even 100%'d the whole thing because they don't have any other obligations. But I'm still taking my time to thoroughly explore every area, capturing everything I can along the way. Forget B teams, I've got C and D teams because I keep wanting to avoid over-leveling my party.

As for the going in blind thing... yeah, I don't think I'll bother doing this again in the future. It was slightly fun to be surprised by my starter's final form, and I'm lucky it's pretty cool. But then I was shocked when Capsakid evolved into Scovillain, one of the pug-ugliest Pokemon I've ever seen. Made me almost wish I never bothered, except Grass/Fire is still a hype combo...

Also, I realized I appreciate knowing what level guys will evolve at! That gives me mini-goals to work towards, instead of leveling with a vague hope that they'll pop soon. Or the frustration leading me to look up exactly how somebody evolves, only to find out it was a stone the whole time. Or, disappointment in missing out entirely - turns out there's an evolution after Primeape that I would have never seen, and certainly wouldn't have figured out his evolution method on my own.

I never woulda figured that stuff out on my own, and only gotten frustrated! So while it was cool that twice my guys evolved right after a gym battle (without my preparation), as if the battle truly let them unlock their full potential, I kinda wish I'd known the threshold so I could have just bumped them up beforehand. And don't get me started on moveset planning, and wanting to avoid wasting TMs (even though they're practically infinite, I still don't want to waste 'em!).

I've still got a ton of game to go, but at this point I think my little experiment has proven that, for me, playing blind isn't the way to go.

Pokemon Violet First Thoughts vol. 3

doubled-back to explore the Western side of the map, and... this shit don't scale. Why don't the levels scale. At least for the gym leaders, it would be so easy to implement. But now I'm realizing I was probably supposed to come here first? Oh well, it's an opportunity to swap out my main team and raise up a B-team. The way exp works, it's really not worth shitting on level 12s with your level 25.

Also, I discovered that you can jump up steep slopes, as long as you go backwards. Skyrim horse physics, everyone! I assume I'll get some Rock Climb ability later, but for now this will do. Honestly, it made exploration even more fun.

The un-fun part, though, is how many goddamn tiny-ass Pokemon there are in this game. Can't hardly see the little pricks when I'm hauling ass across the countryside in my 1,200 pound Poke-motorcycle, but if one tiny Smolive gets in my way, instead of squashing the bitch flat, Miraidon comes screeching to a halt so we can engage in battle. I should be able to run them over and just gain exp, like when you send your Pokemon out on auto-battle.

Another thing starting to bug me is how, whenever there's an NPC standing next to a Pokemon, even if you look directly at the person, half the time the game will go "oh, you want to talk to their Pokemon? Ok, here we go!" *Pokemon squeaks, slowly turns around to face you, then chirps again* Wow thank you so much for your input, truly illuminating, now can you please shut up and let me talk to your trainer? I need to hear them tell me some bullshit about how cool sandwiches are or something.

But getting back to the levels, I also discovered a way to get to a secret cave and gym where everyone's 15 levels higher than me. So I'll come back later. It's mildly thrilling to realize you stepped into the wrong neighborhood and you're out of your league in an RPG like this, but at the same time... is it really fun? You either go "oops, my mistake" and turn around, or grind like hell to make up the difference, thus ruining the power curve for the rest of the game. Dashing around to grab high-end items before you're supposed to is cool, though.

Pokemon Violet First Thoughts vol. 2

 so, uh, the pace did not pick up.

I spent just as much time exploring every inch of this rocky region to the East of the school as I did the Southern grounds, and then even more when I was able to double-back and get the rest of the Eastern grasslands that were inaccessible from the starting side. And everywhere I went, I found swathes of new Pokemon. I've been catching 'em all, my Pokedex has almost 100 entries. And I've only done the first gym!

I've also done the first Titan, and the first Team Boss, and I was over-leveled for all of them because I spent so much time combing their areas beforehand. Well, Team Star's Mela gave me some trouble, but I was able to win thanks to Charcadet's ability to absorb Fire moves.  (btw it was hilarious, the character who showed up to help with Mela's base) I still think Arven is a dweeb who wants to defeat these mutant Pokemon and harvest their magical herbs to make freakin' sandwiches, but I'm curious what's up with him and Miraidon and Prof. Turo. There's some drama there that nobody's telling.. and as for Brassius, it was very silly to run around town with a gang of Sunflora moving at 2 fps.

The graphical issues continue, although I thought the sunset looked striking over the rocky plateaus. Maybe I'm just getting used to the jank. Although I was thinking about Legends:Arceus, and that game had some gorgeous skyboxes. And maybe the cel shading just worked better for Pokemon, I'm still not sold on how... plastic everything looks. Wasn't a fan of that art direction for the latest Pokemon Snap, either.

meanwhile, I'm starting to find brand-new Pokemon - like Lowkix the ninja grasshopper, Tinkatink the living Troll doll, and a region Fighting-type Tauros who is simply all-black. My Fuecoco evolved, and he's got a little flaming sombrero, which rocks. But most importantly, as hinted at earlier, I found a Charcadet. Who seems to be the pre-evolution to Armarouge, which is a bit odd because I thought that was exclusive to Scarlet? Or did I misunderstand, and they did a color-swap thingie and Ceruledge is the Scarlet exclusive? Cuz that's the one I really want, but Armarouge is cool too. Maybe it's a split evolution? idk... this is the sort of thing I wouldn't have to worry about if I wasn't playing blind!

Pokemon Violet First Thoughts vol. 1

First off, everything you've seen online about the performance and buggy graphics is true. Aside from the poor framerate, pop-in, and low resolution textures, this game has issues. I've walked through a door before sliding backwards to perform the opening animation, had shadows rapidly flash on-and-off, and seen a wall texture melt like a Salvador Dali painting. What's wild is that I don't remember things like this at all in Legends: Arceus. What happened!?

As for the game itself, it feels less like an evolution of LA and more like an evolution of the Wild Area from SwSh. You can sneak around, but there's no point. Locking on to a target is finicky, and it'll always start a battle anyway, so you may as well just run into Pokemon. The battles are of the traditional style, with a ton of menu pop-ups just to enter and finish a fight. Catching a Pokemon really slows the pace down, which is unfortunate because there's a TON of Pokemon to catch! like damn they really put a ton of variety so soon into the game! Again, reminding me of the Wild Area.

The environments are well-designed, once you get Miraidon and can really explore. I hope once I get all the upgrades, Miraidon will feel as good to pilot as swapping between all the Ride Pokemon. There's a few places that I don't think I was supposed to be able to access yet, but with persistence and help from the physics engine, I got up there. Just a few items, no major skips.

Then we get to school, and did you know this game has Social Links? you attend classes and then chat up the professors afterwards. Not sure what it's building towards, though. And some of these teachers are really cool, even if their classes are mainly just tutorials for 6-year-olds.

Unfortunately, you seem to be stuck with 4 shitty school uniforms and no other clothing options. Sure, you can put on hats and shoes and all that, but half the color options clash hard with the Violet uniform! Huge step backwards.

A step forwards, however - FOLLOWING POKEMON ARE BACK! I repeat, Pokemon can follow you in this game! you can actually literally choose any Pokemon and they'll follow you along! They finally put it back in a mainline game! but, it's Gamefreak, so of course it wasn't implemented properly - most Pokemon are too slow to actually keep up, so you'll just run along and out-pace them, defeating the entire point. Goddammit. Your Pokemon can pick up items while out like this, but since you'll be running ahead of them, you end up just picking up stuff yourself anyway.

The other new thing is that you can call your Pokemon to auto-pilot attack nearby wild Pokemon. Felt like summoning my Stand, I just point at a group of Hoppip and watch my Fuecoco tear through them. They gain exp and items in the background while you do other things, but you can't really go very far and can't start any battles of your own without interrupting them. Their success is based on level and typing, it ignores that the Pokemon's actual movesets, btw.

Anyway, I've played a lot, but only just got to the part where the game "begins" and I'm sent out on my Treasure Hunt quest to defeat the 8 gym leaders, 5 titans, and 5 Team Star bosses. This pacing reminds me of XY and SwSh, where you can waste a ton of time just getting to the first gym. And like those games, things will probably pick up from here.

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are here!

And for once, I'm going in blind! Well, I know what Nintendo's officially shown off in their trailers. And I saw a few leaks by accident. But mostly, I have no idea what this Pokedex is gonna look like.

Which is a first, for me. For Gen 1-2, I was familiar with the anime & cards before I played the games. Then from Gen 3-5, I would look up the Pokemon from the Japanese release. And from Gen 6-8, I'd keep my ear to the ground for leaks. The point is, I've always known what to expect from a Pokemon game. And I like it that way - I enjoy planning my team beforehand. And as Sword/Shield proved, it's hard to get excited when I don't have anything to look forward to. But then the game released, and it turned out that Gamefreak only showed off the ugly stupid Pokemon and kept all the cool ones a secret!

But, I know a lot of people prefer to play blind. They say it helps keep things fresh, they enjoy the mystery, the childhood wonder, perhaps. And I've always pooh-poohed that nonsense, largely because I've never had that experience but enjoyed the games anyway.

and yet... this time, the release date kinda snuck up on me. I honestly wasn't even paying attention until last week, and then I decided - hey, I haven't been spoiled yet. I could probably just avoid my usual internet haunts and stay that way. Yeah, I'm not especially hype for the game, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised like with Gen 8? And maybe, just maybe, that surprise will be more meaningful if I actually get it in-game instead of browsing somebody's Pokedex leak?

So that's what I'm doing! Picked up the game today and got started. I chose Fuecoco, because without knowing any of the final evolutions of the starters, I figured Fire usually ends up decent. We'll see how it goes.