Video Games are awesome

A general discussion forum, plus hauls and silly games.
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andersonh1
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Re: Video Games are awesome

Post by andersonh1 »

Lord of the Rings Online just released the Minas Morgul expansion. I can't believe I've been playing this game for nine years, but they keep releasing new areas and filling in more and more of Tolkien's world, and the storyline has now progressed to after Sauron's defeat, so there continue to be new plots and new areas to explore. It's barely the same game that it was when I started. I do appreciate that they follow the books rather than the movies.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Video Games are awesome

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Pokemon Sword/Shield

So a little background on the build up for this game. Back in June, 2018 Tsunekazu Ishihara (The Pokemon Company President) told Famitsu that the 8th Generation Pokemon game would be "a completely different game from Pokémon Let’s Go. It is not an entry game, but a game that we want longtime fans of the Pokémon series to look forward to. The game will give a good understanding of what an evolved Pokémon game looks like after it has continued to succeed the traditions of Game Freak. We want to make Pokémon fans say “this is what I’ve been waiting for” by delivering a brand-new product packed with gameplay elements and plenty of new Pokémon to encounter." Sword and Shield would officially be announced February 2019. News was spares until May when Pokemon Home, a new app somewhat like Pokemon Bank to be launched sometime in 2020, was announced leading fans to believe they'd be able to transfer all their old Pokemon to the new game, as they've been able to do since Generation 3. Things changed with E3 in June 2019 - when we learned that not all the previous Pokemon would be in the new game at all. For the first time in the history of the franchise, Pokemon would be left out, not because they've reached limitations, but apparently because they wanted to focus on making the animations better and balance some things on the competitive side. Since then, every announcement for the new games was met with controversy from the fanbase, and probably had the least amount of reveals compared to previous titles in recent years. Sword and Shield were released world wide November 15th.

As a long time fan of the franchise (I've been playing since Red was released in the US back in 1998), I was pretty shocked when they said they'd be cutting the amount of Pokemon in this game. I've compiled a "living dex" in my Pokemon Bank, so to me, catching them all and having them all in my game is a pretty important part of the experience with any of the core Pokemon games.

So, the first day I started playing Sword, my tv suddenly shut itself off.... It'd turn itself back on, freeze and then power cycle again. Apparently the signal from the local wireless feature of the new games didn't play well with certain Roku TV's. Thankfully Roku had a patch out within three days of the games release. Game play wise... It's the same as every core Pokemon title. Catch, raise and battle Pokemon on a quest to become the regional Pokemon League Champion. This game introduces Dynamax, where Pokemon can (for 3 turns) become giant sized and can use some special moves (or change into a new form if they can Gigantamax). Essentially this replaces Mega Evolution and Z-Moves, which personally, I wasn't a big fan of Z-moves, but I loved the concept of Mega Evolution, and is another thing I'm disappointed they removed from Sw/Sh in favor of something that I don't really care for as much, and you can only use in League/Competitive battles, or Max Raid dens in the wild area, unlike Mega evolution or Z-Moves that could be used anywhere, in any battle (once you have the required items at least).

Graphically... It has issues. There are some beautiful landscapes in the game to be sure, but... NPCs and Pokemon and some parts of the landscape tend to pop-in rather jarringly. It's actually a bit surprising for a game, in 2019, to have such bad pop-in like this game. Oh, and those better animations Gamefreak said they were giving the Pokemon rather than including them all? Yeah, that was a complete lie on their part. Dataminers have confirmed the models are basically identical to the 3DS models (some have had some minor tweaks, nothing major). Which honestly, I don't mind the models themselves that much. It was well known Gamefreak designed the 3DS models with "future proofing" in mind, to be able to use them when they eventually moved to a higher powered system. But I don't understand how they can claim they had to cut Pokemon to focus on making the animations better, when they really did nothing.

Another new feature is the Wild Area. And I have to admit, this is probably the best thing the game adds. It is kinda fun to wonder around this big open space. Although I honestly thought it'd be better for the hype it was given. I also kinda wonder if they sacrificed developing the routes between towns, since there really didn't seem to be much to them in this game. And unlike previous games, you are now limited by the levels you can catch Pokemon until you collect certain Gym Badges. This is done for the purpose of the Wild Area, given it is conceivable you could get access to a level 60 Pokemon right at the beginning of the game. Which, I mean, obviously roadblocks were necessary to keep the sense of progression, but this came off as frustrating to me, as all too often, I'd be encountering Pokemon that were only one level above what I was allowed to throw a Pokeball at. They needed to find a better roadblock then this.

I also feel they made this game too easy. Not that Pokemon has ever been especially hard, but, this is easier than previous games. For one, you can't turn off the Exp. Share, so after every battle or capture, your entire team always gains experience. I found my team was pretty much always about 5 levels above any given opponent as a result. They also throw a ton of revives and max revives at you. Usually I have to buy a ton of them before facing the Elite Four to heal my team between matches, but in this game, I didn't feel the need. I already had more than enough. Not that you even need them in this game. Unlike past games, there is no Elite Four. Instead there is a series of semi final battles with other trainers looking to become Champion (which I liked), and then the Finals, where you re-battle some of the Gym Leaders (which I felt was kinda lame), before you get side tracked by the story (it felt really out of place to interject it at this point of the story if you ask me, when the game does a poor job of building up to it, and relegate it to something the adults mostly handle off screen during the majority of the story), and then face the Champion. Thing is... the game automatically heals your team between each battle, so it's not nearly a challenging as previous games where you had to face off against the Elite Four and then the Champion all in a row, only being able to heal so long as you had the items.

The only thing I've found difficult about this game, is 5 star Raid Battles. Or rather, it feels like the game punishes you for trying to do it solo. Choosing not to play with other people for a raid, the game will provide you with with 3 NPC characters to help you battle the den boss... For up to 3 Star raids, they can do fairly well, but the NPC's are completely useless in a 5 star. They pretty much all always get knocked out in just 2 or 3 turns, and once four Pokemon have fainted, you are kicked out of the den, and the game never seems to choose good typing's to help you. They become a liability. There should have been some sort of balancing to make the fight possible to win with the NPCs.

So overall.... This is not the Pokemon game I've been waiting for, if anything, it feels like several steps backwards for the franchise as a whole. There are still some fun elements to it, but it is easily the most disappointing Pokemon game of the franchise to me. It feels like a rushed game. That Gamefreak came up with bad excuses for to try and cover up the shortcomings they had in developing it. Really, how they handled everything leading up to the game's release I feel only made things worst, their P.R. was absolutely the worst. I'm really hoping the controversy and criticisms this game has gotten will make Gamefreak reevaluate the direction they seem to want to take the franchise moving forward. Or at the very least, do much better with the next one.
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Dominic
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Re: Video Games are awesome

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Stupid lore question about "Super Metroid".

Is there any reason given for why the statue of the bosses turns grey and the lights pop after the bosses die?
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Video Games are awesome

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Dominic wrote:Stupid lore question about "Super Metroid".

Is there any reason given for why the statue of the bosses turns grey and the lights pop after the bosses die?
As far as I know... There is nothing that explains it. And there's nothing that explains why Draygon and Phantoon are part of that statue either. They've never actually been established to be members of the Space Pirates, unlike Ridley and Kraid. Phantoon in-particular has been given a few different backgrounds in various game manuals and concept materials, but it's generally described as some sort of entity that feeds off of energy, with an implication that it isn't associated with the Space Pirates.
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Dominic
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Re: Video Games are awesome

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I just assumed that the fish and the....uh....eyeball thing were pirates, based on the statue. (No reason to assume that the Pirates would only be vertebrate reptiles, rather than fish or whatever the hell Phantoon is supposed to be.)

Normally, I would have assumed that the statue changing color (and the lights "launching" out of the eyes) would be a video game cliche. But, the Metroid games tend to be particularly artful, particularly with visuals, so I figured that there may have been a more detailed reason for the statue.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Video Games are awesome

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Dominic wrote:I just assumed that the fish and the....uh....eyeball thing were pirates, based on the statue. (No reason to assume that the Pirates would only be vertebrate reptiles, rather than fish or whatever the hell Phantoon is supposed to be.)
Nope. Draygon has no backstory at all from what I can find. And Phantoon, despite having a couple backstories, none of them establish it as a space pirate. Fans take their inclusion as part of the statue to mean the two are at least working in association with the Pirates, but there is nothing official.
Normally, I would have assumed that the statue changing color (and the lights "launching" out of the eyes) would be a video game cliche. But, the Metroid games tend to be particularly artful, particularly with visuals, so I figured that there may have been a more detailed reason for the statue.
In this case, the statues seems to just be a video game cliche, signifying the defeat of the major bosses leading up to Mother Brain. It is somewhat of a carryover from the original Metroid, where there were stone statues of Ridley and Kraid guarding the path to Mother Brain in that game as well. Zero Mission would redesign it to just be their heads, forming a gateway.
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Dominic
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Re: Video Games are awesome

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I figured the statue was evidence enough of those characters being a members/leadership of the Pirates. On the other hand, the statue leaves out the red guy from the volcanic area. (Maybe he is just a bystander.... Considering what happens to the planet at the end, it would hardly be the darkest idea in Metroid.)
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Re: Video Games are awesome

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Another stupid lore question:

While researching visuals for a custom figure, I noticed that Vile as shown in "Mega Man X8" is listed as "Vile mkV". As far as I know, there have only been 3 iterations of the character (Vile in "Mega Man X", mkII "Mega Man X3" and mkV "Mega Man X8").

My best guess is that the designers for X8 counted the number of games that Vile appeared in. That would include the 3 games listed above, one of the GameBoy color games (which used the original) and "Maverick Hunter X" (a remake of the first "Mega Man X", and thus also the original Vile).

Am I right? Is there something that I missed?
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Video Games are awesome

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The jump from Vile MK-II to MK-V is never explained. Counting the number of titles he had appeared in up to that point wouldn't add up, as Maverick Hunter X wasn't released until after X8.
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Re: Video Games are awesome

Post by Dominic »

Odd question:

Do the weapons carry between games in "the Wily Wars"? For example, could a player carry weapons from "Mega Man 1" or |"Mega Man 2" in to "Mega Man 3"? \

(I have no practical need for this information. But, I cannot find it anywhere, and it is making me crazy.)
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