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Ever had a week that challenges your nostalgia?
7 years ago
General
Because oh boy, is this one for it. Three things came out this week that are nostalgic callbacks to things I grew up on in the late 90s to early 2000s, and only one of them I actually liked.
I'll start with Let's Go because... uugh. I haven't bought the game first saying, only player the demo, but that alone is enough to tell me that this is the game that's basically not for me, as bizarre as that sounds since Pokemon Blue was among one of the first games I ever owned. A nostalgic throwback to that Kanto should be up my alley? Except... we've been overloaded with Kanto for the last 5 years now. X and Y pushed Kanto hard with you being able to play through the game with the Kanto Starters and even mega evolve them, as well as catch Mewtwo and the Legendary birds... huh, you wanted to mega evolve your Kalos starter? Oh, they didn't make any Kalos Megas. Never mind Greninja becomes the most popular pokemon in Japan, gotta push those nostalgia buttons, here's a snorlax blocking the road again, remember that? Kanto also got the majority of the new Megas as well, whilst Gens 5 and 6 got 0. The anime also did Origins, it's okay... but it drags in the middle episodes. ORAS at least brought us back to Hoenn But then Go comes around and launched with only the original 150 again, so there's just another wave of when talking about pokemon, people would only talk about the Kanto mons again. Go only is now getting to Sinnoh, Roserade only came out last month. Sun and Moon comes out, and I enjoyed Sun and Moon, but again it is going a little too much into Kanto again, the game name-drops it everywhere again, and the big new feature of Alolans (Regional variants of previous pokemon) were given to Kanto only again. This was also when the movies rebooted back to Kanto as well with I choose you... a mess really. Pikachu talks. it's weird. USUM comes out, this one sold with Team Rainbow Rocket being a key feature. This feels like it should be the PWT of villainous teams, and the villain boss matches in it are indeed fun, but it's dragged down by really simple Team Rocket Grunt encounters and basic Rocket traps... Bottom line, I'm sorta tired of seeing Kanto. Then Let's Go gets announced, it's Kanto again, and literally the same thing, Grid and all and pokemon and all, yes, they restricted it to only the original kanto mons, want to use a Scizor, can't get one. Too bad. Sorry if you like Umbreon, despite one the main pokemon being Eevee, you can't get an Umbreon in this game.
They also took any difficulty the originals and fire red/leaf green had and basically removed it. Pokemon games have been getting easier and they should be easy since they are aiming for kids, sure. But this game goes to next levels on that, you gain EXP by catching now and your whole team gets experience, can't turn EXP Share off this time. You also get Candy, that candy can boost stats, but unlike previous Protein and Carbos which were balanced, Candy just lets you get 200 in everything. Yeah, you can have a Level 1 and beat the Champion just on Candies alone. That's probably a lot of grinding, but even just using 50 candies breaks the game in half. There's also the Go Capture mechanics as well with forced motion controls... I don't mind the overworld pokemon, I think that is something pokemon has needed in a long time, but the Go Captures just seem bad, In the demo I played the throws would tend to veer to the left and right a good percent of the time. And even when I did a perfect throw on a Jigglypuff (Smallest circle and all) it still broke out of the ball. I didn't like it in Go and I don't like it here as well.
You'd think they could save it with post game stuff and add some cool things in, but they added Master Trainers which sound like the most boring post game I've seen. 1 vs 1 matches that you need to grind absurd levels (or candies) to beat. Repeat over and over, no new regions to explore, or no additional pokemon outside of the main games pokedex. Just the master trainers, and the cerulean cave again.
It's the first time I'm passing on a mainline pokemon ever, If I were to list everything I don't like in a pokemon game, gamefreak would take that list and make this game (well, except for the overworld pokemon, keep that). I thought that would be the biggest hit to my childhood this week.
But then I made the mistake of watching Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
So, grew up reading the Harry Potter books and watching all the Harry Potter movies. Prisoner of Azkabam is my personal favourite story. Fantastic Beasts came out about 2 years ago, and I thought it was fine. Seeing an america themed Wizard World is fun and the beasts are cool, but didn't like the Credence stuff. Unfortunately, this film doubles down on the Credence stuff, with it actually being the main mystery of the film now.
This film feels like a 2 hour trailer for another film, you have the first act to a story, And then the film ends. The films original cast of 4 characters to follow now is like 10, with Newts Brother, Leta Lestrange, Dumbledore, Grindelwald and his crew of cronies you won't remember the names to, a guy out for revenge that I can't remember the name to, Nagini, who's sole defining trait in this film is she's going to be that Snake Voldemort has in the future. It becomes hard to follow everyone in this film.
And then the film decides to turn up the grimdark scale. The potter films did get darker the later they got on, but we are on film 2 and we are already past the point of Deathly Hallows, with deaths of babies and some disturbing rapey-ish scenarios relating to the main plot. Like... can we not be this dark? I want a fun romp searching for all these fantastic beasts (maybe because Let's Go wasn't going to deliver it, the two made by tied).
Speaking of the beasts, theres some cool ones, but they are barely in the film. There's a scene with a Kelpie, but it doesn't go anywhere, and there's a Lion-Dragon thats probably the biggest most important one of the film. Some cats with sunkern eyes that can multiply... they aren't in much, they want you to instead focus on that really important who is Credence thing, espicially since the films final twist revolves around it. and it's a doozy of a one. I won't spoil it, but don't get your hopes up.
So with both Pokemon and Harry Potter letting me down in the same week... thank goodness Spyro is good. The Reignited Trilogy is a charming throwback to the originals, it looks great and it plays as great as it use to. They also added all these cool little touches like giving all the dragons unique designs (The Artisans are artists, poets and sculptors, the Peace Keepers are Warriors, Demolition Experts and Generals). The music is remixed and dynamic as you play through the levels, and you even have the option to have the original music if you prefer it. Graphically it looks like a game from today as well (more than I can say for pokemon), sadly it runs at 30 FPS and there are some frame drops (though this is also the case with pokemon so...). The only big negative I can say is Activision got a little cheap with this, they only have the first game on the disc, you have to download 2 and 3, so if you have Data Cap limits, a warning on that. And there's no subtitles in any of the cutscenes. Subtitles really should be in for anyone deaf or hard of hearing, I'm shocked they aren't in. It gets better in 2 and 3 onwards where you speak to overworld characters and they have text-boxes. But there are still cutscenes with no on screen text to fix that.
So... sorry that got long and ranty. Pokemon and Harry Potter both let me down and I needed to vent a bit on it. At least Spyro is great. Go grab Spyro if you can.
I'll start with Let's Go because... uugh. I haven't bought the game first saying, only player the demo, but that alone is enough to tell me that this is the game that's basically not for me, as bizarre as that sounds since Pokemon Blue was among one of the first games I ever owned. A nostalgic throwback to that Kanto should be up my alley? Except... we've been overloaded with Kanto for the last 5 years now. X and Y pushed Kanto hard with you being able to play through the game with the Kanto Starters and even mega evolve them, as well as catch Mewtwo and the Legendary birds... huh, you wanted to mega evolve your Kalos starter? Oh, they didn't make any Kalos Megas. Never mind Greninja becomes the most popular pokemon in Japan, gotta push those nostalgia buttons, here's a snorlax blocking the road again, remember that? Kanto also got the majority of the new Megas as well, whilst Gens 5 and 6 got 0. The anime also did Origins, it's okay... but it drags in the middle episodes. ORAS at least brought us back to Hoenn But then Go comes around and launched with only the original 150 again, so there's just another wave of when talking about pokemon, people would only talk about the Kanto mons again. Go only is now getting to Sinnoh, Roserade only came out last month. Sun and Moon comes out, and I enjoyed Sun and Moon, but again it is going a little too much into Kanto again, the game name-drops it everywhere again, and the big new feature of Alolans (Regional variants of previous pokemon) were given to Kanto only again. This was also when the movies rebooted back to Kanto as well with I choose you... a mess really. Pikachu talks. it's weird. USUM comes out, this one sold with Team Rainbow Rocket being a key feature. This feels like it should be the PWT of villainous teams, and the villain boss matches in it are indeed fun, but it's dragged down by really simple Team Rocket Grunt encounters and basic Rocket traps... Bottom line, I'm sorta tired of seeing Kanto. Then Let's Go gets announced, it's Kanto again, and literally the same thing, Grid and all and pokemon and all, yes, they restricted it to only the original kanto mons, want to use a Scizor, can't get one. Too bad. Sorry if you like Umbreon, despite one the main pokemon being Eevee, you can't get an Umbreon in this game.
They also took any difficulty the originals and fire red/leaf green had and basically removed it. Pokemon games have been getting easier and they should be easy since they are aiming for kids, sure. But this game goes to next levels on that, you gain EXP by catching now and your whole team gets experience, can't turn EXP Share off this time. You also get Candy, that candy can boost stats, but unlike previous Protein and Carbos which were balanced, Candy just lets you get 200 in everything. Yeah, you can have a Level 1 and beat the Champion just on Candies alone. That's probably a lot of grinding, but even just using 50 candies breaks the game in half. There's also the Go Capture mechanics as well with forced motion controls... I don't mind the overworld pokemon, I think that is something pokemon has needed in a long time, but the Go Captures just seem bad, In the demo I played the throws would tend to veer to the left and right a good percent of the time. And even when I did a perfect throw on a Jigglypuff (Smallest circle and all) it still broke out of the ball. I didn't like it in Go and I don't like it here as well.
You'd think they could save it with post game stuff and add some cool things in, but they added Master Trainers which sound like the most boring post game I've seen. 1 vs 1 matches that you need to grind absurd levels (or candies) to beat. Repeat over and over, no new regions to explore, or no additional pokemon outside of the main games pokedex. Just the master trainers, and the cerulean cave again.
It's the first time I'm passing on a mainline pokemon ever, If I were to list everything I don't like in a pokemon game, gamefreak would take that list and make this game (well, except for the overworld pokemon, keep that). I thought that would be the biggest hit to my childhood this week.
But then I made the mistake of watching Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
So, grew up reading the Harry Potter books and watching all the Harry Potter movies. Prisoner of Azkabam is my personal favourite story. Fantastic Beasts came out about 2 years ago, and I thought it was fine. Seeing an america themed Wizard World is fun and the beasts are cool, but didn't like the Credence stuff. Unfortunately, this film doubles down on the Credence stuff, with it actually being the main mystery of the film now.
This film feels like a 2 hour trailer for another film, you have the first act to a story, And then the film ends. The films original cast of 4 characters to follow now is like 10, with Newts Brother, Leta Lestrange, Dumbledore, Grindelwald and his crew of cronies you won't remember the names to, a guy out for revenge that I can't remember the name to, Nagini, who's sole defining trait in this film is she's going to be that Snake Voldemort has in the future. It becomes hard to follow everyone in this film.
And then the film decides to turn up the grimdark scale. The potter films did get darker the later they got on, but we are on film 2 and we are already past the point of Deathly Hallows, with deaths of babies and some disturbing rapey-ish scenarios relating to the main plot. Like... can we not be this dark? I want a fun romp searching for all these fantastic beasts (maybe because Let's Go wasn't going to deliver it, the two made by tied).
Speaking of the beasts, theres some cool ones, but they are barely in the film. There's a scene with a Kelpie, but it doesn't go anywhere, and there's a Lion-Dragon thats probably the biggest most important one of the film. Some cats with sunkern eyes that can multiply... they aren't in much, they want you to instead focus on that really important who is Credence thing, espicially since the films final twist revolves around it. and it's a doozy of a one. I won't spoil it, but don't get your hopes up.
So with both Pokemon and Harry Potter letting me down in the same week... thank goodness Spyro is good. The Reignited Trilogy is a charming throwback to the originals, it looks great and it plays as great as it use to. They also added all these cool little touches like giving all the dragons unique designs (The Artisans are artists, poets and sculptors, the Peace Keepers are Warriors, Demolition Experts and Generals). The music is remixed and dynamic as you play through the levels, and you even have the option to have the original music if you prefer it. Graphically it looks like a game from today as well (more than I can say for pokemon), sadly it runs at 30 FPS and there are some frame drops (though this is also the case with pokemon so...). The only big negative I can say is Activision got a little cheap with this, they only have the first game on the disc, you have to download 2 and 3, so if you have Data Cap limits, a warning on that. And there's no subtitles in any of the cutscenes. Subtitles really should be in for anyone deaf or hard of hearing, I'm shocked they aren't in. It gets better in 2 and 3 onwards where you speak to overworld characters and they have text-boxes. But there are still cutscenes with no on screen text to fix that.
So... sorry that got long and ranty. Pokemon and Harry Potter both let me down and I needed to vent a bit on it. At least Spyro is great. Go grab Spyro if you can.
https://youtu.be/A-otq8Inv00