Backlog 2025

[Kikki]

Things are different now, 'girl' options aren't just options any more, and we live in an era where a female protagonist can exist without being sexualized - and that bothers people, for whatever reason. They act like they've had something taken away from them, when in reality; they just don't want to try new things or adapt to something outside their comfort zone.

They HAVE had something taken away from them. The whole world.

There's a category of shriveled, troll-like men, who live in a bubble where women only exist for their pleasure. I put Bayonetta forward as a character who supports that thought, and the Ghost of Yotei character (I don't know her) as one who destroys it. Because...wait! Wait! Women don't exist for my pleasure? They exist...for their own sake?! Like I exist for mine?? NO!!!

Any reminder that women exist for their own sake and not to be just objects of stimulation for them is terribly ugly to them. Suddenly the world doesn't exist just for them, any more. They're fighting to keep the world they think they have in their grasp.

What I wonder is...how do these men keep cropping up? They're a minority, but young guys are way less rigid than men of 20 years ago. Are these are all 40+-year-old basement-dwelling incels, or is someone breeding new trolls?

~

I had to unpair all controllers from my Switch 2 before my joycons would work as a controller. I've thrown my super-wonky pro-controller out, now. Bye, baby!

But the joycons seem to keep their power practically forever. (That might be an exaggeration, but they certainly last well, anyway.) And actually, the S2 pro-controller is onlyl $10 more than the original, and it has a headphone jack, so it's probably just as well to replace it, now that it's essentially unusable.

I got every stable quest done in TotK and a bunch of the picture requests, too. I have the master sword, and 12 hearts, so Link is in an okay state. Only have one regional phenomena done. I need to collect a lot more armors and do a looooot more upgrading. So very much work when you don't have a good duplication glitch any more. Darn you Switch 2, let me download version 1.1, like I have on my original Switch.

[Bluie]

What I wonder is...how do these men keep cropping up? They're a minority, but young guys are way less rigid than men of 20 years ago. Are these are all 40+-year-old basement-dwelling incels, or is someone breeding new trolls?

I wish I knew. Either society is regressing (which is possible, because parents today keep popping out kids they don't want to raise, leaving it to technology and thus creating selfish terrors with no critical thinking) or it's the SAME dudes, just older. And this « Cow Poopoo » is obviously outside of video games too. I legit can't enjoy the favorite iterations of series I like (Star Trek, TMNT, ect) without some male mouth breather popping up with 'of course you like that one; you're a girl' or 'they ruined the series with that one and you're wrong for liking it' - Like I need their gender and approval to enjoy things. It's 2025 and I'm still dealing with the same « Cow Poopoo » I was back in the 90s. At least SOME fandoms have calmed down and become more welcoming in the recent years. I've found the Sonic community pretty fun and entertaining to be a part of - and it's literally because of the hedgehog's creed that everyone is so chill, because Sonic wouldn't act like a fool and go out of his way to demean others. I feel like the fans aged with the fandom and became better for it, meanwhile TMNT is always picking fights with each other - ESPECIALLY with the younger fans who like the newer iterations over the older ones. It just baffles me, because the creators of TMNT, who also dislike specifc iterations of their creation, would never discourage fans away from one or the other. The asshats have been dubbed 'cowaboomers' because while I understand the 80s cartoon + live action movie were the « Cow Poopoo » when you were kids (and they do mostly hold up - no shade here), not everyone is going to love them, and the fact that they can't accept that forces them to divide the fandom. It's so freaking irritating that they can't allow people to enjoy things without butting in and screaming about how theirs is 'superior'.

Man, anyways, went off on a tangent there, sorry. Actual gaming stuff;

I dedicated a whole day to mapping out the first area and the north area in Ghost of Yotei. There are so many little things not marked that are so easy to miss. Like, there's a stick you can happen upon in the first area, and it's so blink and you miss it that I did and only pivoted back on hearing Atsu say "That stick...". You end up getting a little scene with it where you follow the direction it falls and getting a new hat from the destination. But like, I stg, I was where the stick led and never saw the hat AND the stick itself isn't a marked event like fox dens, hot springs, ect. I'm so interested on how many of these little hidden events there are, but I won't be re-scouring the map looking for them. I ended my play session just before the final confrontation with the northern boss, because I knew it'd be a long section and I was sleepy lol. I have three days off now, so I plan on getting back into it, probably Tuesday. Gonna go out with the Hubbo today and try some new places (there's a BRITISH tea shop nearby?! IN TEXAS???!!?) and I also have some artwork I want to finish.

I'm excited to get into Legends ZA this week and I'm looking forward to Genshin's next update the week after. I'm definitely set for gaming for the rest of the year. I also need to get back into FFXIV. It had an update and I've just been too busy and distracted to boot it. I'll probably do that today considering the weekends is the best time to be queuing up.

[Kikki]

Taking a quick look at Z-A, and the streamer is ruining it for me by continually calling it Luminose city. It's LUMIOSE. NO N.

I find it very hard to overlook it. The graphics look crisp, though somewhat plain. I'm extremely not into the city setting, though. Oh well, no money for games for now anyway, and Pokemon's low on the totem pole. Not that I know if I'd want this at all, yet.

NEXT DAY EDIT: Wow, the board is intensely dead. (If anything can be intensely dead, lol.) Is everyone off playing Pokemon or something? But no thread for it has been started...

[Bluie]

It's the sad reality of many message boards. Ushi is active, but not thriving, especially not how it used to be. A new Bokumono or Harvest Moon game revives it, mostly in it's respective board, but the rest ebbs and flows. A lot have moved on to social media's hosting the same topics (ie: Reddit) or just entirely. I actually reunited with an old Ushi pal a week or so ago. Terra575 and I are both participating in a huuuuge Bokumono art collaboration and I recognized their screen name on Discord when they joined the associated server. I've actually been debating on making a topic in the 'fanart' section of the forums to show off the 7 pieces I've made for the collab so far (and also entice others to join), but IDK if it's worth it or not. Anyways.

Pokemon ZA is fun. I've been really wanting to play it as much as possible, but I had the day off before it released and have only had time before and after work to get into it. Still though, making good progress. In my first play session I found a shiny Flabébé, which was a very nice surprise and a welcome addition to my team. I think I'm about halfway through the story as I just unlocked the 'glide' option when you're traversing rooftops (it's more like a double jump). The combat being MMO-lite gives me very slight Xenoblade vibes. The whole '4 skills to use and they cool down' is a battle system I do enjoy and wish other games would use it (off the top of my head, besides the Xenoblade series, the SAO game series also uses this battle system - I literally only played the first Vita game just because I enjoyed the battle system so much). It being on Pokemon works just fine and does give some more strategy on how to approach opponents. You can also get damaged alongside your Pokemon, and just like Legends Arceus, almost every wild Pokemon is out for a piece of your « Mr.Gourmet's hat ». No more throwing you Pokemon out into turn-based battle for safety - you will die if you don't keep moving. It's fun and I'm enjoying myself enough that I'll probably end up getting the DLC.

Sidenote: I love AZ and I love to see how far he's come after the ending of Pokemon X&Y. I have always had a soft spot for that 3000+ year old giant grandpa and it's so nice seeing him again. I will cry if this game hurts him. Please leave my peepaw alone.

[greensara]

Still waiting on my copy of Legends ZA to get out of FedEx jail. I ordered from Best Buy for the bonus mat. They shipped it when they were supposed to, looks like from somewhere in Oklahoma, not crazy far away, so I figured maybe a day or to after release I may get it and that was ok. Then tracking said it went down to Texas. Um, wrong way FedEx? Now it hasn't shown any movement from the stop in Texas for a couple of days! Ironically, the mat shipped later and I got it yesterday. I don't know how long I should wait before contacting someone. I can deal with delays as long as I continue to be updated, but that's not happening. - sigh -

In the meantime, while I have been waiting, I rolled the credits for HM: WOA. The story wasn't that good, but I do like farm and game mechanics, so I will probably play it more. Still need to upgrade the house and barn, get married, fill in a few more map chunks, get the cool clothes, and play with mutations.

[Kikki]

It's the sad reality of many message boards. Ushi is active, but not thriving, especially not how it used to be. A new Bokumono or Harvest Moon game revives it, mostly in it's respective board, but the rest ebbs and flows. A lot have moved on to social media's hosting the same topics (ie: Reddit) or just entirely.

Ugh, I hate reddit. :[ I just see the word 'reddit' and the distaste rises up. I hate every place where every word you say is put up for a popularity contest.

But I don't think that's it. The board WAS pretty active up until just a few days ago. The GrB board was getting about a dozen posts a day! Then it, and every other board, went 100% DEAD all in one go, for...what's it been, three days now? This happens sometimes over Christmas when everyone's busy with life stuff, but we're not at a holiday right now, so I figured...maybe Pokemon stole the show for a while.

~

Replaying FFVII Remake. His 'mosey' line that I haven't seen yet...isn't it an homage to Aerith? Cuz she used the word to him when asking if they should get on their way. Just noticed it during this replay. This sweet, tragic little duckie. Now that I know what happened, since I played Crisis Core (all but the last battle) a replay shows a lot of things in a different light. And it makes me smile when someone fangirls/boys Cloud, about how cooooool he is, and he LOVES it, and lights up this tiny, tiny bit...but it gets stopped up because he can't let a cool guy show that he likes being called cool. So I smile...then I'm sad. He's so very broken. I dunno, after starting therapy, I feel even worse for him. He's so, so far down.

And if you go outside of the games, even after they are done...does Cloud ever get a happy ending? I mean...isn't Midgar basically on death's door? I can't remember the name of the planet itself, but it's taking its last gasp, isn't it? Is it even possible for anyone alive in Cloud's time to have a happy ending? I don't know what happens in the next part of the game (FFVII...Reunion, I guess? I'm not sure if that's what the final part is called. Remake, Rebirth...Reunion?) but I feel like it'll be bittersweet at best.

I really don't like Aerith in Remake. I start to like her in Rebirth and quite like her by the end of it, but...yeah, she's a pest in Remake, especially for the first half. Tifa's my girl.

DAYS LATER EDIT: Um. Was Sephiroth always

Spoiler:

insane? I mean, was he just BORDERING on insane all his life up until the Nibelheim incident, and wearing a facade of an upstanding guy until he realized what he really is (well, mostly...his mom ain't no Ancient. From what I gather, Jenova is more like major cluster of alien virus, taken humanoid form, not really a person at all, not of any kind, let alone one native to, er...Earth. Whatever the planet is actually called in the FFVII world. And the Cetra were really just people, in a somewhat more nature-magicky age, who were more in tune with the planet. But they weren't aliens, as far as I know. They were native.) and then the insanity caught fire and BOOOOOOOM!...world-engulfing insanity descends on the spot, burning away every ounce of real or imagined humanity that Sephiroth had? Because he thinks he's really a « Harvest Goddess »? One that just has to do a few things (like mostly-destroy the entire planet, for one li'l thing) to ascend to his full power?

Dude, that's crazy. That's some really massive crazy. The Square Enix writers sure made an ultimate sort of solo villain. I normally really dislike solo villains. I mean, villains who, on their own, drive the entire conflict of a story that involves a whole world. Single people just don't have that kind of power, and normally when it's written, it's done badly. Unbelievably. But with all the lifestream stuff and the alien virus stuff and all the sheer CRAZY in this story, Sephiroth is...sort of believable? Unbelievably, believable, lol. He's, like...THE bad guy. He's the poster boy for 'villain'. Look villain up in the dictionary, and you'll find his picture, kind of a thing.

And Cloud is such a broken hero. Very cool and very awful. Seems like a peculiar tough-guy at first, but man, to say that there's a lot of cracks is putting it mildly. Cloud is more crack than solid. He's ... well, if people were each a world unto themselves, a planet, then Cloud is more like an asteroid belt. He's a very crumbled li'l cookie.

I don't like when all the fans call him weak-minded, though. I guess there's a surface level of weak-mindedness. But that he's even still in there at all, all tucked into a hard core, means he definitely is not weak. He's surviving something no one else has. And he's had it rough most of his life, from what I can tell. Super awkward and very misunderstood (and disliked) because of it, even as a kid. Well, I need to refresh my memory on that part, but I think that's what I gathered when I last played Rebirth. Cloud is incredibly tough. Poor dolly.

Hurry up and give him some kind of happiness, you horrible writers. QUICK, when is Pt III?

PS: For godssake, PLEASE put less minigames in. They RUINED Rebirth with unskippable minigames. Yes, you can ignore Queen's Blood. Well, MOSTLY, you can. But largely, they are unskippable, and require the ability to remember multiple details at once and coordinate your fingers very quickly in concert with that information, and I (and others) simply can't do that. No amount of practice makes me good enough to get a decent result.

[Kikki]

Oh man. I am NEVER going to get the final boost to FP for Aerith and Tifa. I can't possibly ever perform an essentially perfect run of the Junon parade event. Not if I practised every day for a freaking year. Well...maybe I could. Not from the practise, but by sheer luck, I'd probably get it eventually if I was putting THAT much time into it.

I can't explain it, but it makes me cringe all over to hear the commentator mocking Cloud's efforts, and to have the girls be disappointed (to me, disappointed in Cloud) at the end, if they don't perform well because his direction sucks. It's ME that sucks, not Cloud. I just...feel like I'm adding to his trauma. Like, this adorable little twerp was desperate to be seen as cool, and I'm making him look terrible in ways he no doubt WOULD look plenty cool, on his own.

I'm really sorry, Cloud.

I so, so wish that mini-games were entirely skippable. I'd be fine with them barring you from the achievement, but I'd like to be able to opt to just get the best result without doing the stupid button-pushy fancy-pants routine at ALL. I don't think mini-games belong in the main story at all. Not unskippable ones. You can ignore it and still get through, yes, but you'll hear how pathetic you are for your trouble.

Seriously. Sorry, Cloud YOU are cool. I mean, you're a dork and a dweeb, but a cool and lovable one. You're genuinely super athletic, and were pretty good that way even before all the SOLDIER...er, stuff. It's me that's got no timing and no speed and no ability to remember anything.

~

Pokemon A-Z seems to have some strong responses. I don't think it actually looks that bad, quality-wise. It's pretty crisp, and the performance seems to be untroubled. Now, it's not GOOD-looking. The city looks tremendously flat and lifeless, and I can't believe the NPCs don't even move and there aren't any buildings you can go inside of. There seems to be no variety. So, it's an ugly game, imo. It's not that the graphics are BAD, they're just...well, it's as though Game Freak said 'make the game while cutting as many corners as you can to save time and money'.

And that's pathetic, given the crushing amount of money they make. Not Pokemon brand as a whole, but just with the game itself, even. And it's a $100 game, here in Canada. A $100 game should look like an AAA game, not an indie game made with packaged assets and a very limited budget. And I'd have liked to have seen more innovation.

Though that doesn't mean it's not fun. I do hear that it's fun. Well, from a decent amount of people, anyway. Still, since I'm not specifically a POKEMON fan, I can't ride on just loving to catch Pokemon. I love collecting, but I have no specific love of Pokemon, so I want a good story and good-looking graphics and setting, I want buildings I can go into, and I'd like at least some voice-acting. And NPCs that move. (The non-moving NPCs is a major sticking point, for me. They give me the creeps in all the footage I've seen, just spotted around the city, never budging, ever, at any time of day, in any way. Don't the rivals move? I thought they had to, but I don't remember seeing it happen.)

Doesn't look like I'll be getting A-Z, either. Honestly I think if I ever want one of the games, I might be better off with Arceus. I think the graphics in this are better, but those super-flat buildings and flat roadways and etc just bug me more than ugly rocks. Or maybe I just don't need a Pokemon game.

Pokemon doesn't need ME, after all. I mean, seriously. No matter what they produce, people will buy Pokemon like insanity. If I don't buy a game, no one involved with the brand will have any desire to even break out their tiny violin and say a sarcastic 'boo-hoo!'

[Bluie]

Pokemon ZA sold nearly 6 million copies in its first week. For all the doom and gloom, the vocal minority, once again, has their tantrum and loses the 'argument'. Like, my lord, if the game is fun, it's fun. I will never understand the group of people who make it their entire personality to hate a franchise and feel the need to crawl out of their cesspool to make it known. And I'm not saying people aren't allowed to be disappointed or expecting more - that's valid. I've been saying it for years now; Nintendo needs to loan MonolithSoft to GameFreak to help them make a truly new and dynamic Pokemon experience. If they can use them to help make the Zelda Switch duology; they can also help out elsewhere. Hell, Nintendo has been using Koei Tecmo to help develop their games, so I don't see what the issue is in collaborating overall.

Even I, a big fan of a series, got turned off and burnt out on it before. When Black and White first got revealed, all I felt was tired. I ended up skipping the entirety of Generation 5 (and still have no played them) and only got back into the series again with X&Y. Pokemon clearly has struggled graphically in their transition to 3D, but everything else has been on point. Gameplay, art direction, story, characters - it's very easy to see WHY people still love this series despite it not being AAA. Most of the people complaining anyways tend to be the cheeto finger mouth breathers who think they're superior dunking on other's tastes, so, whatever. But the billion dollar company doesn't needs me to defend them, I just enjoy their product (though I will admit that the price is too steep imo. It's $70 bucks here, the same price as Ghost of Yotei. I would never, ever scoff at someone picking the vast open world samurai epic over a Pokemon game, ever).

----

Actual gaming; I'm nearing the end of ZA, I'm pretty sure. I have one more rank to achieve and the story seems to be about to hit its climax. I had to stop playing for some days because of work + the Genshin update dropped and I wanted the new character; Nefer. I hadn't pulled on the rotating main banner in... so long that the game deleted my history. Thankfully, I mathed it out myself and I was at 70 pity. I had more than 30 pulls so I was golden as long as I didn't lose my 50/50. I unfortunately did, to Mona of all characters - the girl who I was never able to get until they gave her away for free! Legitimately, I was crushed. I haven't wanted a new character in over a year (because I absolutely despise how all the Natlan characters look outside of Iffa, who I have via the normal character pool). I had some pulls left and dejectedly put another 10 in ...and Nefer came home at 10 pity, whaaaaat?! Super lucky, for real! I was planning on grinding primos to get enough until I hit pity again, but the gacha gods decided to smile on me! Yippie!

So I've been spending what little game time I have building Nefer. I have her fully leveled up and happened to have a decent weapon+artifact set already ready, so now I just need to grind out talents. I've also been playing through the new story as allows and Nod Krai continues to capture the Genshin vibe I missed while slogging through Natlan. One of the characters that's been teased since 1.0 is finally in the game and he's... quite frankly, beautiful. Not sure I want to pull for him, but I do love that his inclusion is (so far) worth the wait. Nefer's playstyle is different but fun, but it'll take some getting used to. I'm planning on building Aino to pair with her once I have a little more time.

Tomorrow is going to be for mostly gaming. I'm seeing the Chainsaw Man movie tonight with the hubs, but tomorrow, I wanna game and game only. I'll finish up ZA and get Genshin's story quest done too, hopefully.

[Kikki]

I wonder how to say this. Especially as someone who is NOT a fan of Pokemon. Now, I don't dislike Pokemon at all. It's not like Disney, where I can't really get into things like Dreamlight Valley or Kingdom Hearts because I find the classic Disney characters vaguely irritating. (I only like Donald Duck.)

Pokemon characters don't bother me at all. I think some of them are extremely cute, and I saw a few episodes of the anime as a teenager and didn't dislike them. I don't have a lot of other exposure (I did play Sword and Shield, but it's my only Pokemon game, ever. I thought it was 'okay'. I also played a demo of Sun and Moon, but I don't even remember my thoughts on that.)

So I'm not a fan, nor a detractor. I am basically indifferent to Pokemon. I like to collect, and I think some of the Pokemon are really spiffy. (I also think some are super ugly, so it all sort of balances out to neutral, I guess.) The idea of evolving is cool. Etc.

With the games, I feel like I could LOVE them...if they were a little better-looking, and had more interesting stories and characters. But they aren't and don't. And they never will. I always look at Pokemon games to see if this looks like the one that'll really grab my attention, but that game never materializes. For me, that's fine. I don't have any emotional investment in the franchise. But I see a lot of people who have a HUGE investment in it, and that's whose videos and articles I've been seeing lately.

All the criticism I have seen has been from current or former BIG fans of Pokemon who've grown discontent. And I think I get it. Sure, the games are fun, because people like to catch Pokemon, and every game lets you do that. But they never improve, because they don't have to. Game Freak knows they will make an insane amount of money on every game, without making any effort. Effort costs money, so they aren't ever GOING to make more than the bare minimum of it. Why should they? People are going to buy the games and say they're fun no matter how they look. Maybe even no matter how they perform, and definitely no matter if they innovate in any way.

So they're never going to bother. I think that's what got people so excited about Arceus. It was a new direction. And it looked a bit bad, but people who wanted more from the series were really hopeful. What I'm seeing is people being disappointed that the follow-up to Arceus didn't really carry on that momentum.

I don't think I'm seeing any cheeto-fingered mouth-breathers. No doubt those people exist, but...I don't think the stuff I've seen qualifies. Just sad people whose Pokemon needs aren't being met, game-wise, and who keep hoping they eventually will be and bursting with disappointment each time they are not.

~

FFVII Rebirth is making me sad. I don't know why. I feel a bit scared of it, at the moment. That's okay, writing is going...well, okay-ish. I'm not as good as I used to be, but it's still good to do. Better than gaming.

Also, I think Chocobo racing is actually really fun, and yet, I'm bad at it. Quite acceptable on the easier races, of course, but I simply don't have the brain/reaction speed to do well on the high-level courses. I've done all but the Legendary. I simply cannot win the Legendary level ones. Maybe the Debonair chocobo gear would help? I've come in 2nd a few times on Legendary. Maaaaaybe. But...maybe my brain is simply too feeble in this area, since it doesn't seem to get any better with practise.

[Milo]

I like to collect, and I think some of the Pokemon are really spiffy. (I also think some are super ugly, so it all sort of balances out to neutral, I guess.)

Well, there's literally hundreds of the things. It'd be surprising if there weren't any duds among those. But then, people can disagree about which those are. The ability to choose for yourself which your favorites are is the best thing about monster taming games in general.

The idea of evolving is cool.

That's where I'm going to disagree with you. Unevolved Pokemon are almost always cuter than their evolutions, and I hate having to choose between using the ones I actually like versus playing the game sensibly and optimizing my stats. Also, it's a serious misuse of the scientific term "evolution".

It can be interesting in the 1% or so of Pokemon where you get an actual choice in which evolution to pick, but when it's just a linear advancement path, it feels like an artificial way to pad the number of Pokemon in the game without adding any meaningful content.

[Bluie]

I don't think I'm seeing any cheeto-fingered mouth-breathers. No doubt those people exist, but...I don't think the stuff I've seen qualifies. Just sad people whose Pokemon needs aren't being met, game-wise, and who keep hoping they eventually will be and bursting with disappointment each time they are not.

Reddit, Gematsu, and Twitter say 'Hi'. We're very obviously on different sides of the internet, because most of the people I'm seeing complain DON'T like Pokemon and NEVER will, but feel the need to comment on every single breath the Pokemon Company makes. Not that I'm discounting your opinion and experiences - there are plenty of burnt out and disappointed fans (again, I've been there, I skipped the entirety of generation 5 because it was so unappealing at the time).

However, I will say this: the ball is in Game Freak's court right now. Generation 10 is around the corner and we have a brand new gaming system for it to be home on. If they don't innovate to their full potential this time around, it's going to be disappointing regardless of how much of a fan people are or aren't are. While I have fun with these games, of course they can be better! They SHOULD be better! I'm just tired of enjoying myself regardless and having the 'DURR HURR, SLOP ENJOYER!' idiots breathing down my neck about it.

[greensara]

Fedex finally found and delivered my copy of Legends ZA, so I can finally play it! I have only had a chance to play a little bit, and I am playing on regular Switch, and so far it seems to be running fine, way better than Violet did/does, and I haven't encounter any silly glitches like I did in Arceus (snow village) yet either. I want to hurry up and get out of the "intro" part, so I can look for some better clothes for my character; the default clothes are not my fave. My other impressions are the catching seems about the same as Arceus and the "action" style battles vs the usual turn based are actually pretty fun, but harder to track. It will take some getting used to for sure.

[Bluie]

Had a bit of a scare this morning. My Switch 2 dock wasn't responding and wasn't charging the system. I was stuck in the dark and couldn't so much troubleshooting so early, so I unplugged everything and took the Switch 2 and it's charger with me to my chair and played while waiting for a more appropriate hour. Well, such hour came, and upon pugging back in everything, it lives! Honestly, I should have known it was 'this' again. My TV was fickle with the original Switch too, just randomly deciding not to detect it for whatever reason. However, my dock never stopped charging the Switch before. I'm going to pin it on the thunderstorm we just had because my Switch 2 dock isn't plugged into a powersurger (it won't have enough power to turn on otherwise), so it guess I got a little zap and went into a safety mode. Ah well, glad it's fine regardless!

I finished Pokemon ZA while waiting. The post credits made me tear up a little bit, however, I'm not really sold on how a specifc Pokemon ended up. There's still post game, and I'll get to it, but now that I have ZA and Genshin's newest update done, I'm going back to Ghost of Yotei.

[Kikki]

I like to collect, and I think some of the Pokemon are really spiffy. (I also think some are super ugly, so it all sort of balances out to neutral, I guess.)

Well, there's literally hundreds of the things. It'd be surprising if there weren't any duds among those.

I think a FEW Pokemon are really spiffy and quite a lot of them are unappealing. I was being a bit generous when I said it 'all works out to neutral' for me. I was just making the point that overall, I neither hate nor love Pokemon. The franchise, or the individual creatures.

The idea of evolving is cool.

That's where I'm going to disagree with you. Unevolved Pokemon are almost always cuter than their evolutions, and I hate having to choose between using the ones I actually like versus playing the game sensibly and optimizing my stats. Also, it's a serious misuse of the scientific term "evolution".

I said "the IDEA of evolving is cool". I didn't say that Pokemon's reality of evolving is ideal, or anything else. Just the idea, is all I said. Though sometimes I do quite like evolved versions. Naturally the 'baby' form of a Pokemon is usually going to be cuter (Though not always. Floette is way cuter than Flabebe, in my books. Just one example.) especially for big honking ugly monster-looking Pokemon, but I prefer 'beautiful' and 'handsome/attractive/cool' Pokemon to cute ones, for the most part. But some are SO cute that it's more fun if they stay baby.

I don't care about the misuse of the scientific term evolution.

I don't think I'm seeing any cheeto-fingered mouth-breathers. No doubt those people exist, but...I don't think the stuff I've seen qualifies. Just sad people whose Pokemon needs aren't being met, game-wise, and who keep hoping they eventually will be and bursting with disappointment each time they are not.

Reddit, Gematsu, and Twitter say 'Hi'.

[snip]

However, I will say this: the ball is in Game Freak's court right now. Generation 10 is around the corner and we have a brand new gaming system for it to be home on. If they don't innovate to their full potential this time around, it's going to be disappointing regardless of how much of a fan people are or aren't are. While I have fun with these games, of course they can be better! They SHOULD be better! I'm just tired of enjoying myself regardless and having the 'DURR HURR, SLOP ENJOYER!' idiots breathing down my neck about it.

Yeah, I am never on Instagram or Twitter. Deleted my Twitter entirely when whatsisface (weirdo rich man with creepy name) took it over, as it was a nasty place BEFORE that and just went turbo on the ugliness after he splotched onto the scene with all his great ideas for "X". I only have an Instagram because I was going to restart my business, The Far Grove, but...I went a different path on that and now never touch it. I may have deleted it too...I can't remember. And I don't look at comments sections on Gematsu, as they are always a cesspool of armchair warriors.

I'm mostly looking at videos on YouTube (I have the comments on YouTube entirely blocked so I never see comments sections on there.) and a few articles, sans-comments-sections, all from people who are or were huge Pokemon fans.

Sad thing is, except for ONE of them, they all bought the game, in order to review it. So they're just part of the problem. And one of them did say, with some derision, that if people just keep buying these games "because they're fun", nothing is ever going to change.

Well...yeah. On one hand, being fun IS enough for lots of people, because it's not weird to buy a game for fun. One might even say that's the point of a game. If people find it enough fun that they don't care that its production values and creativity are low, why NOT buy it? If it's too fun to resist, then...isn't it doing all it HAS to, as a game?

And if people don't care that much about all the rest, then...why should Game Freak? Why put in effort they don't have to?

On the other hand, that's what's aggravating those for whom a fun gameplay loop isn't enough. The people who need to see higher quality in both production values and creativity. I understand the feeling that Pokemon is coasting by on the bare minimum. They use the same basic idea (catching Pokemon) each time, which guarantees that it will at least be fun, but...that's it. They never put in AAA efforts, even though they're charging AAA prices and making AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA level money.

So people who buy it just based on fun are supporting Game Freak's mediocrity. So sayeth those who want more from their Pokemon games, who want Game Freak to be forced (by reduced sales) to improve.

That's what I think it's all boiling down to, and why I said I understand people who are upset with those who buy the game 'because it's fun' while ALSO perfectly understanding why someone WOULD buy a game because it is, y'know...fun.

NEXT-DAY EDIT: All that said, I don't know what Pokemon fans WANT from the series. The ones who've grown into Pokemon critics or the ones who have remained fans. I don't think it's just about better graphics. I'm guessing...better graphics more interactive and lively worlds and more ways to interact with your Pokemon? Like being able to pet them and stuff? Just more ways to get involved in the world, with the characters, and with the Pokemon themselves. But that's something I never seem to hear. I hear complaints about what exists without the ideas of what they think SHOULD exist.

I also noticed that the critics (the ones who played it) say the combat is fun, but that it's basically 'watered down Xenoblade'. Is that a criticism? I know they're saying Xenoblade is good, but...I don't think Pokemon combat should be especially difficult, personally, since even quite little kids tend to play it. Lots of adults yeah, but still tons of children, so it can't be changed in any way that makes it less appropriate for kids. Imo, anyway.

[Bluie]

I don't think we know what we want either LOL. When I was a teenager, we wanted a game that spanned all the regions because Gold/Silver/Crystal let you go back to the first game's (and that's never really been done since). The Pokemon executives openly admitted to opening angry fan mail demanding multiple region games and laughing at them in meetings (this was YEARS ago, and while it sounds mean spirited, and kinda is, there's loads of reasons why multiple regions wont work unless they completely restructure how Pokemon works). We're 1000+ Pokemon in with 9 Generations of varying mechanics that do not meld together if you try to smoosh them. The whole situation of having Gen 1 in Gen 2 only really happened because Iwata figured out it could work... and then they made it work. And going back to Kanto after Johto isn't really that -great- tbh. As a kid, it was wild to revisit the old region and see what all the characters were up to, but there's no overarching plot or anything, you're just... there for the sake of being there 90% of your visit.

Nowadays, I think a lot of people want MORE innovation. Gimmicks aren't doing it any more, I guess. Each generation introduces something new and then promptly throws it out or sidelines it for the newest shiny thing once the next generation is in. Double Battles, Triple Battles, Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, traversable overworld on flying Pokemon's back, Pokemon Go integration, Gigantamax, - I could go on. And ontop of that, ever since GameFreak transitioned to 3D, they tend to struggle to get things right despite all their wads of cash. So, in a perfect world, I think if we got a game that looks good, runs well, builds off it's predecessors, and is overall fun, everyone would be, more or less, satisfied. But such a perfect world doesn't exists, so, ce la vie.

However, as a side note, Pokemon spinoffs (that are almost never produced by GameFreak) tend to be cream of the crop. The Mystery Dungeon sub series has done wonders for the whole genre, the TCG mobile app is popping off right now, and there are so, SO many people nostalgic for games like Pokemon Snap, Ranger, and so on. While the love for mainline wavers and ebbs, my lord, are the spinoff crowd the most passionate gamers I've ever met. And I get it, I do, I freaking love me a good Mystery Dungeon game - and you dipped it in Pokemon paint?! Sing me up! ...Sadly, a lot of these spinoffs are kinda... dead. They don't sell as much, therefore don't get much thought given to them. We did get a Pokemon Snap sequel after so long of begging for one and they did remake the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon on Switch, but I can't help but look at them and think 'more, please?' - because they could, but they wont. Sigh.