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Tag: Pokemon

  • Weekly Gaming: Pokemon Moon (3DS)

    Weekly Gaming: Pokemon Moon (3DS)

    Deary me has it been a while since I started playing Pokemon Moon. Having preordered the game last November, I proceeded to play the game straight for 20 hours, loving every moment of it. But for some reason, I fell off the Pokemon bandwagon and never actually got around to completing it – until now that is.

    First up, you already know how Pokemon games go: As a 10 year old boy or girl, you proceed to meet the new professor of the place you’ve moved to, attaining your first pokemon, making you a newly qualified trainer. You make your way to the first gym, and proceed to take on the gym owner to gain a badge.

    Except!

    Not so this time round. The start’s the same in that you gain a starter pokemon, but everything from there changes. Gone are the gym’s from every other game in the series, which are instead replaced by trials across each of the 4 hawaiian islands. Once each trial has successfully been completed on a given island, you’re then able to take on that island’s “Kahuna” – the island protector so to speak. Whilst this has the same kind of layout as previous games, it changes immensely when actually partaking in the trails themselves.

    You see, each trial will not only have you doing certain puzzles or taking on certain pokemon, but each trial will also conclude with a battle against a huge pokemon – one that’s stronger and bigger than the rest of it’s kind. For example, one of the first you take on within a cave ends with a battle against a Raticate; a simple enough battle you would think. Except, the battle ended up taking quite a while, not only because the Raticate was stronger than average, but also because it was able to summon other pokemon to fight at it’s side.

    These trials were certainly a great mix-up to the age old pokemon formula, and even gave me quite a few challenges I didn’t think I’d be able to get out of alive thanks to the way it’s mixed things up.

    The new trials aren’t the only way Pokemon has been mixed up. Now you can also ride Pokemon themselves on the overworld, allowing them to get you around a lot faster than running traditionally would. Getting around faster isn’t their only use though, as different pokemon’s abilities enable you to find new secret locations on the world map, giving you better TM’s or even better equipment.

    Another fantastic new addition to the series is the Z ultra moves; moves so powerful they can kill most pokemon in one hit. Z moves can be given to any pokemon you have in your party as long as they’re holding a Z stone which matches the elemental type of one of their moves. Once activated, a brilliant cutscene of their attack unfolds, usually causing the opposing pokemon to faint. These powerful moves can only be used once per battle, so should you be taking on a team of opponents, it’s best not to use the move asap.

    Aside from the new gameplay changes, there’s the age old tradition of New Pokemon adorning the land. These new pokemon range from trivial items in the environment like a ghost sandcastle pokemon, all the way up to new legendary’s that control the sun and moon. My favourite addition in all of this was the brand new “alolan” variants of some of the original 150 pokemon. These variants now only changed their features, like Raichu looking browner for example, but also changed their types. Exeggutor for example goes from being a grass type in previous games, to suddenly becoming a dragon type, able to learn amazing new moves like Hyper beam in the process. It’s a weird touch, but actually changes up the game quite a bit, making you excited to find/discover new pokemon and old.

    Story-wise, the game is much the same as previous entries in the series. The biggest change is in the fact for the first time in Pokemon’s history, the main game has cutscenes. Yep, it’s strange at first, but you soon start to love the fact that it’s not all staticky talking characters anymore, with amazingly animated scenes lighting up your 3DS with all manners of joy. If anything, this addition makes the story all the more interesting, giving Pokemon a whole new layer to work with in producing new stories for people of all ages.

    Additionally, Pokemon Moon had me surprised at the amount of mini-games available on the pause screen and how fun they were to keep coming back to. One of them, a bean collecting island, allowed you to place down berries to attract Pokemon, all whilst picking berries and planting them. I was surprised at how much fun I actually had with this mini-game, even going so far as to keep returning every now and then. This definitely contributed to my 30 hour play time total, but I felt it was worth it, especially when you can use the berries to make your pokemon love you, giving you extra headroom in fights when pokemon successfully dodge attacks for your love.

    Section on Graphics: 

    Section on Disadvantages:

    So all in all, I’m bloody glad I came back to Pokemon Moon. It’s formula may be similar to those games that came before it, but I cannot help but feel it’s a fantastic addition to the series, and sets up brand new precedent’s for future Pokemon titles, especially with the region variances in play. Should you own a 3DS (or 2DS!), you owe it to yourself to own Pokemon Moon – it’s guaranteed to give you dozens of hours of pleasure, and keep you coming back for more time and time again.

    5/5

  • Gaming Week 52: Pokémon Y (3DS)

    Gaming Week 52: Pokémon Y (3DS)

    FUCK THE YVETILLLL
    Pokemon Y changes Nintendo’s traditional naming convention of colours and now gives us letters, but does Pokemon Y change the direction of the game like it’s name implies? Picture credit of Uxian.

    People of the world, I have a confession to make.

    I have never played a portable Pokemon game from start to finish.

    Let that sink in for a moment, and be even more shocked when I say that I was raised in the perfect environment, perfect time, and given every opportunity to do so, but never did. Yes, I’m 26 and have talked about Pokemon with friends, colleagues and family, but I didn’t feel I needed to, since I knew enough about the lore and Pokedex that I deemed the games unnecessary. How wrong I was.

    The game starts out with a Professor explaining what Pokemon are, and who you are. It’s here, where the story begins, that you get to create your own hero or heroine before embarking on your adventure. Your options are limited, from picking your name to what gender you are, but these options soon increase throughout the game, with myself donning different clothes and eye colour to my original inception. It’s the ability to be free to be who you want in this new and wonderful world that’s begging to be explored which makes Pokemon stand above the rest.

    Gameplay entails guiding your character around the world from a birds eye perspective, whist talking to other Pokemon trainers you encounter and avoiding bushes. Once you encounter a battle with a trainer or wild Pokemon, you’re taken to a fight scene, where your Pokemon and the opponent take turns slicing each other until one faints. This hasn’t changed since the original, but certainly looks different thanks to the graphical prowess of the Nintendo 3DS/2DS to old generations. Being the first 3D polygonal Pokemon game, Nintendo have gone all out with the presentation of the world, with every scene looking as detailed and charming as their sprite based cousins.

    FUCK THE KALOSSSS
    As can be hopefully seen in this picture, the Kalos region takes Pokemon to France. With this change of scenery comes a new change in atmosphere and surroundings, with villages and sites looking cultured compared to previous Pokemon games. It leaves you with a very Noire feeling. (Image copyright of Nintendo)

    The world is huge and begging to be explored, with the story alone taking 40+ hours to complete if you rush your way through, and longer if you do all of the side content and want to level your team up as much as possible. I finished the game at the 45 hour mark, with 6 Pokemon all at level 70+, with 2 of them 85+, but others may want to train new Pokemon from scratch, leading to a longer game.

    Team Rocket have been replaced since I was a kid with Team Flare, a new organisation that wishes to destroy the world and recreate it using the new legendary Pokemon from the Kalos region (these new Pokemon can be found on the covers of both games). They’re a weird organisation that certainly mimic Team Rockets tactics in stealing items and being generally evil, and genuinely add to the story, with cutscenes and key moments tied to their ambitions.

    Being a Pokemon game, your main characters ambition is to be the best Pokemon trainer around, collecting every Pokemon in the Kalos region (over 450 now!) whilst also defeating all 8 gym leaders to then take on the elite 4. This troupe hasn’t changed in years, but here it feels different and revitalised with each gym being unique and a puzzle in themselves to navigate and defeat. They’re certainly a great way to show off the graphics of the new games, with some scenes being mind-blowing in originality and creatively inspiring, a first for me when it comes to anything Pokemon.

    FUCK THE MEGA EVOLUTIONSSSSS
    Certain Pokemon can now Mega Evolve into a stronger version of their former self, as can be seen above with Mewtwo. This change is only temporary however, and only one Mega Evolution can be done per battle, meaning you really have to decide which Pokemon fits the situation best.

    Pokemon battles are easily one of the most improved features of Pokemon Y, with a host of new features, from horde battles (where multiple Pokemon will attack you at once) to sky battles and Mega Evolutions, battling has certainly been revitalised. Mega Evolutions are temporary buffs to a certain few Pokemon in the game, and can only happen if they are fully evolved and are holding a piece of meteorite special to themselves. It adds an interesting mechanic to battles, and certainly came in handy when my mega Charizard would stop the battlefield from snowing purely from how hot he was. Sky battles are exactly as they say, where only flying Pokemon can partake, meaning you best make sure you have some flying Pokemon on you. Overall, the battle system is far more refined, and with every battle netting your whole team XP from the new XP sharer item, you can level up Pokemon in no time without even having to get them out in a battle.

    All these new refinements can certainly make a die hard Pokemon enthusiast feel a little disheartened, making it easier to level up your team and faster to get around. But by changing the pacing of the game, and adding more content and story than before, Nintendo have made something that feels completely new and original, without really doing anything to the core mechanics.

    In many ways, Pokemon at the base level isn’t any different to the original. The Core mechanics are the same, and haven’t changed since it’s inception, but the refinements around the edge, like making battle systems have more depth, or changing on how your team earns XP, makes it feel like a refreshing and new game. It could be said that Pokemon encapsulates where Nintendo is in it’s current life, remaking old franchises with just enough new trimmings that it feels original, but these new trimmings truly do give the games a new life, especially when their premise and core mechanics are just strong enough to stand the test of time, all that’s needed is a repackaging. It all seems to be a winning formula, and one that I hope continues from Nintendo for a few years to come.

    4/5