Glen-i

Don't insult Digimon like that. Digimon actually has artistic integrity to it. I don't like a lot of the monster designs they go with, but I will happily accept that it's it own thing. Digimon hasn't ever stolen the models from a Pokémon game and repurposed them for their own products. That's the difference here.

It's not as simple as taking down something that flat out reuses exact characters in something and charging for it. Case in point, that mod on the previous page that replaces things with the actual Pokémon? Well, it turns out that modder was charging people for it, and now it's been given a cease and desist. That's the kind of thing that doesn't need lots of prep to prepare a case for. It's clear-cut. Palworld itself is not as easy to prove as that. I imagine TPC is working on gathering evidence of asset theft. It's not an easy thing to prove, and it takes time to prepare a case. Naturally, they've been asked about Palworld, but have declined to comment, which might be a sign of things to come? I don't know about that, but general practice seems to be you don't talk about any potential lawsuits you may be working on. So it is a possibility. Quite frankly, it's not been taken down because lawsuits like this take time. But we are seeing more and more evidence that asset theft has occurred in Palworld. EDIT: I do find it strange that people think that this is what Pokémon needs to be in future. It's like asking Call of Duty to be more like Baldur's Gate 3, because BG3 was crazy successful.

It is most certainly not an "ends justify the means" situation! It's blatant theft, and it'll just open the floodgates for similar games with blatant theft of models to surface if it goes unchecked. Artists who get paid to design for games already have it rough with AI threatening to cost them work, they don't need this BS to suddenly become fine. It doesn't matter if people enjoy the game or not. It doesn't matter if you've become disillusioned with Game Freak's output. It doesn't make profiting of other people's hard work okay. Oh, and let's not forget the very real possibility that fan artists have had their ideas cribbed for this game as well. Or do they deserve it, because they're Pokémon fans? And as for your claim that Game Freak will learn something, the only real lesson to take from this is "People will buy anything if our designs are in it". And that's the kind of thinking that can hurt the quality of the games even further.

Well, there goes me hoping to give you the benefit of the doubt there. Quite frankly, I think that's a disgusting viewpoint. Actual talent worked on the models that got stolen. You do realise Game Freak commission a lot of freelance artists to design Pokémon for them, right? It doesn't matter one jot if you think GF's output is below acceptable these days, plagiarism only truly hurts the bottom line. Because if this BS is allowed to stand, then it'll only encourage other companies to follow suit. Why hire artists to design things for your product when you can just take models from a highly successful product, tweak it a bit, and present it as your own work? Oh, and seeing as you're OK with Pokémon being the target of theft? How about Team Cherry, the creators of Hollow Knight? Because that's the next "inspiration" Palworld's company is looking to use next.

Dangerously close to the slippery slope of claiming "Game Freak's output has been bad, so they deserve to be plagiarised" there.

First of all, the concept of "Pokémon, but with guns" is what initially drew people in. The initial trailer went all in with that. Other factors include the fact that Survival games are huge with the PC crowd. They can't get enough of them. "Streamer bait" is another contributing factor, as has already been mentioned, with viewers of said streamers going on to buy the game themselves. Then, as it became apparent that plagiarism has occured, some people have jumped on to "stick it to Nintendo". Yes, it's incredibly immature, but that's console warring for you. And I'm willing to bet a not-insignificant number of people have bought it, because they believe there's a real chance that it could get delisted because of said blatant theft.

TPC might be getting more concrete grounds to sue. Because yeah, this can't be chalked up to coincidence. VGC article on the matter. EDIT: Also, a list of just over 50 Pals that range from blatant to suspect.

Couldn't give a toss about how pretty it looks. I just want a game that nails the balance between exploration and turn-based battles. Scarlet/Violet veers way too far into the exploration side, so much so that the battles feel like they're there just out of expectation. The exploration isn't even any good. Just emptiness for miles. They need to fix that before worrying about the technical fidelity, quite frankly. Not surprising, seeing as it's starting to become apparent that some of the Pals literally have the same models as Pokémon. Pokémon modders be crazy. They've achieved far more impressive feats. This was probably a breeze to do.

I'd argue that comparing the tech of a Switch game to a PC one is a bit silly in the first place. But nah, if anything, the lesson they'll learn is "Well, if they can rip us off, why can't we?" It just gives the impression that they're wasting time and money designing these monsters in the first place. Why bother when you can just mash 3 Pokémon models together and be almost as appealing to people that way?

As someone who thinks Scarlet/Violet are by far the worst titles in the series, I don't see why this game should be the one to do it. It's a completely different genre. Plays nothing like Pokémon. Anyway, yeah. Was wondering when this game would show up here. Suffice to say, not a fan of the blatant theft going on here. And it's even more gross when you see people spouting BS like "They're stealing from Pokémon, so it's fine". EDIT: Was about to post the examples of them nicking from fan creations as well, but @Hero-of-Time had me covered there. It's insulting to all of those talented artists who design Pokémon, and it's also insulting to other games in the "Monster Catching RPG" genre who no doubt poured months into designing their own monsters, and cultivating a artistically distinct style, only for this game to come along and become a smash hit with no artistic integrity what-so-ever. It's disgusting, and it'll set a worrying precedent if nothing can be done.

That would be telling... I'd rather show with vids. So, look forward to Thursday. But let's just say the glitch that you use to skip Mia is called the Retreat Glitch, and it still works in The Lost Age. To hilarious effect. EDIT: Actually, wait. Screw it. Can't wait. This is the kind of silliness I mean, @EEVILMURRAY.

If you think that's wild, just wait until the nonsense you can do in The Lost Age! There's some proper funky stuff there!

One of my favourite levels in FSA. Having a group of people all wander around the place trying to figure out what needs to be done. And there's always that one person whose like "Nah, I haven't found anything" while they're sneakily pocketing all the Force Gems they just stumbled upon... Screw all those Zelda HD remasters people keep asking for! Gimme an online version of this game! It'd be amazing!

It's cool, man. I like Brawl better then Melee. Hell, Melee is my least favourite Smash. The single player offerings are lame compared to more modern Smash, and it doesn't have the benefit of being weird and different like 64. That's not to say it's bad, Melee is still a great game, but the character balance is really dreadful. There's a vast gap between the top 7 or so characters and everyone else. So it gets a bit homogeneous in multiplayer. Yes, Brawl does have Meta Knight, who is insanely OP, but remove him from the equation and you can play most of the Brawl roster and still have a decent chance of winning. A gentleman's agreement to not use MK, and you'll have fun with Brawl. Brawl is a bit floaty, but it does have the greatest single player mode in Subspace Emissary. We'll likely not get the scope of that mode in Smash for a long time. For good reason, yes. But Ultimate has a decent chunk to do with World of Light, spirit battles, and character specific Classic Routes. It's a good compromise considering the miracle roster it has.

Ahhh, but I can't link with my own save file, so I had to enter it myself. That's a good 20 minutes of my life gone. I suffer so you don't have to. Well done! Legit impressive! Just make sure you look up the things you need to do for a Mia-less run. Don't wanna accidentally hardlock the game.

For what it's worth, I think it (Tap Jump) sucks too. I turn it off immediately. Messes with me whenever I want to just attack upwards without jumping. I do recommend a GameCube style controller for Smash though. It is an analogue game, after all. The most important button, A, is the easiest to hit, and the second most important, Y, is just above it for jumping needs. It's weird to think that it works so well, despite it being originally designed for an N64 controller, but it just does! Helps that the control stick is immensely high quality on the GC controller. Makes modern sticks look flimsy in comparison.

You can still do this in Ultimate, granted it's a stick flick upwards to jump. That's on by default.

Golden Sun 1 done! Anyway, my clear data for The Lost Age is ready to go. In case you can't be bothered to type in a 260 character password, I'm willing to let others use the NSO online features to use my clear data to start The Lost Age. Honestly, it's the best file you could ever ask for. Default names for all characters Everyone at a reasonable level of 28-29. Not too high, not too low All 28 Dijinn A whole bunch of stat-boosting items unused for your discretion Same goes for Water of Lifes, Psy Crystals, and Potions All the equipment that are still viable, even during The Lost Age's endgame, right there in the inventory. Yes, even the boots and undershirts No Psynergy granting items skipped. (Orb of Force, etc.) Every event that gets you extra scenes in The Lost Age unlocked Give me a shout during the weekend if you want me to give it to you. That said, if you can't wait until I'm available... ...Seriously, just use the Link cable...

Oooooh... Ominous...

You can't have a Golden Sun playthrough without being very immature and posting this classic.

So I mentioned this over chat, but we'll be doing the final Duel board next time. Trust me, you don't want our marathon to end on this board. Because if you thought Mr. Mover was bad? Then you ain't ready for... Backtrack ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH! That description is perfect enough, but for you newcomers out there. The gimmick here are the recoloured Backwards Spaces. Instead of making you roll a dice to go backwards, these ones flat out reverse the direction of travel permanently (Or until someone lands on another Backwards Space) This also swaps the position of your partners. Getting Whomp here is going to really suck. Also note the complete lack of junctions. That means you have absolutely no way to influence where you go or land, making this board almost entirely luck based! Now, here's who's rolling the dice with who. @Glen-i VS @S.C.G @BowserBasher VS @Dcubed Now, Dcubed's not available next week, so we'll be taking a sabbatical from our marathon for now. Unless I can rope in @darksnowman for a friendly battle royale match next Friday?

The first match was basically decided almost immediately and wouldn't bloody end, and the second match ended on Turn 4! I hate it when I'm right about things like this... Mr. Mover, man...

Stamina format tonight. Custom stages from 7:30pm. Normal stages from 8.

Got battered by Saturos, because having no Mia is proper hard!

Can confirm that you do need two separate Switches to transfer a file to The Lost Age, which also means you can't use your own file.