MindFreak

Yeah, you can even just defat them enough times in battles, though merely catching them will be good enough in the long run. Found a Chimchar standing by a tree, threw a cake for it but then my two heavy balls dropped right in front of it so it ran. It hasn't respawned. Also went looking around for another Eevee but couldn't find it. It's a tad frustrating that it still depends on sheer luck if you find a Pokémon or not. Oh, and the first Noble Fight? Not at all as tedious and long as the gameplay trailer made it seem. It actually went pretty quick.

Yeah, I played Ocarina of Time with an English dictionary by my side, 10 years old. Taught me a great deal of English but even before that I was more interested in the language than my class mates simply because I needed it to be able to play games. But voice acting with text boxes is surely the best of both worlds? The introduction in PLA really feels like a drab, the characters just stand there, moving their mouths. It could be much more lively with a bit of voice over at least. Generally, I think introduction in games has become less boring over the years so when they are old-school like this, it really feels off. Also... the way the NPCs walk in this game looks so silly. They have bent knees and straight upper bodies, arms barely swinging.

Once you are set free from the shitload of text boxes, the game is actually quite fun. It has the same kind of discovery as for instance Pokémon Go - you see something in a not too far distance (the draw distance is a bit short) and get excited when you discover that it's an Eevee for instance. You try to sneak up on it, but it discovers you and runs. Once it's running, it's nigh impossible to catch it! The areas are very big, perhaps 10 % too big. I also wonder how this region turns into the Sinnoh region in just a matter of 200 years. There are no settlements at all. The people living in Hisui have migrated from other regions (one NPS mentioned Hoenn) just a couple of years before the events of the game and yet, they don't know much about Pokémon. It's a weird universe. And despite them saying that no one is able to catch three Pokémon in a row, you see "plenty" of people with Pokémon that can fight you. I think the world building is a bit inconsistent. But it's still fascinating. It was furthermore confirmed that it's the Pokémon themselves that know how to shrink and fit inside the Pokéball. Not the Pokéball making them shrink. You have to investigate each Pokémon until you get 10 points to finalize the Pokédex entry. You get points for catching them but also defeating them, seeing them do a specific move, or evolving them. Doing more than this can reward you with money that you spend on upgrades, materials, and clothing. I was afraid of running out of Pokéballs but materials for crafting them are plenty and you can craft anywhere you want.

This game is not for small kids. XD I just went through the first hour of the game and it is just text box after text box! Then we are finally let free in the first wild area and boy, I got attacked a lot. I then let my 4 y.o. son take the controller as he has been going on and on during the introduction "Is it my turn now? Can I play now?" (there was literally no real playing during that time) and he went straight into some angry Pokémon and almost got himself killed (or black out'ed).

Yeah. But that way, every player would have more or less the same Pokémon. I guess what we really want is one version of the main game and then Pokémon Stadium where you can use the Pokémon you just collected in a ranked battle system. Or to make it more accessible, just have a Pokémon Stadium inside the main game where you take part in a series of battles. Which we had a couple of versions ago? (The battle subway and the battle frontier and the like, if I'm not mistaken). I just found that the entry for these "tournaments" where a bit too hard to find so I never really got started. It would also require knowledge about IVs and EVs but I guess that is made more accessible in the later games at least.

But how would the battle version work? How do you get the right Pokémon for battling without going out of your way to collect them? This way, the adventure version would be the main version and battling would be DLC... I do like the split, though, and I kind of wish they would ditch the dual release as it's not very consumer friendly and with online trading collecting the Pokémon from the other version has become trivial. --- The guy running the website I work for has got the game (physically) for me at his office so once my son wakes up, I'm going to bike there to pick it up. Looking forward to it!

That was a reassuring read. I am starting to really look forward to the game though I still fear the world being a bit too empty with nothing but fetch quests to do.

Finished Hawkeye yesterday. It was a good show, not outstanding but the overall story was enjoyable and I liked the humour in general, Kate Bishop was actually quite funny. The story was a tad confusing and I found the main villains to be less terrifying than I would have expected.

Ah crap. Couldn't avoid corona virus anymore now, my son got a positive test yesterday. So now my wife has to work from home and I have to take care of both kids for the next week. We got the booster vaccine two weeks ago so we are protected. My son has a fever and coughs a little but other than that is fine. My other son turns 1 today and thus, we had to cancel his birthday celebration on Sunday. Too bad but luckily we helt something last weekend.

Oh. Then I won't call it Hawkeye, that's for sure. He's fast. Still going with it, I like stealth stuff as well. And yeah, it's probably got a regional form.

I'll go with Rowlet as I like Decidueye. It looks cool, shoots arrows, and is part Ghost type! It's also not as slow as the usual grass types which is nice.

Ah, not this Friday - the Friday it comes out. Nintendo doesn't distribute review copies before release to smaller vendors anymore - they are afraid of leaks. (Oh, the irony)

I think this is because they aim at worldwide launches nowadays. In order for that to succeed, they probably send out the games earlier than before.

Normally I would be frustrated, why does this keep happening? But with this, I really miss previews so hopefully I can now catch a decent preview of the game. I'll be getting the game on Friday anyway as I'll be reviewing it but I would really like to know what I'm going into before then.

I like the tone of it and how different to the other Marvel movies and shows it feels. The costume could look a bit better, I guess, but I'm definitely interested.

They really need an overall story to the game to keep the player engaged. Simply "Gotta catch 'em all in this giant, empty place" won't do. And yeah, that boss fight with Kleavor looks a bit too stretched out - how will the legendary battles go then?

Wow. That could easily have been a smaller Direct about the game - which would perhaps have been appropriate? "Each area is filled with Pokémon" - and you see none at all at that moment. Other than that, I think this clarified a bit of information. I mainly worry about the world simply being too big with not enough to do. I'd rather it was a bit more condensed.

It truly does look superb and looks like good, old fun. Looking forward to this even though I'm not the biggest Kirby-fan around.

Just two more episodes left of Daredevil season 3. Didn't really feel the need to finish this when it came but recent events made me interested again - along with the villain returning in another show. Really enjoying season 3, especially after season 2 and The Defenders that were both kind of weak. I think they are doing something quite interesting to Matt in this season and it fits the tone of the show very well. The story is also quite intense.

Another new trailer, shorter but English. Seems like new footage, and indeed. Main goal of the game is Hopefully there is a bit more to do but well, it'll be interesting.

New trailer. Animations look a bit stiff and the world a bit empty. I also wonder why they don't use Pokémon for battling more. No trainer battles shown at all has me a bit worried.

No problem.

Wow. That sounds so absurd that it is actually funny. That's incompetence on a whole other level.

I posted it as a rumor but I didn't include the spoiler tag. That's fair enough, didn't think of it as something that would spoil. I don't know Centro Leaks so didn't think much abiut it. Anyhow, I think you are right. This game is going to be hard to review on its own merits. And I really hope that despite what the game looks like, it is still fun to play and has a lot of variation. I don't want to find a specific Pokémon by just waiting around the right spot and waiting for RNG. It should include some sort of action and including that, could make the game fun to play. I'm really, really hoping this game has more to it than it seems. But I'm sceptical.

Surprised no one has posted this yet: