Julius

Saw credits roll a few hours ago. Overall, probably the best main story in a Pokémon game for me in a good while (I'm trying to weigh up just how high I hold Sun & Moon's story, and separate my enjoyment of how well the 20th anniversary celebrations were handled from the story -- but if it's better than that, it's probably the best we've had since Gen V). I wasn't a fan of how the last hour or two became a barrage of exposition, cutscenes, and a light sprinkling of battles, though, but was surprised once again by the quality of the soundtrack and, weirdly enough, the cinematography of the last few cutscenes. It really made what was going down feel epic, bordering on what you'd expect to see in the anime. The journey is still a little ways from being over, as I at least want to finish every Request, catch every Pokémon, and reach the maximum rank, so I'll be saving my final impressions for when I've had the chance to get all of that done and absorb the soundtrack. But yeah, I find it really hard to disagree with what @Hero-of-Time said after completing the game. For all of the growing pains with the transition being made into a fully 3D main series game (that is actually designed with 3D gameplay and mechanics in mind) and a fair share of quality of life missteps, and despite this year looking so obscenely stacked when it comes to potential quality titles, I can't see myself not bringing this up when we start talking about personal GOTY's towards the end of the year. I've had an absolute blast playing through this game and can't wait to see how Game Freak incorporates some of these ideas into their next main series entry, as well as what we might see next, if anything, for Legends.

Second trailer for Lightyear:

The fifth Balloon Race suuuuuuuucks EDIT:

The legend himself turns 90 today, the man who provides Star Wars it's oxygen: John Williams! I remember being concerned that he wouldn't see the sequels through to the end due to his age, but he's still kicking on and going strong, thank goodness. He's back to working with Spielberg on The Fabelmans this year and Indiana Jones 5 (directed by James Mangold) next year, so he's definitely got more great stuff left in the tank!

Digital Foundry have released their technical breakdown video for Legends: Arceus -- Looking forward to digging in later!

It's funny, because an entirely different Mew playground rumour was about when me and my friends were playing Diamond & Pearl in primary school, and it was that you could find Mew's fossil (as seen in the first movie) in the Sinnoh Underground.. It would've been cool, and should've been a thing, damn it! Also, regarding the capture of Pokémon as @Happenstance mentioned, my generation's version was L, R, L, L+R to imitate the movement and then final satisfying click of the Poké Ball capture animation.

Yeah, there was definitely something in the air about a Direct coming this week! Right then, let's dig in The Fortress of Expectations Despite being a meaty Direct at 40 minutes, this early in the year, with the focus on the first half of 2022 and with an E3/a summer Direct surely in the works...I'm going to keep my expectations in check. I don't expect too many new reveals here. The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will not be present, nor does it need to be. At best we get a mention that we'll get more details in the summer, but if there's going to be an announcement of a delay alongside some new footage of that game, I'm not expecting it until June. I also don't think that Hollow Knight: Silksong will be here either (sorry guys - I mean, I hope I'm wrong!), I think that's one they're going to hold onto tightly and then have it appear at this year's E3/summer Direct, maybe even a shadow drop like the first game was. I also don't think we see the long rumoured Metroid Prime HD / Collection here, if we get that this year that seems like E3 bait too, for a September or October release. If we're getting Prime 4 in the next year and a half that is, which, uh, I'm not confident about. In terms of Nintendo themselves, I am expecting the announcement of Monolith Soft's next game, though whether that's something Xenoblade or a new IP entirely I'm not too sure, but it's time; I know they lend a hand every chance they get to other studios within Nintendo, but it's time for whatever's next. And speaking of what's next, there was too much smoke for there to be no fire around the rumours for this game last year: let's see a Donkey Kong game turn up here. beats chest and wails like a gorilla Naturally we're going to see more of Kirby and The Forgotten Land, what with it being out next month, and I think we'll also see Triangle Strategy turn up too. And we'll get a trailer for Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp which actually states it's April release date, because that's been an open secret for months now. I expect Splatoon 3 to release at some point over the summer, so I expect that to be here too. Oh, and a release date for Omori would be big enough I think for a Direct proper, so let's throw "Spring 2022" out of the window and get a hard date please! Speaking of indies, we haven't heard a peep out of Bear & Breakfast since it's delay into the first half of 2022, so I'll say I expect it...because I want it, and it's not totally implausible. Lastly, Majora's Mask is releasing on the Expansion Pass this month, and while it could just shadow drop as they normally do, it seems too good an opportunity to not bring it up. Plus, Link always turns up in February. The Valley of Hopeless Dreams Well, we're now in the year of the 35th anniversary of Final Fantasy, and the final game releasing in the Pixel Remasters collection, Final Fantasy VI, is scheduled to be released this very month. So you all know what that mea– FINAL FANTASY PIXEL REMASTERS COLLECTION FOR NINTENDO SWITCH LET'S ¡GOOOOOOOOOO! Okay, but in all seriousness, this is the first of four realistic opportunities I think we have for this announcement this year, because, again, the PC/mobile releases are about to complete with VI releasing this month and it being the first big event of 2022, the year of the 35th anniversary for the Final Fantasy franchise. The other three opportunities I think there are for this announcement are at E3/whatever this summer brings; a potential Final Fantasy-only presentation -- we've also got XVI on the way, there are rumours of a Tactics remaster, and it's also the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII, so we could see a Remake Part II tease somewhere throughout the year; or at The Game Awards. Why The Game Awards? Because the actual anniversary of the series is on December 17th, so a shadow drop just before then or an announcement of them dropping on the 17th would make sense at an event that takes place every December. That was long. I apologise. Anyways, I'll jump on the bandwagon with @Ronnie because I'm hoping for a Wind Waker / Twilight Princess double pack too (despite the potential existence of one being a huge blow to my Wii U pick-up a few months back). With Majora's Mask coming to the Expansion Pass this month, these are the only two 3D Zelda games not on Switch, so...yeah, we need them on the console. You know what? Same goes for Mario, while we wait for news on Odyssey 2 / whatever is next for the plumber: DLC / expanded release of 3D All-Stars to include Super Mario Galaxy 2. Do you sweaty Goomba-looking Nintendo higher-ups really think you can get away with the old runaround by not including it in that collection in the first place, huh?! Unfortunately I don't expect Explorers DX here, sorry @Glen-i, but I do think we see a Pokémon Presents within the next six weeks, as I'm sure that they'll have some Legends: Arceus DLC to announce, so it'll show up there...right? Right?! So I'm going to dream for something else, or rather, some things, which have also graced a two-screened Nintendo console: Dragon Quest IV - VI and Dragon Quest VIII Remastered (also coming to other consoles, it'll have the orchestrated OST but the additions of the 3DS version). Because last year's Dragon Quest anniversary quite frankly sucked, so let's see it S-E. I swear I don't have Stockholm syndrome...

I'll post some hopes and expectations after I finish work, but for now, all I want to throw out there is that Link has appeared in some form in every Nintendo Direct to take place in February since the launch of the Switch: in 2018 he was front and centre alongside Mario for the announcement of Smash Bros. Ultimate; in 2019 he was in the announcement for the remake of Link's Awakening; and in 2021 he was in the announcement for Skyward Sword HD. 2020 was the year of the Great Nintendo Direct Drought. Naturally, this all means that Majora's Mask is going to shadow drop on the Switch Online Expansion Pass Take it easy, hope you get better / don't get hit too hard by it!

Yep, this. The tried and true strategy if there's no grass around is to just throw down a Smoke Bomb to reduce the risk of them turning around and spotting you, then getting the right angle to throw an Ultra Ball at their back. I've caught most of the Lv 70 Alpha Pokémon in the fifth area with this method, not having to engage in battle at all. To be fair, though, I've rarely battled Pokémon in this game when trying to catch them, and I'd guess that's been the case for 80% - 90% of my captured Pokémon so far. Despite the surprising speed at which battles start and the pace they go along at, it just doesn't feel like part of the wider feedback loop in these open spaces where exploring, throwing a Ball at a Pokémon or throwing a Pokémon at some resources is a constant dopamine barrage in and of itself. And yeah, the fact that you can just run away from every Pokémon that attacks you just furthers my point that you don't really to stick around. It's why when catching multiples of a Pokémon that doesn't freak out when I'm near it, I throw a Ball at it and don't even bother waiting for it to confirm the capture or not. This could probably be alleviated a bit by having aggravated Pokémon instigate battles rather than just getting mad, though that would slow the game down substantially. Essentially, I'm treating this as a Pokémon Safari. I think this is a natural place to end up after Gen VI introduced earning EXP for captures, and I'm still enjoying it a whole lot!

For me, it really depends on the game and what it's trying to achieve. Sandbox collect-a-thon or a LEGO game? A progression % indicator is great for knowing how deep into the completionist rabbit hole I really have gone. Imagine having an Easter Egg hunt without knowing how many there actually are, that's exactly how villains are born. Something story focused, like The Last of Us? I'd rather they not be included, as they kind of take away from my immersion (I turn trophies off specifically in a first playthrough for games where I want to fully immerse myself) and can ruin how much of the game is left to go, as others have said. And then you get the really messy examples, like Breath of the Wild, which is a cocktail of both. A big "no thanks" to that. For me, I use How Long To Beat as already mentioned by @Rummy to get a rough idea of how much time, at a minimum, I need to invest to complete a critical path, main story-only playthrough. And it really is only a rough idea: there are some games where I've gone down the crit path and finished the game in 60% of the time that's on HLTB, whereas others I ended up running a bit over. I don't pay attention to anything except the main story time that they put out purely because, if I'm enjoying a game enough to want to check out way more than just the critical path, then I don't mind losing a bunch of hours to it. These are typically games where I go for all of the side quests, 100%, or Platinums (such as your Yakuza games, Mario games, and JRPG's) or want to explore more of the world (such as in a From Software game - I couldn't care less how long it takes me to get through, not to mention the HLTB times are going to be wonky at best for skill-based games). It's tough, but I don't think you can really get a fair idea of a typical playthrough length for most games until the game is actually released to try and nail down, at best, an average playtime of a range of skilled players like HLTB does. The development team aren't going to be positioned in a way that they can fairly play through the game and assess this, I'd say the same would go for play testers who are focused on looking for issues with the game, and the only alternative I could think of would be hiring a bunch of play testers with the aim of them playing the game through in their own style and timing that...but there wouldn't be much to gain, really, from the financial investment that would require. So, I think for now, HLTB is probably the best resource to use if you do want a rough idea of how long a game might take to play through. Something I've actually been thinking about lately is that if Xbox, with Game Pass, might have something to gain purely from a player experience perspective by picking up a site like HLTB, because as a service, any way to improve retention is of benefit to them, kind of similar to how Amazon picked up IMDb and BoxOfficeMojo to make Prime Video more feature rich. There are a whole lot of games on Game Pass to sift through, so having an approximate time to completion when looking at a game on a service like Game Pass would be a smart move, I think.

Yeah, you're right, I stand corrected -- the official site refers to an image of the pair of possible player characters as "The player character and Rei or Akari". So I see where you're coming from, and considering the player character's age in this game (15 - a cheeky nod at how long we waited for the Diamond & Pearl remakes?), maybe the implication of them wearing that t-shirt is that this is long after their journey in Sinnoh has been complete and they've journeyed across more of the Pokémon world, getting so far as Kalos. You know. Before becoming the protagonist in an isekai directed by Arceus. Though, I don't think it really matters what is believable at this point re: Rei, because let's face it, the Pokémon timeline is a bit of a scrambled mess and in a game with so many lookalikes, it's not that hard to believe -- I really do think they just got lazy and decided to use the same designs for no reason other than that they could, otherwise I think they would have been a bit more clear about our origins (I've yet to complete the game, so maybe that's something that they do delve into). Not to mention the fact that the games have opened themselves up the further question that, if this is Lucas/Dawn, which Lucas/Dawn is it? The one from Diamond & Pearl, or the one from Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl? I guess Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl because we can choose our own skin colour? As for the official names mattering even less, that's only really as a result of Game Freak not choosing to ever have player characters turn up again beyond Red, so like you said, it's hard to tell. I always thought it was a shame they didn't make use of a save transfer to have your characters from other games be NPC's you can face. Well it's a good thing that neither of those are in these games I get what you mean though, so I guess I'll rephrase that to "most Pokémon in the anime say their own names, so if that logic applies in the games, then that could be how". As for Nidoqueen, is that also true of Nidoking? Because if not then I guess even if Nidoqueen don't say their own names, if Nidoking does then I can understand why it ended up with that name. Yeah, sure, though I think @MindFreak was asking for an in-universe reasoning for their assigned numbers, which is what I was responding to. Otherwise we've got to deal with the implication that someone else has already gone on this journey, experienced areas in the same sequence as we have, and started registering Pokémon in the Dex from the same spot as us.

I don't believe it's meant to be Lucas/Dawn, just considering the "official" player character names of Rei/Akari, but if nothing else their looking so similar to Lucas/Dawn is consistent with all of the familiar-but-not-so faces found throughout the game. Honestly I just think it was Game Freak being lazy. As cool as it is to see some familiar faces either gender bent, aged up or aged down, I absolutely hate the idea that all of these characters are around each other at this point in time and are ancestors to the characters that their design is based on, just because it makes the world feel stupidly small. At best I think we can guess that the player character is from Kalos based on... Yeah, that's probably just migration or extinction, seeing as there are plenty of Pokémon present in the game/Hisui already not native to modern day Sinnoh and won't be around come Diamond & Pearl. It sucks that we probably won't get an explanation though. I mean, it kind of depends on your head canon of whether a Pokémon in the games is actually making a cry like they do in the games, or if they say their own name all of the time like they do in the anime. Because if you think it's the latter, then yeah, that'd be how. I do wonder if they consult the Pokémon on how they spell their names, though... As for Pokédex number, yeah, that's a question that stretches back with these games as far as I can remember. It gets even weirder when you consider that the research tasks imply that they already know a fair bit about each Pokémon. If anything, I'm really surprised that they didn't decide to integrate the Arc Phone into the Pokédex process in some way (you gather data on the Arc Phone - you know, a phone upgraded by a Pokémon equivalent to God who would know all this stuff - which the Professor then transfers across to the physical Pokédex that he's collecting all of this in). Yeah, this most of all. We should be seeing fossil Pokémon out in the wild and outside of rifts, damn it! Unfortunately, at the best of times, Pokémon world-building is implied more than it is stated when it comes to the history of the world. Which is a very roundabout way of saying that it's, unfortunately, not a priority at all for Game Freak.

Yeah, I don't think there's anything in-game which provides hints for what you were supposed to do. The only reason anyone knew how to complete the task is because we went in considering that something must be going on in Legends: Arceus, what with...

That's my bad, got them all mixed up in my head a bit there that would work fine then, I guess we could see some Crimson Dawn crop up in Andor instead, though the little I've heard about them in the comics makes me want to know what, if anything, is going on with them in the current "present day" of the Disney+ shows in Mando and Book of Boba. Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Yeah, SWE puts great stuff out! I've been watching him since before Celebration 2015, though, admittedly, not much in the last year or two. I guess they could also dive into Crimson Dawn in some way in Andor, albeit pre-Solo, which isn't what I want. We'll have to wait and see, but I think something of that scale - if not necessarily that character and group - would be more appropriate for BOBF's ending.

Doing a lot better now, thanks! Yeah, it wasn't so much the Vespas (well, I did find the colours a bit ostentatious, just considering the locale) but rather the people sitting on them. I thought these IKEA models dressed as cyberpunk characters were just a bit too distracting, and don't even get me started on the fact that of all of the places in the galaxy that they went with body-mods, they went to Tatooine. Do they not know what heat does to tech?! I do agree it was cool seeing new stuff, though, because yeah, Star Wars definitely does get a bit too self-indulgent at times. Would much rather we get that and competent directing with a plan than how the sequels fizzled out, though. Really hope Chapter 7 does end on a high. I was talking to a friend the other day, and maybe someone can point me towards some examples if I'm wrong, but shows and movies just lack a timelessness to them these days that I quite can't put my finger on. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of great stuff still, and I enjoy a lot of them in the moment, but the further removed I am from new content these days, the weaker the show or film becomes in retrospect, which I can't say is the case for a lot of my own personal favourite shows and films.

This week's episode of Attack on Titan: The Final Season was yet another 11/10. Though, a growing concern I have is that I don't know how we get to a point where the show wraps up in 7 episodes from here -- well, assuming that we're only getting 12 episodes that is, because they haven't actually confirmed how many episodes we're getting in Part Two yet, despite us possibly being halfway through by the end of the next episode. I really hope that if, for example, another 6 episodes are needed, that we just end up with this being an 18 episode season: I can't stand the thought of avoiding manga spoilers for another year, and I hate the idea that this ends on a movie after they've seen what Mugen Train did at the box office. While I'm sure it would perform stupidly well, anything but a simultaneous worldwide release would probably end up with even more people having the show ruined for them than waiting for a hypothetical Part Three would, and let's not forget that certain countries didn't even get Mugen Train in cinemas, and so very likely wouldn't get a hypothetical Final Season: The Movie. I hope they prove my concerns wrong and we just keep going, but it wouldn't be the first time a finale is mismanaged if I do have something to be concerned about. Fingers crossed I'm wrong, though!

Just finished catching up on Chapters 4 to 6 of The Book of Boba Fett, fell behind firstly due to being ill and then realising that I wasn't totally in love with it anyways. And Chapter 3 kind of sucked with the Power Rangers, but anyways... Overall, really looking forward to the finale on Wednesday. Happy coincidence I caught up today, because I forgot we were only getting the 7 episodes! Also, @Ronnie, considering what we've had so far in the show, and especially in the last two episodes, want to get your thoughts on... Right then, roll on Wednesday!

Bah, I have no idea how I forgot to mention this in my earlier post! After nearly twenty years of playing Pokémon I finally caught a shiny Pokémon out in the wild (and not in a Mass Outbreak), and what do you know, it's one of my Hoenn favourites: Kind of feels like cheating compared to the days of random encounters, but regardless: Spheals rule. Oh man, well that's the nature of RNG I guess funnily enough I had the exact opposite issue with the Buizel quest to you too, as there was a real chonker of a Buizel that I actually initially thought was a Floatzel from a distance, and I ran into him on my first run in the Obsidian Fieldlands after receiving the quest. I feel like how you fare with the game overall is really down to personal preference, but Requests is one of the things in the game for me where I think it can almost universally be agreed that it needs tightening up. I won't be checking out any of the reviews until after I've completed the game, so I really hope it's been brought up by enough reviewers for Game Freak to realise, but I'm a bit concerned as always with reviews for a game like this that the totally fair criticisms of the game get lost in the tsunami of praise for doing something different. I won't lie, the ways the shadow interact when she's bobbing her head around in excitement freaked me out, it looked like a Gastly was possessing her Probably my second favourite kid NPC in the game so far, right behind this guy... Look at that power pose. The square to his shoulders. The exhaustion of dealing with a cruel and unjust world written all over his face. The aura of attitude emanating from him, not even giving his own mother a second glance. Kid has all the makings of a Yakuza antagonist, that's for sure

I'm approaching the 30 hour mark now, and I'm still having a blast. I unlocked the fifth area yesterday a bit after lunch, but have slowed down and not entered it yet to smell the roses a bit and catch up on a few requests that had been piling up, and also to access some parts in earlier areas which I couldn't get to before. For anyone curious about my current team: There's also some really cool lore stuff out in the world, if you look close enough. For example, it's always been a fan favourite fact that Magikarp and Gyarados are based on a Chinese folktale about a fish swimming up a waterfall and becoming a dragon, and there's a waterfall with Magikarp at the bottom and Gyarados up top. There's also a desolate hill where Floarama town would roughly be, which is how it's referenced being in the past in Diamond & Pearl, and there's a smashed up statue of Giratina out there in the world too (dude basically had his records struck from the book). Love it. While I'm really enjoying the game, I do need to talk about Requests, the side quests in this game. Because despite some surprising quality of life stuff in this game, I'm still very confused about some of their decisions. So, firstly, the positives. I think the Requests and their dialogue are surprisingly really well written. Characters involved are often quirky and unique, and I've found myself chuckling a fair few times! There's so much character to some of these side stories, which just adds so much to the identity of Jubilife Village and Hisui as a whole, and despite still having a while to go before I put the game down, it is already one of my favourite main series Pokémon games with regards to some of its writing and it's characters off the beaten path. The characters are also so much more animated in their faces and gestures, that it really just compounds the feeling that, for once, Game Freak have finally, consistently translated some of the quality writing from the 2D main series games to a 3D game. There were definitely moments in Sword & Shield which showed they were heading the right way for me (the berry detective thing in one of those hotels), but so far in Legends: Arceus, I think they've more consistently nailed it. It adds a charm which I feel has been missing for so long in these games. @Glen-i mentioned unique text for handing in a larger than required blue spaghetti monster for a certain quest, and I experienced similar. Accidentally skipped the text, but it was very funny to see... But on the other side of this...there's a thin veil of quality of life stuff, such as pressing + after receiving a Request to make it active on your map and in objectives, that weakly hides the fact that the quality of life stuff in these quests are absolute garbage. This could get long. Let's say you accept a quest to gather berries for someone - you need to keep an eye on this yourself, the game won't tell you that you have these items ready to go, and so you won't know that you're ready to hand the quest in and claim your reward unless you check this yourself. Tap -, tap Y, tap R, tap Y again a few times to sort quests by completion, then find the quest that you think you have everything ready for. Now multiply that by five because you're bound to have multiple quests on the go, and the fact you have to dredge through so many menus becomes a bit of a pain. Then there's the fact that you can only set one quest as active at a time (which appears on your map and with a marker on the overworld - if applicable), and let me tell you, you get a quest early on which is a fetch quest of so many certain things across Hisui (which isn't a problem in and of itself) that you just won't ever have only one quest in the works at a given time. It's a mess. You should be able to have multiple quests active at a given time. And then there's also the fact that some quests don't mind you not having items or Pokémon to hand when turning them, as it'll let you pull them from storage to complete the quest, whereas some others do require you to have them to hand. Now, I haven't been playing close enough attention, so maybe this is the difference between quests you turn in within the walls of Jubilife and the outside areas, but it's undeniably a poor decision, because it can lead to you going to complete a Request thinking you can hand it in without a particular Pokémon or item to hand, finding out you can't, and so you have to sprint over to somewhere with access to your storage and then head back to them. Lastly, latest quest I tackled was RNG-heavy. It required going to a particular island to catch a Pokémon you can't see out in the open but rustles trees, so if you go out and there aren't any trees rustling, you need to return to Jubilife and then make your way back to reset this. Now, I got fortunate that I "only" needed to do this five times, but I looked it up and have read that others online have spent hours trying to get this Pokémon to spawn. There are a good four or five trees on the island capable of rustling, and from what I've seen its got to be one of the highest concentrations of those trees in the game I've come across so far, so I think it's pretty clear they knew it might be a problem. Thing is, there are easy QoL fixes to these which are basically standard these days, and if not some other suggestions which could help too, so I feel they need incorporating: - allow multiple active quests. When you are out in Jubilife or any of the areas receiving a quest, they all appear on the map, so why can't every quest that you have to turn in/progress also show up? And then just highlight the ones ready to turn in/which you can progress, both in the quests menu and with markers. Congratulations, you now don't need to dig through menus like it's 2005. - specifically relating to quests which require the gathering of items: once you have the items ready in across your storage and/or satchel, just have it pop up that the Request is ready to hand in - "You've collected the berries for [XXX]. Press + if you would like to send them their way" to mirror how you can make a quest active, followed by "You sent the berries to [XXX]! Don't forget to collect your reward!", etc. - you should be able to pin quests and toggle through them in your HUD, with a way to expand them if required (e.g. if there's a photo to reference). - yeah, just make it consistent so that from any quest hand-in location, you don't need the item or Pokémon required to hand, you can just pull them from storage. Again, it's not 2005. - regarding RNG spawning in quests, I think it's stupid. I think there's a simple solution: have something be dependent on RNG outside of quests (i.e. in typical gameplay), but once a quest is active, make it guaranteed. Trust me, nothing is gained by making a tree rustling for a quest depend on RNG, that isn't a positive memory for your players. Heck, you could then design rare encounters around this - I think someone mentioned here (think it was @Hero-of-Time?) that getting Cherrim or Cherubi was a pain due to it depending on the same RNG tree rustling mechanic, and I think one of the early quests is tied to getting one of those Pokémon. With my suggestion, you can make it so that players who want a rare Pokémon early on need to grind for it, which would feel rewarding, but once you have the quest active you have a way to 100% catch it, and heck after the quest is handed in, you could make it so that the spawn rates of the rare Pokémon in the quest improves. Regarding pinning quests, it's the exact same thing they need to do with research tasks for the Pokédex in fairness: you shouldn't even need to pin those, just pressing L or R to toggle through your Pokémon should bring them up, AND YOU SHOULD ALSO BE ABLE TO SEE THESE IN BATTLES! So yeah, those are my thoughts on quests: a step in the right direction in terms of content and characters, but it's like playing a mid-2000's RPG in terms of quality of life stuff, which other games and MMORPG's have been doing right for ages. To not end on a sour note, what they've done with the progression of music in Jubilife as you complete more of the game (similar to the Observatory in Super Mario Galaxy, or Tarrey Town in Breath of the Wild) is lovely. I've praised a few tracks in my posts so far, but I'll probably be saving that for once I complete the game at this point so that I can listen to the OST without being spoiled, but I really appreciate how much effort has been put into the soundtrack and how it remixes route and location themes from Sinnoh proper with some Hisuian flair. It almost makes up for the botched soundtracks in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. Almost. Oh, and though textures can be really messy, at times the game really does look wonderful...

We've finally got the first official confirmation of the next Grand Theft Auto being in active development. From the Rockstar Newswire: And thus continues the growing trend of announcing games in blogs to drive staff hiring.

Next-gen versions of GTA V and Online are coming to both PS5 and Series X|S on 15th March. Why is this first quarter so stacked?!

Realise I'm a bit late on this, think I've started typing this up a couple of times before but lost both of my drafts. So here we go, third time's the charm! Favourite games released in 2021? I only played the 5 games released in 2021, so I'll just be ranking those. 1. Ghost of Tsushima - Iki Island DLC Ghost of Tsushima was one of my favourite games of 2020, so it probably isn't that surprising that I was over the moon when the DLC get announced. Getting to return to what I think is one of the most visually beautiful realistic open worlds was a blast, I took a stupid number of screenshots like I did the first time around. It did just about everything I think a good piece of DLC should set out to do, with story of the DLC adding a great deal of depth to Jin's backstory, fleshing out key moments of his story presented in the base game, adding some new mechanics to gameplay (you can ram people with your horse and get awesome horse armour, need I say more?) as well as the Director's Cut as a whole polishing the game further (they finally added a lock-on). Music was great once again, and Iki Island felt surprisingly unique in its colour palette when compared with the base game (a lot of purple, lighter blues, and creams). If you enjoyed the base game, I can't imagine you not liking Iki Island. It's more of the same, which in my view, is a great thing. 2. Returnal I've said a lot about Returnal in the game's dedicated thread, so I'll keep it brief here. While I did have some issues with it - as my first roguelike not to rhyme with Blistery Luncheon, I thought it could have explained some of its mechanics much better, for instance; and that the length of runs could be streamlined so that they weren't always 40+ minutes long - the game feels insanely tight to play as what is essentially a third-person shmup, jumping and melee feels great, the DualSense enhances the variety of weapons on offer and the game's environments greatly, and the bosses are all top tier, with some being amongst my favourites in recent memory. The game does such a great job with its visual and sound design too, with every biome feeling extremely alien and dangerous, and once the story starts to play it's cards around halfway through, that is only heightened. Give me a Boss Rush mode please! 3. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond Look, this is a list of my favourites, not what I think were necessarily the best games of last year, because if I were making that last, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond would be at the bottom. I said in the game's thread if I had to score it that I'd give it a 5/10, and I would still stand by that: it is so comparatively weak when compared with previous Pokémon remakes that it's laughable, the game is buggy as hell, launched with major issues and a MIDI soundtrack not on the cart, and misses more than it hits in remixing one of my personal favourite Pokémon OST's. But that being said, this was the most engaged I've felt with Pokémon for years. Yes, the game was an absolute cakewalk 99% of the time as the EXP Share is broken beyond belief, and the trainer composition wasn't changed in any significant way to reflect this, meaning you'd be overpowered from basically the first gym onwards, but it made for a surprisingly relaxing return to Sinnoh, a region which takes me back to the innocent days of childhood (helped a lot by me playing with animations turned off 95% of the time). But on the flip side of that, despite it being completely broken, Cynthia was hands down the toughest battle in the game by some margin, and probably the toughest main story battle in a main series Pokémon game since the original Diamond & Pearl, so I'm glad she gets to provide a new generation with PTSD. The Grand Underground was an excellent step up from the original Underground, it felt nice not having a linear path or loop to follow as we've had since Gen V, actually needing to do some backtracking which made me realise just how well HM's used to be utilised. And despite the soundtrack as a whole being a miss, there were some great individual track remixes, like Team Galactic HQ. It's far from perfect, but a stress-free return to Sinnoh and a land of nostalgia was surprisingly more than I expected going in, so I came away happy. I hope ILCA get more time to polish the next game they work on, and would love for them to remake HeartHold and SoulSilver with the lessons they've learned from this. 4. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart I kind of railed on the 2016 remake of Ratchet & Clank when I played it last year, so I was picking up Rift Apart mainly because I've played the Spider-Man games which Insomniac have put out over the last few years and adored those, so my hope was that they'd have something new to bring to the table that I could latch onto. And boy did they deliver on that hope of mine. The game is a stunner, some of the set-pieces are insanely fun (both in terms of cinematography and gameplay), the expanded arsenal is so much fun to use, and the worlds feel less like levels in the typical sense this time around, and a bit like living and breathing places. A particular world makes great use of the PS5's SSD, and the DualSense once again just added another layer of enjoyment to the game for me. Biggest knock against it? Probably that Ratchet and Rivet have identical movesets and weapon sets, which is crazy to me considering that Rivet has a mechanical arm. They could have done so much more to differentiate between the two! 5. It Takes Two I played A Way Out with my younger brother and loved it, so any game from Hazelight moving forwards that's built on their current focus of couch co-op is absolutely a game I'll be checking out with him. So first and foremost, I'm grateful to this game for allowing me to share time with him, which COVID and moving out have got in the way of a whole lot over the last year and a half or so. It's a great game, with a lot of fun ideas. Every level feels unique, and that's whether it comes to its visual appearance or the way you traverse that level; coupled with both players being given unique tools and abilities to use in each level, you and your playing partner of choice will actually feel needed, which is so important in a game like this. In a nutshell, this game is about variety, even giving you mini-games to play against your co-op buddy, which definitely gave us a few good laughs. However, while I think the game has rightly picked up a number of awards over the last few months, I don't think it's without issue. For one, it kind of just abruptly ends? And when coupled with its story about a failing marriage, it kind of feels like it fails to deliver. When you add to that the context that myself and my brother can't really relate to the difficulties of the two protagonists (at least not any more than we have, for example, films tackling the subject), I came away wanting a bit more than I think I got. So, while a great game and well worth checking out, I don't think it quite delivers on its promise as a story, at least not to the extent that I thought A Way Out did. Favourite games played in 2021? 1. Red Dead Redemption II (2018) I'm really picky when it comes to open world games: they're typically too long, storytelling and pacing oftentimes take a backseat, and the writing in some of them can be pretty dismal. Red Dead Redemption II, however, takes some of my problems with more traditional open world games and aims to show they should be done -- and then delivers by the spadeful. The world is gorgeous (some of the prettiest skies in a video game so far, in my opinion); the characters are incredibly well developed throughout the course of the game; it's surprisingly well paced considering the game's length (and when it does slow down, it feels intentional, outside of something that happens around the halfway mark); the sound design is absurd; and it's one of the few games I've personally played where I've been presented with choices that actually end up mattering, either in the context of the overall story and it's direction, or perhaps more importantly, to me on a personal basis. Side quests are for the most part really well done, your camp feels like a tightknit family with plenty to do and help out with, and the writing of some of the dialogue should be recognised up there amongst the best in gaming. Red Dead II does a splendid job of rewarding players of the first game (which I also played for the first time last year), too, which I'm always a fan of, and it might be one of my favourite prequels in any medium. It also has one of the best Western soundtracks I've listened to, period -- I'm not just talking video games, I mean this could just as easily pass for a Morricone soundtrack. Oh, and some of the most badass moments I've been a part of in a game in recent memory, meaning there were several times where I found myself audibly gasping, "hooooooo boy"-ing, or punching the air. Despite all of this, it's not without its issues. For everything that came out about crunch on this game being especially brutal, I went in expecting a bit less open world junk than I think is typical, but no, it's still to be found in this game in a lot of places. I'm not saying that the effort put on during crunch by the team went to waste, but I just think it goes to show why such reportedly brutal crunching can be seen as such a futile endeavour, because even in a game of the scale and budget of Red Dead Redemption II falls victim to needing just that little bit more polish. It's also tough to love this game as much as I ended up doing knowing that some of the staff had it real rough in the later stages of development. This doesn't take away from my love or enjoyment for the game, however. It's my #1 on my list for good reason, and absolutely deserves to be here. It's taken Ghost of Tsushima's spot as my favourite traditional open world (kind of wiped the floor with it, actually), and makes the idea of returning to God of War (2018) ahead of Ragnarök's release an even more enticing proposition -- what would my 2018 GOTY have been? 2. Metroid: Zero Mission (2004) I can keep the rest of these a bit shorter, as I've said my piece on them elsewhere, which wasn't really the case for Red Dead II. In Zero Mission's case, it's a game surpassing very lofty expectations set by a great many Nintendo fans, here and elsewhere on the internet. I think my only legitimate criticisms of the game are the last "level" can be poorly paced the first time you play through, and a couple of the bosses are complete misses just by being damage sponges. Seriously, I think that might be it. Otherwise, it's pretty much flawless from my experience with it. As my first Metroid game it had a lot riding on it, and it delivered, from the atmosphere, to the soundtrack, to the story told through the world, and beyond that with the immensely satisfying sense of progression and discovery through exploration. Phenomenal game. Looking forward to checking out it's sequel in some form in the next few months! 3. Super Mario Galaxy (2007) I still hate the camera at times, but yeah, another one that like Zero Mission where I have very little to otherwise complain about. Because, my goodness, that orchestra and the fun mastery of simply jumping around is just a ridiculously good combo. Had a lot more focus on level design than I thought Mario 64 did, which felt more focused on the mastery of Mario's movement, and I personally preferred that, because it meant seeing such an insane variety of ideas squeezed into this game. I had a blast! I've picked up Mario Galaxy 2, so it's a toss up between that and Sunshine for my next 3D Mario I think. 4. Dark Souls (2011) Said it in my last Gaming Diary update of 2021, but this was a real game of two halves for me. I think the game is pretty much untouchable until you leave Anor Londo, and then it's pacing is completely shot, some of the remaining bosses kind of suck (ahem, Bed of Chaos), and the hooks which were digging so deep into me in the first half of the game just loosened up. I really enjoyed my time with Dark Souls, don't get me wrong, but I can't help but imagine how I could have enjoyed it even more if not for how things are handled post-Anor Londo. God tier OST and all of the other good stuff I came to expect from Demon's Souls outside of that, though. Going to try to get back to it to play through Artorias of the Abyss before Elden Ring at the end of the month, we'll see how that goes! 5. Suikoden II (1998) I have very little to add on this outside of my Gaming Diary update last year, to be honest. It's flaw, like with the first game, is it's missable Stars of Destiny, but everything else is top notch. If you enjoy JRPG's, I can't recommend this and the first game enough. 6. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008) This is the most Kojima of the Kojima games I've played so far. I personally had a blast, because warts and all, it's top tier fan service with some bosses and story moments up there with the best in the series. 7. Suikoden (1995) Wow, a trio of Konami games for my #5 - #7. Well, just shows how great they once were, and all I've got to say is about Suikoden is that you should go play it. With a Stars of Destiny guide. It's a jolly time. Highly recommend. 8. Yakuza 5 (2012) This might be the most circumstantial entry on my list for 2021, but nonetheless, I think it deserves to be here, because the ability to pick someone up and make them smile when they're feeling down is something Ryu Ga Gotoku's games do better for me than maybe any other. I sunk tooth and nail into Yakuza 5, and I had a blast doing so. 9. Red Dead Redemption (2010) In hindsight, playing this before Red Dead Redemption II almost seems like a necessity, it added that much to my enjoyment of Red Dead II it's insane. I'm sure it works the other way too, I just don't know if I personally would enjoy the step down in mechanics and polish, because boy did this game run rough on a PS3. Like it's prequel, though, it has an insanely good soundtrack, pretty sky boxes, and an excellent cast of characters matched with some great writing. It's more Spaghetti Western than it's prequel (which is more of an Americy Western), which I greatly enjoyed too. Just remake this in the Red Dead II engine already Rockstar, you fools. 10. Ghost of Tsushima - Iki Island DLC (2021) See above! And that was 2021. So, back to playing games in 2022!

Well, holy smokes. Legends: Arceus has sold 6.5 million units within its first week week, giving it the strongest opening week of any Pokémon game to date (a record previously held by Sword/Shield and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, which both sold 6 million units in their first weeks). Very deserved in my eyes. Still got a fair way to go until the main story and then Dex are complete, but I'm having a blast!

Just caught up on the showcase, and in the nicest way possible...this game looks like it would be best experienced if it could be played in VR. It just has that look and feel to it, and some crazy good hand animations to boot, which probably helps. Kind of looks like a first-person Naruto. The showcase itself was okay, but it didn't really do a great job of selling me on a gameplay loop or hooking me -- as they said in the showcase, this was their first showing of extended gameplay footage, so I imagine that's probably part of why I feel that way, and it's a little crazy to me that they haven't announced a release date until some 6 or 7 weeks before launch with a not-so-great first look at extended gameplay. Also thought it was sequenced really weirdly, it felt like they were wrapping up after the extended gameplay footage and showing off the Deluxe Edition, but then went into a developer Q&A? Oh, and by the way, a Deluxe Edition which gives three days of early access for a game with a release date announced 6 or 7 weeks out from launch? Not exactly a great way to instill me with confidence, because it looks like a very obvious money grab. Enemy designs look like realistic incarnations of SMT/Persona monsters, which is cool as heck, and Tokyo looks cool, but it just doesn't blow me away after seeing very similar streets and locales in Ryu Ga Gotoku's games. A first-person game where cutscenes show your character in third-person always kind of bug me too, and even more so when they look as generic as this. Guy looks like he walked off the streets of The Division. Overall, I went in not thinking that I'd be buying this game if it came in March - have you seen the next eight weeks of releases? - and I came away thinking that even with attention-grabbing high review scores at launch, at best I'd probably still end up waiting for it to be on a steep sale around Black Friday, as it just doesn't scream out to me as something I need to play over any of the other games coming out right now. I could maybe even wait until whenever it eventually comes to Game Pass once I get a Series X. Shame. That cut into the ramen bowl in the first trailer and the tone that trailer set just put the bar far too high!