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As of my freshman year, I will be posting content centered around a certain topic. You can expect my blog posts to feature well-written sentences.
Brady Bryan
At the time of me writing this post, the entire population of Earth is currently dealing with the spread of COVID-19, or Coronavirus as it is more commonly referred to. During this time, everyone is advised (or forced in some countries) to practice self-quarantine, limiting themselves from outside interaction as much as possible. Some stores changed their schedule to make hours shorter, healthcare products are flying off of shelves as I speak, and restaurants closed their dining rooms, limiting customers to drive-thrus only. Aside from shutting down stores, restaurants, and the like, COVID-19 has shut down, cancelled, or delayed video game tournaments and events. One of the first tournaments/events to be negatively affected by the Coronavirus was Bandai Namco's TEKKEN Masters tournament two weeks ago. The company posted about it on their social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, as well as their website much to the dismay of the potential attendees. While many people dismissed the Coronavirus as a small little flu virus, this incident was a precursor to what was to come. Despite some negative results of the virus, some companies and platforms have improved and upgraded their services to adjust and aid online users. Discord, a social gaming platform heavily used by gamers internationally, temporarily increased the maximum amount of people in a live stream from ten to a whopping fifty. This was done to accommodate for teachers and instructors to teach their class online, which had been at the forefront of discussion among parents, school staff, and students. Niantic, the developers of Pokemon Go, has made it easier for players to catch Pokemon in the safety of their own home by substantially increasing the amount of Pokemon that spawn in an area. They also increased the amount of items available from PokeStops, as well as set up a bundle of 30 Incenses for a single Pokecoin, the in-game currency. Incenses rapidly increase the spawn rate of Pokemon around the player, typically lasting for 30 minutes. However, the incenses bought with the in-game currency now last for an hour, making Pokemon encounters substantially easier and streamlined. Whereas many stores and restaurants are limiting the amount of products sold per person and/or limiting their menu in response to the Coronavirus, many other online services are being generous with their services. Pokemon Go and Discord are only two examples of "doing God's work" unto their consumers. In any case, many people online are citing this unorthodox time period as the perfect opportunity to stay inside and play video games, which is a common trope among the gaming community. While they might not be inherently wrong, it is still important that everyone stays safe and continues to properly take care of themselves appropriately. Recap:
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Brady Bryan
Before anyone asks, yes, this game is enjoyable. Notice how I didn't say "good," but this game does have some redeeming qualities, and it would appear that most of the naysayers have gone quiet since its release (aside from going on Twitter to make fun of some of the bad move animations as if that horse hasn't been beat to death already). Moreover, people posting gameplay with them interacting with their Pokemon via one of the new features have been flooding everyone's timelines with cutesy, comedic videos. Otherwise in terms of quality, the game was exactly how people expected it to be. Nothing exceptional, but was at least able to allow players to make what they will of their experience. I suppose it's one of those "it's-so-bad-it's-good" type of games, but it's not on the same level of bad as other games in the genre are. Firstly, the plot. The plot is your generic Pokemon franchise storyline: Get first Pokemon, defeat enemy organization, battle your rival, become Champion and catch the big-bad Pokemon advertised on the cover (often in interchangeable order), and fill up your Pokedex. The only spin that Pokemon Shield puts on the formulaic plot is that the enemy organization isn't so much evil as they are high-spirited fanboys of one of the player's rival whereas in older games, the enemy organization is focused on either destroying the earth, destroying the universe, taking over the world, or simply stealing other people's Pokemon. Anyone with a few brain cells could predict the plot, so I doubt if one could call it "mind-blowing" or "engaging." With the region being based off of Europe, the people of Galar speak with English (British) dialect which can be fun to read out loud initially, but can gradually become grating depending on the type of person you are. With an easily predictable storyline, the game did a good job of catering to the younger audience. Looking for a challenging Pokemon game? You are far better off playing the older Pokemon games or a fan-made Pokemon ROM hack as Pokemon Shield will not suit your tastes. In contrast to older games such as Pokemon Red or Gold where the player had to remember what to do at all times to progress the story to avoid being soft-locked, the game holds your hand tighter than a mother with her toddler, making the first-time experience extremely linear. Hell, the game explicitly tells you what to do to progress simply by entering the menu with no way to turn off clues or hints. The AI is impressively unintelligent to the point where the player could be at a huge type advantage, but still win because the AI's Pokemon choose the same move over and over again. There's no reason to not use your starter Pokemon because of how good they are compared to the other Pokemon lurking in the wilderness. One of the key mechanics introduced is "Dynamaxing/Gigantamaxing" in which the player uses a special bracelet to cause their Pokemon to grow to towering heights, effectively tripling their health, strengthening their attacks, and in some cases, completely changing the design of certain Pokemon. This is extremely crucial to the plot and lore of the game as Dynamaxed Pokemon battles are a sort of spectator sport exclusive to Galar, and is also how the antagonist of the game plans to succeed in his nefarious goals. Wild Pokemon also appear in the overworld, which is a first in the series, allowing for new methods to shiny hunt or hunt for an especially strong Pokemon. Early on, players can encounter final-evolution Pokemon in the wild that will absolutely decimate their team, which is an interesting way to caution players thinking that they can beat absolutely anything. As for most of the rest of the features, everything is still as you remember it: sloppy, low-res textures for certain objects such as trees, shadows are pixelated and ugly, the list goes on. While some moves such as Double Kick have unimaginably horrid animations that make the player want to facepalm, other moves such as Cinder Ball have such impressive and pleasing animations that will make the player "ooo and ahh." Caves and towns (particularly caves) are colorful and vivid and overall pleasing to the eye. The newer Pokemon designs are either hit-or-miss for me purely based on look and the new evolution methods are downright questionable. For Runerigus, an evolved form of a regional variant of Yamask, the player (as opposed to simply leveling up the Pokemon) has to weaken Yamask to a certain HP and run under a certain part of a rock in a certain place. Sounds confusing, right? The music was composed by Toby Fox, who is the creator of another popular game, Undertale. Whereas the music in Undertale was so dynamic and pleasing where musicians claim that Toby Fox took music theory and flipped it on its head, the music in Pokemon Shield is more simple and, honestly, bland. Did I forget to mention the voice actors? Well, that's because even after more than twenty years, characters (other than Pikachu and select other Pokemon) are still silent, communicating only through text. And before anyone asks about the frame rate, it's a Nintendo Switch game, of course the framerate dips sporadically, nothing new here. This game is unarguably worth three stars out of five. This is a game you would play if it was a rainy day, the power went out, and you are very limited in video game options, but even when the power comes back, you would miraculously still continue to play because you progressed so far and became attached. If you tune out all of the obvious flaws like few people can, you can have an enjoyable experience with this game. Rating: 3/5 Brady Bryan
As of earlier today (January 9th, 2020), Nintendo held a Pokemon Direct lirevestream on their YouTube channel, Twitter, Twitch, and other online platforms. For those unsure, Nintendo Directs are livestreams in which new games, DLC, and overall content are announced for Nintendo products, and while most Directs don't focus on a specific franchise (other than Super Smash Bros. directs and Pokemon directs as they are the faces of Nintendo), this one announced a seemingly alarming amount of content for one of their most recent releases, Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield. Most people recognize both games as half-finished products due to the numerous prevalent flaws in both. I recently wrote a blog post further discussing the issues with the games, but to keep a long list short, the game lacks visually, technologically, and effectively reduced the amount of available Pokemon by halving the total amount of over 900 to only 400. That is, until today. Game producer Junichi Masuda and game director Shigeru Ohmori revealed that more Pokemon that weren't originally present in either game at all would make a return, completely new Pokemon would make an appearance, some Pokemon would now have new regional and special forms, and two new areas of exploration were shown, among other concepts. The two new areas would be a part of the Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra, a summery, tropical isle and a snowy landscape respectively. Both parts are planned to be released in the summer and fall of this year at a total cost of $29.99. The most notable aspect of the Direct was the amount of featured concept art. So many designs for new and revamped Pokemon, areas, and attire for the players best suited depending on whether they visit the Isle of Armor or Crown Tundra were shown, and some of the concept art was obscured by scribbles and a question mark to conceal what the final design would look like so as to cause speculation. The general consensus seems to be that this was the level of content expected from Game Freak in the first place (maybe even going above and beyond what was expected). Not many people anticipated that Pokemon would have DLC, let alone being worth paying half the cost of the original games (of course, with pre-order incentives). While it is still abundantly clear that this was arguably a business decision, it is undeniable that it is a successful business incentive that not only pleases the consumers that conclusively had fun with both games, but also fills the pockets of those involved with the creation of the games. After all, Switch games are expensive to produces. Smart move, Game Freak. Recap:
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AuthorBrady Bryan is quite familiar with blogs since he had to frequently post on his blog in 6th grade. Although its been a long time since then, he still knows what a proper blog should look like. Archives
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