Re: RE: Pokémon Sword and Shield

Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boy.

All right, look.  I know I implied last time that I would use this slot to gripe about Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise, but then I played through some more Pokémon Sword.  How much more?  Enough to clear the main story, and get within inches of clearing the “postgame” …and probably would have if the game hadn’t experienced a fatal error and crashed to the home screen, prompting a rage quit/decision to wash dishes/continue watching Parks and Recreation.  Speaking of, I’m super into Parks and Rec now.  I regret not watching it when it was on-air, but blame my TV and its utter inability to properly tune to NBC.  Certainly not me.

I’m at risk of losing the plot.  So let’s talk about Pokémon Sword.

RE: Pokémon Sword and Shield

So I’m six gyms deep into Pokémon Sword, and creeping up on the seventh.  I probably shouldn’t be, but here I am.  To think there was a time when I said I was planning to sit the game out.

The reasoning was sound.  The eighth-generation game -- both for the franchise, and in terms of consoles -- has been mired in controversies for months.  “The graphics are awful.”  “They’re cutting out Pokémon.” “Features are getting dropped.” “They’re not even trying.” “Game Freak lied.” And so on, and so forth.  All things considered?  I didn’t need another franchise installment in my life.  I fell off at the endgame of Moon, and was willing to sit it out until Gen 9’s inevitable drop.  Maybe then, Game Freak would straighten things out.  Earn fans’ trust with a title that knocked it into space.  I bought into the fans’ outcry (despite previous indifference to it) and decided, yeah, supporting the game meant supporting a slide into mediocrity.  So, I didn’t.

Then my brother bought the game regardless.  I suspect he would have even if he knew about the controversies -- which meant I’d have to give the game an honest shot.

Pfft.  Who needs integrity, anyway?

Pokken Tournament DX is pretty rad.

I mean, I’m pretty sure that’s obvious to anyone that’s been playing the game since the original Wii U release (God rest your noble soul), but as you know, I’m always late to the proverbial party.

Technically, I should be even later than I already am.  Even though I’ve had multiple opportunities to grab Pokken Tournament DX in theory, in practice the schedule -- such as it is -- refused it every time thanks to an extra buffer of simple reasoning.  “Can’t get it now because [insert major game release here] is about to come out.”  “Can’t get it now because my backlog is too big.”  “Can’t get it now because I need to write about JRPGs that progressively erode the fibers of my soul.”  And as I type this, I’m literally less than six days away from the release of another fighting game, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle -- thus meaning I have to spend hours with that to gain basic competency.  And tomorrow (again, as I type this) Zamasu and Vegito drop in Dragon Ball FighterZ -- and I haven’t played that game in two solid months.  The inevitable session with my brother to celebrate is going to be a massacre.

So you know what?  Screw it.  I’ve got to do something for me.  And what better way to be a selfish twat than with a purchase I may end up regretting 8.56 seconds after I upload this post.  Let’s dig into Pokken Tournament DX.

RE: Pokémon Sun and Moon

This would be the part where I’d say “Boy, I am late to this”, but I learned something very important.  You see, neither you nor anyone else can point out how late you are as long as you refuse to acknowledge that you were ever late to begin with.  It’s the perfect system.

Anyway, Pokémon Sun and Moon.  Let’s get to it.

So How Good is Pokémon, Really?

Not to start this off with a tangent, but I have to ask a question: which theme song from the Pokémon anime is your favorite?

I know that -- by virtue of being the first of the bunch -- the first theme is undoubtedly the most popular, and holds a special place in the hearts of gamers the world over.  (Voltech Pro Tip: look up Powerglove’s take on the song for a metal delight.)  But I think it’s important to at least give the other songs their fair shake, especially with so many songs collected over the years.  Compilations are fully available on YouTube, and I listened to one a while back.  Some are good.  Some are…less good.  But you know what?  My favorite of the bunch is the Galactic Battle theme -- which is weird, because I haven’t seen a single episode of that season.  I don’t even know what season the show’s on right now.  Twenty would be my best guess.

The takeaway here is that the sheer number of songs codifies the franchise’s enduring legacy.  You know you’ve made it big when a compilation of theme songs creeps past the thirty-minute mark -- and while there’s no guarantee that everyone will like everything you do, at least you’ve put something out, right?  There’ll always be people that buy in wholesale, no matter when they decide to do so.  We should celebrate that; newcomers, veterans, and everything in between can come together and enjoy something magical.

And now that that thinly-veiled argument against the “genwunner” mentality is out of the way, let’s press on with gusto.  And lots of fancy balls.