pokemon zaza

So i got the new pokemon legends game pretty much when it came out, and i am surprised that i'm actually having fun.

Of course it's plagued by the usual issues that modern pokemon games have aka the lack of funds and development time, but this one fixed what i didn't like about pretty much the core mechanic of pokemon, and that was fighting and catching. Which probably sounds stupid to most because "why play pokemon if you hate the core mechanic" and that's a good question. Because i didn't hate it at first but after tens of hours of playing the same game of just badly animated cutscenes and the same recycled ideas and story with a different gimmick, it started to get boring.

I started playing during gen 8, so i am quite new to the gaming side of the franchise, but i was more familiar with the anime. Because for the longest time i only had the wii, and a laptop, and i didn't buy my own games, hell i didn't even think that i'd want to play anything else except super mario galaxy 2. Also there is the fact that i didn't understand english properly enough to play something like pokemon until the switch was already announced and i got it 3 years later. And even then i didn't really think to play pokemon, until i heard two other patients talk about it at the open psych ward that i was at. And when i started playing i loved it, and it was genuinely fun and new. I felt drawn to the characters and i thought that the pokemon designs were charming, the graphics were bad in some places but it still had that cozy feel to it and the environments had charm, which is something that went completely out of the window after gen 9 and legends arceus.

But back to the core mechanics and my beef with them.

So basically the battles are so slow, because after every attack you have to wait like additional 3-5 seconds for the game to tell you what just happened. This is good for someone who's just learning, but i've played a few games and i can pretty much remember the entire type chart, i think i'm good thanks. And the catching is similar, you have to engage in a fight, which is a 5 second cutscene, then the actual battle, and at the end you might not even catch it. It's so frustrating. But in the new catching system you can just catch stuff in the overworld without a battle. Also the new battles in legends z-a it's so fast paced, it's actually engaging and quite fun. 

So you enjoy the legends games? How was arceus?

I dislike it.

And why that is? Because it's not for me, it's that simple. A whole game around a mechanic that i find tedious and time consuming made even more tedious and time consuming. I had mixed feelings. It was definitely a breath of fresh air and it's honestly a lot of fun to watch. But i didn't enjoy it so much that my 60€ would've been worth it. If there was more to it than just the short story and pokedex filling simulator, i would've probably liked it a lot more. I liked the stuff that was introduced with it, like alphas and quests (even tho the quests in arceus annoyed me a lot, because it was just pokemon catching with more requirements) but i enjoy the quests specifically a lot more now because they're way faster to complete and have a lot more variety imo. And with a more compact map without long loading screens it's so much better. 

There's still a lot i would improve with z-a, but it's definitely more akin to what i've wanted from this franchise, and the story is not straight forward, which is really interesting, can't wait to see where it goes tbh.

There's also so much customization, mainly clothes unfortunately, the hairs are horribly lacking in texture and length variety. "your hair is not short to mid length and pin straight, the best i can do is 2-3 options" are you joking. My hair is pretty close to straight and mid length, so i didn't have difficulty finding something for my character. But my friend has to choose between basically just 2 options. And that's fucked up.

Btw this is not a company that's struggling financially, this is corporate greed and a lack of care for the player base. And i don't understand this because scarlet and violet had way more options for different textures. Also they finally removed gender locking on clothes, but now there's no skirts or dresses, because "oh no what if someone who's playing as a guy wears those" (aka me) ,like genuinely why. Atleast they allow makeup.

But like every gen it's also plagued by the blatant kanto pandering, which i hate. Also the new mega designs are a hit or miss, but so were the old ones imo.

Idk if i could recommend this, so i will just leave this up to the individual. I've had fun so far atleast, but i could always be having more. Ramble over, enjoy your day.