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- Oct 18, 2012
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So I've completed the three major story arcs and also caught the Musketeers, done a few Dynamax Adventures, and participated in the first Galarian Star Tournament. (It was definitely fun, but will probably be more so on subsequent playthroughs when I'm taking my time rather than blitzing through it as fast as I can.) Sooooo, thoughts time!
- Like I said before, the atmosphere is amazing, and the geography of the Crown Tundra is on a whole other level compared to the Isle of Armor and especially the Wild Area (frankly, there's not even really a comparison there, the Tundra makes the Wild Area look pathetic - but like I've been saying since SwSh came out, that's how it always goes with Game Freak; they start by dipping their toes into an idea and then they gradually improve upon it). Looking back, you can certainly see how they steadily experimented with increasing the complexity of these open areas' layouts, but honestly I still wasn't expecting this big of a leap from IOA to CT. The Tundra feels huge and easy to get lost in. I'm really excited to see what kind of influence this has on later games. I do have one gripe, though - it was kind of understandable with the water segments of IOA because it's literally in the middle of the ocean, but here, if you go to the Frigid Sea, it's very easy to butt up against these invisible border walls that keep you from going out into the distant, inaccessible reaches of the sea. It's kind of immersion-breaking, because there's not even a consistent wall of ice floes to "act" as an in-universe barrier.
- I like how they've split the difference between giving old Legendaries a story arc and throwing them in as rewards for a bonus content feature like Soaring/Wormholes/DA. People sometimes say they miss having old Legendary Pokémon integrated into the setting of a new region, but it was inevitable that as the roster of Legendaries continued to swell, that would eventually become unmanageable, hence wormhole/presumably non-canonical Dynamax Adventures sort of solution. I think it would be pretty preposterous to try to cram every old Legendary into some bespoke corner of the Galar region, because at some point I feel like that starts to compromise Galar's own sense of identity. But focusing on just a couple of specific sets - the adapted Birds, the Regis, and the Musketeers; especially since all of those are on the softer side of lore affiliations - helps those Legendaries to feel more organic within the setting while still retaining a feeling of importance and uniqueness. I also like the different methodology for each set. The birds bring back the roaming concept (And how! It's soooooo much cooler when you can actually see them in the world, and I like how Zapdos and Moltres skip off to the previous open-world areas), the Regis stick with the "meet specific criteria to trigger an encounter" routine (surprised there wasn't a Relicanth/Wailord Easter egg, and that Regigigas seems relegated to Dynamax Adventures), and you have to track down the Musketeers in an IOA Diglett- or Zygarde Cell-like quest. (And completing that also allows you to encounter a Keldeo(!), in a manner that would have been the talk of the town 10 years ago, but is unfortunately kind of undermined by the nature of the Internet.)
- All that being said, I did not miss these low catch rates. In that regard, I very much appreciate Dynamax Adventures, which make obtaining a Legendary feel like a challenge but in a different way, where if you can withstand the test of endurance, you're guaranteed to catch it. I haven't actually managed to defeat a Legenedary through DA yet, although I did get extremely close on Zygarde, but I'm eager to keep trying. I definitely like how you can choose to go after a specific Legendary if you've already encountered it once before. The RNG part of USUM's wormholes was just awful, and this addresses that problem nicely. Also, it seems like there are good rewards for DA besides the Legendaries - not just the Ability Patch, but you can also find the Hoenn Starters, Alola Forms, and Gigantamax Pokémon in there as well. Plus, the catching animation has been trimmed down a bit and there are mercifully no barrier phases. Those work for individual Max Raids, but would have been way too brutal here.
- On the other hand, the round of the Galarian Star Tournament that I did... I mean, as expected, the character interactions were lovely, but I sincerely don't know what the TPC representatives could have meant when they described this as the "hardest challenge." DA is way more difficult; this is just a slightly harder version of the post-game tournament we already had, and I'm... not sure what the reward is really supposed to be, either. Maybe you get more interesting stuff on repeat attempts, but I doubt it - all I received for winning the first go-around was the GST uniform, $1,000,000, and 3 Net Balls from Ball Guy ._. Congrats to Klara <3/Avery for officially becoming a Gym Leader though!
- The Calyrex arc was pretty cool. Felt bizarre (but in the good sense of being really novel and unexpected) to have a Legendary Pokémon communicating with you quasi-verbally throughout. It does make me feel more connected to Calyrex once all is said and done, though I feel a bit sorry for Peony, lol, always being used as a sock puppet. Peony was pretty fun too, and like everyone else, has some interesting backstory notes in his League Card profiles.
I'm sure I'll think of more to say!
Oh yeah, and they finally added V-create to Victini's natural level-up pool! Been waiting on that for forever. Now to wait and see if Nidorina and Nidoqueen finally have an Egg Group...
- Like I said before, the atmosphere is amazing, and the geography of the Crown Tundra is on a whole other level compared to the Isle of Armor and especially the Wild Area (frankly, there's not even really a comparison there, the Tundra makes the Wild Area look pathetic - but like I've been saying since SwSh came out, that's how it always goes with Game Freak; they start by dipping their toes into an idea and then they gradually improve upon it). Looking back, you can certainly see how they steadily experimented with increasing the complexity of these open areas' layouts, but honestly I still wasn't expecting this big of a leap from IOA to CT. The Tundra feels huge and easy to get lost in. I'm really excited to see what kind of influence this has on later games. I do have one gripe, though - it was kind of understandable with the water segments of IOA because it's literally in the middle of the ocean, but here, if you go to the Frigid Sea, it's very easy to butt up against these invisible border walls that keep you from going out into the distant, inaccessible reaches of the sea. It's kind of immersion-breaking, because there's not even a consistent wall of ice floes to "act" as an in-universe barrier.
- I like how they've split the difference between giving old Legendaries a story arc and throwing them in as rewards for a bonus content feature like Soaring/Wormholes/DA. People sometimes say they miss having old Legendary Pokémon integrated into the setting of a new region, but it was inevitable that as the roster of Legendaries continued to swell, that would eventually become unmanageable, hence wormhole/presumably non-canonical Dynamax Adventures sort of solution. I think it would be pretty preposterous to try to cram every old Legendary into some bespoke corner of the Galar region, because at some point I feel like that starts to compromise Galar's own sense of identity. But focusing on just a couple of specific sets - the adapted Birds, the Regis, and the Musketeers; especially since all of those are on the softer side of lore affiliations - helps those Legendaries to feel more organic within the setting while still retaining a feeling of importance and uniqueness. I also like the different methodology for each set. The birds bring back the roaming concept (And how! It's soooooo much cooler when you can actually see them in the world, and I like how Zapdos and Moltres skip off to the previous open-world areas), the Regis stick with the "meet specific criteria to trigger an encounter" routine (surprised there wasn't a Relicanth/Wailord Easter egg
- All that being said, I did not miss these low catch rates. In that regard, I very much appreciate Dynamax Adventures, which make obtaining a Legendary feel like a challenge but in a different way, where if you can withstand the test of endurance, you're guaranteed to catch it. I haven't actually managed to defeat a Legenedary through DA yet, although I did get extremely close on Zygarde, but I'm eager to keep trying. I definitely like how you can choose to go after a specific Legendary if you've already encountered it once before. The RNG part of USUM's wormholes was just awful, and this addresses that problem nicely. Also, it seems like there are good rewards for DA besides the Legendaries - not just the Ability Patch, but you can also find the Hoenn Starters, Alola Forms, and Gigantamax Pokémon in there as well. Plus, the catching animation has been trimmed down a bit and there are mercifully no barrier phases. Those work for individual Max Raids, but would have been way too brutal here.
- On the other hand, the round of the Galarian Star Tournament that I did... I mean, as expected, the character interactions were lovely, but I sincerely don't know what the TPC representatives could have meant when they described this as the "hardest challenge." DA is way more difficult; this is just a slightly harder version of the post-game tournament we already had, and I'm... not sure what the reward is really supposed to be, either. Maybe you get more interesting stuff on repeat attempts, but I doubt it - all I received for winning the first go-around was the GST uniform, $1,000,000, and 3 Net Balls from Ball Guy ._. Congrats to Klara <3/Avery for officially becoming a Gym Leader though!
- The Calyrex arc was pretty cool. Felt bizarre (but in the good sense of being really novel and unexpected) to have a Legendary Pokémon communicating with you quasi-verbally throughout. It does make me feel more connected to Calyrex once all is said and done, though I feel a bit sorry for Peony, lol, always being used as a sock puppet. Peony was pretty fun too, and like everyone else, has some interesting backstory notes in his League Card profiles.
I'm sure I'll think of more to say!
Oh yeah, and they finally added V-create to Victini's natural level-up pool! Been waiting on that for forever. Now to wait and see if Nidorina and Nidoqueen finally have an Egg Group...
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