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Game Ramblings #26 – Pokemon Sun & Moon

More info from Nintendo/Game Freak

  • Genre: JRPG
  • Platform: 3DS

So one of the things that was continually talked about pre-release for these games was how much the 7th generation was going to change up the formula for Pokemon.  Having now finished the game, I’m not that convinced they really changed much at all, and in a lot of ways they seem to have stripped out features to get to a simplified base to start the generation.  While I’m pretty comfortable saying that as usual, this was a fantastic game and is the best Pokemon entry that’s been released, it feels like another iterative step in the series, and not at all a big change to the formula.

So, I guess to start, let’s look at what actually is new.  We’re in a new region, Alola, this time taking place on a bunch of islands.  The theme of a lot of the new 80 or so Pokemon in the Gen 7 Pokedex revolves around this, particularly in the large amount of legendaries available in the post-game content.  In addition, there’s a handful of Gen 1 Pokemon in new Alola forms, such as the Dark/Normal Rattata or Ice/Steel Sandshrew.  In all you’re talking about 100 or so new entries into your overall strategy.  There’s also a replacement to Gen 6’s Mega Evolutions called Z-Moves, super powered moves tied to type- or Pokemon-specific Z-Crystals that are found throughout the main story.

So all that is well and good, but is largely comprised of expected changes.  From there we have to get into the kinda sort asterisk changes that were really claimed as the big steps forward, as well as some features that were removed from Gen 6 games that are definitely to be missed.

The big one here is the change associated with gyms.  Gyms are gone! You aren’t collecting badges! …kind of.  Gyms were effectively replaced by a new captain challenge system.  Each captain challenge is a special area on each island in which you take on a type-specific challenge.  As an example, in one you are tasked with researching a series of disturbances in a lake, culminating in a series of water Pokemon fights, with the reward being a water Z-Crystal.  Long story short, they technically aren’t gyms, and technically aren’t badges, the functionality is effectively the same, going from area to area to fight type-restricted fights.  Alongside the gym changes, there’s also some big asterisks associated with changes to the Pokemon League that are effectively covered in the story.

As far as removals go, Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby extended the gameplay of Gen 6’s post-game in some smart ways that no longer exist.   The first big one of these is the Soar feature, where you could fly on the back of Latios or Latias over the Hoenn region, giving you access to both battles against flying Pokemon, as well as a larger number of Soar-exclusive legendary Pokemon areas, and post game content.  In addition, the DexNav feature is completely removed.  This has two important consequences.  First, the per-route visual indicator of what Pokemon are available is gone.  Second, the entire hidden Pokemon feature is gone.  In general the second-screen experience is effectively only restricted to combat inputs and an always-on Town Map, which fairly heavily simplified the count of non-essential mechanics available to the player.  In addition, the removal of Mega Evolutions is at the very least curious given the amount of marketing push it received throughout the entirety of Gen 6.

All that being said, overall I still think the game is a step forward.  In shedding some of the old mechanics, they have definitely simplified the game back to a much cleaner slate, giving them a good base to start with looking forward to the probable move to the upcoming Switch.  It also provides some questions as to how they are going to handle the assumed Gen 4 remakes when they’re ready to move in that direction.  The team at this point seems to have caught up to a lot of the type mechanics added within the last couple of generations, with a lot of the new Pokemon adopting dual-type combos never seen before.  The addition of region-specific forms also gave us curious new type combinations, lending a bit of mystery to what kind of Pokemon is coming up next when you’re told that you will be facing a Sandslash.  If they really run with some of these features through the rest of Gen 7, we could be set for a huge jump in the quality of the Pokemon games from this point forward.

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Game Ramblings #25 – Shadow Complex Remastered

More Info from Epic Games

  • Genre: Action/Adventure, Metroidvania
  • Platform: PS4
  • Also Available On: Windows (Steam, Windows Store, Epic Games Launcher), Mac App Store, Xbox One, Xbox 360 (XBLA)

Back before they spawned the mobile juggernaut known as Infinity Blade, Chair Entertainment released a nice little Metroidvania title called Shadow Complex.  In honor of why the hell not, a remastered version has come out for PC and current gen consoles.  With the great folks at Limited Run Games releasing a physical version, I figured it was as good a time as any to make a run through this one again, and as it turns out, the game is still damn good.

If there’s one genre I’m a sucker for nearly as much as JRPGs, it’s Metroidvania-styled Action/Adventure games.  If you ignore the setting, this one definitely strays much closer to Metroid than a lot in the genre.  It’s got upgradeable guns and pickups that unlock ways to get through new doors, a computerized mech suit that tells you where to go, and eventually a chargeable dash that breaks through even more doors.  Basically, a lot of what is here is straight out of Metroid, but grounded in a somewhat more believable Earth-based setting.

That said, all its similarities are definitely not a detriment to this game.  They’ve captured a lot of the exploration magic that the Metroid series, and in the roughly 3-5 hour adventure, you’ll traverse a lot of the same areas multiple times, but always in new ways.  The pickups and upgrades are scattered all over the place, so returning to old places always brings side paths to grab things that were just taunting you out of reach before.  To some extent I was even going out of my way once I got some of my larger weapon upgrades just because I’d remembered a handful of upgrades that I wanted to get right away.  In addition, unlike some games in this genre, ammunition for secondary weapons (grenades, missiles, etc) are plentiful, and available for recharge at all save stations, so you never feel crunched into not using some of your more powerful arsenal.

That said, there’s definitely some things that are missing that I wish were explored more.  There’s really not much in the way of memorable boss fights in this game.  For the most part, you fight the same spider mech a handful of times, with a couple other fights that can be mechanically exploited to avoid difficulty.  As an example, one fight has you up against a giant mech wheel that is jumping around the walls of a ring-shaped room.  By positioning yourself just behind one of the corners of the room, you could avoid all damage, while still being able to easily shoot at the boss’ weak spot, giving an easy victory.  In addition, there’s some points, particularly in the final battle, where I would get shot at and effectively instant killed without much of an idea where damage sources were coming from.

All that being said, when this originally came out in ’09, it was one of the best Metroidvanias that had come out around that time.  In 2016, I’d still say that it’s one of the better Metroidvanias out this year.  While the upgrade didn’t bring much new to the table, other than some improved visual fidelity, the game itself has not lost anything in its age, and should definitely be played if you missed it the first time around.

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Game Ramblings #24 – Thomas Was Alone

More Info from Mike Bithell

  • Genre: Puzzle/Platformer
  • Platform: PS4
  • Also Available On: Steam, PS3, Vita, Mobile, Xbox One, Wii U

Thomas Was Alone is ostensibly a game about colored blocks.  At its core it takes a relatively simple visual style, and mixes it with simple 2D platformer mechanics in ways that have been done before.  However, by being extremely mechanically tight, and by having a great atmosphere that happens along side of it, it becomes one of the best platformers I’ve played in recent times.

There’s really two things that stood out about Thomas Was Alone compared to most platformers, and both of them directly tie into how the blocks are treated as individual characters.  The title of the game is no mistake, as each block is treated as a separate character within the game’s story.  Each block has its own unique personality that is exposed as the story is told.  Whether it’s the titular Thomas who is always taking note of the world around him and really doesn’t want to be alone, or Chris, who is initially a bit of a grump, but eventually ends up falling in love, or any of the other characters that you meet along the way, each block is elevated to a full character simply through fantastic writing  and great narration.  The overall characterization that is gained just through passive narration is reminiscent of games like Portal, where the depth of the game’s universe is a lot more than expected at first glance.

The individual character traits then extend directly into gameplay, giving each individual character their own style.  The combinations of characters in each level then determine how the puzzles proceed in each level.  For example, Thomas is the base character, and simply jumps a normal height.  James has the same traits as Thomas, but has reversed gravity.  Sarah can double jump, Chris has a short jump, but it also much smaller size and can fit through gaps, Laura can be used as a trampoline, etc.  Each new character introduced adds another layer to the overall experience until you’re eventually completing puzzles using the entire gang’s unique abilities to finish up levels.

All of this is tied together in a package that is extraordinary in how reliable the mechanics all are.  There were no situations in which I felt like I was misjudging my jumps or unsure of where I was trying to get to.  New characters would seamlessly integrate into my puzzle solving experience as soon as I learned what their ability or benefit was.  The game, as is appropriate in puzzle games in general, was never about the where, but the how of finishing each area.

I think in the end the best thing I can really say about Thomas Was Alone is that I accidentally finished it in one sitting.  Sure, it was only about 4 hours long, but there’s not many games that I play for four hours straight, and even fewer where I don’t even realize that four hours had gone by.  I suppose I should have gotten to this one sooner.