Preview: Pokemon and...who now?

Wow, what a weekend!  Sorry I hadn't posted, but I was a tad busy going to the Taiko Conference over at Weseleyan.  It was insane!  Got to learn all sorts of awesome craft and had a lot of fun times with friends and mentors.  Needless to say, I had only a little time to mess around with video games, but I'll try my best to talk about some things that are both upcoming and very much in the line of sight.


Preview: Pokemon + Nobunaga's Ambition
I've gotta say, there's just nothing more enraging than when I hear about a successful spinoff title.  Y'know, as much as I can endorse new gameplay mechanics in video games (part of the reason why I turned to Indie games in order to appease my hardcore, artsy side), it destroys any respect that I have for a company when a standalone concept that *could* have been creatively charged with something new and interesting gets the same old, boring, monotonous storyline that really plops you right back where you started.  It's annoying, infuriating, and just plain not okay when a game developer says, "Yeah, but let's not get too creative this time guys.  We can't get carried away."  In other words, I get pissed off because any spinoff title has the potential to become this:

And you just realized how much worse the DS would have been had TWEWY been...

well, really anything Square Enix related.

So yeah, when I saw this DS title, I said, "Fuck.  Why?"  And, just like the curious fucking hipster that I am, I decide to give it a shot because I'm a sucker for pokemon and strategy games have a weird hold on me and god dammit I'm such a consumer WHORE.


Well, okay.  I am, but this game is actually quite good.  Now, give me a moment to explain.  It's not, by any means, a great game.  My opinion still stands that had the creators of this game done a game in the style of the Nobunaga games, and not based it around the pokemon universe, it would have been even better.  But even still, Pokemon sells.  It has sold more than most game companies could ever hope to produce in terms of revenue.  It's a titan in the video game industry, so much so that anything with the name "Pokemon" attached to it will sell.

"Look, I don't care. I know Mewtwo is a clone and they hadn't invented clones in Feudal Japan.

But this game won't sell unless it's got some hot, Mewtwo action and you know it."

The mechanics, for all intents and purposes actually work quite well.  The concept is quite simple, especially for a strategy game: you have a leader (or bushou, for those anal, retentive Japanese majors) and a pokemon.  These two work in tandem as a single "unit"; at this point, if you've ever played a fire emblem game you already know how to play this game.  Type advantages and disadvantages are obvious to Pokemon vets, and it's pretty easy to pick up on the different skills that the leaders have.

You know, I could take the time to translate that, but I'm pretty sure I know what it says.

Somewhere along the lines of "FUCKIN' OW DUDE, STOP".

The hard part comes when you realize that this isn't Pokemon as you know it.  In the flagship titles, Pokemon are pit against each other in groups of 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3.  However, in this game, you can have a massive clusterfuck of a 6v6 (or, to be more accurate, this is what ends up happening in every single level later on in the game).  The result may, at first, seem chaotic and unfair, as you won't have much control over whether or not that Machoke is going to steamroll your Jigglypuff (WHO CAN HEAL, WHADDUP) into oblivion.  The cool thing is that it doesn't feel like you have all the cards stacked in your favor anymore.  Everything is chaotic and a mess, and you will lose some pokemon.

I never thought I'd say this, but if you kill my Scraggy, I'm gonna quit.

It's surprisingly addicting.  It's got a good bit of content, including 200 pokemon to collect, a bunch of leaders to add to your team (but most of them are from the same template, which is a MAJOR turnoff for me).  It's also got a gym leader-esque thing going, where you have to battle a bushou and a bunch of his pokemon for supremacy over a nation (which has it's own type).  If you manage to win, you get access to that nation, it's pokemon, leaders, and whatever else lies beyond it.  It's a very cool system, and since I haven't made it all the way through the game yet, I can't say for certain whether it holds up in terms of replay value.


As with any strategy game, it's going to get a bit boring, however.  Although it's fun to collect pokemon and train them until they're ready to face the next biggest bushou, it's still a hassle to get to that point.  The good news is that you won't have to grind past the necessary levels because the game gives you a handy-dandy counter that tells you how strong your team is, and how strong the enemy team is!  It's useful, to say the least.


But as much as I want to say I've got high hopes for this game, I'm still on the fence about it.  It's got a great concept to it, but I can't help but feel cheated on this one.  It's a fun title, but where's the creativity?  It's lost somewhere between Crossoverland and Spinoffland, and this game just so happens to be smack dab in the middle of both.  And, even though the art is groovy and the crossover somehow manages to work, there's still that fangirl deep down inside that's tapping my brain with a ten-foot poll whilst saying, "Hey, asshole.  Remember why you hate Square?  Because they spinoff.  You are just adding to the problem."

Fuck you, pretentious fangirl.

I'm in my happy place. :D

Hopefully the rest of the game will pan out favorably.  It's been good so far, and it's definitely got a lot going for it.  With all hope, the game might be released at some point in America, so keep an eye out for it.  Otherwise, that next trip to the convention might also involve a sharpie, some sticky notes, and a big ol' sign that says, "FEUDAL POKEMON GAME, DO NOT FORGET".


My creative side just can't stop looking at this artwork,
~CascadaKatana


PS- If you haven't gone over to newgrounds and played The Hunger Games video game yet, go ahead and do that.  It's worth the time spent.