Paej13

The frustrating thing to me about the online conversation around Pokemon games is that, as is the standard human mistake, many people confuse opinion for objectivity. If you want to make a claim about the quality of the game (which is an external attribute with stable measures across disparate markets and populations) rather than making a claim about your opinion of the game (which is an internal attribute whose measures are set and graded solely by the private preferences of whoever has the opinion), then you need to have some kind of external, universal, non-individualized data to support that claim.

Some critics have brought up a few items which they consider to be objective measures, sure. Those items can be evaluated on how well they are "objective," though. As a mild example, some people appear to have tied their opinion on the quality of SwSh to, say, the "bad textures" on the trees in the Wild Area. I have no idea if these critics routinely play an otherwise enjoyable and engaging video game, see a wonky-looking tree, and call the game a failure. Now perhaps a detail like that is, genuinely and truly, enough to detract from the experience for some people; if that's the case, that is perfectly okay. I have no counterarguments or criticisms of people who don't like a game because the trees look ugly; that's their opinion. However, outside of that individual with high tree-standards, an ugly tree is not a negative feature with the power to outweigh other, more positive, features of a game. So "ugly trees" is not an objective measure that can authoritatively conclude that a whole game (or the people who made it) are bad/wrong.

The above critical evaluation can be applied to any argument for or against the game's quality. If the "ugly tree" problem isn't your concern, replace it with a criticism you would rather consider. I, for one, have a great deal more sympathy for "Dexit" arguments, or the complaint that a Pokemon game that doesn't contain all the Pokemon is a worse game than one that does. There are sound logical arguments on both tines of that fork, ones that encompass more external considerations than, for example, "I didn't enjoy SwSh because I couldn't use Feraligatr, my favorite Pokemon." But even establishing some actually objective criticisms about the quality of a game, we then have to evaluate those legitimate criticisms in combination with, and with respect to, other objective measures of quality. I won't go through the whole argument as I did above with the ugly trees, but instead will just say that I've reached the conclusion that SwSh are worse than they could be by virtue of excluding many Pokemon but that, altogether, they remained successful and strong entries in the franchise's library by virtue of other things they did well. It is perfectly possible for a game to have some not-good qualities and still, overall, be a good game.

@GannonBanned Aw, that is a pleasant idea. Alex Trebek leaves behind a hole in the world that cannot easily be filled, but Tom Nook would make a good attempt. =)

There are, naturally, a great many snarky comments which come to mind. Hopefully there are yet critics who are not so closed-minded that they can't either 1) acknowledge the breadth of opinion on what constitutes a good game and accept that their own opinion may not be reflective of some Platonic ideal of objectivity, or 2) reevaluate (but not necessarily alter) their opinions in light of consistently and overwhelmingly disconfirming data.

Anyway, I'm glad to see the games and their creators enjoying success. I certainly enjoyed (and still enjoy) playing them, and I'll be delighted to experience whatever's next in store for the franchise's main line series.

I'm eager for whatever Pokemon has in store for me next. I have to say I'd prefer a classic Diamond/Pearl remake (a la OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire) over a Let's Go style iteration, but I know I can enjoy both kinds of games.

Oof, relatable. I mainlined this game from day one (and it was my first ever AC game, so the charms were entirely novel and therefore that much more intoxicating), and ended up - as you put it, Kate - squeezing the joy right out. I dropped in on my village sporadically through July and August in a half-hearted effort to keep up with the new content, but unfortunately I'd just wore myself out too much to find it engaging.

Only just this week have I begun dipping in again, taking care to give myself only small and brief goals. So far it's somewhat mildly fun again. Hope that keeps up. Hope we all end this year on a much brighter note than we began it.

Cute, clever promotion! And Katy Perry's a great choice to fit with the 'personality' of the Pokémon franchise. Her public persona and her song history are exciting, friendly and a tiny bit silly; qualities you don't consistently if ever get from a Taylor Swift or an Ariana Grande. Overall, well done.

This was a delightful and clever marketing spin, I enjoyed it very much! Bonus points for the punny wordplay. I'm still playing Sword more days than not, and really having a grand time with this generation. =)

@LatsaSpege That's how ACNH petered out for me, too. I was wholly, joyously invested in the game for months (it overtook my total hours played on BoTW and Pokemon Sword). Once you complete the major "storyline" accomplishments, all that's left is collection completion and, unlike a Pokedex, ACNH has limited-time collectibles attached to real time seasons and holidays. Miss a little bit of playtime and the pressure mounts so rapidly that playing ACNH becomes a chore, or a homework assignment, more than a game. When a game demands you make progress toward its goals on its schedule rather than your own, it becomes stressful to play.

As much as I am looking forward to this game, it's not one I'm planning to buy or play myself. I've already accepted that "musou" games are not something I enjoy. It's the story content pertaining to the world of BotW that I'm after. My plan is to glue my eyeballs to a good Let's Play-er on YouTube to spectate the full game experience. And I'm quite excited for that. =)

I appreciate how each open-world area in the game has a more complicated geography than the last; it shows they're exploring what can be done with the game environment. A previous commenter has the right of it in that the Crown Tundra is a road map for creating a completely open-world experience: routes, towns, the whole nine. But speaking of maps, if they're going to place the character into an intricate open world, they need to improve the character's map functionality proportionally. Somewhere as complicated as the Crown Tundra cannot be effectively navigated with a map that marks your location at one fixed point whether you're on the far east or far west of an area. Even Red/Blue had a map that was able to distinguish different placements along a single route, so it isn't something the series needs to break any traditions in order to do.

That's my take on the open world design, anyway. Overall positive, and hopeful for where they take it in the next game.

Very cool. Even though it's impossible to predict - let alone program - for every possible variation in appearance that can be found in the world, it doesn't hurt to program in as many options as you meaningfully can. ACNH was my first Animal Crossing game, and the character design features felt very accommodating but also very standard. I doubt I would have gotten interested as easily if my character was randomly generated or limited to just one or two generic avatar designs. And so the more variety and choice (and representation) that can be accounted for, the better.

@Kalmaro Thanks for your conversation with Doctorhino. I started reading down the comments here and was sadly not surprised that it immediately became a SwSh salt bath. Your responses to Doctorhino set an example of how to express a critical opinion in a thoughtful and informed way, while also managing to refrain from carelessly antagonizing those who might feel otherwise. I really appreciate that and I think it should be praised.

As for my impression of Nexomon... I rarely read internet articles about things that don't interest me, and Pokemon-alikes don't interest me. But I do occasionally read articles about Pokemon-alikes to see how professional reviewers measure them against the original. Kudos to Nexomon for earning some quality praise for their efforts; I hope their game is bought and enjoyed by many. Still, I'm content that no pretender has yet managed to topple the champ.

@NoTinderLife That is a very appealing idea, nice one!

And this promotional effort is genuinely cute and clever, so kudos to IKEA.

Thanks for giving this issue a wider platform, as every bit of awareness helps. I don't have a strong opinion one way or another on how Niantic chooses to set their various RNG parameters for Pokemon Go, but I'm happily on board with holding them accountable to some kind of transparency regardless. Silph research has repeatedly turned up data sets on RNG manipulation in the game that raises awkward questions.

If nothing else, being officially informed about certain odds will help reality-check my own occasional "RNGesus, have I wronged you?" moments. =P

@Kisame83 No worries, you're not gated out. Many of the Pokemon in the Isle of Armor Dex are shared with the initial Galar region Dex and can be caught on the mainland. Even for those that aren't, the game was updated to recognize and allow the "new" Pokemon into your game from trades or from Pokemon Home.

There's nothing stopping you from kicking butt and taking names! =D

I'm counting less than ten positive or neutral comments out of the nearly 200 total comments at time of writing. It's weird, to me at least. I come on Nintendo Life and I see stories about things I either don't care about or don't like - even actively dislike - and I just skip over those stories. Don't read 'em, don't comment on 'em. I don't understand the... compulsion? I dunno, what is it?.. to just dump all over stuff.

Ah well. This game looks fairly fun and interesting to me. I'll certainly give it a try. Though now I guess I'm a little worried about not having anyone else to play it with, haha.

@Otoemetry Cool, another long-time fan! I've been dedicated to Pokémon since it first hit the states too, friend. Here's something to reflect on, though: we're both long-time fans with a similar history with the series, but where you found SwSh sadly underwhelming I found it delightfully on-par with the rest of the series (and above-par in several ways). Tells us something about whether we should construe our opinions as facts, yes?

Anyway, please check my writing again - nothing against opinions in it anywhere. Apologies for any confusion if my comment came off that way. You and me and everyone else are entitled to our opinions, yes. "I didn't like SwSh" is an opinion. "SwSh are bad games" is not an opinion. "More games like SwSh will make GameFreak go bankrupt" is not an opinion.

The chorus of complaints that Sword and Shield are "bad games" and that TPC/GameFreak "aren't putting any effort in"/"don't care about the quality of their franchise" began before the games' release and continued right through the initial critical/financial success. The record-breaking numbers continue to roll in with no signs of stopping, and somehow these complaints just don't change or self-adjust in light of contradicting evidence.

This "fan" behavior can't pretend to hold up a flag of passion and respect anymore; it has passed confusing/annoying and is now downright farcical. It's like standing alone in the sunshine with your umbrella while everyone around you is playing together on the beach, and you just keeping telling everybody that, "No, really, it's actually raining right now and you're all getting soaked." The rotten cherry on top of this grouch sundae is that this message is all too often delivered in smug tones, as though "real Pokémon fans" couldn't possible enjoy the series as it is iterated in SWSH, they must all be mindlessly throwing money into the trash. I'm just baffled and discouraged by it all.

And it's not even like my stance is that SWSW are flawless. They're not. But they are nevertheless fun, enjoyable Pokémon games that are strong entries into the series (with the critical and fiscal data to prove it). There may indeed be a few spotty clouds in the sky, but the sunshine isn't diminished and it sure as heck ain't raining.

@Heavyarms55, The Mewtwo max raids were the most exciting and rewarding in-game battle challenges since Emerald's Battle Frontier in my opinion. And thematically appealing, too! Mewtwo is supposed to be uniquely powerful, and those raids earnestly felt like they were doing that notion justice. =D

Aw man. It's useful - but unfortunate - to know that the most recent villager is excluded from the move out lottery. That means if you get stuck with one you really dislike, you can't get rid of it until after you let go of a different one. Bit of a bummer.

Aw, I hadn't realized that personality types were gender-dependent. That's disappointing. The personality types have already grown to feel a bit samey to me, what with all the quirks and dialogues being identical regardless of villager. Cutting half the types off to a particular gender only minimizes the variety more.

New Horizons is my first AC game, and I already don't know whether I'll be interested in whatever comes next (years from now). But I think this personality factor will... factor... into my decision.

Really bummed about all the Pokémon/GameFreak negging in this, and most, Pokémon related threads here. One commenter above coined the perfect expression for it: "smug vitriol."

I enjoyed Pokémon Sword, and I have enjoyed every Pokémon game. I know what Pokémon games are going to offer, and what they offer appeals to me in a big way. I love the franchise. Happy to continue experiencing everything it has to offer.

It isn't clear that the kid has done anything illegal, but his recklessness appears to have facilitated some pretty inappropriate behavior from others. It is very unfortunate that he created this program at just 16 years old. We're still too underdeveloped at that age to be able to integrate far-reaching ethical or practical consequences into our decision-making. He could also suffer some unnecessary trauma if he's targeted inappropriately by angry (even if justifiably so) people who were negatively impacted by his creation.

I wish his parents wisdom and strength.

These finance reports make me feel like a sports fan with a favorite team (I assume). I'm happy that Animal Crossing is doing so well, but I'm disappointed that it's beating my favorite team: Pokémon. Then again, the ultimate team in this metaphor is Nintendo, and I'm definitely thrilled how successful their Switch and its library has become. =)

This is my first ever Animal Crossing game, and I am super pumped to get specific villagers I want. Thanks to quarantine, I'm spending hours out of every day in this make-believe land, and therefore I'd prefer to customize it to my whims. I'm one of the bandwagoners who fell in love with Raymond's cuteness, too, so I'm putting some extra game effort into trying to find him. That said, there sure seem to be some places or people who are taking these desires to the extreme. No way am I spending actual money for something cosmetic, and no way am I grinding a million tickets, for glob's sake.

I'll customize the heck out of my private island, don't you doubt it. But I'm going to do it at my own pace and I'm going to enjoy the journey to that ideal endpoint.

I'm still very excited for SwSh. I'm going to buy it and enjoy it immensely. For me, gamer details like framerate and pop-in and such don't mean anything significant. If this game looks like the last 3DS Pokémon, that's fine and dandy because they looked great to my eye. I am quite disappointed by the incomplete Dex issue, though.

That said, I'll be paying close attention to how these games do financially. We fans can argue our own standards till we're blue in the face; it's the numbers that will impact future development/management changes. If these games tank (relatively speaking - it IS Pokémon after all), it will validate a lot of the concerns the fandom has been expressing, and I would hope it would contribute to any necessary course corrections at GameFreak. I love Pokémon, so I want the GameFreak crew to succeed, to feel happy with their creations, and to be rewarded for their work.

I can't imagine why anybody who owns a 3DS would refuse to by a 3DS game they wanted to play, regardless of whether it was for sale two years ago, yesterday, or ten years from now. My microwave is not the newest version available either, but that doesn't mean I eat cold leftovers. Just seems like spite to me.

Anyway, I bought, played, and enjoyed Detective Pikachu. Calling the ending abrupt is pretty generous, if you ask me. It was a nice game, but it feels incomplete with this ending. Maybe they're setting themselves up for sequels - which, fair - but the brevity of playtime and the actual ending made this one feel like half a game rather than a self-sufficient title. I am experiencing a bit of regret for paying $40-something for it, but it was nevertheless a good experience so no big deal.

Agreed with Luna_110 on Emerald's Battle Frontier and had to say so.

Anyway, this says Gold and Silver will arrive on VC. What about Crystal? Why would they do Red, Blue and Yellow but leave out GS's third iteration?

I thought the tickets went up on June 19th?

Good work, Nintendo. Now figure out how to enforce consequences for the rest of the Pokemon cheaters and hackers (PKHex and whatnot).

Physically going into the world, finding Pokemon in your park/church/school, actually throwing (swiping, yeah) Pokeballs to catch them, then grouping together with other real people to take and defend actual real-world Gyms? This is like 70% of the dream scenario of the original Pokemon players.*

I mean sure it's psychologically and financially safer to underestimate yourself and then be delighted when you overperform, but they underestimated PoGo by a looooooooooooooot...

*100% dream, I would say, includes trading, training, and actually interacting with your Pokemon.

Time to close comments. Discussion has become US politics alone, not its influence on Nintendo or even gaming market behavior. Glad to see the first signs of the markets stabilizing, of course. The US - and if it remains the world power it has been, then the rest of the world as well - must prepare to weather a few years of various uncertainties, economic uncertainty among them.

That was an awfully funky-looking Pikachu, but Dwayne Johnson is a mensch in general and an awesome daddio for getting Chu'd up for his kid. A+, guy!

The "Train On" series of commercials for the Pokemon franchise have hit the right spot, every time. They combine fun with friendship, pathos, and aspiration very well. I don't think there has yet been one that hasn't brought a genuine tear to my eye.

I am very impressed with them.

I've already preordered both games. I always have Pokemon hype - I've been nonstop hyped for this franchise since 1998. Sun and Moon are looking to be fantastic games that combine fresh takes on the classics with creative new features, appealing to fans old and new alike.

I'm so happy that more people this year have given Pokemon a shot and are enjoying it! It's truly a wonderful, friendly, creative series. I hope the sales of these games reflect that.

Shame they're letting mega evolution fall by the wayside. M-evos aren't just cosmetic; they add a new layer of psych strategy to battles (which Pokemon will she mega evolve, if any?), as well as actually making some 'not-worth-it' Pokemon into 'worth-it' Pokemon. M-evos actually change the way a Pokemon can battle, which gives you more options when creating a team strategy. For example, Mega Blastoise becomes an offensive monster compared to the stally Blastoise junior; Mega Charizard X and Y both fight very differently, and 'Zard X quite differently from 'Zard junior too.

Z-moves, on the other hand, don't look like they will be enough to completely reinvigorate individual Pokemon*. If Flygon and Garchomp are both capable of using the same Dragon-type Z-move, you're still going to get more bang for your buck by delivering it from Garchomp's base 130 Attack than from Flygon's base 100 Attack - so Flygon has not been given new life when the Pokemon who already one-up it are given the same boost. Mega evolution, on the other hand, was a mechanic by which Flygon could have been made to function in a unique new way.

*At this time. I am not operating under complete knowledge of Z-move mechanics, so new information may change my assessment.

At the moment, I'm torn. The way their statement sounds, lower level players will be able to compete on an even footing in friendly Gyms, which is 100% awesome. But does that mean Gyms will start getting more Pokemon of low CP in them? Because that means they'll be even easier/faster to take down. Which leaves all players - high or low level - less able to defend them. We'll all end up consuming even more Potions and getting less coin rewards for our trouble.

In short, I'm all for ways to open up the game for lower-level players, but I hope the result isn't a 'receding tide' that lowers all of our boats.

I guess we'll wait to see how it turns out.

A nice addition. Now having caught all those Pidgeys will give us an edge the next time we try to catch a Dragonite.

Before seeing the starter evolutions, I was evenly split between all three. Knowing now what they all end up like - the Grass type is far and away my first choice. I don't dislike any of them, though.

I guess it is weird to have starters be so strongly gender-coded (check out the leaked final evos if you're interested). Emboar and Braixen were kind of out there too, which felt about as weird when they were revealed. Imo starters should have as broad appeal as possible since they're the player's first Pokémon choice.

But still, they're all pretty cool and fun-looking!

Pokemon Sun/Moon, natch!

The new art style will take time to get used to, but that's to be expected with large changes. The surprise is that they've actually gone ahead and made such a large change to such a stalwart series. The contrast is increased by virtue of this lighter, more comic style following immediately after a more precisely detailed, action-centric style. Given the ending of the XYZ series, many full-time Pokémon fans are naturally going to feel like these drastic changes are complicit in a sort of "missed opportunity" situation for our poor old Ash Ketchum.

Ah well. Back to the drawing board for our protagonist - literally!

I've never owned a non-Nintendo gaming platform (unless you count an iPhone that only plays Pokémon Go), and I don't foresee anything that would compel me to start buying Sony or Xbox consoles. That's because my tastes in gaming are narrow and selective, and they luckily happen to match up perfectly with the Nintendo ethos. (E.g. I hate shooters because they're dark and violent; I loved Splatoon because it's bright and creative.) I'd be perfectly happy if Nintendo forever made nothing but its classic style of semicasual nonviolent games, but unless my preferences are reflective of a large customer base, doing that is unsustainable for them. Sadly, maybe they NEED to appeal to the warsexual types.

On the Reddit page for PokemonGo, lots of folks are bemoaning the end of all things good and wholesome with this news. Players have lost the ability to look into hidden game data and find their exact IVs, but hearing their complaints you'd think Niantic had just burned their homes down and kicked their puppies.

But there are resources that can calculate approximate IVs (sometimes even exact ones!), and they do it without stealing server/data access. Niantic's actions: 1) threw a wrench in botters' plans (which fans have asked them to do), 2) reduced strain on the game's servers (which fans have asked them to do), and 3) upheld their terms of service (which is fair).

This (over)reaction seems like entitlement syndrome to me.

Had a little bit of good today and a little bit of bad.
The good: I found and caught a wild Dragonite! The bad: it's only CP 47.
The good: I found a local blue Gym to join and train at! The bad: before I could finish the first round of training, a red player took over the Gym with his CP 500-something Dragonite. >_<
The good: I found a local red Gym that was low-level enough for my Pokémon to actually defeat! The bad: the servers crashed riiight when I had the opponent's HP down to a sliver of red.

I've generally had great luck with being able to log on and play for a couple of hours uninterrupted, but I've noticed a definite pattern. My game always - always always always - freezes when I'm battling a Gym and have the opponent down to a red sliver. I've never crashed with the opponent at any other health level. It's pretty frustrating and disappointing. =(