Towa

I truly enjoyed PLA. So much so that it actually reignited my love towards the franchise and made me purchase Diamond and Sword. Yes I purchased those two after PLA. Because PLA worked so well with their Open World, I had high hopes with SV when I heard they'll be integrating what they learned from PLA to the game. Yet here we are with one of the ugliest, broken Pokemon games on Switch. Removing customization, ugly battle, ugly effect, removing quick capture. It's like the game just moves backward. Frankly, I'm done with these people. SV will be my last Pokemon game ever, it was a mistake to trust them again. They have turned to EA and this is their FIFA. Garbage.

I stumbled upon Dawn of the Twin Dragons by accident and actually quite enjoyed it. It's the closest we get to Final Fantasy Tactics right now (at least till Triangle Strategy) and they are actually quite good. If you're a fan of FF:T or the old school Fire Emblems, don't sleep on this hidden gem.

The palate cleanser I need after PooT.

@Tarolusa Different team, different Director. They are both being developed in tandem but yes, RF5 definitely getting more love.

Hashimoto Yoshifumi is heading RF5 team, and prior to that he was leading all Bokujo and RF games up to Trio of Towns.

Hopefully Marvelous realized how horribly this Piooner game was received and return the helm back to Hashimoto. Else they can stop trying to compete with the farming sim game with Bokujo.

@Aemilian SoS to SoS: Trio of Towns is an evolution.

PooT is a step backward, trying both to mirror Stardew Valley expansive Maker System and a bit of Animal Crossing, yet failed in both while removing the QoLs being introduced in the previous entries as well as the things that make their series stand out. Town interactions, relations, and festivals.

As a veteran of this series, I'm absolutely disappointed that this is what they presented not just as a Silver anniversary but also the first game in the new console (3DS to Switch).

I wholeheartedly agree on this preview after having a hands-on experience with the game. The maker systems are obtuse, the rapid growth of the trash around my farm is frustratingly aggressive (to the point that even if my character is up at the crack of dawn, I still didn't leave my farm till after noon just taking care of the weeds and stray trees - and yes, my farm is decorated to mitigate the growth and I've seen busy works from the first Story of Seasons post Natsume with managing multiple fields.), the town folks are boring and bland (who thought that removing the portrait image with their expressions was a good idea??), and the entire game just felt rushed and unpolished with random crashes, freezes, and FPS that dips to a single digit (which is absolutely noticeable when you're during a festival).

This is more than just "low budget release", this is a vision of the new director that clearly doesn't know what his audiences and veterans of the game wanted or liked (still no shovel, but buckets, really?). Questionable game designs, adding new features that bring absolutely no value to the game, and removing QoLs from previous titles that was perfected up till Trio of Towns.

I can't wait to cleanse my palate with Rune Factory 5, because at least, they kept their director (the same guy that previously worked on SoS series).

I really wanted to like this game, I did and maybe future patches will fix it.

But at its current state, the game is as valuable and enjoyable as the weeds that grow on your farm every 6 bloody hours.

Garbage.