VoidofLight

They already showed these donuts officially on the official website for the DLC.

@kal_el_07241 Hey, maybe don't spread misinformation? Nothing you said is true here. Z-A isn't entirely "Ai-Produced," and Gen 10 is not using GenAi.

@8bit-Man The reason why it's closer to the release of Octopath 2 is because Octopath 0 is mainly just taking assets and the bulk of the story for the game from Champions of the Continent. This is a smaller project that serves to turn the mobile game into a full blown console game relative to the others in the series... which sounds bad on paper, but is actually a good thing when you look at how high quality the story and music for that game was.

It's baffling to me that they didn't do anything for the game on Switch 2. I guess they plan to make paid DLC content for it later and bundle it as a Switch 2 edition.

@Suketoudara I feel like a lot of the night tracks in New Horizons don't fit the hours that they play. I can't remember many off the top of my head because they all tend to blend in, but I know some of the tracks later into the night sound far too lively compared to some of the ones that play earlier in the night. 2 AM feels like it would fit more around 4 in the morning, 5 am feels like it would work more for around 1 or 2 in the morning instead. 6 Am feels like it works more in a later part of the morning, 8 AM is far too energetic and should've been swapped with 11 AM.

New Leaf had a more natural progression where the music during the day would progressively pick up and get more energetic depending on the hour it plays, while the music at night would depress more and more. New Horizons' hourly music just feels like I'm listening to an Animal Crossing OST that got scrambled- where some of the music fits the hours they're meant to play, but other songs don't at all and feel out of place because of it. Something which would be changed pretty easily by the team swapping some of the songs around.

@Suketoudara The issue I take with New Horizons is that all the hourly music blends together because they rely too heavily upon the main motif. It gets tiring to listen to, and at times I can't actually tell what the song is from the hour it plays despite having 200 hours in the game. It relies too heavily on that obnoxious synth as well. The only song I think I'm even really fond on is the 6 P.M. theme, and I only really remember it because it was one of the more stand-out songs that hearkened back to Wild World and City Folk with the way that it used the Accordion. It also didn't feel like the music captured each hour perfectly, and a lot of the songs were too lively for certain hours or too calm when it would've benefited from being more lively.

New Leaf however feels like it perfectly captured each and every hour that the songs played within. The late night/early morning music actually embodied the calm or serene/eerie feeling that you would get from staying up that late. 3 AM is more somber, as you're the only person who is awake at that hour. 5 AM makes use of reversed notes- which helps to capture the feeling of the town still being sleepy while the sun begins to rise within the horizon. Each song carries a distinct feel, and while some of the songs utilize the main motif, they utilize it in a way that doesn't feel nearly as obnoxious or loud. They use instruments that help to craft a more relaxed vibe- rather than grating instruments that get overly grating on the nerves.

@N00BiSH My guess is the KK songs aren't included due to them being in the New Horizons OST already (New Horizons had every KK song from New Leaf).

As for the Welcome Amiibo absence, they're probably going to update and add it separately later.. at least that's what I hope. Even if it didn't add as much music- it still feels weird to not include the songs they did add with it.

They finally added the best Animal Crossing Hourly Soundtrack.

@ChromaticDracula Personally I don't really see this as a "perfect final form." It's more of the same. Leaning too heavily on the decorating aspect and not adding in content that actually matters for people who don't love decorating- unlike what past Animal Crossing games did. A good chunk of the update content (the collabs) are locked behind amiibo that you have to probably buy the full sets for.. which is insane given the prices of Amiibo figures now.

I just wish they'd add more progression systems like shop upgrades, or added more multiplayer content. Mini-games for online and offline play. Just something to work towards if you aren't a decorator.

Probably won't. I can't see myself buying anything Animal Crossing related for the foreseeable future. Used to be a big fan, but this update and the Switch 2 Edition just confirmed that the only thing they care about is the decorating aspect of the series and nothing else.

The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition also doesn't seem like much of an upgrade. You get to pay 4.99- which is relatively cheap, but you don't get an upgrade for FPS and only get a small resolution boost that's pretty unnoticeable. The megaphone coming back is cool, but I can't see any case where it would be needed, and the 12 player multiplayer seems completely useless because there's no content to do during Multiplayer sessions.. and a good chunk of people don't even play the game with friends anymore.

The free update is just a lot of decorating content. A mini version of the DLC in the main-game island, along with collab items (which would be cool if they weren't locked behind 20 dollar amiibos).

Wake me up when New Leaf and City Folk get their OSTS released. New Horizons had an incredibly grating one.

@neo9eo I honestly hope we're wrong and the next game dials things back, or at least focuses more on the life-sim elements..but at this point I just can't see them doing that. At least not with the new staff handling the game and the old staff being close to retiring age.

@Antraxx777 It's just tripling down on the decorative aspects and ignoring the part of the fanbase who don't enjoy decorating- which is what the entirety of this game has been since launch. It's a dollhouse sim, and this update makes it apparent that the series is stuck as that.

I'm not really excited for it at all. It just reinforces the view that this series is no longer for the older fanbase.

Oh boy, I'm sure this comment section is going to be absolutely normal.

@NatiaAdamo At this rate, that'll probably never happen. They can't even get games they've been working on for years to release.

@Zeldinion The use of GenAi is still hugely worrying for this company. They also did use it for generating crowds in Iazuma 11, so they're willing to use it in their games rather than making artwork themselves.

@LilMuku The Holy Horror Mansion trailer was entirely Gen Ai. It's foolish to think they'll just keep it to promotional art and backgrounds.

A level 5 game being delayed? Who would've thought? Wonder if the new trailer is also using Gen Ai- given that Level 5 loves the death of art and creativity now.

@Smithicus Out of the few Metroidvanias I've played, Hollow Knight is the best. This is counting Metroid games like Super and Dread.

I prefer Hollow Knight due to the wealth of content, along with the general vibe of the world itself. The atmosphere feels unparalleled and so does the music. The hand drawn art style is also breathtaking, and does wonders for the game's multiple different environments.

@N00BiSH The thing that gets me is his "MOMMA MIA," sounds like Mickey Mouse and not Mario.

That four player battle mode looks pretty interesting. Strange that they decided to reveal that instead of a new Mega Evolution- given that Mega Evolutions generate more hype, but it's still interesting to know this game is going to have some kind of online battles. Especially after PLA didn't have them.

@LikelySatan Okay.

@Znake It’s funny how every single time I say anything about people’s “criticism,” they always say “WELL YOU NEED TO LISTEN!”

Yeah, nah. I’m not listening to bad faith drivel. Especially when there’s actual criticism and nuanced discussions that one can actually have. I’m tired of putting up with this endless toxicity that has been going on since Sword and Shield.

@UltimateOtaku91 These people are just going to say whatever they can to bash these games. There are many actual points of criticism a person can make, but they always return to "This game looks like an N64 game!" or "This game looks like a gamecube game!!!"

@Olmectron It doesn't really look like a PS2 game either. Look at Final Fantasy XI. Z-A looks nothing like that.

@Sonicka You're bound to one city. The Wild Zones are where you catch wild pokemon, and they're not going to let you leave Lumiose.

@westman98 I wouldn't argue with them. They're arguing in bad faith.

The people who say this looks like an N64 map have never actually played an N64 game have they? Same with the people who say this looks like a Gamecube game.

@Orwellian87 What I hate though is that every time I express interest in newer Pokemon games, I get called a shill. I get called a bootlicker. I get told that I'm apart of the problem, and that I contribute to the series being bad. Any time I like a Pokemon game that others despise, I get laughed at and made a mockery of (especially when it comes to people I knew who I considered friends at a time). I'm tired of how toxic this fanbase has become. How you can't have nuanced takes anymore. You're either a "shill," or you're a "hater." If you don't outright hate the games, then you're shut down with the shield of "well, it's criticism! You can't shut down criticism!" even though we all know that said "criticism" is just people making bad faith arguments rather than actually engaging in the intricacies on the topic or actually having nuanced opinions. The stuff I normally see in these comment sections aren't critiques. They border upon nitpicks by people who are making these claims and arguments in bad faith in order to validate the hatred they have for something they really should move on from.

This fanbase has been toxic since Sword and Shield. I look back at comments made 11 years ago with X and Y's reveal, and compare them to how people talk about the series now- and it's telling how rotten everything became. Especially when that trailer for X and Y was extremely unpolished and had a lot of graphical issues that people would nitpick today. Things like the trainer's sunglasses being left behind floating in the air when he's swinging on the vines in the grass type gym. Yet people were letting that pass and talking about how excited they were for Pokemon finally being in 3D.

@Orwellian87 Oh, I listen. I even criticize gamefreak myself. I'm just tired of the bad faith criticism that always comes from people who aren't even interested in the series, or people who spew nothing more than negativity.

If you want criticism I have some:

Sword and Shield isn't a great Pokemon game. It fails with the story of the game, and the region design is pretty abysmal. The whole game feels like walking down boring hallways, with it feeling like the devs wanted people to get through it as quickly as possible. The dungeon design is something that makes me sad, as caves in Pokemon games used to be visually interesting while also being good dungeons- but SwSh's caves are one floor and don't really have branching rooms nor paths.

Scarlet and Violet is probably one of my favorite games in the series gameplay-wise, but the game feels lacking in terms of the region itself, along with the performance issues that were only just recently fixed. The game has some pretty rough graphics- mostly with the textures being low quality for no real reason. The towns are pretty barren with no interiors and the biggest city in the game- Mesagoza is a city that I genuinely hate the layout of. All to the point where I avoided going there unless I outright needed to do so.

Pokemon Legends Arceus is graphically rough with the clothing textures on characters somehow being muddy. Despite this- with all three games, the core gameplay loops and the enjoyment I got from them outweighed the negatives. I don't ignore that those negatives exist, and I wish they didn't exist- but at the same time, there's a reason why I haven't quit the series yet. I was on the verge of quitting back with Pokemon Sun and Moon because I hated those games and everything that Gamefreak did with them- but now I actually see that there's some potential, and that the devs still have some kind of ambition or drive to do something new or interesting with the series.. just not the resources to really do that.

@LikelySatan I mean, if you want to waste your time- then I guess that's your prerogative. I don't see how PLA was worse than the worst fangames, given most of those tend to be genuinely awful and miss the point of the series outright- but you do you.

@Filthy I mean, I'd say that Z-A is fresh and daring compared to previous games, given that the game is actively switching from a turn-based combat system to an action combat system. Z-A is basically trying to make a Pokemon equivalent to Xenoblade Chronicles. The main reason why outlets aren't fully gushing about it is because the demo literally only has you interact with the combat for the game, and gave them a small window of time to interact with said combat. There was no exploration portion- which is a huge part of the game.

@Arawn93 The playerbase isn't who decides what is or isn't mainline. If they were, then PMD would be considered mainline more than Scarlet and Violet. It's The Pokemon Company and Gamefreak who decide what is considered mainline from what isn't. Let's Go, Pokemon Legends, and Pokemon Champions are all considered mainline games. The only distinction is that Legends is their experimental title, Let's Go was trying to capitalize off of the hype Pokemon Go had at the time while on-boarding new fans, and Champions is the new competitive situation so that the devs can be freed from having to make the new Pokemon singleplayer games focus first and foremost on the competitive scene.

Champions existing makes it clear that Gamefreak is giving themselves more wiggle-room on what they'll be able to do with a singleplayer Pokemon game at this point.

@SpaceboyScreams Or maybe there's more to games than just visuals? They were judging the game based off of the gameplay, which is more important to them than visuals. If visuals matter heavily to you, then you're going to be forever disappointed with this series. It's always been like this, ever since Pokemon Red and Blue- with Gamefreak being behind in comparison to their peers. I'd like for that to change, but as a long-term fan there's more important things I'd rather get them right than worrying about the textures of a window, or the textures on a tree.

This series has had major issues with having a massive lack of content and issues with their stories. People often cite the issue of Pokemon Sword and Shield being the Wild Area's graphics and the pokemon not being to scale- but the real issues are the level design, the story, the lack of content, and a lack of post-game outside of the DLC.

Contrast this with PLA, which is a game that got glowing reviews despite how it looks. A lot of that game looks far worse than the more polished areas of SwSh, with the water tiling from certain heights and the textures being low resolution. Yet people still love PLA because of the moment to moment gameplay and the amount of content that the game had. The story actually made sense as well- even though it relied a bit more on telling than actually showing.

While I wish Z-A would look better, it's still one of the best looking Pokemon games in the HD era, and one of the better looking open world games- showing clear signs of improvement in terms of visuals. The only game to beat Z-A visually is probably Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee.

@Filthy Most of the impressions were people talking about how they're enjoying it enough to want to actively desire to play more of the game. They just can't say for certain if the combat is better or not, given it's a massive shakeup and they only had two demos that were roughly 10 minutes of gameplay each. Not really enough to determine the flow of the game or get used to the combat.

@Arawn93 Well good thing that Legends isn't a spin-off. It's confirmed mainline by Gamefreak themselves. Check Serebii if you don't believe me.

Also Gen 9 didn't have any changes because it was in development the same time as PLA. It's why it took us until PLA to get things like overworld catching and pokemon that actually interacted with their environment instead of running around aimlessly. Gen 8 having overworld pokemon was a last minute addition added because of the popularity in Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee.. which is why it was so underbaked.

This is how generational cycles work with this series. You don't exactly get the pay-off of new features until the game after the next Generation. Gen 10 is probably going to have a turn-based battle system still, but it'll also have PLA's overworld catching system. The game after that will build on what Z-A introduced.

@LikelySatan @SpaceboyScreams There's footage of the show-floor demo on Youtube. Both slices of it. If you don't want to take the words of outlets, then you can decide based off of what you see in the actual gameplay video.

@roy130390 The reason why I think this isn't correct is because they spun competitive off into it's own game- which is one of the main factors that held Gamefreak back from making any huge changes to the gameplay or battle systems.

I really do think they're gearing up to make mainline more experimental, and that Z-A is the beginning of that. Especially after the Blueberry academy DLC had a test for us controlling pokemon, and Z-A having held items and natures.

The combat looks like it's a much needed evolution of the series. Instead of just adding a gimmick atop the same unchanging battle formula that's been in circulation since Pokemon Red and Blue- we're actually getting something new.. and it looks really fun. Seeing what we saw in the demo, I might end up pre-ordering whenever I can get the ability to do so.

The stuff in the article sounds interesting. Not the largest fan of Mega Evolution myself honestly, but the real time combat is a pretty welcomed addition, and I’m interested to see how setting the game in a city changes things.

@Serpenterror Right now a lot of people are speculating that this might be an offline adaptation of the first storyline of Champions of the Continent. Given how eerily similar the combat looks, and how it seems to have a gacha component to it.

@TheExile285 Champions of the Continent had a self-insert protagonist I believe. If this is just a full game adaptation of that game’s first story arc, then they’re probably going to go the route of a custom protagonist.

@ShieldHero Champions of the Continent is the prequel to Octopath Traveler. It’s a mobile game though.

This has to be somewhat related to Champions of the Continent, right?

The game helped me in a dark moment of time mentally.

@Skunkfish That's assuming a lot of people own USB cameras in this day and age though. The only people I've seen who own them are content creators or people who worked online.

I'm not paying for a camera along with this upgrade pack. They should make upgrade packs that require accessories to play free if you have to pay for the accessory.

@Fizza They'll be in champions, yeah- but I was mostly just talking about my own collection in HOME. Building an All Forms National Dex, and I just wish there were more permanent pokemon forms to get ahold of.

@Lizuka It's mostly meant for Competitive play, similar to Pokemon Showdown. I don't think they intended for this to have singleplayer value. If anything, it's probably being done so that the mainline games can be more like Z-A and PLA, where combat actually gets meaningful changes made to it rather than utilizing gimmicks to keep it "fresh."

@N8tiveT3ch I think they partnered with ILCA, and this game is made to work on both phones and console. The UI and battle field are eye-bleeding though.. which is a hallmark of ILCA for some reason.

I just hope it frees the mainline games from their competitive shackles, since that's what's stopping Gamefreak from evolving the series at this point in terms of combat mechanics.