The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD journal - entry three

When I first played Wind Waker, I was in middle school and had no qualms about sinking hours into the tedious process of collecting three pictographs at a time, bringing them to the Forest Haven’s Nintendo Gallery, and then fast-forwarding time via the Song of Passing to have them converted into sculpted figures one by one. While Wind Waker lacks as many real meaty sidequests as its home console predecessor Majora’s Mask offered up, the more involved sidequests that Wind Waker does have are just that – very involved, and by association, rather time-consuming. I am incredibly pleased to see that Nintendo has not only quadrupled the number of pictographs Link can store in his Picto Box at any given time, but also upped the ante on the number of figures that can be sculpted per day to a matching twelve. To some, the Nintendo Gallery might seem like a silly distraction, but I always found it to be one of the most entertaining and rewarding sidequests in Wind Waker.

Conversely, my single least favorite leg of the original Wind Waker adventure was the process of collecting all the Triforce charts, having them deciphered for an obscene sum of money, and then having to track down each Triforce shard thereafter. It was such a boring routine that really threw off the game’s pacing, especially after the revelation of Tetra being the heir to Princess Zelda’s bloodline and the search for the two new sages had significantly boosted the excitement and intensity of the narrative. Lo and behold, Nintendo also improved upon this by asking players to seek out a mere three Triforce charts, while many of the remaining Triforce Shards have been allocated to the treasure chests that previously housed their respective charts. Those few Triforce shards that still lie at the bottom of the sea are immediately visible on Tingle’s In-credible chart. This particular fetch quest feels much less a chore, as it requires approximately half the time and effort than in the original Gamecube version.

I would not say that I am quite as blown away by this updated version of Wind Waker as I was by Ocarina of Time 3D – as I previously mentioned, the character models and environments of Wind Waker HD look largely the same as before, save for better lighting and a clearer filter for the game’s presentation. Plus, even though it is two console generations removed, this HD remaster is still on a home console as opposed to a handheld. But it is certainly flying higher than I anticipated during my first journal post. As of a few hours ago, I started my dive into the Wind Temple, and as such, I would expect my review of Wind Waker HD to be posted sometime by the end of next week, as there isn’t a whole lot left ahead of me before I take on Ganondorf and finish this adventure… once again.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD journal - entry two

Perhaps my initial judgments toward Wind Waker HD were premature. Now that I’m getting deeper into the story, I’m finding there are plenty of little updates that go a long way. I am a tad surprised that there does not appear to be any use of the stylus for scribbling notes on the sea chart ala Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks (or at least, there is no such functionality that I have yet come across). However, including the little tidbits of information the fish-men provide Link with their respective island chartings is a convenient addition for anyone who is new to the Wind Waker experience, or who is taking on this adventure many years after they originally tackled it on the Gamecube. After all, many of these hints or pieces of advice pertain to quests later in the game, like the Ghost Ship, the items required to enter the Earth and Wind Temples, and the Triforce Charts.

I’ve recently acquired the Swift Sail, which is far and away my favorite new item in this updated Zelda adventure. Not only does it make travelling to nearby islands a super-speedy process, but it easily cuts the time spent filling in the sea chart in half. The Tingle Bottles have proven entertaining, and I applaud those who have utilized them for more practical uses like aiding younger players who are stuck at a certain point in the game. That said, I’ve also found some of the messages within these Tingle Bottles quite amusing, whether the author of the related posts meant for their work to be humorous or not.

While I still feel that this HD version is not the visual spectacle other HD updates in recent years have shown themselves to be, there is something to be said about the finer details of this Wii U update of Wind Waker. I’ve come across a number of textures that I never noticed in the original Gamecube version, such as the small Triforce shape inside the barrier beam emitters within the Tower of the Gods, and the shapes of the Hylian people praising the Master Sword within the chamber below Hyrule Castle. As I mentioned in my previous post, the single biggest visual improvement seems to have come in the form of the game’s lighting, and as I have recently witnessed, this is not simply from the sun or the torch fires – the pearls required to summon the Tower of the Gods from the watery abyss look absolutely gorgeous, as does the room wherein Link faces the dungeon’s boss Gohdan. Even the Beamos eyes look far less blurry than they did back in 2003.

Wind Waker HD may end up being one of my earliest reviews posted in 2015. I’ve spent the past couple of days dealing with some post-Christmas crud, and as much as I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played of Persona Q thus far, playing through Wind Waker is a much easier task, especially since it is a game that I’ve beaten at least five times over now. My expectations of Wind Waker HD ranking among the greatest of all the games I play in 2015 are basically zero, but the aforementioned improvements that I have recently discovered have certainly earned it a few extra points toward its (eventual) overall review rating.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD journal - entry one

I received Wind Waker HD as a gift for purchasing Mario Kart 8 within its ‘early adopter’ window, and then subsequently set it aside for a rainy day. It’s not that I don’t like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, far from it – it’s my fifth favorite Zelda title, only tailing slightly behind Majora’s Mask, Skyward Sword, the Oracle titles, and Ocarina of Time (numbers four to one, in that order). But I did last replay Wind Waker about two years ago, and felt I should wait a while before tackling this remastered edition at the risk of my experience feeling too much of a mundane retread. That said, I am not certain if this will be one of my earlier reviews on 2015, or if I will tackle it in spurts and give priority to The Wonderful 101 and Watch Dogs.

The great thing about Wind Waker, at least for the sake of this replay and upcoming review, is that it has a relatively quick main storyline. I am, however, very much interested in seeing what all of the reworked gameplay elements are and how different their offerings are from the original Gamecube version. As of right now, I’ve just purchased the sail on Windfall Island, and I have a few key points I wanted to hit on.

First off, the graphics and art style are not as big of an improvement as I had expected. Wind Waker’s cel-shaded direction has led it to be, from a visual perspective at least, the Zelda title that has simply aged the best. The gameplay is a different beast entirely, but when Wind Waker HD was first announced, I thought it an exceptionally odd pick for that very reason. With the Wii U’s significantly improved graphical capabilities over its predecessor consoles, Majora’s Mask, even Twilight Princess could have received major facelifts while finding new and fun things to do with the Gamepad. But Wind Waker HD only has a few notable trumps over its Gamecube counterpart that I have come across thus far – the lighting is superb, and some of the environment textures have been cleaned up.

It’s far from enough to make me feel like this is a whole new spin on an old classic. The cel-shaded character models look almost exactly the same as they did back in 2003, and the blocky/angular portions of environments look outdated. I know they might keep well with the cartoony style of the game, but with the updates Nintendo did perform on this Zelda title, they look a bit out of place, as well as more so dated than most of the game’s other visual components.

Secondly, the few new mechanics I have come across are merely optional control schemes for pre-existing items, or replacements for tech that was effectively impossible to replicate on the Wii U (such as the Tingle Bottle replacing the GBA-connected Tingle Tuner). The gamepad’s gyroscope can be used to aim the telescope, and I would assume the Pictobox as well, though I couldn’t say for certain, as I turned the gyroscope’s finicky sensitivity off after my first use of the telescope. The touch screen can be used to slide items to the X, Y, and R buttons, but it doesn’t really save any significant time over the typical button and joystick combo of the old Gamecube controller. I appreciate the game being a gift, as prior to receiving it, I did not have any intent of purchasing Wind Waker HD, but now that I have it, I’m finding the majority of the updates underwhelming. That said, there is still plenty of game left ahead of me, so perhaps the Great Ocean still has some surprises in store.

Pokémon: Omega Ruby journal - entry five

Well, I did manage to more or less steamroll my way through the Elite Four – Trevenant and Infernape both swept a good chunk of the competition aside, while I really only had to swap out to Emolga in order to counter Glacia’s Wailrein. The Elite Four battles were not quite the cakewalk that their Kalos counterparts provided, but they weren’t much more of a challenge, truth be told. I even deliberately avoided many of the trainers along Victory Road in the hopes that it might balance the fights out a bit, but it seems this game was designed with players being significantly more powerful than necessary in mind.

It’s a bit of a shame, really, as I found the Pokémon typings spotlighted by each member of the Elite Four to be a fun and interesting combo. The champion battle against Steven Stone would have served as the highlight of the whole experience, were it not for the fact that beating him was similarly all too easy. For the sake of the narrative, however, I did appreciate Steven Stone’s constant involvement in major events, and the fact that he is something of a rival character who also acts as a source of inspiration to the protagonist – someone that most people seem to look up to. Thank goodness he wasn’t just dropped in for a brief cameo and then ignored entirely until his climactic battle (I am, of course, making a not-so-subtle reference to Diantha’s minimal role in X and Y). Regardless, above is my team that triumphed over the Elite Four, my ‘dream team’ for Omega Ruby.

I’ve only spent about fifteen minutes or so with the postgame Delta Episode, and have found its narrative to be considerably more compelling than the main game’s story and conflict with Team Magma. It’s comforting to know that at least some part of this remake might leave me somewhat impressed. The ability to soar around Hoenn on the back of Latios is certainly a visual treat, and is seemingly the only way to reach areas where warp holes containing legendary Pokémon await. I suppose it only makes sense to restrict access to these more powerful Pokémon until the main game is nearly over, though the premise of these mysterious holes simply spitting out Pokémon in front of you makes things, yet again, seem a bit easier than necessary. It shouldn’t be too much longer before I post my final review for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, though, depending on how long the Delta Episode content runs, I may yet post another journal entry beforehand.

Pokémon: Omega Ruby journal - entry four

The showdown with Primal Groudon was certainly a visually impressive moment for the game, though the fact that each of my party member’s levels was in the mid-fifties made the battle and capture process more frustrating than need be. Some of my Pokémon were all too likely to one-hit-K.O. Groudon, while the legendary Pokémon’s moveset was still powerful enough to knock out anyone in my party within two or three moves. And the fact that Groudon kept using rest only drew the process out further, resulting in about seven attempts before I actually had a decent shot at catching the beast.

Wallace’s gym battle offered a much appreciated variety in Pokémon that was absent in nearly every gym that preceded it, but my Trevenant was still able to sweep his entire team while taking hardly any damage. The sea routes that are so frequent late in the game do not bother me much, but the game’s archaic design for the overworld and excessive reliance on HMs is borderline-infuriating. I had hoped that with this reimagining of Ruby and Sapphire, Game Freak would incorporate as much from the generation VI titles as possible into streamlining the experience and making the whole package more user-friendly, but as I’ve seen time and time again during my playthrough, Omega Ruby is a classic case of ‘one step forward, two steps back’.

The brief glimpse of Zinnia did not go unnoticed by my eyes, and I’m very much hoping that the bonus content in the post-game Delta Episode makes up for some of Omega Ruby’s fumbles. I clocked in a couple more hours today, and I intend to try my best to burn through the remainder of Omega Ruby’s main story within the next week. Hopefully the Elite Four at least offer something of a challenge – right now, I fear they may be as much a cakewalk as their Kalos counterparts. Going into Victory Road, I’m already having flashbacks to Platinum's nauseating reliance on HM moves to mindlessly zigzag through a labyrinth of tunnels, bridges, and waterways.

Pokémon: Omega Ruby journal - entry three

Adding Emolga to my team has paid off wonderfully, as its Electric and Flying dual-typing and moveset have given me a consistent counter to the company of other Flying-type Pokémon, as well as the Grass/Fighting combo presented by Breloom. My reliance on Phantump is a bit more sporadic, but I still appreciate the Grass, Ghost, and Dark-type moves he’s learned, especially considering how offensively powerful they are. Coupled with his immunity to Normal and Fighting-type moves, I still consider Phantump to be a valuable asset to my team, if not something of a wild card in the grand scheme of this playthrough.

Metagross has become more frequently useful as of late, as has Toxicroak, something that I thoroughly appreciate, as I was never particularly keen on swapping either of those two out. Infernape has also proven a solid pick, while Crawdaunt keeps on trucking along, being the team member I have arguably gotten the consistent and reliable results from. Omega Ruby is, however, considerably lesser in its degree of challenge than most other Pokémon titles, as it utilizes the same experience share system from X and Y, rendering many of the trainer encounters and gym leader battles during the game’s second half laughably easy.

Another oddity that provides players with a distinct advantage over in-game opponents is the fact that Steven Stone takes you on a brief sidequest which ends with Latias or Latios in your company, depending on which version you are playing (in the case of Omega Ruby, Latios was added to my party for a short while). For anyone who might pick up Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire after the shiny Beldum event has ended, these legendaries might be a tad more appealing. Given how much lower a level than the rest of my part members were, as well as the fact that I’d have been double-dipping into the pool of Psychic-type Pokémon, I did not feel that I needed to make use of Latios. It would only have made the game that much more of a cakewalk, though I don’t deny that from the standpoint of trying to collect all the Mega Stones for completion’s sake, it’s an appreciated gift.

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire sprinkle in little bits of extra dialogue and cutscenes every so often to try and better flesh out the stories of Team Magma and Team Aqua. While the team admins are wacky, even mildly amusing, the ultimate ends for these two villainous element-obsessed factions still stand among the least compelling plotlines in the Pokémon franchise. This, tied with the fact that the Hoenn region offers very little in the way of distinctly memorable locales or events compared to nigh on every other entry in the series, leaves me somewhat disappointed over the fact that these games could have been so much better with all their new menu inclusions and user-friendly design points, were it not for the simple fact that they are remakes of the generation III titles.

Pokémon: Omega Ruby journal - entry two

This 3DS remake is proving, in some ways, a notable improvement over its GBA precursor, and in others, a game that is made frustrating by outdated design elements. First, the good – the Pokénav is a major step forward in scouring tall grass along routes, looking for a certain Pokémon or even specific movesets. It makes wild encounters less of a gamble, and random wild encounters are far less frequent than any Pokémon game beforehand, which is all fine and dandy, considering that the experience share from X and Y makes its triumphant return and seriously boosts the rate at which all party members level up. Also, it appears that one of the sidequests/subplots surrounding a machine piece needed to aid electric gym leader Wattson has been removed entirely – a welcome removal, in my opinion, as it was clunky and was one of the first major moments of the pacing being thrown off in the original Ruby and Sapphire.

Now for the not-so-great – the 3DS retelling of these Pokémon adventures in the Hoenn region suffers from the same lack of direction that I encountered around the halfway point of my playthrough of the GBA Sapphire. This is especially disappointing as Omega Ruby had been going out of its way a bit to give players more clear indication of what their next step was supposed to be. Now that has apparently dropped off, right as I’m reaching the areas of Hoenn where paths begin to split and the environments become winding, lengthy, and generally confusing. IGN received some flack for their dislike of the large water regions in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, but I personally have no problem with the Hoenn seaways – at the very least, those are navigable, and rarely are any of the ocean segments of any Pokémon game too large to frequently lose your way. But man, maybe Team Aqua was on to something when they said they wanted to drown the continent, because Hoenn’s continental layout is not the best.

On the topic of my current team, I have put Squirtle away in the PC, favoring Corpish for the time being. Chimchar has since evolved into Monferno, Beldum into Metang, and I’ve added an Emolga to my team to better round it out. This new lineup has worked out pretty well so far, and I’ve only had to box any of them temporarily to progress north with the use of HMs (another aspect of Omega Ruby that feels archaic and saps from the fun factor a bit).

Pokémon: Omega Ruby journal - entry one

My playthrough of Pokémon: Omega Ruby has been off to a slow start for a number of reasons, none of which really stem from the actual game itself. Part of my not jumping on this game immediately after I bought it was the result of my giving priority to the Wii U iteration of the new Super Smash Bros., part of it was due to my being rather busy with real-world going-ons last weekend, and part of it stemmed from the simple fact that the original GBA versions of Ruby and Sapphire were actually my personal least favorite entries in Game Freak’s long-running golden goose for Nintendo’s handhelds.

Before anyone starts berating me for the above statement, let me be clear that the fact that I am not so keen on the GBA Pokémon titles does not stem from their storylines, rather it's from the physical layout of the Hoenn region and associated technological restrictions of the era of their original release. I was a huge fan of the fact that Ruby and Sapphire offered up a nice variety of Pokémon players would actually want to use in early wild encounters, and there were some interesting dual-type combinations and naturally-learned movesets among them. Despite all this, my favorites in the series still prove the generation V entries Black and White, as well as the DS remakes Heart Gold and Soul Silver. I even found myself more fond of Platinum, restrictive hiccups, less interesting new Pokémon, and all that, than I did of Ruby and Sapphire.

With these reimaginings running on the same engine as X and Y, I have a great degree of faith that I will enjoy these 3DS counterparts significantly more, as last year’s introduction to the sixth generation of Pokémon came with an abundance of features that made the entire experience not only more accessible, but more enjoyable on the whole. As with my playthrough of Platinum, I’ve ported over a number of low-level Pokémon (courtesy of the Pokémon Bank) to help shape my party. The six Pokémon currently in my possession are by no means the core six I will ultimately use for my Elite Four encounter, though I’d like to think that at least half of them will stay by my side from start to finish.

As I’ve used each of the Hoenn starters in previous Pokémon playthroughs, I will not be utilizing any of them, despite how great each one is. I do, however, currently have two starters in my party that I have never actually used in a proper playthrough of a Pokémon game. Yes, believe it or not, I’ve actually never used Squirtle in a core Pokémon game, save for grinding in post-game content to raise one to a level fifty Blastoise as part of my desire to fill up the National Pokédex. My experience with Chimchar is similar, though at the moment, the fire monkey stands a better chance of remaining in my company longer, as it seems redundant to have two water types in the form of Squirtle and Corpish. Considering I like Corpish’s moveset at present and the typing of his evolved form more than the generation I water starter, that role may have already filled itself, though I won’t write Squirtle out just yet, as I’d like to see how Corpish fairs in the upcoming gyms and routes.

I’ve mentioned in the past how I am a huge fan of both ghost and steel type Pokémon, and while I’ve used nearly every ghost Pokémon in some capacity, Phantump and its evolved form Trevenant have done little more than sit in my PC Box since I first caught them last Fall. I’m rather curious to see how the grass/ghost combination works in the Hoenn region, though, as Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist proved a force to be reckoned with late in my Kalos region adventures. Beldum was one Pokémon I knew I wanted to use from the moment they announced Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire’s existence, and the fact that a shiny Beldum was made available for download from the moment the game hit store shelves was simply a bonus for me. Croagunk was an odball pick, as I'm not usually too hot on poison type Pokémon, but considering its usefulness against grass and fairy types as well as its secondary fighting type being useful against normal, dark, and steel, it offers up quite a lot of potential.

The Wolf Among Us journal - entry three

Similar in length to the second installment, episode three, titled ‘A Crooked Mile’, effectively plays a dual role. The first half is a direct continuation of the events of episode two, picking up with Crane’s sudden absence and Bigby furiously trying to figure out just how involved the acting mayor is in the string of dark events which have fallen upon Fabletown. ‘A Crooked Mile’ is less about exploring the fantasy nature and history of the fables themselves, opting instead to hone in on a few key characters to progress the story. Toad is absent from this episode entirely, while Grendel, the Woodsman, and Georgie all take side seats to grant Bigby, Snow White, Bluebeard, and a couple new characters more time in the spotlight.

There is also a sense throughout the first half of episode three that Telltale wants to wrap up a couple plot lines that ran through the previous episodes. This is welcome, as the plotlines in question were really only ever present to set the stage for larger things to come, something very much evidenced by the way episode three concludes. New faces and tense situations seem to imply much is in store from episode four, and the fact that episode three ends with such a bang should place plenty of pressure on Telltale to make the fourth entry just as good.

The Wolf Among Us journal - entry two

I'd be a liar if said I wasn't surprised that the second episode of The Wolf Among Us ended up being shorter than the first. In the case of The Walking Dead, the formatting was the other way around, and I guess I expected a similar situation here - that the first episode would lay the groundwork and familiarize players with the story and gameplay, while the installments that followed would expand upon that, each being longer/bigger than the one before it (or at least, considerably more substantial than the first episode). It's not to say that the second episode of The Wolf Among Us was disappointing per se, it's just that I expected it to run almost twice as long as it did.

Still, the pacing was wonderful, and the plot twists intriguing. I suppose it's really a matter of quality over quantity with a fantasy world detective story like The Wolf Among Us, and to that end I don't have any major complaints with the way the second episode was handled. I do have a minor complaint, however, and that is the 'next time on The Wolf Among Us' preview at the conclusion of episode one giving away far too much. It showed snippets of practically every major event, and while it didn't spoil the nitty-gritty details of episode two's plot developments, I would have appreciated more surprises. Hopefully episode three delivers better on that.

The Wolf Among Us journal - entry one

I got my first taste of Telltale Games’ episodic game format last year, when I played through the first two episodes of The Walking Dead at a friend’s house. It was surprisingly engaging, considering it was essentially an interactive story more than a full-fledged game. It harkened back to the old point-and-click PC titles, with quick-time events sprinkled throughout to push the survival horror angle more obviously befitting The Walking Dead. Its cel-shaded comic book styling was gorgeous, but when I heard about their follow-up series, The Wolf Among Us, I was initially skeptical. It seemed too easy a cash-in, and I wondered how they could successfully pull of a story from the Fables world with the gameplay elements cemented in The Walking Dead.

Having just wrapped up my playthrough of the first episode of The Wolf Among Us, I can say that Telltale Games has handled this fantasy property just as well as their first installment of the zombie survival tale that made them a household name. Fables is a very different tale to tell than that of The Walking Dead, for a number of obvious reasons, and Telltale seems to have taken that very much into account with the way they have chosen to push the detective angle of Bigby Wolf’s attempts to piece together a string of crimes carried out against his fellow fables. The Wolf Among Us pits Bigby in some rather intense scuffles with other powerful fables, but the majority of this first episode focuses on dialogue selections, scouring crime scenes for clues, and narrowing down the big bad wolf’s field of suspects.

The colorfully decaying streets of New York City in the The Wolf Among Us look every bit as good as the drab and dismal forests, farmland, and ghost towns of The Walking Dead – a testament not only to Telltale’s ability in crafting these worlds, but to the cel-shaded graphics carried over to this new game as well. The accents the characters bear, their mannerisms, and their classical fairy tale origins all culminate into one wonderfully immersive cast. It’s a truly impressive feat that a single episode that runs less than two hours can set the stage for a fantasy world and sell it so well to someone like myself who is only passingly familiar with the comic book source material. In fact, The Wolf Among Us does perhaps better to pack in so much quality in that brief time period than most of the triple-A titles I played during the last year.

Now, that is not to say that the game is perfect – there are some current hiccups with the season pass not granting people immediate access to the second episode. I also noticed a few instances of lag during the action segments, which are arguably the most crucial moments for delivering a quick response. Still, it’s nice to see that developers in this day and age can deliver high-quality games without creating an overly-complex system of gameplay or charging full retail price for their product.

Pokémon Sapphire journal - entry four

It is highly unusual for me to get past this far into a Pokémon game without having a full team that I intend to try my best to carry on through the Elite Four and League Champion battles. Even though I swapped out Chimecho for Azelf during the late hours of my Platinum playthrough, I still knew that I wanted a psychic-type Pokémon to complement the other members of my party. While I intend to keep Sableye, Torkoal, Breloom, and Loudred, I’m having second thoughts about keeping Pelipper at my side – he’s decent enough, but his jack-of-all-trades role has been similarly filled by Loudred, the latter of whom does not have a four times weakness to electric-type moves. Finally, my current sixth party member, Castform, is something of a one-trick pony – not entirely useless, but a slow horse out the gates at the start of any battle, unless the weather is already in his favor. It’s a shame, really, because I like the way Castform looks, and his distinct forms are a clever idea, but the time it takes to utilize any of these takes far too long.

I’m also coming to realize that these routes being so single-minded in their focus on trainer battles and wild encounters may not be as great as I initially believed. Nearly every area I’ve come across thus far had to be explored for some angle of the main game, leaving little in the way of optional sidequests or bonus content. When I played through Platinum, one of the things I found a bit annoying was how there was a plethora of half-baked ideas from the sidequests and minigame content, but in Sapphire, those elements have been practically nonexistent thus far.

It was around the time that Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald left their mark on the world of handheld gaming that the Pokémon community began drawing their dividing lines between the games and claim one generation or another as the ‘very best’ (pardon the play on words). This process of fans aligning with one generation or another as their personal favorite became even more prominent after the DS titles came onto the scene. Long before playing Sapphire, I had heard exceptionally good things across the board, from personal friends of mine as well as the anonymous Pokéfan masses of the internet. Honestly though, I think that Sapphire is currently a little below Platinum with regards to my own personal enjoyment with the game. While I appreciate the Pokémon native to Hoenn, the game itself feels too cut-and-dry an experience. Yes, gen IV was far from perfect, with its insistence on pushing old and boring Pokémon during wild encounters and its over-reliance on event-distribution legendaries, but at least the overworld was colorful and the gym leaders a decently interesting spin on the familiar. The majority of Sapphire’s main game has been rather predictable, and the fact that Team Aqua and Magma are so thoroughly uninteresting only hinders the game's aspirations. I realize that it’s difficult to live up to the wonderfully-plotted ideals of Team Plasma, or the classic villainy of Team Rocket, but the expansion of the sea/land depending on which version of the generation III experience you are playing is simply yawn-worthy. Does Pokémon Sapphire look good for its day? Certainly. Does it play well enough? Sure. But does it feel anywhere near as inspired a title as any of the other five generations of Pokémon? Not even close.

Gaming Update: Welcome to Los Santos

Due to the fact that I wrapped up most of the games I wanted to complete in 2013 right at the end of the year, my early 2014 playthroughs are still currently underway. Grand Theft Auto V is easily one of the more expansive and longest-running of this early slew of titles, and should be one of the first games I post a review for this year, alongside The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Aside from those two titles, I received Super Mario 3D World and Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition for Christmas, and still have Pokémon Sapphire, the original NES Legend of Zelda, Persona 4, and a couple of Final Fantasy titles I intend to return to this year. I’m actually quite a ways into Persona 4, and feel like that game will become higher priority during this winter/spring season than some of the others, due in part to the fact that I haven’t very far to go before completing it, and the fact that the game has been on loan to me from a friend.

As far as the outlook for the rest of the year is concerned, I really can’t throw out a whole lot of concrete details, simply because I don’t really know what to expect from 2014 with regard to new games. I do intend to pick up Watch Dogs day of release for the Wii U, and I’ll definitely get Kirby: Triple Deluxe. The new Smash Bros. is also a guaranteed purchase for me, though currently, signs point toward that being a quarter three or quarter four release. Bayonetta 2 (as well as a playthrough of the first) stands as a moderate possibility – the game looks cool, no doubt, but I really haven’t been particularly impressed with Platinum as of late, as evidenced in most of my posts from 2013 detailing hands-on experiences with some of their games and demos.

I would like to pick Final Fantasy VII back up later this year, as I truly did enjoy what I played in early 2013. Final Fantasy X did not impress me nearly as much, primarily due to the displeasing battle system and lack of many useful characters. I own copies of both Final Fantasy V and VI that I have yet to start files on, and I clocked a few hours into Final Fantasy IV: The After Years at the end of the summer. Though I realize it isn’t classical RPG in any sense of the term, I’m quite a ways into Paper Mario, and have simply been taking my time with that game, picking it up and clocking in a couple of hours here and there, as I feel like it. There’s a very good chance that title will see a review from me by the end of 2014.

The only other game that currently comes to mind as a potential purchase for this year is Killer7, which is a game I’ve wanted to experience in proper for quite a few years now. With that one, it’s really just a matter of finding a reasonable price for a used copy. I have absolutely zero intention of purchasing either the Xbox One or the Playstation 4, so I will write off any potential reviews from those consoles here and now. From this point out, my reviews of new-school games will be fueled by the Wii U and 3DS, as well as the Xbox 360 and Wii for those odd titles I never got around to playing in proper when they were first released. I suppose DmC might be worth mentioning as having a better-than-decent shot at seeing a review later this year, and Ghost Song is one indie title I've had my eye on since Two Best Friends Play made mention of it on their Facebook page. As for the rest of the year, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what lies in store.

Pokémon Sapphire journal - entry three

Though I have accepted the fact that Team Aqua and Team Magma’s aspirations will probably never live up to the nefarious deeds of other villains in the series, I definitely like the way their story has paced itself thus far. The race to stop Team Aqua at the top of Mt. Chimney added a bit of tension to an atmosphere that has been otherwise laid-back and focused primarily on a sense of exploration/adventure. In regards to that last aspect, Sapphire reminds me a lot of my original playthrough of Gold on the Gameboy Color. The distance between towns in Hoenn may not be as great as those in Johto, but the routes are all well-designed and the realm a great realization of what the GBA hardware was capable of.

Generally speaking, I tend to lean toward Pokémon that have a three-stage evolutionary line, or at the very least, a two-stage evolutionary line. Unless I’m adding a legendary Pokémon to my team, it’s very rare that I will keep a non-evolving Pokémon in my party. With Sapphire, however, I currently have two Pokémon in my party that do no evolve – Torkoal and Sableye. Torkoal has proven to be incredibly useful as my defensive ‘tank’ party member, while Sableye not having any natural weaknesses and resisting the moves that any other Ghost-type Pokémon would makes it a highly-dependable team member for getting me out of rough spots. As I’ve stated many times in past journal entries and other Pokémon-related posts, Ghost Pokémon are among my very favorites. That said, I’ve never cared much for Banette, and Dusclops is just sort of ‘okay’ in my opinion. Sableye might be super creepy and weird, but he’s got a lot going for him at the moment – assuming he will learn some better Ghost and Dark moves from leveling up, I’ll probably take him with me all the way to the Elite Four.

As far as the rest of my team is concerned, I’m quite pleased with their current levels and movesets. Both Loudred and Pelliper serve distinctly different counters to a wide range of Pokémon typings (and moves, thanks to their respective abilities), and as a result, I effectively have two ‘jack-of-all-trades’ Pokémon at my side. Breloom and Torkoal are geared toward specializing in moves reflective of their typings, and while they have their obvious weaknesses, are both solid in terms of offense and have served me well through these recent legs of the game. I may change the lineup a bit sometime down the road, but I still have a sixth spot open, and while I have typings in mind, I don’t have a specific Pokémon that I feel I absolutely want. Bagon and Beldum would certainly be nice, but I recognize that it will be a while before I encounter either of these Pokémon in the wild.

Pokémon Sapphire journal - entry two

I’m already noticing a decent challenge factor from Sapphire, and I think this is brought on by two fronts. First off, the game limits the types of Pokémon you have access to early on. There are plenty of different Pokémon you can catch, all of them newcomers to generation III, and as a result, I give this angle much higher marks than the approach that Platinum took in throwing a bunch of old and boring Pokémon at you during its first few hours. Between my Sableye, Shroomish, Wingull, and Whismur, I feel like I have a decently rounded-out team for only being four hours into the game. I also caught two electric types - Plusle and Electrike – though I am currently unsure as to which I want to add to my party. Neither would prove highly beneficial at the moment, as the next gym is run by electric Pokémon expert Wattson.

And as much as I enjoy having a nice variety of Pokémon typings in my party, I have yet to encounter any Rock or Fire Pokémon in the wild (either one of which would make for a solid counter to the slew of Electric types I am set to take on). I know the Electric gym won’t be flat out impossible to trump with my current party, but I expect it will be rather challenging, especially if the first rival battle with May was any indicator of the overall difficulty factor of Pokémon Sapphire. Having just come off my playthrough of Pokémon Y, Sapphire certainly boasts a big difference in terms of its degree of difficulty.

I appreciate the fact that routes have thus far been relatively short, but also rather fully packed with trainers, items, berries, and fresh types of wild Pokémon. I feel like I’m getting a solid return on my battling/training without having to rely too heavily on potions (which is doubly nice, seeing as the reward money you earn from battles in Sapphire is seemingly minimal in comparison to other entries in the series). Distractions including package deliveries and a couple encounters with Team Aqua have been brief, and did well to avoid upsetting the pacing of Sapphire’s main focus. It is a little strange that Sapphire just sort of dumps Team Aqua into the story without much of an introduction, but oh well – I never expected the machinations of a villainous team hell-bent on the expansion of the sea to live up to the caliber of deviousness conveyed by Team Galactic or Team Plasma.

Pokémon Sapphire journal - entry one

I’ve finally scored a copy of Pokémon Sapphire, thus marking the start of my exploration of the third generation of Game Freak’s iconic RPG series. While Emerald was my preferred Hoenn title, I found that locating a legitimate copy of any of the generation III titles online was something of an annoying endeavor, and luckily one of the vendors at Youmacon had copies of both Ruby and Sapphire for reasonable prices. Ultimately, the version exclusives for Sapphire won the day, and as of right now I’ve clocked approximately one hour in.

The pacing for this journal will likely be slower than the journals I kept for Pokémon Y and Platinum earlier this year, simply because there are other video games that I am ranking as higher priorities than Sapphire. Also, I’ve played a ton of JRPGs this year, and while they are plenty of fun and offer a generally extensive amount of content, I feel like a break from the genre is in order. I still intend to post my review for Sapphire before the end of 2013, and in all likelihood, it will be posted before the end of November. But expect reviews of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Killer is Dead, and possibly even Pikmin 3 to be posted before then.

My starter was Treecko, though in truth, my starter Pokémon is largely irrelevant to this particular playthrough. I’ve already used all three Hoenn starters between my Platinum playthrough and Soul Silver replays. There are other Grass type Pokémon that I have my eyes on that I ultimately intend to use in lieu of Treecko, including Shroomish and Lotad. Unlike my past few Pokémon playthroughs, I do not have a core team of six ironed out from the get-go, though I certainly have ideas in mind, and plan to stick to my pattern of not reusing Pokémon from previous playthroughs (thus why Treecko will ultimately be boxed).

Obviously a single hour worth of gameplay hasn’t revealed to me much about the nature of Sapphire, but I am impressed with what little I’ve seen thus far. The game world looks surprisingly more visually impressive than I expected, and the fact that the introductory sequence was breezed through in a matter of minutes was a welcome manner of kicking things off. I guess I thought that the running shoes were a generation IV item, but those too proved a convenient bonus right from the start. As of now, my team is made up of the aforementioned starter, Poochyena, and Taillow, but I know there are Shroomish looming in the grass nearby, and a Grass/Fighting dual type evolution (Breloom) sounds like a cool addition to my roster.

Pokémon Y journal - entry six

While I greatly appreciated the fact that the sixth generation Pokémon games did away with the need for grinding entirely, I feel like Game Freak and Nintendo may have gone just a bit too far, resulting in certain portions of the game being too easy. I played through the core game and opted out of most sky battles, as well as breezed through a few routes without so much as looking at half of the trainers that lined it. Black 2 and White 2 were very generous in the amount of experience points they allowed you to earn, but I still felt that the later gym battles and the Unova Elite Four provided a decent challenge (and that was, mind you, after I had already faced them once in White version). While I applaud the choice of typings and freedom to select your own order within the Kalos Elite Four, the battles were almost laughably easy. By the time I entered the bright and awesomely decorated halls, my team members were all at levels that fell in the range of high sixties and low seventies, which allowed me to stomp all over the high fifties that the Elite Four relied on. Even the champion battle proved to be more or less a cakewalk, and I barely used Yveltal for any portion of these five battles.

At any rate, here is the team I used to triumph over the Elite Four and Kalos’ champion – Greninja, Doublade, Gourgeist, Aurorus, Sylveon, and Yveltal. Gourgeist was a real sleeper hit of a Pokémon for me, and I feel like the ghost types from both generations five and six have been among the best the series has ever had. In fact, most of the new Pokémon introduced in X and Y work very well with all of those that preceded them because they are dual types, many of which we have not seen in these particular combinations or with these particular stats. There may not be nearly as many new Pokémon introduced in X and Y, but the newcomers do feel very much like an extension of the generation V Pokémon, which is a great thing, as far as I’m concerned.

One other aspect I found myself particularly critical of late in Pokémon Y was the lack of much challenge from my rival character. Technically, X and Y do carry on from Black and White a scenario of the protagonist having two rivals. But you only have a few battles with Shauna, leaving the other neighbor kid to be your main rival. I found it very strange that, even during the last of our battles, she was relying on five Pokémon instead of six. It’s like the game was handing me victory on a silver platter.

I’ve already done a little bit of exploring in the postgame, and have caught both Mewtwo and Zygarde. I had a split-second encounter with Moltres before it darted off, but considering that I previously caught one in Soul Silver and imported it into Black 2 along with Zapdos and Articuno, I’ll probably just carry those ones over into Y once the Pokémon Bank application is up and running. I’ve heard from others who have already completed X and Y that the postgame experience in the sixth generation titles is rather light when compared to other entries in the series, which is a bit disappointing. Nevertheless, I will do my best to seek out as much in the way of sidequests and bonus content as I can before posting my review (which will hopefully be up sometime next week).

Pokémon Y journal - entry five

The payoff for the Team Flare storyline was a long time coming, but it was absolutely spectacular. It does tread into darker territory that is on par with the plans of Team Plasma in Black and White, and when the actual backstory that is tied to the villain team’s plans is delivered, it is magnificent in both scope and presentation. I just really wish the game had allowed me to be entranced with it longer. I think the sixth generation games would have greatly benefitted from having gradually expanded the role of Team Flare and their intentions instead of having them simply pop up from time to time. The grunts and admins never really feel as though they’ve developed any further as characters, though Lysander’s visible rage was a nice touch, thanks to the 3D character models.

From here on out, I expect Pokémon Y to be more or less a straight shot to the finish line. I don’t imagine the last gym, Victory Road, or the Elite Four will be particularly easy (and that’s just the way I’d like things to be), but I also don't expect there will be too many extra distractions until the postgame. I am excited to visit the sixth generation equivalent of the Safari Zone, and I’m very much hoping that I run into a shiny Pokémon or two – I understand that the chances of running into shiny Pokémon has been improved for X and Y, and I already know quite a few people who have encountered shiny Aipoms, Spoinks, and Croagunks. Outside of the scripted red Gyarados from Soul Silver and the postgame reward Garchomp in Black 2, I’ve never come across a shiny Pokémon, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Now that I’ve caught Yvetal, I have a second Flying Pokémon in my ranks, and have decided he will more than likely replace Talonflame as I prep my team for the Elite Four challenge. I still plan to catch a Noivern, and if I decide that I like his move set and stats better than Yveltal, I may perform one last swap of my lineup. But as it currently stands, I have both a Sylveon and an Aurorus in my party, whose Fairy and Ice moves seem plenty reliable in countering any Dragon Pokémon I might encounter before the main game’s finale. Adding Noivern to the lineup seems like it might be a bit overkill.

Pokémon Y journal - entry four

I’ve come to realize that Lumiose City only has a handful of real worthwhile things to offer. The ludicrous number of cafes act as a series of hurdles, barring you access to the large boutique unless you visit every café and talk to all the patrons within (the correlation between coffee drinkers and your own personal sense of style escapes me entirely, but whatever). The restaurants acting as similar to the Battle Subways from Black and White, albeit more speedy in their delivery of one battle after another, is by far the most engaging diversion I’ve found in Lumiose City thus far. I do get the sense that a few things like the train station will open up more of the Kalos region after the main game has been completed.

I’m definitely a fan of the challenge factor that Y has dished up on the whole, though I’d hardly consider it to be consistent in that regard. The first few hours were notably slower paced in order to provide adequate time for explaining all of the sixth generation’s new features, which is just as well because there are quite a few at play from the get-go. After the third gym, the game seemed to briefly barrel forth at a breakneck speed, but has since settled for a happy medium of a pace. I’ve enjoyed the degree of challenge that the gym leaders have all thrown my way, though a couple of the most recent gyms did strike me as a being a little larger than they needed to be – I appreciate the unique aesthetic angles in each, but I’m visiting the gyms to battle my way to another badge, and I’d prefer to not have to spend fifteen minutes walking between the entrance and the gym leader.

I am rather surprised that Team Flare’s role hasn’t increased much. They did manage a momentary takeover of the Pokéball factory and later bullied one Abomasnow that probably could have pummeled the lot of them, but they’re still being snarky and mischievous. All I’ve really gathered from the Team Flare grunts is that they’re greedy and still don’t recognize my character as a legitimate threat to whatever their grand plans are. By this point in both the generation I and II titles, the Team Rocket goons were annoyed with Red’s constant foils to their thievery, and both Cyrus and Ghetsis had directly addressed the protagonists of their respective generation IV and V games. I get the sense that the story has some grand direction that it wants to take, but man, it is sure taking its sweet time getting there.

The online component runs incredibly smoothly and offers a quick and responsive battle system. While it is possible to battle and trade with your friends in close proximity, battles can instantaneously be offered to anyone around the globe via the scrolling ‘passerby’ row of the Player Search System displayed on the lower screen of the 3DS. This means that you could be walking down a route or in the middle of tackling a gym and receive a random battle request. These requests can be declined if you find the rules are not to your liking, or blocked entirely if you find them to be obnoxious, but they will never interrupt your gameplay on the top screen.

Meanwhile, the soccer minigame used to boost any of your party Pokémon’s stats is intuitive, if not a little boring and monotonous. If you feel one of your Pokémon has a speed stat, a defense stat, an attack stat, etc. that is not up to par with where you would like it to be, you can spend a few minutes training here and there to buff it up – it has a long-term payoff, but can yield very noticeable results. Pokémon Amie is the last of these three touch screen-based additions, and despite my belief that it would be an annoying grind of silly interactions with your party Pokémon in order to make boosting their friendship rating with you easier to keep track of, it is in fact a relatively simple means of building your Pokémon’s affection rating (which is different than their friendship level). A Pokémon with full affection will perform significantly better in battle, landing critical hits, more easily, dodging some attacks, and occasionally gaining boosted experience points, all for the sake of making their trainer happy. While you cannot max out a single Pokémon’s affection rating in one go, a little bit here and a little bit there can make this process super easy and – thanks to the puzzle and berry picking minigames – actually kind of fun.

Pokémon Y journal - entry three

I’m really glad to see the incredible creativity of the gym layouts in the generation IV and V Pokémon titles carried over and expanded upon in the sixth generation games. Though the first few gyms were relatively easy to breeze through, the fifth gym – run by the Electric type leader Clemont – provided the most notable challenge. In this case, I don’t feel that my choice of starter Pokémon would have made a significant difference in the challenge factor I experienced. I think it’s simply the case that Clemont’s Pokémon knew more powerful, generally better moves than the Pokémon trained by the previous gym leaders. It was a fun gym battle, not obnoxious like Elesa’s in Black/White (with her constant spamming of Volt Switch).

As the ‘hub world’ of the Kalos region, Lumiose City is certainly full of people and places, though I don’t yet understand the need to have so many different cafes in one single area. In truth, I’ve not yet bought anything from any of these cafes, but the sheer number of them seems like overkill. The boutiques, on the other hand, are a little bit annoyingly restricted at present. It’s cool that the shops offer new clothing items each day, but barring access to the largest boutique inside Lumiose City because I’ve not yet reached an arbitrary ‘style’ ranking according to the shopkeeper is plain stupid.

As for the routes between cities, they’ve been incredibly short between the last three cities. There was a neat little diversion before Lumiose City that expanded Team Flare’s role as resident villain team. But aside from a brief ride on a Skiddo and a receiving a free Lapras that I used to surf across a tiny waterway, there wasn’t much to do during this most recent leg. The Mega Evolutions have only been slightly touched upon, with the third gym leader giving me free Lucario capable of Mega Evolving. It’s an interesting feature in the sense that it makes select Pokémon temporarily more powerful, and I won’t lie that I find most of the Mega Evolutions have really cool aesthetic appearances, but the whole business of Mega Evolutions seems – for the moment, at least – very much tacked on for the sake of having another gimmick in the mix.