DranSeasona

I myself have not had much activity lately, as everyone in my house is sick. Did catch my first Sinnoh today, though: a Kricketot!

You guys have a Secret Santa thing? What happens?

I mean, there are ways to approach people for best results in terms of reaction, and ways that are not very helpful. To say something along the lines of hatching eggs is a waste of time, and then to say soon after in another channel that being a Pokémon Master is old hat (I could see many competitive players interpreting that as a dig at them), I just feel like could have been approached better. Sure the competitive players and others who hate this game and everything they think it stands for are acting childish and dumb, but I feel like a more diplomatic approach would be warranted rather than saying silly things that can easily be misinterpreted as a dig. I don’t agree with the people that are whining at all, but I can see how the Pokémon Company’s approach right now could be annoying to them. I mean, many of them have devoted a lot of their time and effort into the competitive scene, after all. I’m just saying I empathize with them a bit. But yeah, this looks like it would be a fair challenge (especially if Serebii is correct about the base stats being higher than they should be). I think the competitive players should stop whining ultimately and give this a shot.

I think this is a great idea. Can’t wait to be Dragonite Master. Poor Lance... he’ll be so jealous. But this was kind of not well advertised on Twitter. They were like “being a Pokémon Master is so 1998.” Many people who were already mad over the Masuda interview just saw this as adding further fuel to the “crap all over the competitive players” fire. O_o I think people are too sensitive about this (a video game), but the Pokémon Company seems to be just digging themselves a hole a bit, IMO.

Oh for sure, Pichi. I agree the Gameboy music when done right can be effective. That comment about the Gameboy was a general statement about how I feel their ambitions were just beyond what the Gameboy was capable of matching, and only so happened to follow the comment about the almost unbearable soundtrack. Of course there were great Gameboy games that made exceptional and creative use of the hardware, but there’s no denying they all had to sacrifice more for that adaptation than games on the more technologically capable consoles of the time. I think Metroid is just a game series that does better with more technology backing it up, in general.

I think the counter was only there because it was in line with how Metroid 2 itself worked. Don’t think it would return (no pun intended) in a new Metroid game. Yes, Diggernaut. Good ideas but not well executed, IMO. … I guess I will follow suit and not be the odd man out, then. 1) Metroid Prime As mentioned, I regard this as one of the best of the genre in terms of execution. I have replayed it many times, and it has always felt just as good as the first foray. Sure, it’s not perfect; the controls are rigid and the difficulty spike at the end kind of comes out of nowhere, for example. But I think it’s overshadowed completely by the overall experience. The graphics were great and still hold up reasonably well (as much as can be expected), the soundtrack was amazing, the exploration options engaging, and the enemies and bosses overall pretty memorable, especially compared to most of the rest of the series for me (although nothing beats Kraid/Ridley/Mother Brain, of course). One of my favourite games ever. 2) Super Metroid This gets this spot mostly because of how important it is to the series, but it still holds up as a challenging, and very fun experience. That baby Metroid scene even before Other M was so effective it is surprising to me. Just a well done game, with not much to complain about. 3) Zero Mission This game is such an excellent remake, I hold it up as an example of how proper remakes should be: improve the game experience while keeping the spirit of the original. The end sequence was such a creative idea for the series and, again, very effective in terms of atmosphere even for a 2D game. 4) Metroid Fusion I feel this one gets a lot of rap for being too linear, but quite honestly all Metroid games are, they’re just better at disguising it than this one, perhaps. In any case, the SA-X scenes were surprisingly scary and you really see that Alien inspiration played out best in this game, in my opinion. It has a couple weird difficulty spikes, but overall a great game. 5) Metroid Prime 2 The rest of these games are only vaguely in order except the last two. You know what? I liked how repetitive this game’s structure is. It fits well with one of the overall themes of balance, and reminds me of Symmetry Village in Oracle of Ages. The beginning sequence was also well implemented. My biggest gripe with this game is just that it doesn’t offer a lot after Metroid Prime besides Dark Samus. 6) Samus Returns I liked this game a lot, but the randomly difficult Diggernaut soured the experience for me. I felt much of the latter half of the game was difficult but fun, whereas I felt the Diggernaut sequence was just the former. Overall however a good game and liked the twist at the end. 7) Metroid Prime 3 I just found this one boring and contrived in terms of story, which was disappointing considering what felt like was promised. Overall it was fun, but I enjoyed it the least of the Primes. I did like the various world concept though, that was implemented fairly well for its time. 8) Other M There’s much to be said about how poorly executed the story and dialogue was in terms of direction, and the random quick time event in the middle was dumb. But I rather enjoyed the game’s style, enemies and overall feel. The story wasn’t that bad in my opinion and I have no qualms with Samus’ PTSD. Just had a lot of expectations that fell a bit flat, which isn’t entirely the game’s fault. 9) Metroid Prime Hunters I found this forgettable, honestly. Despite how it did the multi-worlds bit first. I had nobody interested in multiplayer, so that didn’t help. 10) Metroid Honestly, Zero Mission just did everything better. That’s the one major downside of remakes, I guess. Not much else to say, and that’s part of the point. 11) Metroid 2 Again, the remake was just better overall for me, especially the terrible soundtrack. I could barely even get halfway through, it was just so painful for me. It’s really just because it was a Gameboy game; there was a lot of ambition there, I just don’t think it worked. Sure it’s important. Sure it isn’t actually a bad game by any means. But compared to the rest of the limited series (as in, a few games over many years), this one just aged the worst.

Maybe I’m just not as good as you, and so need to grind more in general. But I remember an interview from the 80s with the creator of DQ where they asked the question about grinding, and he said something along the lines of “life is hard, I’m teaching kids how to be adaptable”. So the idea of grinding was woven in from the start.

Oh dear. That’s just asking for trouble. O_o

Lol Love how it’s a Bidoof. You should nickname it Rusty.

Fair point, Ace. Of course, Nintendo has every right to protect their IPs. And yes, it is chump change, especially if the tour company was making a lot of money off the use. They really should have asked to use the IPs, especially for business purposes. And of course, respect Nintendo’s wishes if refused. I think in the internet age fair use is an important albeit quite limited concept, but yeah it’s true that this isn’t a fair use issue. I only say that because this isolated event happens in conjunction with the ongoing “war on memes”, and such, which is really where my mixed feelings comes from.

Awesome work on the mask!

Right, there was certainly that happening. I did see a few videos advocating gamergate with women involved though (not, like, with terrorists standing behind them), so I didn’t want to generalize. @blcdude1: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, they are selling a product. They would want to jump on whatever band wagon they can.

Yeah, and can I just say that the whole team concept is really seeming to make my ability to participate in raids fruitless? There’s been so many times when I begin a raid and I get, like, two to three people from another team participating, then when the battle finally happens they’re suddenly gone. Seems to me like some people are just a bit too zealous for their teams. That or it’s a terrible server issue near my work...

Yeah, good point on the grind. The DQ RPGs are huge on that principle. I am also mostly undecided but I think I will get it on Switch... eventually. Level grinding on the train on way to work isn’t a terrible way to spend that time.

Fair enough. That is a good example. I forgot for a minute they were, you know, vehicles.