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As much as I hate the asymmetry in white-hair's overworld sprite, I'm gonna suggest  (Dark-haired girl is also good, though, as she has the Most Anime Hair.) I have no preference for starters, although the new shiny sprite for Samurott is...certainly something. Hopefully we'll get to see more of the "improved" shiny designs throughout the game.The sad part is, I can appreciate the little things like expanded player designs, and quick introductions to battles, starters, and running. And then it all gets wrapped in a plot about terrorist attacks, followed by our local manager-slash-author-avatar being complicit in torture, all with some awkward flirting wedged in-between. The bits and pieces I've heard of the rest of the game do not improve this image. MiracleFlare fucked around with this message at 18:20 on May 29, 2017 |
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May 29, 2017 17:45
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Onmi posted:No no it wasn't an actual pen and paper game it was an RP group in the chatroom sense of "I'm going to play a character" and then they handle their fights in a battle simulator. That's also why there's more than 8 Gym Leaders here. Well that and... other reasons we'll get to. I had a feeling that's what you meant by RP. Having been involved with that kind of thing myself as a stupid kid, I can confirm it can escalate into terrible places because you have multiple writing reinforcing each other's bad ideas, while simultaneously trying to match each other. One character with a tragic backstory or being distressed by current events tends to result in other players turning up the angst themselves, until it turns into an edgy, convoluted clusterfuck of a story that no player wants to criticize because they're all friends. Given that, I suppose it's too much to hope for that ZEL got rewrites in the transition to a bigger audience, to get rid of any and all sour characterization they had in their first incarnation...? Not that I can personally speak about DID and how to write characters with it. But in general, whenever someone writes their story with a lot of people with trait X in it, I get wary that they're only doing it for Cool Points or Karma Tokens and that they don't actually care about portraying it respectfully. (see: Uranium giving the player a NB option, then later making a huge deal and running gag out of a male NPC who wears nothing but a skirt.) I'm not optimistic that Reborn isn't going down that road, between some contextless spoilers I've heard, and that one trainer that was talking about people getting "gypped". But I'm sure actually seeing the story in action will shatter my expectations, good or bad. Also what the gently caress, those stats on PULSE Tangrowth are absolutely disgusting. It's got Filter on top of those defenses? I have no idea how to balance a game, but I feel like a tank boss is a bad idea this early into the game, since most Pokemon wouldn't have bloomed into heavy hitters by now. --- On a semi-related note, I wanted to check some early-game things myself. iirc, there were a few questions on why shiny Arbok had a radiation symbol on its body? I mean, besides the Cool Points.      I have no clue if nuclear waste is plot-relevant in the future, but at least it seems there's some backstory of irradiation going on. Great minds truly think alike, or something, ...I also mashed buttons trying to place myself in front of what looked like a door, while running on fast forward, and uh  Actually pretty nice, for something I slammed my face into by accident. I forgot to do any testing on how it worked, though, particularly with any three-ability Pokemon. (If I missed this part in the LP anywhere, sorry for bringing up old news.) MiracleFlare fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Jun 26, 2017 |
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Jun 26, 2017 16:06
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I liked my broccoli monkey, but also it was a drat pain to keep her unevolved until level 40s just so she'd keep learning moves. On Reborn, that blind NPC... As a slighted person I don't feel that I have much room to criticize the writing, but it does make me wonder if she's written from any kind of personal experience, or if she's just someone's idea of what a blind character should act like. Mostly I think the latter would just tie into the worries I have with ZEL, that characters from all different lives are being included, but not necessarily in a way that respects them or any players like them. (Opinion subject to change, pending on any future blind characters that give more variety in portrayal.) Randalor posted:Didn't the second set of Mystery Dungeon games have things like someone building up your trust the entire game, just to stab you in the back, the complete destruction of time, and someone encouraging the main character to commit suicide? I mean, just saying, if done properly, you can get dark as gently caress, and still be an entertaining story that fits in with pokemon. Yeah, Explorers definitely reached a dark place, especially once the player character's own mortality became a topic. One good thing Explorers has for it is that it doesn't throw the audience into the deep end right at the beginning. It lets the player get familiar with the world first as the threat level gradually builds up: You start out just busting petty criminals (and one kidnapper) in between guild missions, while hearing the occasional hint of even greater criminal causing localized disasters. You aren't just crushed all at once at the start by the weight of what's at stake. The other thing is, the game doesn't get gratuitous with its grim moments. There is definitely some angst, but there isn't, for example, a scene where your partner tries to hurt or kill themself after hearing that whole "die for the greater good" thing, something I'm almost certain would be in a fan's retelling of the same story. Similarly, the Rescue Team games have a long section where everyone thinks that the player character's existence put curse on the land, and you run away as a fugitive past the natural disasters that they blame on you. And yet even when the bounty hunters catch up to you, there's no extended scene of them talking about how terrible your death will be. From what I can remember of the first two PMD series (I haven't played the others), you're only given as much grittiness as needed to progress the story or the character arcs, and you aren't shown much violence on-screen - the most I can think of is that one Sableye scene in Explorers. Compare to CURIE in Uranium, who just cannot shut up about death and suffering and how much they want to see other people in pain. I can understand why the writer of a romhack or other fanwork might want to take advantage of the lack of restrictions to bend the setting a little. Say a curse word or two, or make a more explicit reference to something that'd only be vaguely implied at most in an official game. But I do think that once you get to the point where you're including train bombings, terrorism, and turtle-powered torture, you may want to reconsider if Pokemon is the best medium to tell that story. And based on contextless things I've heard about Reborn, it's... certainly going to be a ride. MiracleFlare fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Jul 10, 2017 |
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Jul 10, 2017 08:39
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