It's time to play the best Pokemon game again
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>>733624443this IS the best pokemon game at expressing pokemons core thesis statement that the world is natural and exploration and discovery is key. i think this is how pokemon should be approached in the modern day because it almost feels pokemon snap-like in how you're exploring the ecosystems and finding natural enclaves of pokemon with alphas. the classic formula is good, but the catch em all tenet of pokemon has never been done better than in PLA.however i think its a double edged sword because it makes the game a lot less replayable than other pokemon games, because you know all the secrets on replay, you know how to solve the legendary puzzles, you know where the rare pokemon are hidden around the maps etc.its still the all time best pokemon experience though, especially at immersion. plza is a huge sack of shit in comparison
>>733625649Based
great game. just needed a graphical tune up and a fleshed out combat system that wasnt trading off OHKOs
>>733624443Pic unrelated
>>733630194i think it needed to remove battling altogether and just use pokemon for exploration and quests
>>733630194It also needed sneak attacks and more done with the pokemon ecology than just having them spawn in little groups wandering around aimlesslyToo bad ZA was successful so now we'll never get a good pokemon game again, let alone any iteration on those mechanics
>>733632004That's more Pokemon Ranger's shtick
>>733632334i mean this game is closer to pokemon ranger than to mainline pokemon as is i think. you are playing a researcher, not a battler in this
I haven't played either this or ZA. Also stopped playing pokemon after gen 6. (which I still very much enjoyed, I just kind of lost interest when it came to sun and moon)What's the gameplay and combat actually like? And what does each do better than the other?
>>733633730Arceus gameplay is basic open world exploration. You go to a region, you get a new movement/HM ability from riding a pokemon there (sprinting, climbing walls, surfing, etc), and you fuck about. Progress is in the form of researching pokemon; not just catching them, but also seeing them use particular moves in combat and sometimes observing certain environmental behavior by feeding them berries or encountering them at a certain time/place. It feels like a mix of Pokemon Ranger and Pokemon Snap at times, very focused on the world itself. Combat is initiative-based rather than turn based. Each move can be used normally, in a slower but stronger version, or a faster weaker version. Very few trainer battles.ZA is more of a traditional pokemon game. It's set all in one urban environment, but it's reasonably dense and varied though still disappointing compared to Arceus' variety. By day you explore the city, find wild pokemon in parks and alleys, and do sidequests (there's over 100 and they're surprisingly in-depth, feeling like little vignettes from episodes of the anime). You can also go to cafes and have a coffee date with your pokemon. At night areas of the city are cordoned off for trainer battles. Battles are now completely real-time, with moves having cooldowns instead of PP. The size of your pokemon actually dictates the range and AoE of many moves, so you can actually rely on something like a pikachu to be small and fast enough to evade attacks by just getting out of the way. As you rank up you get to fight in the equivalent of gym battles; puzzles, story beats, big fight, etc. The story itself is a little weak, it might've been better if I'd beaten X/Y or had played it since release.Both of them are really cool, both of them are also really flawed. Graphics are shit, jank is constant, you really have to be invested in the concept of the game and let that carry you. That being said, Arceus is the most fun I've had playing pokemon in 25 years.
>>733635118>Doesn't even mention how catching pokemon worksAre we really that far gone from the old system that doing things in the world doesn't even seem novel anymore
>>733635327I had 2000 words and it's 1 in the morning, it's not gonna be comprehensive.
>>733624538FPBP
>>733624538Why is lu bu on the cover
>>733624443It's the most fun I've had playing pokemon since I was a child. It captured what the pokemon games felt like to me when I was younger.
>>733635421Sure, but it is like the core gameplay conceit of PLA
>>733635787I don't dispute that. Honestly the main reason it slipped my mind is that as fun as it is to catch a bidoof by whipping a fastball at the back of its head, after a while I felt like the actually process of acquiring pokemon was almost ancillary. When I think back on the game I think about romping around, using the ride pokemon to do stupid platforming, and running for my life while an alpha tried to cave my head in. Tossing berries while hidden in the tall grass to placate a skittish buneary or budew. Finding a goomy in the rain. Catching was something done in bulk for research, and throwing was certainly the backbone of how you engaged with the pokemon (especially in the boss fights...) but it's just not what strikes me as the main differentiation compared to how novel it was to see pokemon out in the world and actually interact with them. That's a lot of why ZA disappointed me, except for the fact your pokemon actually runs alongside you and can start fights and blow up environmental objects seamlessly everything else in terms of how you engage with the world felt like a step back.
>>733630194That a native screenshot? I love my tiny Lopunny
>>733624443its staying in my backlog until it gets a 60fps update I dont care how much I paid
>>733624443Just a reminderhttps://youtu.be/4zixFOggCYohttps://youtu.be/4hAZvtCkX00
>>733636478It will stay there forever then
>>733636478took me about 4 minutes to acclimate to the 30fps
>>733624443Everything about it was great EXCEPT they ruined the core combat, which was the one thing Pokemon consistently did actually well. I don’t even mind the “it becomes a TPS and the trainer fights” boss thing, that was fine, it was a nice way to leverage the game’s new systems for a combat challenge, but the basic turn based combat should have remained unchanged from the core games.
>>733636478Emufags tried to make a 60fps patch but it sucks because it also sped up the game, so don't expect an official 60fps update because it would clearly take more than 5 minutes for the multibillionaire corporation to make it work properly
