Pokemon 25th Anniversary Blog Post
Time for something that I rarely do here... an actual blog post!
So, have you been enjoying your Pokemon Day? How did you like the news?
As for the Pokemon Legends: Arceus game, I am absolutely excited. This is something that will surely bring some freshness to the franchise, which admittedly has been drowning in its own clichés for years. What exactly will it bring? Who knows. It is way too early to deem it good or bad - unlike the other revealed title, we just don't know what to expect. So, surely I will be looking forward to the updates, though I guess this may not be any time soon. So far, the game's overworld looks like one big Wild Area. This looks like much fun to explore, but also like something that may get boring after a while. I hope that the developers find a way to make the game exciting at the long go and prepare some interesting plot. I am especially interested in its backstory aspect - I hope that despite the wilderness, we do get to see some familiar places in their ancient form. For example, I would love to see what Solaceon Ruins were before they became, well... ruins. But what excites me the most is the possibility of future "Legends" games. I mean, "Pokemon Legends" sure sounds like some ongoing side-series, right? And Johto-based Legends game is something that I would DEFINITELY want to see in the future. Johto is literally made for it - it has ancient ruins, Pokemon version of Kyoto, geishas, Legendary towers, ninjas in Mahogany etc. It would be a sin not to do that! Also, if the Sinjoh Ruins is somehow integrated into Legends: Arceus's plot, then we might even get a hint of such a game in the future. This is definitely something that I see great potential in. But what will we really get? Only time will tell. By the way, what names do you call the protagonists of this game? I jokingly call them "Koukiemon" and "Hikarihime" but maybe someone already invented better names. I hope that they do get some official names.
As for the other big reveal, the long-awaited Diamond & Pearl remakes - Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, my feelings are rather mixed. Don't get me wrong, I am sure that they will be great games, just like the originals were. But comparing them to previous remakes, I can't help but feel somewhat disappointed. I'm not gonna lie, the remakes were mostly about graphical progress to me. Getting a familiar but more polished and more realistic version of the old game's world, translating it into the visuals of modern games. This remake lacks this aspect. I am not saying this is a bad approach per se, the problem is that they decided to take this approach at this point, after the general standard of what a Pokemon game remake should be like has been long but established. If the remakes were always like this, it would be okay and nobody would complain. But looking back to the previous remakes and how they represented their respective regions, seeing that Sinnoh got this kind of approach feels somewhat... unfair. Also, the game's general aesthetic and how different it is from other modern core series Pokemon games makes it feel somehow detached from its generation. All previous remakes were full-fledged core Pokemon entries that could (and often did) influence the series and bring something new to it, while BDSP seems more like a one-time affair which is going to have no bearing on the series's future. It also lacks this unpredictability aspect that PLA has. What we've seen so far seems to say much about the game as a whole - we pretty much know how to expect with little room for surprise, unless the devs throw some curveball at us. The game's visuals philosophy also limits its usefulness for my character collection. The character models are pretty much direct representations of their overworld sprites from DP (except even more caricatural), so they are not really representative of the character in question - not something I would use for my collection (it would be like using GameBoy or DS overworld sprites...). Of course, important characters will get artworks (not a big fan of the game's artwork style, but this is purely subjective) but since the designs are preserved almost 1:1, these will not be as exciting as in previous remakes, where we were wondering about character redesigns. Some were good, some were strange or controversial, but they were just one more puzzling aspect of each remake, which BDSP lacks. One good use I see for these remakes, though, are the models for Trainers in battle (which are kept in similar aesthetic as LGPE, which is detailed just enough for me). I hope that all Trainer Classes make it and nobody gets cut (the question is legit, since ORAS removed Female Triathletes and Psychics). I still hope that, despite the rather underwhelming first impression, the new remakes do hide something nice for us and that they will bring some goodies to my character collections, which I will be happy to post here. After all, LGPE which felt similarly underwhelming (and still ranks rather low in my subjective Pokemon games ranking), did have some nice things after all.
Happy 25th Anniversary, Pokemon fans! Maybe the future isn't bad! Let's hope that the new surprising game breaks the routine.
