Crinklewott 💕 @thingywott@awoo.space

when you get to the end of a long video essay and it says "now go to bed"

jean shorks (jorks)

oh my gosh though, this game

it's not fair just how many things this game made me feel

i enjoy the sheer amount of pokemon in this image

emerging from the abyss a little, maybe, hopefully soon

@m455 oh wowww

and the upvote counts indicate it has even less activity than what i get on my own

@monorail like, there are legit level 40 monsters in the first area that are also buffed beyond what a level 40 would usually be, and if you're careful enough, you can actually get the better of them before you have anything above level 15

i also really like the way the game isn't afraid of throwing zones into the world where you will be completely outclassed; where you have to figure the best ways to survive using the things you have at your disposal instead

it's also much more open than previous games, but in a way that i actually feel compelled to do things in each area--with goals and quests more elaborate than simply "catch everything"

oh, and you don't use pokemon centers in these games: you use supplies that you find along the way to keep everyone healthy, and i've not found that my money has grown out of control in this game--so resource management is actually a compelling problem

the new action economy is pretty interesting too, where you actually have a timeline of the estimated turn order in battles depending on the speed of moves, which adds a layer i like quite a bit

i also like how evs aren't a grind fest anymore, but instead cap at 10 per stat, and involve doing challenges instead of fighting the same pokemon over and over for the best yields--and you can now switch up moves in the field from a move pool that grows as you train your pokemon by different means instead of needing to hunt down the tms in your bag or finding a move rememberer every time you want to switch things up

as for the actual catching and battling mechanics, a lot of external factors can change the circumstances that you battle in, and i think turning these to your advantage is a huge part of how these things become compelling in ways they weren't before. like if you try to battle certain pokemon, they might try to run, or attack you first if you don't catch them unaware. you can also dodge aggressive pokemon outside of battle to throw your own pokemon at their backs in a way they don't expect to also get a one-up on them

overall, it's a very different experience--but one i feel is worth checking out to see if any of it vibes with you, since looking at the things that were removed is a pretty good way to miss all of the compelling new stuff in the game

tl;dr - i like it, but it's hard to succinctly express how it compares to previous games

@monorail i personally think it's extremely neat!

like, you can get to completely out of depth areas with, and still manage to survive if you can utilize your stealth well enough to flank overpowered angry mons to let you get an extra turn on them before they can act

i also feel like the structure of the game itself is actually extraordinarily original given where it came from, and it removes a ton of the tedium from doing a lot of things previous games just dubbed unavoidable

i'm pretty confident i can pull this off, but it's also a lot to add to the things i'm already juggling, and the prospect of slipping up is still really intimidating

i've already planned ways to make sure everything is fine in basically every outcome, but the idea of not accounting for something in a literal ocean of horrible results is also eating at me like nothing else

which is why i need to just find ways to not psyche myself out so much--to remind myself that i've got this

that was pretty vague, but i've been playing the world's most emotionally draining game of flappy bird with my means

the reason it's draining is because there are several people who depend on me not failing, because if i go down, they would too--and that is 2000% the worst outcome

like, if it was just me who would go down, that would be great

and while i accept this responsibility, the source of my ability to help is getting nebulous, and i might have to find other means to not fail

overwhelmed, but with a plan; just gotta remember one step ahead of the other