Palworld under the hammer

 

The Pokemon successor title that Nintendo told you not to worry about, Palworld, has certainly had something of a year- hasn't it? Exploding onto the scene with a frankly gross amount of initial success right from the moment go, picked up by Gamepass, distributed to the millions on PC, the title became a stable of the scene in no time flat establishing just how desperately people are willing to accept anything with that Pokemon DNA stretched over a more ambitious body. That being said, it really takes some balls to rub your shoes on Nintendo's feet and not expect them to take a bazooka to your offices- thus I stood with many others in absolute shock when months of silence pervaded the conversation about inter-company discourse. Experts clucked their tongues, columnists prepared their obituaries and nothing happened. Until now. Surprise Nintendo Lawsuit. Boom.

Pocketpair confirmed themselves that the big N took a shot right at their offices for the crime that everyone expected six months ago. Infringement. Which just makes sense, doesn't it? I mean say all you will about Palworld and how fundamentally it takes the idea of Pokemon and moves it in many more interesting directions than the franchise itself was ever going to stretch- but from a design standpoint those two were really drinking from the same font. Palworld literally borrowed the exact same design philosophy as Pokemon, with colour combinations and animal switch-ups, emulated the exact same cutesy art style and, allegedly, even scribbled over some of those old Pokemon designs for good measure. The resemblance is uncanny is some examples and others look like actual mash-up 'what if' designs you see uploaded to Reddit ever other day. It makes total sense why Nintendo would go after them for that there copyright infringment.

Hmm? Excuse me, I'm hearing that they weren't aimed at for Copyright Infringement? That doesn't make any sense though- what else would there be to... Patent Infringement? As in, the Patent for Pokemon? The legal filed design documents? They're claiming an infringement over there? That is... I'm not going to lie- a really smart way to blindside everyone. I bet that Pocketpair had loaded up laywers on retainers that were drafting up copyright rebuttal speeches every other week and bouncing them off each other just to stay mean with it. But kick down the front door and slam a 'Patent' suite on the desk and suddenly everyone is given a little pause. Cages are rattled. Oh, and the foundation of art itself creeks against the abyss whilst another careless gust of litigious wind batters it- but who cares about that? Nintendo sure don't!

Nintendo can't be alleging that Pocketpair straight up kidnapped one of their OG technicians and squeezed the secret to a winning Pokemon formula across hours of extreme torture methods, nor do I think they are accusing the Palworld devs of infiltrating the heavily guarded Nintendo vaults- breeching the six-foot steel walls and making off with the original design documents to flog on the Pika-market- so we can only assume this is a pointed finger at the accusation of 'copying'. Nintendo must, by all logical deduction, be looking at Palworld and finding something in it's design and systems so egregiously lifted from the legally unique and distinct Pokemon formula that it constitutes immediate cease and desisting. So let's put on our amateur attorney hats and see if we can't drum up a case for Nintendo- do the exact kind of garbage picking their legal team have been up to over the past half year...  

So lacking the insight into the workings of either Palworld or traditional Pokemon we can only really opine on the visible gameplay mechanics and in that comparison Palworld is actually pretty distinct. The game isn't turn-based, does not set itself in a similar style of explorable world with themed routes and small gym villages- utilises it's mons for a very basic battle system which shudders in the face of Pokemon's half-involved complexity. Palworld's gameplay loop is built around survival systems, crafting and efficiency management- none of which exist in the Pokemon pantheon. All we can really draw in connection to one another would be the very concept of catching monsters and pitting them to battle- which to be fair, does invoke the spirit of Pokemon at a glance- but should it exclusively?

What if these were soldiers on the battlefield being captured and put to work against the enemy? Like for 'Shadows of Mordor'? That's right, Shadows of Mordor borrowed that basic philosophy with a more randomised approach so you were less filling up a Pokedex and more browsing for the coolest looking Orcs to recruit into your vanguard. Maybe the idea of 'filling up a list of specifically designed creatures for a competitive battle system' is important, despite Palworld lacking that competitive battle system. Well then, one might merely invoke the name of Shin Megami Tensei, no? Persona, Soul Hackers, SMT- that's the bread and butter of all of them! And guess what, Nintendo- the first SMT game debuted in 1992... Pokemon Yellow came out in 1996... Maybe those are the kinds of rocks you don't want to turn over, huh.

Of course, we have no idea what the actual pain points are and currently neither do Pocketpair who are apparently having to launch a legal investigation into themselves to figure out what the heck Nintendo is even on about. Although N isn't taking this lightly! Apparently they've identified several patents being infringed upon- which makes this sound like a damn-near copy'n'paste situation if you weren't at all aware of the actual products involved and how materially distinct they actually are. For optics sake I can only assume Nintendo will try their hardest to keep this close to the chest but that cat has long since fled the burlap, friend- we're all fascinated to find out what apparent chink in the armour Palworld didn't notice until now and I pray we get follow-ups from the two journalists who actually still exist in this medium.

In the grand scheme, however, can I just say that this sucks. Patents towards modes of design, concepts of gameplay, are like hot knives stabbed into the back of creativity itself. All art is iterative, most great art is whole-sale Frankenstein-ed together out of lesser works. The greatest games of our age all owe vast pedigrees to gameplay systems, development methods and concept figured out and refined before them- this year's presumptive Game of the Year Black Myth Wukong probably have Hidetaka Miyazaki's every odd mannerism down for how closely they've imitated his work and style. When aspects of design like this enter litigation, or Warner Bros try and lock down the 'Nemesis System' from their games- everyone loses. And I'd think that Nintendo would know that well for how much their own games have proven influential- but I guess desperation makes enemies out of everyone- huh?

PokeRogue

 

Pokémon is an evergreen franchise that has been haunting the Nintendo consoles for nigh on twenty eight years now and to call it a classic of the gaming world isn't doing the thing justice. It's a staple of the gaming world rearing up time and time again in sometimes new, mostly the same, ways. Opinions on the franchise vary, I happen to think Scarlet and Violet was a messy but promising step towards a promising future, whilst many others call it the single worst game in the entire franchise- (because of that disaster they called a launch) but such passions need not be enflamed when we're starting to see genuine competition rise out of the din. Why fight over the scraps of the current Pokémon slate when you can take that same business elsewhere considering The Pokémon Company have pretty definitively not made a claim on Palworld?

But I'm not here to talk about Palworld or any of the other Pokémon clones that dot the landscape, not when we have ourselves something of an inbetween. A complete creative reworking of the foundations of Pokémon, that has unfortunately been executed using the Pokémon names and thus probably won't be long for this world once Pokémon get ahold of it. But until then, let me just gush for a moment about the browser based experience 'PokeRogue' and how it fulfils on a half-baked idea I think the Pokémon company half had and then full abandoned back in Generation 8. Yes, this is a rogue-lite with Pokémon elements and yes- it works incredibly smoothly.

Pokémon is such a full to bursting franchise of great monster designs and not-so-great monster designs, well refined battle mechanics and a comprehensive battle loop that is has managed to sustain itself on the same formula for closing in on thirty years now. And I have no doubt it'll neatly sail by that thirty milestone with just as much popularity as it currently has now. But I never really felt like the team have ever allowed themselves to go the distance of really pushing their gameplay to it's limits. Outside of the competitive circuit, the most anybody can really devote themselves to the minute of Pokémon battling is in a hobbyist sense or perhaps in the pursuit of Battle Towers which we get ever other game. The Undefeated promoted dens from Gen 9 were an interesting step in the right direction- but I yearned for something engrossing and full throttle.

So in comes PokeRogue- a game which strips down the Pokemon experience to it's absolute essentials. You are given a budget, a roster of unevolved Pokemon from every Dex in all generations (although at the beginning you can only select the starters. Which is a slightly questionable design choice since starters are some of the most broken 1st evolution Pokemon out of each generation), and are expected to build a fairly balanced team. From then on you are treated to battle after battle with wild Pokemon, Trainers and Boss Pokemon on a run to last as long as you can, making the genre-typical small improvements along the way so that your next run can be boosted with some of the advantages you were denied the last time around.

After every fight you get offered one of three items to choose from, ranging from a potion that is immediately applied, a revive, a stat boost item or maybe even a rare held item to slap on a 'mon in need. You might also get Pokeballs, which relate back to the most significant way this game tracks 'progress'. Using a slightly sped up formula you can attempt to catch wild Pokemon you might against that immediately become part of your party, but more significantly once you do catch them- these Pokemon become part of your starter selection for your next run. And compounding ontop of that, the IVs of your Pokemon are saved at their best value, meaning if you catch the same Pokemon twice, one with perfect speed and another with perfect attack, when you start your next run and select that Pokemon it will have perfect speed and attack- encouraging you to go Poke' hunting as regularly as possible!

Once you pass your first biome, by winning through ten fights including a trainer, the first battle with your rival and a boss encounter, you'll be gifted the EXP share item and then the real game will begin. We all know what it's like to have that one main being trailed by a group of secondaries that limp behind them, know they've turned that entire experience into a speedrun through a rougelite as you try and keep a fairly competitive team to roll with the big hitters down the line. Unfortunately all items are lost upon losing, including EXP share, (Would have been nice if that kept between runs) making the early game probably the most up-and-down part of the experience until you get a bit more diversity in your beginning roster of Mons. But just as with any Rougelite you'll get that perfect run, where the right Monsters spawn and you get the right TMs drop, that you become a crushing beast.

There's a lot of little charming features of the game that give a veteran fan like myself something to smile about. For one the game features the old-school 2d style of sprite Pokemon battling, although it goes all the way up to the modern gen which means we actually get to see some of the modern Pokemon in a form they've never actually been rendered in outside of their Pokebank image. Your rival features a smattering of snarky lines they can tout, whilst balancing the line of not being too horrifically hateable like some of the early Pokemon lads were. You get the occasional double battle, where any Pokemon expert will tell you the true strategies lie. It's just an expectational experience lacking even an ounce of fat, a trademark of truly talented designers.

PokeRogue can probably go down as one of the most exceptional Pokemon experiences in the modern age of these sorts of games for just how deftly all the core parts of the franchise are disseminated into the new genre. Unfortunately it's also free and not made by Gamefreak, so you can probably expect the powers that be to come falling down on it with the hammer of god like they always do. In fact, I suspect they're just powering up their lawsuit spirit bomb right now which is the only reason why the website is still up. But in these Halcyon few days before that chaos drops, we can lock shoulders and bask in the presence of a Pokemon title that finally feels like a true, refined, breath of fresh air for a franchise that has longed for it.

Your move, Pokemon.

 

So perhaps you've noticed but over the month of January the world was briefly swept by something it almost never gets when we're talking about Nintendo products- Competition. I mean sure, Mario has Sonic to 'contend' with, but those are never actually fair competitions- those are just exhibitions for Mario to showcase how much more market dominance he has over the blue blur at that particular moment of time. They're really rather cruel if you think about it. But Pokemon on the other hand? Oh that right there is the product of a life born with literally no hardships whatsoever. You couldn't dream of a more privileged, silver spoon, space within which to flounder and collapse in on one-self. Every way in which Pokemon has let down it's fans over the years can be traced back to the iron fist that the Pokemon Company has enforced over the world, as spurred on by Nintendo's great wall of lawyer muscle.

Which is why it has been so surprising that Palworld has been allowed to go on as long as it has. Even former Pokemon employees seem flabbergasted by it, which either means the big N are riding up for an apocalyptic lawsuit so destructive it will burn up the entire game's industry- or they simply don't have the legal grounds that they thought they did. And if it is the latter- then that means Pokemon is going to have to face up to something terrifying that they've never had to face before- expectations. When you own the monopoly lion's share of the market for your game type, the onus rarely falls on you to really try when it comes to wooing over your customers. But set up a new stall on the front lawn that offers something more than you do, at a cheaper price? Well then you've just been captialismed on, son!

Of course, what this means for The Pokemon Company is that they actually have to step up their game if they want to wrest fans back from Palworld- because whilst these player counts are current a dent on Pokemon's giant empire- this is the seed from which the great oak grows. Palworld, assuming they aren't nuked in a lawsuit warhead, are going to grow off the back of this game. They're going to get more resources, feedback and staff aboard and they're going to take another shot at this genre in a couple years or so. And that game? That one might be a little bit better, and gain a little bit more traction. And at some point consumers are going to be asking themselves whether or not they want to shell out for Pokemon's latest failure experiment in basic game design principles that somehow managed to fail making open world exploration interesting even with decades of examples to learn from, and just pick up the cheaper option Palworld is providing.

 I suppose what I'm trying to manifest within the world is the possibility that Pokemon is going to need to react and change in order to keep their spot at the top of the roster, and we might be able to take a guess at the way they're going to do it by looking at the company we're dealing with and what they typically do in nervous moments. For example, I think the biggest ability currently residing in the Pokemon tool-kit is that of nostalgia. When weaponised, nostalgia baiting can subsidize a lot of your marketing budget simply by word of mouth that the thing people loved is coming back to them practically unchanged, remade on a slightly worse- but shinier- engine. And we already know this is a tool the Pokemon Company are obsessed with.

It's practically all but confirmed fact that the team are juggling a remake of Pokemon Gold and Silver adorned with mascot Pokemon and borrowing the exact same game design their ancestor teams worked on back in 1999. Yes, the 'Let's go' remakes are presumably going to come with the 'Pokemon Go' redesigns of the originals that 'Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee' enjoyed- and the Unova remakes which have also been leaked and will feature their own set of quality of life improvements- which to be clear are all utterly negligible. Basically the bare minimum to make it feel worthy of being called a new game whilst forgoing the risk of actually trying to make something new. Which at the very least gives GameFreak time to work on their next main entry game which promises so much and delivers so very little. It's easy to forget how little GameFreak actually deliver on until you've gone through their latest entry and reflect on how unfulfilling your experience just was.

But that doesn't mean The Pokemon Company are just going to write off making something new! Oh, they've got to try and win over the conversation somehow, which means they have to try and make their next Pokemon game a contender to Palworld. I think this confirms that the company aren't going to be pulling back on the open world elements like some figured they might following the performance hiccups of Scarlet and Violet, but they may just be spurred to try and make that open world experience more involved as Palworld does. So what does that mean? A return of the 'hideout' mechanic offering basic base building? Possible. Simple survival mechanics? Unlikely. A more comprehensive Pokemon populated worldspace which better champions explorative play? I hope so.

Because you see- that is what is so great about this coming fight! Challenge breeds competition and competition breeds improvements! If they can't cheat their way to market dominance the way that Pokemon have relied on doing all these years, then they have to start getting out of their comfort zones and doing things they would never normally do. Maybe that means being a bit less anal about the way they handle cross-marketing between their products, maybe a bit less regional locking of content- and maybe we can start to see Gamefreak actually grow as a company in a way that a developer who has been making games for over two decades really should have by now. Why don't they have an international office at this point?

Now to be honest with you I don't think that Palworld is the prophesised Pokemon killer of yore. It wears the boots and talks the talk, but it's stride is clumsy and it's vision lazy. But who's to say that someone else can't follow Palworld's initiative with an even better realisation of the Pokemon idea? I've said it before, but I think these Pokemon-style games are currently in an invisible arms race to see who can be the first to create a game which depicts a 'Ryme City' style world as teased in Detective Pikachu. Nail that and you've become the king of the genre, in my humble opinion. And if that winner isn't The Pokemon Company- I ain't gonna be whining.

The Poke-ddiction

 

So as I recently mentioned on my yearly Christmas roundup- I recently got around to wrapping up my time with Pokemon Scarlet, barring the epilogue event coming soon and any promoted dens that Gamefreak decide to throw our way and I have to say- getting to this point kind of felt like overcoming addiction through the most unorthodox manner- trying every type of drug on the market. I do have the tendency to hyper fixate this way or that whenever it comes to the sorts of games that I like to play. I'll juggle about eight different games and then one will just become my to play game for the next few days whether I complete it or it loses me over the course of my 'try-harding'. But then I get the most insidious variant of the 'obsession period'- when the game overrides my 'am I having fun' sensors and somehow grips me in it's vices anyway.

The Ubisoft games always manage to do that with their annoying 'collect everything' design philosophies that whittles down every aspect of an open world, from the people to the locales to the free spirit of adventure itself, into a mindless activity of 'fill the checklist'. Whenever you play those games it isn't long before the curiosity of 'what's around the corner' no longer drives you, your primal 'completionism' brain is just thirsting for those 'ticks' on the map screen so you can move on to the next section. That is not additive game design in my mind, but rather just a trick on our brain chemicals to lull us into a mild passive state of 'finishing for the sake of finishing'. Games like that never occupy my fond memories of the activity. That languish in my memories of the industries worst tendencies- and their own desires to steal as much of your time as they can get away with.

Because let's be fair here: Capturing the most of your audience's time is not the metric for a good game. The metric is based on how people feel about the time they spent and whether they feel like they got anything worthwhile or whether all of that was hopelessly wasted in the grinding machine of the game's industry and their damned statistics. When Call of Duty developers, in a kneejerk salty reaction to the light ribbing they got at the Game Awards, boasted their player retention numbers as being higher than God of War's ever was- it really does show their ass as to what counts as 'quality' in their developing mind. It's not about keeping people entertained, but locked in recurrent loops of grinding for levels, for the Battle Pass, for season ranking, for the new gun that destroys the old meta- whatever it is- you have players held captive.

And I bring up all these examples in order to put into perspective exactly what it is that makes the damned Poke-dex completion obsession that every Pokémon player struggles with, so darned inescapable. We are hardwired to want to see things through to competition, and failing to do creates a little rift in our hearts that gnaws and nags at us until we go absolutely crazy and are forced back- or manage to painfully cut the emotional thread off. The blank spaces of the Pokedex have exploited this since the very first game, and Gamefreak have been exploiting that exploitation ever since the first Pokemon- which actually makes them business-minded pioneers. Afterall, how do you take advantage of people's brain chemicals drawing them to complete each game's collect-athon? Release two games and ensure there are certain Pokémon that only appear in one over the other, encouraging people to get their friends to buy the other game, or the truly desperate to buy two versions of the game. Marketing genius- in an evil madman's eyes.

The Pokemon franchise has always excelled in creating these obscure events and loops for their player base to jump through which is both frustratingly inconvenient but also, a fantastic way to turn people into active fans. I mean what is the game you're going to remember from you childhood; another one of the dozens of RPGs on your Gameboy Advance, or the Pokemon game which made you wait in line at Gamestop in order to get a special code that gave you a Mythical Pokemon that can't be got any other way? Why, that's going to be the sort of Pokemon that you want to transfer to the next Pokemon game, which means you have to buy that too! Suddenly you're keeping up with the National Dex with every release, trading like a fiend, sipping the crack-cocaine that is the Pokemon franchise more than you speak to your own family!

I remember that circumstance forced the Pokémon Company to adapt with the times a little bit. During the height of Sword and Shield's wind down, there was this little thing going around that made it a little bit inappropriate for the company to just demand it's players to wander out to their local game store. A little pandemic going around killing people meant that the company had to get a little bit more basic for their generational Mythical give-away, and thus they allowed people to sign up via email. (And then gave out those Email codes to every one who applied for the newsletter. They didn't even check IP addresses. I got four sets of Mythicals that giveaway. I am the reason we can't have nice things.) But something tells me that example isn't going to stick come Scarlet and Violet's Mythical period. I mean sure, the first Mythical is going to be part of a free event next year, but I know they have something else planned like applying for Mensa in a foreign language or something.

As Pokémon has tried to adapt to modern standards of game design in so many substantive ways, they bitterly refuse to walk back on the winning formulae that drove success- albeit at knife point, back in the franchise's heyday. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet pushed the game into shuddering open world glory, with a brand new Legendary who rides with you throughout the entire adventure- but tradition dictates every Legendary must be version exclusive and tradeable, and the developers couldn't really let you just trade out your only means of decent travel- and so a stupid compromise was made. Now there's a second version of your Legendary you can capture and send off- which kind of defeats the unique nature of the Legendary to begin with. And that in itself begs the question- what exactly about either of this generation's Pokémon are 'Legendary'? They're not really tied to any prevailing myth, they're not gods of some primordial element? Why does it seem like the tighter Pokémon tries to make it's design, the more the concept falls apart?

At the very least the Poke-ddiction is one of the least detrimental gaming addiction you can be fraught by- because afterall you can reach the other end just by completeing the damn Pokédex- that's more than can be said for your average Live Service that wants to keep you on ice for seemingly ever! I wish I could say that 'something has to give' and 'it's time for Pokemon to grow with the age'- but the truth is that the Pokémon franchise is one of the most profitable franchises on the planet Earth, any change they make is not in pursuit of success but spurred on by idle fancy. They're like gods tossing about small playthings that are our lives with a passing interest between changing the fates of nations. Somehow, someway, The Pokémon Company probably has it's hand in ever major world event in the past twenty years- and the world they're making? One that is easier to sell Pokemon games in. Be afraid. 

Of Monsters and Lawsuits

 And bad faith.

The relationship between art and court has been... tumultuous across time, but in the modern world we have of ownerships and profits, it's a necessary link to forge. Artists depend on the work of the courts to protect themselves from some of the most dastardly threats they can face in their day-to-day, such as plagiarism, whilst maintaining that typical aloof objectiveness that is requisite for all walks of law. But just as with any legal branch, there is nuance to be taken in account, loopholes to be breached and bad actors who seek for nothing more than to take advantage of the letter of the law to break it's spirit. By and large this is why the Law doesn't operate as a cold machine of arbitration, and instead is populated with mediators and debators who argue it's points to keep it's heart. And it's going to be in the hands of these lawyers and Judges to knock the sense back into people when the conglomerates start getting the idea to use the law as it's own blunt instrument.

I'm sure you've heard of Monster Energy by this point in your life. The huge 2000's era company responsible for their giant market share of the energy drinks market, which they abuse with a flood of a mediocre concoctions of electrolytes and bile. I do not like Monster Energy drinks. It's a matter of taste. But lately I and the Internet have been gifted a purely objective reason to find the brand distasteful as well, and as I've prepped you all for- it's to do with the way that the company has taken control of copyright law in an abusive fashion to lord over their apparent ownership of the word 'Monster'. Yes, you heard me right. One of the most common nouns in the English language, and Monster Energy believe themselves it's sole arbiter out into the world. How bizarre.

A company and game I'm certain you've not heard about, unless you've literally looked up this exact story before, is 'Dark Deception: Monsters and Mortals' by Glowstick Entertainment. Actually, you may have heard it bubbling in development about thanks to it's brief time circling the horror-game scene on Youtube, back before the 'Monsters and Mortals' subtitle. (It's the game with the giant monkey clanging it's symbols, if you were a viewer of that sort of content around it's hey day.) And as I'm sure you've picked up on, this game is finding itself on the business end of a lawsuit thanks to that very subtitle they slapped onto their title, thus bringing this issue roaring back to the forefront of industry minds. Quite galling considering the game has never seen more that 300 players at one time.

Now if you've ever seen a 'these names are too similar' lawsuit before, you probably know exactly what's coming next, don't you? Monster are claiming that the use of 'Monsters' is similar enough to their own brand to cause confusion in potential customers who might mistake one brand for another. That's right, I remember all the times I go to the shop hoping to score a can of warm radioactive waste and accidentally slip my phone out of my pocket and buy a game on Steam instead; truly this grates hard against the spirit of copyright protection as an institution. But can Monster slide by anyway with their sheer might as a giant litigious corpo? Can we live in a world where the 'drink of gamers' (gamers who love their computer rigs so much they want their insides to glow multicoloured) is itself a subjugator of the very games they propose to represent?

Now the reason that this lawsuit is starting to really blow up in the here and now is because those who are being attacked, Glowstick, want their plight to be the lighting rod incident that turns the tide against the litigation trolls over at Monster. They've reached out to the media in order to make sure everyone is well aware of the simply ludicrous proposition of owning a commonplace term, and perhaps in doing so help turn their own case over to an advantageous position. And I have to agree, not just because of the customary 'big company bad' stance I tend to take, but because it truly is utterly ridiculous for Monster to throw their weight around like this. Particularly towards a game so very tiny that they could have only come across it by browsing around the Steam store looking for a fight to pick. I'd hardly call that a threat to the recognisability of their brand, would you?

They don't just prey on little fish either, we've already known that Monster pushed themselves upon Ubisoft when those developers were in the process of publishing their game, Gods and Monsters, which quickly changed it's branding to the messy name 'Immortal: Feynx Rising' because there isn't a backbone in all of Ubisoft management combined. I can understand the sort of position that Glowstick must feel like they're in at this point, the latest morsels to be chewed up by the legal sharks held at the Monster offices- how can they possibly stand up to someone who made Ubisoft quake? Well, in perspective perhaps their case isn't so awful. Afterall, for all of their attempts to seize ubiquitous control over the name 'monster', the term still exists far and wide as far as I can remember. 

When is Monster going to knock on Pixar's door and demand royalties for Monsters Inc? Or are they afraid their slapsuit would get them crushed if they want against someone who actually had the means to defend themselves the letter of the law? When are they going to poke at Pokemon and try to get their blood money from- no! They already tried it? And the company still exists? Now that is a miracle; the Pokemon Company must have been feeling extremely generous that day. It turns out the Japanese Patent Office has it's head on far straighter than their American equivalents, because when Monster went after both Pokemon and Monster Hunter, the courts wouldn't even give the cretins the time of day. Which would be a moment of sombre reflection for a sensible mind, or a villain origin story for a true waste of breath.

For those picking up on the subtilties of my speech and wondering why it is I'm getting aggressive, you might be wondering if Dark Deception simply has me passionate. Whilst it is true that I feel slightly more attached to a game I actually remember from it's early demo stages and it's slow growth to where it sits today, my vitriol are for the lowest of the lows; frivolous lawsuit filers. Actual pathetic wretches of creation who exist only to desperately claw at the efforts of their hard working betters. I don't like Monster Energy, but I loathe the base beggarly bandits who weaponize antiquated law for their own enrichment. Honestly, the good ending here would be the absolute gutting of their entire brand protection team for being the actual scum of the earth. Do the world a favour for once, why don't you?

Success

 And succor?

Following my treatise on what it is to lose in games, I thought it only right that I try and touch on the inverse scenario; what it is to win and the relation that special moment has to the way that we as players experiencing gaming. There's quite a bit of nuance in this topic, perhaps just as much as there is with losing; and by objectively analysing the higher concepts of success and how it effects ideas of 'enjoyment' and 'satisfaction', perhaps some deeper understanding into certain genres that play around with these ideals may be granted. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself, first we should identify that which further differentiates the medium of gaming from other interactive mediums, the ability to succeed or complete the interaction with the piece of art.

Winning is a novel concept, typically defined as resolving the conflict presented by the game, the actual specifics of what 'success' is can vary depending on the game in question and even the player behind the controls. For some the very act of finishing a level is a 'win', or defeating a tough enemy; for others those are only positive touchstones on the road to total victory; completing the game. But then there's the question of what 'completion' even is. How many people actually finish every single activity in open world games? Very few I'm sure, so then is 'completion' simply finishing the core narrative questlines? Do side quests count as well? What about branching RPG games where you can reach a totally different ending depending on choices made by the player, such as in Outer Worlds where a low intelligence stat character can smash their face onto a ship control panel and launch that vehicle into the sun, bringing the narrative to an end halfway through a traditional campaign? Is that a victory? The parameters and measurements most typically are left solely to the discretion of the player in these instances.

'Completion' of a game or a full narrative is not necessarily the height of the experience as one might expect by the natural adulation you'd afford a 'victory'. It may seem a little cliché to say, but the moment you 'complete' a game is typically quickly followed by the moment you put it down and stop enjoying it through active engagement. You may have fond memories of that victorious moment to look back on, but the pedigree of that memory is forged more by the struggles and failures which predated the end rather than the moment itself. What tastes more sweet, the vegetable that you pick out of the ground or the ripe fruit you have to climb a tall tree in order to reach? And yes, that analogy is loaded with prejudice and manipulation but the thought experiment it provides is valid; strife builds accomplishment. A concept which I think might be best understood by... say it with me... Soulslike games.

Soulslike games as a genre are built on the understanding that difficulty is most pure when it can be attributed to the strengths of the player and failure that is down to anything other than player error feels like a robbery. (That doesn't stop Dark Souls from throwing in the odd random death drop, but they never rely on that cheap shot too heavily.) In many ways, beyond the lore and the themes and emotional resonance the narrative is attempting to portray, the raw experience of overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds is the fibre at the beating heart of the Soulslike genre. Which is probably why the commonly held refrain from those who aren't as big fans of these styles of games, that they are lesser without some sort of 'easy mode', is so vehemently pushed back upon by those that do. Yes, inclusion is important and accessibility should absolutely be more widely adopted as industry standards, but Soulslike games are most chiefly informed by their carefully designed difficulty. Stripping away those layers to allow someone to experience the story is like hollowing out a peach so it's easier to swallow; you've removed the substance- what remains is hardly worth sharing.

But I digress, because success does not all always need to be the overwhelming wash of relief at the end of a hard-fought adventure- it can be little stabs of sunlight from the little victories along the way. That moment when you crack a Pokémon egg and get a shiny you've been grinding several hours for, or solve an annoying logic puzzle that's been stumping you for just as long. Everytime you hit that resolution button and are struck by those waves of buzzing endorphins, I consider that a 'victory' moment in gaming. However as with any chemical infusion, the more used to receiving that endorphin hit you are- the less effective that drag becomes. Perhaps that is why some of the tougher games, where victory seems all but illusive, strike the hardest when you've finally pushed through the immovable wall.

Yet even with everything we've talking about so far, I've somehow managed to still keep to largely traditional games and their understanding of success. What about Minecraft? What about Stardew Valley? What does success look like in those endless styles of games that are designed to be experienced theoretically forever? In my mind, this is when we get back to the, decently cliched, idea that 'the journey is better than the destination.' Success and achievement can be rewarded in milestones of progress, such as finishing a large build in the ongoing construction of your base, or saving up enough for that house upgrade you've spent several seasons eyeing. Sometimes the parameters aren't even suggested by the game itself through clear presentation hooks, and sometimes it's beyond what the developers even intended for the game in question.

Success can be a powerful incentive and reward when handled correctly, and sometimes it needs to be managed in a sense of balance. Keep the prize of a victory too elusive and you'll starve the players out of anticipation and straight to simple frustration. Of course, the threshold for what is 'too much' can differ wildly from player to player, so an understanding of your audience is an essential aspect of this recipe. And though the 'ultimate' success, completing the game and moving on- can bring with it a moment of sadness as you leave behind the experience- without that pathos I don't think any journey is truly complete. Like a full course meal missing it's desert, that finale isn't just a sweet treat, it's often a palette cleanser and reset designed to cap-off and compliment the entire dinner. I've been at that point of refusing to finish an adventure you just can't put down- but at the end of the day aren't you just denying yourself the fullest experience of that adventure in your trepidation?

The reasons why we play are many and varied, from searching for relaxation to waging against competition to experiencing accomplishment to basically yearning to be entertained. As esoteric and ethereal as the particulars of art can be, the chemistry is often as down to earth as one could imagine; breaking down these elements, what it is that makes someone feel victorious, and how to bring about those sensations, can absolutely be the key to understanding some of the highest concepts of game design. Of course, those very same questions are asked and toyed around with by professional psychologists who come up with ways to exploit the brain to empower mobile games and GACHA systems; so there's dark clouds amidst every silver lining. With great power comes a great number of corrupt influences ready to take advantage of it, I suppose.

When did Pokemon become a Live Service?

Did I blink?

I suppose it should be something of a public service announcement to say it out loud if you've not read it before, but owners of the latest generation of Pokémon games should immediately put down the controller and leave the game dormant for the foreseeable future whilst Nintendo try to solve a problem that is hard-corrupting saves. Yes, apparently the most recent update to the game in order to add a 'please pre-order the DLC' button to all of the ingame menus, carried with it a 'worst case scenario bug' which is effecting a bunch of people with sporadically different triggers. I've been lucky enough to avoid it by now but I'm not going to risk picking it back for nobody. Then again, the saying does go "Unlucky in love, lucky in cards", so knowing my luck I'd probably be fine going on a straight 24 hour bender until the next update drops. Although I've heard something quite curious from those unlucky souls out there who did land on 'snake eyes' with their save files. They bemoan the loss of countless hours of work they put into getting all the Pokémon and shinies in their deck.

Work is the word they use, not 'playtime', not 'amateur zoologist try-outs'; these people consider the collation of the Pokédex they want, the collection of the tournament-fit fighters that they need or the collection of shinies they desire, as being akin to work. And to their small credit, for most of these people that is actually a totally reasonable equation to make. Some of these people are talking losing Sixty shines with their corrupted saves! SIXTY! Bear in mind that Pokémon Home isn't open to Scarlet and Violet yet, meaning all of those shines had to have been caught in bred in the few months since these games came out. And also bear in mind, that Scarlet and Violet gutted the ability to effectively breed on the hunt for shinies. (I can only assume that such a man has possess no job or hobbies or family or even legs, and thus only play Pokémon all day.) But that verbiage there; of playing a game so often it's pretty much akin to a second job- there's only genre of game that really evokes those sorts of feelings that I can think of.

Live Services have since the very beginning of their existence been an investment as much in your time as your money. They are titles usually put together with less content than you'd hope for out of your typical fully finished video game, but stretched out so painfully thin through level-gating, intentionally grindy level curves and overly big boss bars to make that small pool of content last long enough for the devs to cook up some new content and slip it out the door before the community is done and dusted with the original lot of stories and missions. A philosophy likely borne to mimic the MMO cycle, but to a much easier to replicate degree. These are games that require daily commitments for grinding to get the things that you want, to roll the die for the right weapon drops, grind out enough currency to spend at the premium shop or simply unlock the newest level cap before the next update shoots that cap into the stratosphere. Does any of that sound familiar?

All of the Pokémon games have been time investments in order to reach the feasible 'completion' point of the game and collect all the available monsters listed within the Pokédex. But I have to admit that recently there really has been a trend towards stretching out content to last longer and this most recent generation in particular has even had it's hand at Live Service-style adding of content. I've already mentioned how the egg system has been gutted, but EV training is just as painful with there being no decent way to grind berries. So Tournament building is unnecessarily bloated. (Sword and Shield, with the Isle of Armor, is still the best game for building Tournament ready Pokémon in.) And the main quest of Scarlet and Violet does stretch on for an inordinate amount of time for a Pokémon game; almost in the manner that a Live Service game might with it's storylines. But I think the biggest smoking gun comes from the new raid system.

Itself an evolution on Sword and Shield's Dynamax raids; Scarlet and Violet offers a collaborative dungeon system where players can meet up over the internet to fight giant powerful Pokémon and be rewarded with a chance to catch that Pokémon after the fact. There's less 'collector' reasons to do so now because this generation's gimmick is kind of visually underwhelming compared to last generation's, but the special promoted dens that Gamefreak cycles in and out do provide some fantastically built Pokémon to snatch up. But recently Gamefreak went that one step further, by debuting two version exclusive brand spanking new Legendary Paradox Pokémon that can only be caught in these raids. Essentially a lightning bolt call to action summoning fans back to the game as any Live Service might by debuting a new raid or dungeon. (You know, just with considerably less effort on the developer's side, because this is Gamefreak we're talking about here.)

The typical cycle of a Live Service game revolves around these calls to action that summons the audience back to their stables, because through this electricity bump the developers and publishers can ensure player retention and increase player's conviction and devotion to the game. The more players become devoted, the more they're likely to spend on some of the microtransactions to keep the game going. Now, Pokémon has yet to introduce any form of microtransactions (Thank god) however we can see a similarity in that basic approach to recurrent customers if we take the scope of the model and expand it out to a franchise-wide view. From here, it's very clear that Pokémon games have actually been on the Live Service train of development for quite a while now, perhaps ever since the very first sequel before even the concept of the Live Service wyrm was a glint in it's mother's postman's eye.

Pokémon games have always boasted about their 'Poke Bank' service which allows monsters to be transferred from game to game, essentially tying the progression of each game into one continuous train regardless of narrative consistency. This alone provides a throughline from which the developers can pull players time and time again to the 'action' of buying the latest Pokémon game in order to interact with their favourite monsters. Adding new Pokémon with each generation simply encourages achievers to work on building their collection, killer archetype players will want to maintain their best Pokémon against the growing competitive meta with ever increasing rooster, explorer players will build attachments to the memories of their longest held Pokémon, and socialisers are being catered to with Gamefreak's relatively recent venture into online community features. (Although that is very much still work-in-progress.)

So to answer the question: When did Pokémon become a Live Service? I guess it kind of always was, only the franchise has leant into it's own unique take on the genre which celebrates it's own mechanics and strengths; which is one of the directions that the Live Service genre is sorely lacking in. Perhaps when Gamefreak have run out of ideas, or pushed their creativity to the limits of Nintendo's current hardware, they'll fall into the lowest common denominator and find some way to throw in 'Loot systems' with rarity tables and all that cookie-cutter heartless feature-systems that all the rest of these games automatically chuck into the cauldron without a single critical thought- but until then this franchise stands a beacon that even in this most whittled down and gutted of genres, there can be some creative individualism. Maybe that is why Pokémon has remained itself a giant of the industry for so very long. (Because it can't be the quality of the games, god knows that.)

Gamefreak pulls a dud?

 Mistakes were made

There is a certain breed of game developer out there that is condemned to make nothing but the exact same game over and over for years on end. This is the same sort of developer that will bleed and grow new employees over the space of the surrounding twenty or so years, only to stagnate as the years go by and their jobs become a repetitive task over and over. Yes, you can change the world, research new cultures to base the art off, smack into your head over and over that this time you're doing something new and interesting, but if it's going into the exact same sort of game that you were making last year, there's no real way that your end product isn't going to progressively grow worse and worse. It's fatigue, wear and tear, and artistic stagnation all rolled up in one, bound by the purse strings of corporate greed. And that is the hell that Game Freak have been in for the longest time.

Under the Pokémon Company, Game Freak have been almost single-handily tasked with ensuring the world has a Pokemon game to play almost every year since the franchise launched; keeping the property fresh in the minds of all comers as the primary source of enjoying the Pokemon world. Card collecting comes and goes in popularity, the TV show has to contend with viewership seasons, the video games are the one constant which can ensure the franchise is never far from people's minds. But as video games become bigger and more involved productions, it seems the workload of Game Freak has only increased upon itself, to the point where in this year alone Game Freak were expected to release and maintain two high quality Pokemon games of significantly different style at the beginning and end of this year.

Now we know that Legends: Arceus has actually been worked on in the background for quite some time before release and Game Freak have proven themselves to be a big enough company to create more than one project at the same time; but that doesn't mean the toil of developing two independent video games simultaneously whilst committing to an asinine bi-yearly schedule isn't going to come with short comings. Unless Game Freak have the money to create an entirely independent studio under them, which they haven't so far so I can only assume they don't have that sort of money, these development cycles are going to start feeding into one another. That's just the cost of ever increasing expectation in a market that is only becoming more complex and expectant.

Of course, this is just me explaining the raw facts of the situation. I'm not here making excuses for why it is that Game Freak are incapable of making a brilliant genre-defining Pokémon game once again.  That's for their main marketing team to brush off with a smile whilst assuring everyone that Game Freak are doing just as fine as they always were. Nor is this me trying to make excuses for the increadibly pitiful way in which Scarlett and Violet launched; to the point where many feel like they're playing the early access to a title at least six months away from a 1.0 launch. There really is no excuse for charging so much for a product like that and you lose the sympathy of me when you do regardless of the very real complications that are going to come in the way of delivering.

Oh and the game crashes. It breaks down more than a Vauxhall. Or a Tesla when you aren't in the country of the companies origin. Pokemon Scarlett and Violett sees more crashes to the home screen then any other first party game allowed on the Switch ecosystem, and if Gamefreak were literally any other company (other than Nintendo themselves, obviously) this game would never have been greenlit to be sold on their storefront. (Oh wait... unless it was an overly ambitious port of a game far too big to fit on the console. Nintendo seem to have total QA blindness in that department.) But the current state of gaming means that most just write that off as 'launch pains' destined to be ironed out within a matter of weeks. That's just the price of paying full price for an early adoption! As long as that is the extent of the issues of course...

But it isn't. How could it be? There's also just general visual bugs and oddities within the context of the world itself. Not least of all the ugly character models that seem strangely mismatched for their roles. Yes, I understand that the Academy central to the narrative of Scarlett and Violet is open to all ages, so it makes sense for there to be adult students, but horrible string monsters? Are they allowed to join the Pokemon academy too? The past few days have been filled with example after example of just ill-fitting characters in odd places. And more than that, some of the actually designed character's look overdesigned and messy; as though the character artists were still on their drafts when the concepts were finalised and modelled. 

Things are so bad that Digital Foundry issued a veritable diss-article on the game. I typically see Digital Foundry as a very mild mannered outlet, more occupied with nit-picking the finer details of graphical settings only relevant to people entire tax brackets above myself; but for Scarlett and Violett they amassed their darkest energies. They slammed the bugs, the lack of shadows, the low quality environment assets and even the 'crude' artwork. And when you see some of the side-by-sides between this game and what the spin-off 'Legends Arceus' did, the comparisons are stark. And supremely ugly, incidentally. To quote their wrap-up: "Embarrassing artwork, terrible draw distance, poor performance, mediocre image quality, and a litany of bugs plague this pair of very troubled games. Pokémon fans deserve better.”

Which leaves us at the question; is the Pokemon franchise too much for Gamefreak to handle, practically by themselves at this point? In this age of ultimatums, the calls are already going out for Gamefreak to be sacked from Pokemon entirely, but I think that's a little bit overly-vitriolic at this stage. I think there's still a charm to modern Pokemon, but it's lacking the scale to really evolve in any significant way thanks to the very tight grip of the franchise holders. Arceus made an interesting step, and SV at least attempted to do something different, but without the time and personnel to realise these dreams, the Pokemon franchise is only going to end up seeming more and more dated with every release. Which will incidentally make every game seem more and more overrpiced. There is value lost with every underwhelming entry; and the second you fool yourself into thinking your brand is too ubiquitous to sag, is the moment the wolves come to tear your pride apart.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

 There are no strings on me

Spain. It was Spain, I'm a dumbo. Let that be a lesson to everyone not to trust me when it comes to identifying the visual culture of a new video game world. I think Spanish is Italian; I'm a failure in the eyes of visual art design. And picking 'Spain' makes so much more sense too. In Game Freak's journey to map out the entirety of the human world within the Pokémon universe the team have already done England and France, it's only natural they hit on Spain and maybe even Germany next time. (What's the DLC going to be, I wonder? Catalonia?) But, of course, we musn't forget that when the time comes for the inevitable mainline Pokémon (MMO?) in Russia, the frozen northern wastes must be known as Siberia. They cannot change it. They can't 'Pokémon' it up. They've backed themselves into a corner. We will never forget Game Freak's explicit screw-up in naming Siberia; there's no taking it back now; buddy!

So Pokémon is flying back at us with a full new era of legendaries, professors, rivals and a thinly veiled marketing ploy to sell twice as many games that we all just seem to accept now because it's the way that Pokémon have always done it and I guess always will. Seriously, it's become more than a little weird that the whole 'dual game' thing still holds any water, and now we've getting to the point where certain characters are becoming version specific. Sword and Shield had two Gym trainers that switched up completely depending on your copy of the game and Scarlet and Violet is going to shove two impressive young professors in our face that are thematically dressed around what I can only assume is the alchemically-linked theme of this era; past and present. Sada is the female professor with her rural barbaric garb under her lab coat and Turo is the male professor with his futuristic torn-style shirt. Apparently Sada is derided for 'Pasada' which is Spanish for Past whilst 'Turo' is from 'Futuro' which is self explanatory.

This theme of 'past and future' bleeds into the designs of the legendary Pokémon themselves which appear to be these different breeds of gecko lizards. Koraidon, the fire dragon from Scarlet, boasts big plumes and large flowing eyebrows, somewhat indicative of old mythical Chinese Wyverns, whereas Violet's Miraidon, the water dragon, doesn't even have legs, but rather two jet engines that compliment the lighting wisps of hair and neon chest highlights. (I suspect this may be a mythical tri-type legendary, Electric, Water, Dragon; which would make it absolutely busted for competitive play what with all those resistances!) We can't say whether or not this is going to tie in which some sort of time influencing story, perhaps wherein we even travel to the distant past, but we'll certainly get to explore the concepts of looking behind and ahead in our story. Similar to the depiction of the roman god Janus, to look back and forth to inform the present, I'm sure there's some sort of alchemical context mixed in there somewhere.

And perhaps in a meta sense that reflects on the spirit of the game itself, keeping the traditionalist Pokémon set-up of young kid going on an adventure around their home country, and mixing it with the future that the series is heading for; open world and multiple players! Leading off from Legends, we're going to be able to explore this new map with little to no overarching restrictions on how we traverse the land and how we position our camera; which sounds a little embarrassing to get all giddy about in 2022, but us Pokémon fans take whatever wins we can score. There's also apparently going to be proper 4 person co-op which seems to allow players to explore the game world independently from one another and meet up in order to, presumably, battle their finds against each other. There's no word yet on what actual functionality this will provide. Is the game built to accommodate four people and will the narrative actually recognise them or is this just a lazy feature to slap on to the box? Do the four players join another game or just sync their game world up with three others? So many variables and you can take none of them for granted when dealing with the traditionally backwards developers at Nintendo. (I think you really have to strain yourself to call Nintendo the 'best game company' in the world, what with how they hold themselves and their partners back so often.)

These are all great steps for a Pokémon game but there are still considerable more considerations I need for a truly next generational experience that needs to be met. For one, I hope that Game Freak have learnt from their experiences with the Isle of Armor and know that they need to create recurrent content that validates all the play space. Give players a reason to travel up and down the open world throughout all their playtime, rather than just funnel themselves where all the newer levels are as has been typical for their Pokémon games in the past. They could have different breeds of Pokémon move across the map with time of day or year, or throw in collectable nodes that respawn periodically and are placed all across the map. Those are basic requirements and there really should be more reasons to visit this whole map with the same enthusiasm at level 1 that I do when all my team are level 100.

The frame of the narrative should reflect this open world design philosophy too. The old school set-up of 'child travels from gym to gym to beat them all' works fine with the old design, but it needs to be cut short here. I propose there needs to be a central institution which calls the player back to it regularly such as a school or academy, and major boss events are either held there or get dynamically introduced across the world. The mystery of discovering the secret of some powerful new creature is far more alluring than 'kid wants to become the champion' anime plotline we've seen recycled from the past two and a half decades; so Legends Arceus really needs to rub itself off here on the new game. I'd love to have a cast of characters I get to know beyond their one character trait and the static element they've decided to base their entire life philosophy around.

That's about the high and low of what we need from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, although if I were to throw in my own two cents I think a cameo wouldn't hurt that much. We saw Sonia become a travelling professor at the end of Sword and Shield, it would be cool to have her show up in this land to study these new powerful legendaries, give these games some narrative consistency to them without turning them into some sort of Marvel property wherein you have to watch years worth of back content to know what's going on. World building works better when it's culminative in my experience. Scarlet and Violet doesn't necessarily have it's work cut out for it, and there's still some evidence that this game might fall flat on it's face and has been destined to from the start, but it's hardly the Pokémon spirit to be a pessimist, now is it? Welcome to the fold, Gen 9; here's hoping you're everything you need to be. 

Generation 9!

 Back on the Pokeball grind

It hardly seems real, doesn't it? Even though the time we've waited seems about right, with the way the world has been going since Sword and Shield, hardly moving at all, we almost don't seem ready for Generation 9 right now. I, for one, am not ready to leave behind Hop, Marnie, Klara and Melony as we zoom away from the Galar region; but then the ride doesn't stop and linger for me, now does it? No, the journey of the perpetual 10 year old who relives their path to ascension in different bodies time after time must go on! (Nintendo did say that Pokémon Home is supposed to feel like a home people come back to between Pokémon journeys, didn't they? So our trainer must be some sort of shape shifting timelord who takes over the bodies of children across the world in order to destabilise the careful balance of talent and supremacy in each region one-by-one. When will this ultimate Pokémon tale be told?) The world has turned and dumped about a hundred new Pokémon on our doorstep as this ever expansive world of Pokémon teeters towards becoming too unwieldy to manage. I mean, how are they going to cherry-pick out of the soon-to-be 1000 Pokémon in order to decide which roster will rock up to these wilds? Soon favourites are going to start being left behind.

But there's no time to threat about all that, not when we have Nintendo security guards breaking into company offices whenever they find a slightly ajar door so as to be unwittingly sucked into an episode of the Twilight Zone. (Seriously, that was a really weird premise for a Pokémon reveal trailer. "Remember kids: B&E can lead to some real cool stuff if you pick the right door!") Now we have seen the biggest step forward for the franchise that we need to talk about; those textures: Good lord what is up with those textures? Seriously, some parts of this trailer looked downright ghastly thanks to the rendering, and I don't know if this is supposed to represent a beta-build or if Gamefreak are trying to tell us that this is the extent of their graphical prowess balanced with the scale of this project in question; all I know is that Monster Hunter Rise looks crisp and it's several years old at this point, so they cannot turn around and tell us that the Nintendo Switch is too weak for a decent resolution wall.

In all honesty, though; Pokémon Scarlett and Indigo? Is someone going to need to explain the disparity there, or did Gamefreak seriously just give up their naming convention of related elements for their titles? That was a part of their identity for so long, with significant thematic relevance stretching across alchemical properties, historical importance and just different martial weapons. Red and Blue might have been as cookie cutter as it's been for game names so far, but even those two titles had the perceived effect of being opposite colours. (Although one might say Red and Green are the true opposites. But then Pokémon Green was a thing in Japan, so all bases covered!) And now we have Scarlett and Indigo; which are just colours, I guess? Scarlett is a slightly deeper red and Indigo is a richer blue with some red in there... so does that mean this relates to the originals? 'A new beginning' maybe? I think I may be grasping here, lets see if Gamefreak manage to cook up anything satisfying for this in the limited time they have left until launch.

The big takeaway from this trailer, what we're all supposed to be hopping up and down about even though it's never explicitly said in the trailer and we had to read the official press release after the reveal to confirm it: Is that this will be an open world game! It seems that Pokémon Legends Arceus was not quite the flash-in-the-pan experimental title we were led to believe, in fact the team were already hard at work converting the whole franchise to the open medium all this time and we just didn't realise it. All's the better for us, because it means we no longer have to prove why the Pokémon games are better like this, with Gamefreak themselves geeking out about how we'll now be able to see Pokémon everywhere, in the sky, in the sea and possibly (hopefully) maybe inside of settlements doing daily Flintstones-esque jobs just like New Ryme City in Detective Pikachu. (Just, you know; nowhere near as big.)

Of course that also means we're getting a brand new region to explore which remains as-of-yet unnamed but we can still get a good idea of what sort of geographic theme the team are going for if we squint through the mush-texture packets real hard. There's obviously a Mediterranean vibe here, what with the palm trees and the rolling sapphire oceans gushing with pearly foam in that special, inviting fashion that you just don't get over here in dreary England. (God I want to move. Or have a vacation.) There are also the iconic slopped orange roof slats that are instantly placable with golden sands and beech-white plaster walls, baked pale from an unrelenting sun. Of course, I'm not exactly a king of placing places so the best bet I could make was a toss up between Italy and Greece, but I'm hearing most are agreeing that this is supposed to be Spain so I guess I'm the idiot here.

One thing Gamefreak did not want to provide for some reason, is anything in the way of new Pokémon to look at. Practically every shot in this trailer was from Mons we'd already seen. Including a wild variant of Meowth who looks exactly like Aloan Meowth except for the brown tail tip of normal Meowth. (Does... does that really count as a new variant?) What we did receive, however, was our customary look at this region's starters and... I'll be honest they look kinda lame. Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly all have hard to pronounce names and there's not a one I'd consider to be the one for this gen. I suppose none of them look humanoid, which was complaint about the Gen 8 starters, but until we see the evolution lines I'm at a toss up when it comes who to fight with. When in doubt- go for the Water starter, I guess.

What I want to see from the new Pokémon we're yet to be introduced to, is just a bit more effort going into their personalities and how the player interacts with them. For example; some Pokémon require players to go through an extra effort in order to evolve them, such as take them under a certain arch with a certain amount of health, or score a number of crits, or level up your friendship rank. We need diversity like that from this new Pokémon lineup so that we players can feel more involved in the journey to 'catch them all' beyond just ticking off numbers from a list. Oh, and it would be real nice if Gamefreak could manage to model all of the past Pokémon for this upcoming game; these models are from the same console afterall, and though some have noticeable improvements; (I saw how shiny Magnemtie looked) I don't know if I can bear the thought of a full Pokémon adventure without my Shiny Yellow Zeraora at my side. Or my accidental four Zarudes! (Don't ask.)

And the most startling thing about this announcement, although at this point it really shouldn't be, is that the team are planning a flash release for the game in less than a year's time. Yep, they want this thing to be out for Christmas, keeping the Pokémon machine just chugging along at full steam. Whether keeping up with the schedule like this, married with such a big change to the well-established Pokémon formula, is going to have any residual effect on the quality of the final product remains to be seen; but I just hope that his whole 'open world' initiative isn't used by Game Freak as an excuse to ignore any of their other pressing criticisms from Gen 8. Most pressingly; that there's typically nothing to do in the endgame. We had to wait until the DLCs to give us purpose in Sword and Shield. Can there at least be a freakin' Beauty Content minigame or something to pass the time for this entry? We can only hope, I guess.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus and changing the unchangeable

What? Pokémon is evolving!

Okay, it's been a busy week of gaming and one that's only going to be trounced next week when Gamescon hits and we all start hearing about cool stuff like the upcoming Saints Row reboot that I literally only just heard about, or some more Dying Light 2 details. (I swear, it's like Dying Light 2 has been delayed for an entire generation at this point; when is that game coming out?) But before any of that takes the centre stage there is a lingering niggling little thing I've neglected to talk about up until now: The Nintendo Direct! And that's because I didn't watch it- I know, the longest Direct ever and I couldn't be bothered to show up, but I got back around to it and now I can say, with an informed eye, gosh they gave us what we wanted, didn't they? There was no faffing about with Pokemon apps that make you brush you teeth, no shovel-ware mobile game flying our way, no updates to the rooster over at Pokemon G- wait no, there was a bit on that. But it was short, I forgot it already. No, instead we were slammed with the two big boys everyone has been waiting to hear from; Pokémon Crazy Diamond and Pearl J- dammit I did it again! And Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

Now I never played Pokémon Diamond and Peral back in the day, so I'm lucky enough to be sitting in a position where all the content being thrown my way is totally new. I'm watching these trailers with the eyes of a newbie, marvelling at the customisation, this underground area, the significantly better full character models, and the fact that this game features Team Galaxy. I didn't know Team Galaxy were from this game! They're one of the Pokémon villains that lightly advocated for genocide and we don't really pay it any serious mind because it's a kids game. (Although Team Magma and Team Aqua remain my personal choice for two most homicidal teams of the franchise. At least Team Galaxy's plan would have been relatively quick and painless, Aqua wanted to drown everyone!) But ultimately I must say that I don't particularly care about this game because it's more of the same. (Even if that same is new to me) There's no great additions to the plot or formula that we've been made aware of, meaning that we won't be getting any glimpses of the future of the Pokémon franchise from this game. In fact, these titles almost feel like comfort food in the wake before something truly jarring flying Pokémon's way. And I'm here for the shake up, baby!

This shake-up goes by the name of 'Pokémon Legends: Arceus' and the more I see the more I steadily fall in love with the new face of the Poke-future. Taking us once more to the Sinnoh region, Pokémon's own Hokkaido,  Legends: Arceus promises a rare glimpse into the origins of the modern Pokémon world and how human and Pocket Monster society would become so intrinsically linked. In this pursuit it takes us to a rural, practically uncolonized period of Sinnoh's history, where you assume the role of explorer/researchers sent to discover the unique climates of Sinnoh, it's prehistoric Pokémon, and complete the region's very first Pokédex. Which has me wondering what exactly it is that modern professors of the series are doing sending teenagers round the world to make Pokédexs. If presumably all regions got mapped several hundred years previously, what's the purpose of using child labour now? I always got the impression that Pokédex technology was supposed to be rather new, shows what I know...

For the gameplay this seems to be shaping up as a total switch-around of everything we assume to be 'sacred' about the Pokémon formula. There won't be this linear journey across the various towns of the nation, fighting gyms and making rivals, but instead a centralised base from which you span out and explore the different climates and peaks of Sinnoh in search of research subjects. What was proposed first as a sort of Breath of Wild sort of game has revealed itself to be more akin to Monster Hunter, which the various regions of the world cut up into 'hunt zones' that players travel to with goals and targets in mind. Which means we're probably looking at a gameplay loop of building up resources and tools at the central hub village, watching as the place slowly grows into a well-oiled machine, whilst going on expeditions to the homes of impressive monsters and trying to survive their dens long enough to capture the target.

It's that latter part of the loop which has me most excited, clearly, because for the first time in the history of these games we're going to get the chance to see these monsters roam the wild in thier fullest form. That's right, all Pokémon will be rendered to their correct sizes and will roam the map simulating the activities you would expect from them. Will this end up making the monsters look like part of believable ecosystems similar to how the Monster Hunter team have pulled off? You'd hope so, but then the MH team have been at this for over a decade so who can say how Gamefreak's first draft will end up? Either way, this means we'll be getting hounded by the odd vicious Pokémon looking to tear us apart, which paints this interesting image of Pokémon being wild animals that the Pokémon Company seemed to shy away from in the past. To think that now they've grown confidant enough to okay a game which shows teenagers being electrocuted until they pass-out is... an improvement? I'm going to say it's 'progressive for the franchise' at least.

Of course, the highlight of this reveal event to me was the way in which the core RPG battle system of Pokémon got turned on it's head. Unlike what some had assumed, we're still dealing with the turn-based systems of our ancestors, but it's not going to be a simple case of a rigid turn order which pans out to one player attacks and then the other responds. No, this time around a Pokémon's speed stat will determine how often they can attack, which means a speedy Pokémon can strike two times in a row before the enemy can react. (So I can import by Zeraora when?) Ontop of this, each Pokémon has the ability to strike with speed or brawn, meaning that the attack is either weaker and quicker (thus speeding up the turn order) or slower and stronger (slowing it down) thus creating a turn order system that can be dynamic and shift throughout a single fight. I don't know if there's going to be any competitive systems attached to the game but if there are then this has the potential to change the face of online match-ups forever!

But even more than all the things that were revealed, Legends: Arceus' greatest draw is it's mysteries and that which we don't yet know, a refreshing divergence to the usual state of affairs when we approach games knowing it's utter ins and bitter outs. Right now I'm deathly curious to know what the God of all Pokémon has to do with the events of this game, and even more curious to know if we can catch the bugger in order to fill up our Pokédex. (Do we have the power to contain a god?) I'm also curious about how much freedom the game will offer, seeing as how we've already seen various modes of travel in this game through both Pokémon handgliders and Pokémon Jet skis. (Mobius would be jealous.) There's still some tricks up Gamefreak's sleeves, and that's more than we can say for the typical Pokémon outing which we usually approach with the utmost knowledge of what it roughly is and how it'll play. We're in uncharted waters this time around; isn't that exciting?

Pokémon maintained the status quo for far too long, to the point where many were long since burned out of the franchise, but this step (small though it may be) is exactly what Gamefreak need to rejuvenate the fans and probably the studio too. (How long can you make the same game year after year before you start to lose your mind?) 'Pokémon Legends: Arceus' isn't everything I hoped for: it's not total freeroam, the graphics look severly dated, we don't get to explore a bustling Pokémon city; but it's further towards my dream Pokémon game than we've been in over twenty years now. My only worry is that by releasing the Diamond and Pearl remakes, The Pokémon Company are pitting the past against the future to see how they perform, deciding where the direction of the franchise is due from how many actually buy this new game over their old remade one. Which is why it's the duty of Pokémon fans out there to turn up for Arceus on the day of- for the good of Pokémon everywhere!

Kotaku gets bored, stirs up Internet

 Are you still a news-site when you engage in nothing but rabble rousing?

Let no one ever mistake this blog here for a source of the news. I'm not. I'm a nobody enthusiast who makes observations on the games industry related incidents I hear about through this medium. Often upwards of one week after the fact, ensuring that I'm not, and never will be, the breaking source of misremembered fact. I maintain such because it is a position without the responsibilities and expectations of journalism, because I like the freedom to comment however I want on whatever I want, and because I'm lazy and do this for fun. I can't be bothered to be prowling about for the cutting edge of the news or, worse than that, actually go and seek that stuff out. I ain't no Lois Lane (You know what they say: She doesn't seek out the news, the news seeks out her) I'm just a guttersnipe feeding off the dregs of the info circuit for his own mild amusement. And yet somehow I still resist the urge to go sabre rattling.

How galling it must be then, for the professionals all over, when one of the most well known 'journalist' sites for the Industry, Kotaku, has a reputation primarily not for it's journalism work, but for making a habit of kicking hornet nests for clicks. For anyone who seriously tries to make a go of the profession this must feel like a blow to the stomach each time they make another transparent swipe at their own job's integrity, turning the whole act into a circus show. I merely mention this because, at this point, it's just so obvious and sad. I can't remember the last time I saw their logo adorn a page which wasn't sensationalist click bait but instead something of value and worth similar to modern Bloomberg gaming articles. Oh wait, yes I do: it was back when their editor was the very guy who writes those modern gaming Bloomberg articles! You'd have thought he'd have left a bigger example on the team he departed from, huh.

But enough posturing, what have they done this time? The usual, taken a topic which has a few legs to walk with and completely drown it with zeal because it's more likely to upset the passing eye that way. What topic? Lootboxes- oh god, it's 2019 again! (Quick, someone warn the world there's about to be a global pandemic!) But, yes, I will admit that there is a point somewhere within the convoluted mess of an article that riled up a storm. Because that's just how this sort of stuff works. They take the vestiges of a point and stamp it into irrelevance with bravado and pandering. To be fair, that does take a certain degree of showmanship and skill, I'm just not sure it's coming out in the right profession or the right medium. But what are we talking about exactly? Well, in the words of a madman "Pokemon GO eggs aren't Lootboxes...". Okay, agree to disagree there but I see where you're coming from, and it could be the grounds of an interesting conversation about what exactly are lootboxes and how we defi- "...they're fun presents!" >sigh<. Why are we still here?

Recently Niantic made a change to the way the policy with which they handle Pokemon Go's Eggs, in that they decided to actually show people the types of potential Pokemon each Egg can contain with little signage indicating rarity tiers of each mon. There wasn't any actual statistics assigned to that signage, however, such as percentage chances or the number of eggs one would likely have to go through to hatch that. (Stuff which seems kind of expected when even Lootbox essential games like Genshin Impact are capable of swallowing their pride to cater) Instead all this really served for was an official confirmation for the contents of Go eggs. Cool. Not to throw water on ya'll Niantic, but we already unofficially got that data years ago. It's called, experimentation and/or data mining. You've saved the community, like, half a day of fiddling around after every Egg update at best. As you can imagine some people were a little more perturbed by Niantic's lack of candour, and it all might have stirred from some old soured emotions towards Niantic's Egg system and their similarities to lootboxes. Only, you know, apparently without the need for full disclosure if we're to bow to Niantic's whims.

For Kotaku, however, this is not only a non-issue; but we're all a bunch of clueless morons for ever deigning to raise this topic in the first place. Why? Because Eggs aren't Lootboxes, dumb dumb, they're really fun surprise mechanics. Wait. No- that's EA's excuse. What did the 'Journalists' say again? Oh, that's right; "Fun presents". (I honestly snicker every time I read that. Did Niantic corporate send you a gift basket or something, what's with the cringe spin-job?) To understand things as their article puts them, Pokemon GO eggs aren't Lootboxes because they don't necessarily cost money to acquire, (Guess that means Overwatch Lootboxes aren't lootboxes) don't cost money to open (Or Genshin boxes, for that matter) and don't offer tangible gameplay benefits. (...we'll come back to that point.) All of these stipulations do raise an interesting point; what exactly are lootboxes?

Well in my mind, they are a mechanic wherein game items are thrown into randomised pools that the player has the chance to pick from at random, very basic and straightforward. (likely redundantly so, but I'm just trying to cover the basics right here, not write in new laws) Quite a lot of lootboxes out in the world today don't actually require real money to be purchased, because most Devs realise that such puts an immediate barrier to partaking in the system which permenately puts some players off. Better to let them get a taste before circling in for the kill. The way one makes money off lootboxes isn't by selling them, that's too gauche, it's be giving folk the 'option' to buy packs and then implementing such low pull statistics that it whittles people down to pulling out their wallets or limiting the number of boxes you can work in at one time or, as is becoming popular more recently, just implementing limited-time events in order to establish a sense of FOMO and override customer's 'common sense' brain nodes. (Why do you think Genshin operates with Banners?) Huh, you know that last one almost sounds like the sort of thing that Niantic do when they make limited time exclusive Egg Pokemon... fancy that.

But none of that even matters when the rewards on offer don't provide tangible gameplay benefits. Except that they do. Of course they do. This is a Pokemon game, duh. What- what do you think Pokemon games are? You catch Pokemon in them, you train Pokemon in them, any method which grants you access to Pokemon is giving a tangible gameplay benefit. How can you- Why do you- who hurt you, Kotaku, that you must now hurt our common sense in recompense? The pool of Pokemon that come from Eggs is substantially important, as they mark the only way in which the worldwide community can guarantee access to certain sought-after Pokemon breeds out of special events. Remember when Deino was exclusive to Eggs? Do you know why that was? It's because Deino evolves into Hydreigon, which is a Pokemon listed among the prestigious number of 'Pseudo-Legendries', so named for their incredible base stats. How desirable, no? But the only to get this one was through eggs? Seems like the kind of thing you'd want to grind boxes for. Only, you can only work on a certain number of boxes at a time, so you'll probably want to buy so speed-ups so that you don't have to go walking 10Km to open each egg, that'd take all day afterall. Oh, but then you have to bear in mind that in order to evolve Deino you'll need to pull him several times, (about 10) which means even more boxes opened, buy more speed-ups. Oh, and the chances of getting a shiny are 1.9% atop of the chances of pulling him in the first place, so if you're so inclined that'll be more time savers for you. I mean sure, you could just grind these. Just have no job, or life or other things to do ever. That's all Kotaku and Niantic ask of you, step up!

There's plenty of horror stories of people spending upwards of $1000 on each Pokemon Go event despite not 'necessarily' being required to because of course there is, that's how GTA Online keeps making more money each year despite operating off of an identical philosophy. But on the other hand John here has a casual friend who's level 39 and never spent a dime. Neither have I, John, but that's because I'm a cheapskate pauper who's so stubborn he'd rather give up on game entirely than let it twist his arm into dishing out money it hasn't earned in his eyes. Not everyone is so stingy, and some people are actually interested in playing the game with some seriousness. Does that mean that Niantic's Eggs are some particularly predatory and nefarious plot to exploit these people? No, they're no more nefarious than some other common systems, and a lot less nefarious than some of the worst ones. But is still makes them Lootboxes. But heck, you can still call them 'Fun presents' if that does it for you, man. Just don't expect the rest of us to get lovey-dovey with Niantic corporate next to you, 'kay?