Power vs Convenience - Nintendo Switch Impressions

            The buildup for the “NX” reveal was a long road of countless rumors, leaks, and whole lot of jokes. I’m not too interested in speculating why it has taken them so long to final unveil their next big system, though it does concern me a bit for its launch. I’m glad the info is finally out (well most of it). It wasn’t too much of a shock considering all the leaks, but I am very impressed by the reveal.

            The Nintendo Switch seems like it’s my new dream console. For a few years now I’ve been primarily a handheld system user. This is partially due to some living condition things that I don’t need to get into, but what has me always reaching for my 3DS is the privacy of a personal screen and the ability to play it anywhere in my home. I don’t get out of the house very often, so I don’t really tend to take the console out with me on my travels, but the portable aspect of the console is still incredibly useful to me if I can just put in a few hours into my game of choice from whatever room I choose, even my still laying in my bed. I love the convenience of handheld systems so much that at times I feel the only way I can finish certain games is if they happen to be on 3DS. If tried for a while, but I never finished a Shin Megami Tensei until it found its home on 3DS, and the first Tales of game that I finished was oddly enough the 3DS port of Tales of the Abyss. I can put in countless hours into JRPGs easily on handheld, but I’m still struggling to even really get into a lot of the games I started on my newly purchased PS4. A lot of my issues with the console gaming experience might be really specific to certain aspects of my lifestyle, but I can’t be the only person who just finds the convenience of pulling out your 3DS from your bag or pocket from anywhere you like a way more appealing console feature than any sort of 1080p/60 fps or the tech culture’s newest obsessions 4K resolutions and VR.

            I’ve never really understood the voracious appetite people have for newer, more powerful tech in gaming. People have been saying a lot that we are seeing diminishing returns on the graphical jump between console generations, but I’ve been saying that since the Xbox 360’s launch. I do now appreciate this stuff a bit more these days now that I actually have an HD widescreen tv to play stuff on (and going back to my old tv is just unbearable), but it’s when we get into stuff like the jump between 720p to 1080p, 1080p to 4K, demands for 60 fps minimum on games that really don’t get anything out of that kind of performance is where these tech fanatics lose me. Maybe I just have to be a tech hungry gamer with a high end PC build that costs more than a decent car to understand the appeal because I honestly just don’t see a huge reason to invest hundreds of dollars just for a resolution bump. The tech power arms race of the “console war” is just getting worse now with “Pro” and “Scorpio” versions of the new consoles that a lot of people were just trying to save up to buy the launch editions. I just bought a PS4 and already the industry wants to move on to the Pro to chase some seemingly niche 4K craze?? Now I’m paranoid that new games I’m excited about on PS4 will run like shit because the industry will be developing for the Pro’s specs, and the regular console version will be an afterthought.

            The weird part is that despite me feeling all paranoid over the Pro and Scorpio versions of the big boy consoles I still primarily play on my 3DS, which by comparison might as well be a Razer flip phone. What is weird about the handheld side of the so called “console war” is that the Vita is killing the 3DS hilariously in power, but its failing miserably anyway. And don’t get me wrong, I think the Vita is a cool console that I could see myself also playing a ton if I just had the cash to drop on one, but the Vita’s failure weirdly enough gives me hope that at least on the consumer end, power doesn’t always win. There is a place where the “lightweight” console can duke it out with the “heavyweight” power consoles.

            Personally, I’m a bit confused at the marketing message they are going with for the Switch as a “home console you can take on the go”. It seems like it’s the exact opposite. It’s a new generation handheld that can be plugged and upscaled to a home tv gaming experience. I guess I’m no marketing expert though because handheld gaming is somewhat looked down upon by the tech hungry industry. Speculation through leaks (with no official word) puts the Switch around the same power of an Xbox One, which would sound like a huge game changer from the handheld perspective, immediately obsolete from the console side. Considering I’m more of a fan of the handheld side I am very excited. The next wave of Pokémon, Monster Hunter, Yokai Watch, Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, etc. are going to see a dramatic jump in graphical quality while also staying convenient as handheld games. Though games like Splatoon, 3D Mario, Smash, etc. are sadly not going to see as dramatic of a jump, but will join the others in being convenient handheld games now.

            Of course there are some concerns. The Wii U’s failure had 3^rd Party support for the console leave that console to die. While I do think the Wii U still has an impressive library, it would be very hard if that were your only modern home console option. The 3DS has some good support, but the dramatic jump might scare away these partners. There are many technical concerns too such as battery life, durability, and performance between the handheld and docked options. For my purposes the former two don’t concern me as much, but I do have fears very similar to my fears about the PS4 Pro of developers chasing the more powerful option too hard and the game runs like garbage when in a handheld mode. Of course the lack of concrete technically information given by Nintendo doesn’t help matters. We don’t even have a price for the machine, and yet they’re okay with saying no further info until 2017, a minimum 3 months prior to their launch? Price is also concerning since I did just purchase a PS4 and I am still recovering from such a huge console purchase on my small income. There is hope that if the console is aiming for less power it could end up being a dramatically cheaper option than its competition though, but we’ll wait and see.

            I was just thinking the other day on my lunch break at work how wonderful it would be to have the Switch. Being able to pull out a handheld and have not just handheld but what would be typically be console exclusive games to play on my break would be amazing. I was imagining myself getting in a few games of Pac-Man CE2, getting through a few levels on the latest 3D Mario, or even messing about in Breath of the Wild during my break. At home I could possibly get to play games possibly like the latest Dragon Quest, Tales of, Final Fantasy from the comfort of my bed every morning. The Nintendo Switch is a dream console, but let’s just hope it can live up to those dreams.

My Price Limit At Launch - $300 or $350 if the launch line up is amazing

Personal New Game Wishlist

Splatoon 2

Wonderful 101 sequel

Bayonetta 3

Pokémon Gen VIII

Pokémon Generation IV Remake

next Tales of game

next Final Fantasy

next Persona/SMT games

Pikmin 4

new Yokai Watch

new F-Zero

new Metroid Prime

Personal Port Wishlist

Tales of Series (Symphonia, Zestiria, Berseria)

Nier and Nier Automata

Final Fantasy XIII Series

Final Fantasy VII Remake

SMT/Persona Series (P5, SMT Nocturne)

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX & 2

Metroid Prime series

F-Zero X & GX

3D Mario series

The State of Girl Sideward [Personal Update #4]

            So far 2016 has been a bad year for a lot of reasons, but it has been especially bad for this blog. Honestly, I wish I had a good explanation for why this blog has been more or less dead for nearly all of 2016, but I don’t. I’ve had quite a few plans for things to write that never panned out. Some as stupidly ambitious as a Tales of Abyss review along with weekly follow up pieces on all the individual party members, and some as small as a No Man’s Sky review or Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain anniversary retrospective. Almost nothing panned out for no good reason other than it’s just hard for me to write when I’m both depressed out of my mind with my current living condition as well as just out of confidence in my own work. Whenever I get an idea for something to write either I think its trash and scrap it, or someone writes something I wanted to say better than I ever could.

            It also doesn’t help that I’ve been agonizing over my previous work lately. For example, my NieR piece from over a year ago is dreadful in hindsight. Time and watching and talking with other people as they play through the game gave me a new perspective that is WAY different than anything I wrote. What I wrote is just a complete stream of conscientiousness that’s completely unreadable. I’m not even sure what the hell I was even thinking to be honest other than I really wanted to write something fast right after I finished the game with fresh tears on my keyboard. I could break down all my previous work and why it’s awful but it’s not really important. I could beat myself over past mistakes all night (it’s already 1:30 AM) but it won’t make a difference. I guess on the bright side, less content this year means a lot less of it is trash.

            However… Girl Sideward is not going away. I started this blog primarily to improve my own writing so messing up so much and all this self-doubt is part of a learning process. Trying to work out how to be productive with your work is also a big part of the learning process. I currently don’t have any plans and I am not trying to make too many ambition plans so I don’t disappoint myself. I am currently playing Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, Yokai Watch 2 Fleshy Souls, Touhou: Scarlet Curiousity, AND Tales of Zestiria and I have no idea if I’ll write about any of them, but if I do come up with anything I think is interesting to say I’ll probably at least give it a draft. Of course there are the big upcoming releases such as World of Final Fantasy, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Pokemon Sun and Moon, Final Fantasy XV, Tales of Berseria, Persona 5, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and a WHOLE LOT MORE. I am real excited to play a lot of these games in this BUSY BUSY season. Hopefully, I will have SOMETHING interesting to say about at least ONE of these. I’ll probably be unable to keep myself from screaming about Pokemon or giving my two cents on FFXV and P5, but I’m done making promises.

            I am somewhat bummed about not pitching or opening up a Patreon to get paid for writing yet. Not that I even made anything this year worth money and I wouldn’t want to force myself to write just to get paid, however I just need something to get myself into a better living condition. Still I don’t believe I am ready to write for a living, especially not after this year.

E3 2016 [Working Title]

            Last year I wrote a lot about E3 because I was excited… this year I write about E3 mostly because I’m having a hard time writing about anything else. Writing about E3 is easy. It’s a showcase of the extremes of the industry so it’s easy to find the things you are REALLY excited for, and the things you absolutely despise. Last year’s E3 was especially explosive with announcements like Shenmue 3 and FFVII Remake. This year was… boring. It was not terrible like a lot of recent years, but I couldn’t care for most the BIG surprises. VR was a big part of this year’s E3, but thankfully not the main focus. I was dreading the console upgrades taking up stage time, but only Microsoft said anything and it was just a short bit at the close of their conference. I got most the stuff I wanted to see, but not much else. 

World of Final Fantasy

Square Enix dropped a trailer for World of Final Fantasy right before E3 (a festive time of year I’ve been calling PrE3). The trailer is fantastic! I’ve been sold on the charm of World of Final Fantasy since announcement, but this new trailer is making me think this game is going to end up as something beautiful. Tiny chibi Final Fantasy characters in a cute monster RPG sounds like the game made just for me. I suppose it is easy to wave the game of ass a Pokémon/Yokai Watch cash grab or yet another FF/JRPG nostalgia game (which neither is exactly 100% wrong) but Final Fantasy’s roster of memorial creatures helps it stand out from its contemporaries and I’ve always wanted to catch and train my own Chocobos, Moogles, and Cactuars. Also, unlike most JRPG Nostalgia games I’m not feeling some smug superiority of the old RPGs are better than the new. World of Final Fantasy seems more like a celebration of the series as a whole, no Tidus or Lightning left behind. Though even with all that said, I’m honestly looking more forward to World of Final Fantasy then Final Fantasy XV!

Final Fantasy XV

I really want to be excited for this game. I am going to buy a PS4 to play this game. I HAVE to play it at launch because the discourse online about it will be insufferable without it. I think I’ll like this game. I’m really liking the group accompanying Noctis on his adventure. Even though it is an all dude cast, Final Fantasy is typically good at male characters. I’m liking most of what I’ve seen other than the open world stuff and that really poor Titan stage demo during the Microsoft conference. Obviously most the hype around the game is the fans hoping FFXV will reclaim the RPG genre, which is silly to me, FFXIII is flawed but fine and JRPGs are arguably bigger than ever, but of course “JRPGs are Dead”. Look forward to the review because there’s no way I’ll be able to resist throwing in my two cents.

NieR: Automata

            There was not a lot of info for NieR: Automata… but any footage of this game in motion is enough to amaze and excite me. It’s been a long time since I’ve been as excited for a video game as I am for NieR: Automata. It is easily one of my biggest dream games brought to reality. NieR is one of the best games in years and Platinum are the best in the business at combat design. It’s a match made in heaven for me. I’m trying not to let the excitement consume me, but it’s hard to resist. I’m worried I could be setting myself up for disappointment, but what we’ve seen looks so promising. My only gripe with NieR: Automata at E3 is that I was really hoping for a release date. NieR: Automata is THE game that made me feel like I NEED a PS4, so it’d be nice to know when my deadline is to buy the console.

Fighting Games

I’ve wanted to get into fighting games for a long time, but it’s so difficult when I don’t have a local scene or a group of nearby friends to play with. Thankfully fighting games are getting better at creating their games’ online play a smooth enough experience to be compatible with their frame perfect demands. There’s just something about fighting games that draws me in, despite me not being too into competitive play. I feel it’s mostly the characters with their larger than life personalities and something about playing fighting games gives me a stronger sense of embodiment in my character than really any other type of game. E3 had quite a few big fighting games present. Street Fighter was playable and we got to see more people get their hands on the new character Ibuki. I’m not a big fan of the series, but Injustice 2 was announced. KOFXIV continues to impress me despite the strong backlash of people on the internet whining about the graphics. Killer Instinct revealed their Gears of War guest character General RAAM who isn’t a character I care about, even as a Gears of War fan, but his “FANGief” (Street Fighter’s FANG’s poison and Zangief’s grappling) playstyle looks fun. Tekken 7, which might be my personal favorite, announced it was coming to consoles along with a story mode with seamless transitions between fighting and cutscenes. Sadly, living in the middle of nowhere, it’s hard to get too excited for these games. It’s hard to justify spending $60 on a game that I’ll either give up on or be virtually useless to me if it has bad online play.

Resident Evil VII

I adore the Resident Evil series. The series is probably the best at balancing atmosphere, camp, and its resource management gameplay. The later entries were a departure from this, but evolved into one of the best 3^rd Person Shooting series on the market. The Revelations spinoff games brought the series horror atmosphere back to critical acclaim, so it seemed inevitable for the series to go back to its roots. However, REVII is bringing back horror to the series, but harder than anyone expected. The REVII demo (which I sadly cannot play) makes it seem like the series is going into horror harder than its roots, and possibly removing any element of action or camp. REVII is following the recent trends of the indie horror scene, spooky dark environments and not chance to defend yourself. While PT was taking a similar direction, that direction makes sense for Silent Hill’s own brand of psychological horror. REVII’s direction makes the game look like an entirely different series, for better or worse. Personally, I don’t really care for the indie horror trend of Spooky’s House of Jump Scares, but I can understand the appeal for other people. REVII is not a return to roots. It is a complete reconstruction of the franchise’s identity to chase modern industry trends in its genre. REVII might be a great game for those who want it, but it’s probably just not for me so I can’t help but feel disappointed.

The Last Guardian

I just don’t care anymore outside my curiosity. It’s coming out in October which sucks because there’s so much else coming out around that time frame that I doubt I’ll be able to justify buying it at launch to fill my curiosity. I’m mostly just glad the game is coming out so everyone can get some closure and we can move on.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

If there’s anything to take away from this E3 is that the game that shocked me the most was a Call of Duty game. For the first half of the trailer I had no idea what the game was until it dawned on me it was Infinite Warfare. I have a lot of issues with Call of Duty as a series, but its movement into future warfare and now space has helped fix some of my issues. Call of Duty In Space looks a lot less like some creepy US Military propaganda machine. While I’m sure the politics and military fetishization of CoDIW will still be as gross as ever even in space, at least it doesn’t seem too direct that I can put it aside in my mind and enjoy zero gravity space ship breeching. The game also has spaceship combat which is the quickest way into my Star Wars loving heart. Sadly we didn’t see any multiplayer, but even CoDIW’s singleplayer looks exciting enough to satisfy me. Also contrary to popular belief, CoD singleplayer can be REALLY good. I feel like Modern Warfare 1’s singleplayer campaign deserves to be talked about on the same level as we do games like Half Life 2. Despite the gross way it’s being sold, I’m really excited to play MW1 again in its remastered edition. On the bright side, I’m getting possibly the only things I care about in Call of Duty in one convenient package. If I awarded Best in Show for E3 based on pure shock and spectacle alone, I’d award it to Call of Duty Infinite Warfare.

…Also fuck off, this game looks infinitely more exciting than Battlefield 1.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Horizon: Zero Dawn continues to impress me. The world looks beautiful and the Animal Mechanical wildlife that populates the world are some of the coolest stuff I’ve seen from AAA games. The gameplay looks fantastic too. Surviving the big open world, gathering supplies, taming the machine wildlife, it all looks fantastic… and I’m one of the people who feel REALLY sick of open world games. Honestly, Horizon: Zero Dawn is almost on equal with its Zelda competitor, and this one has a girl in it, SHOCKER!

…But Horizon: Zero Dawn has one major issue that continues to bug me. The game’s human character designs are going in hard on a weird future Native American aesthetic… but all of the characters seen look like pale white stoners. It’s a really unfortunate cultural appropriation issue going on. I’m not of ANY authority to talk any deeper on this, but it’s still something that’s really obvious to even me. It’s a real shame reflective of the AAA industry’s continuing problems with representation of race. If the game were to get a sequel, I’d certainly hope they’d try and fix this problem, but for now it’s a blemish on a really promising game.

Death Stranding

This game COULD be the greatest game of the new generation… it’s just a shame we know nearly NOTHING about it. For all of Kojima’s faults (and yes there are many, MANY faults) I still feel Kojima is one of the most impressive storytellers in the AAA game industry. Now that he’s free from Konami’s chains and Metal Gear, he has a world of infinite possibilities ahead of him.

…It’s just a shame the trailer is so vague and out there it’s impossible to get much info out of it. And I get that the game is probably too early for the E3 stage, I get that Sony is likely gambling a  lot on Kojima’s new project that it’s better to start the hype early. There’s nothing really wrong with the trailer, it’s a standard Kojima quality trailer that dives deep into the absurd this time around. Just it’s hard for me to get my hopes up over no information.

Pokémon Sun and Moon

Unless you don’t know me well, or don’t get that I named my blog after a Pokémon Vietnamese Crystal reference, you should know I ADORE Pokémon. Pokémon is my comfort food. It’s a series I can keep coming back to and find enjoyable. Whether it’s replaying the singleplayer or diving back into competitive battling, I can always find a way to enjoy Pokémon.

However, it should be said that because I love Pokémon more than most human beings, including children, that I am also extremely critical of Pokémon. I’m harsher on Pokémon and take it more seriously than most people because I love it so. Pokémon is one of the few older childhood series I still get giddy about like I’m still 10 years old.

So if I’m the foremost authority on Pokémon criticism (I am joking), what is my verdict on the Pokémon Sun and Moon gameplay shown on Nintendo’s Treehouse stream? I’m absolutely excited for my journey in Alola!

Generation 6, Pokémon X and Y, are by far my least favorite games in the Pokémon series. I got myself REALLY excited about Gen 6 and I crashed in burned in disappointment when the game was just merely… okay, on par, not bad, 7/10. I could (and might still) write up a huge review of all my issues of Pokémon X and Y, but the main things I dislike the most about it is that it just plays it way too safe. Despite the seemingly HUGE changes like Mega Evolution, Fairy Type, EXP Share, etc, they ultimately don’t have a huge impact on the main game. Megas are mostly locked to post-game and only really matter in competitive play, Fairy is designed to counter Dragon type which is still rare in the main game, EXP Share is FINE and reduces grinding, but turning it off makes the journey through Kalos even more insufferable. The Gen 6 roster is too small, the story is bland even for Pokémon standards, and the game is ugly and runs horribly… I promise I’m getting to my point.

Pokémon Sun and Moon appears to be pretty big improvement on X and Y, if not in huge way, but the adding up of smaller changes. They showed off quite a few small changes that makes the game more welcoming to newer player and likely has no effect on the experience of veterans. Alola looks like a beautiful region and the multiple islands are a nice shake up to Pokémon’s usual structure. The UI changes look nice, the new Pokémon they showed off are all great, but are also likely parts of already established roster archetypes so they didn’t give anything too big away. For competitive, Yungoos’s Stakeout (2x damage on a Pokémon who switches in mid-battle) ability might be a huge deal, especially in 1v1 formats where switching Pokémon in and out is a frequent and huge part of the game. They left a lot of hints to our imagination and didn’t just reveal half the roster. I’d be satisfied if this is all the info we get.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Let’s get this out of the way. I am, like many others, disappointed in no girl Link or playable girl character option. I, like most others, are embarrassed for the really REALLY poorly thought out excuse given for no inclusion of a playable girl. HOWEVER, personally, I think Link is fine the way he is in Breath of the Wild, he is possibly my favorite Link yet being an adorable, still quite feminine elf boy who is extremely expressive despite still being a mostly silent protagonist. I want to make it CLEAR that I am BOTH disappointed in Aonuma’s statement about why there is no girl option, but also pleased with what we got. It sucks, but is not any more of a deal breaker for me like there being no girls in the main FFXV party. I think representation, especially playable main lead representation, for women in games is VERY important, but NOT the be all end all of my critical opinions on videogames.

All right, are we good? Now back to the Wild.

I have not been really excited for a Zelda game in a long time. I didn’t exactly grow up with the classics. I hated Ocarina of Time for years until I started appreciating it a bit more when I was like 16. The only Zelda games so far that I’ve absolutely loved are Majora’s Mask and The Wind Waker. My adoration for sailing the open seas in the colorful cartoony cel-shaded artstyle of The Wind Waker was what finally got me to even care about Zelda as a series. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the first time since sailing out the open seas of The Wind Waker I’ve been this excited about a Zelda game.

Breath of the Wild is not another retread on the aesthetics or structure of Ocarina of Time. Breath of the Wild is also, no matter how much Nintendo themselves claim, not exactly a return to Zelda’s NES roots. The most it has in common with NES Zelda is a lack of a guiding hand, for better or worse. Breath of the Wild is another game in a following trend of games completely restructuring its design and identity to catch up with other industry trends.

Now that sounds pretty cold and cynical to say that Breath of the Wild is just chasing popular trends to make a quick buck, but you can’t look at the open design and the survival mechanics and not think about your Minecrafts, Skyrims, Dragon’s Dogmas, etc.

…BUT honestly, as someone who doesn’t really care for Zelda’s established structure and identity, I see this as a welcome change. I’m not even a big fan of the popular trends that Zelda is chasing, but I prefer it to the OoT like structure that Zelda has been clinging to. There’s enough change that I’m willing to give Breath of the Wild a shot even if I don’t care for hunting, gathering, crafting, and combing and open world for trivial secrets.

Breath of the Wild is gorgeous. It’s taking the best from The Wind Waker and Skyward Sword’s cel-shaded art and applying them to a massive landscape and gorgeous shrine mini-dungeons. Link himself looks great in any of the clothing and even armor sets they’ve shown off so far. Link animates with personality, clumsily stubbing his bare toes kicking open chests and shivering in the cold.

The free climbing is a welcome edition which will hopefully solve the problems of many open world games of wasting so much time traversing around a huge incline. The climbing isn’t infinite however since you do have a stamina limitation, which is nice to still ground Link, bother literally and figuratively.

Breath of the Wild has a huge selection of weapons. Usually you are limited to a basic sword, a few creative uses for items, and your Master Sword, but in Breath of the Wild you can use sticks, clubs, axes, spears, etc. This is a huge welcome change to Zelda’s combat, but it does come with a tradeoff that all weapons can easily break. While this may just translate to more unnecessary resource management, it’s a change I’m willing to deal with to play with Link using a spear, because spears are cool!

While it’s easy for me to shrug off The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as Zelda selling out to the huge demand of open world games, it is a brave new world for Zelda’s design. Honestly, I wish more Nintendo games could get a huge restructuring and modernization like Breath of the Wild. For better or worse, it’s a huge change for Zelda and Nintendo, and considering how safe, conservative, and out of touch Nintendo can be, change is good, change is needed.

---

It’s uplifting to see E3 was still at least somewhat enjoyable despite everything that was going on. E3 was a nice distraction during one of the worst weeks in recent memory. Also, I didn’t have to dread video games moving into VR or unnecessary console upgrades making games way more expensive to enjoy. I was expecting E3 to be another downer in a series of dread, but it was okay, not the biggest deal ever, but it was enough to keep me mildly entertained at a time I thought would destroy me.

…Maybe now I can… get my writing groove back. I hope so.

Accessibility vs Meritocracy

            This is an essay I feel that’s been a long time coming. I’ve written quite a few drafts over the past few years and it is something I feel so passionate about I just need to get this right. It’s a topic that comes up a few times every year that causes actual migraine-magnitude headaches when the hot takes come pouring in. I am of course talking about what is apparently one of the biggest controversies in video game culture (or at least seems that way with how people write about it), and that is… people playing videogames???

            Now that sounds like nonsense, but apparently there is at least a very loud if not large group of people in games’ culture just do not want other people playing or enjoying video games. Elitism is nothing new and nothing too surprising in video games. Games typically included both winstates and losestates and its understandable the people who take a lot of pride in winning. And I want to make it clear that is not a bad thing. Challenge is actually a really good and really important part of game design. I love a good challenge. I don’t think that challenge should be the only thing video games should strive for, but when there’s a good challenge in a good game it’s fantastic. To others though, challenge is apparently everything. They can’t get anything out of a game that doesn’t challenge them. I find that real sad and closed minded, but I guess everyone has their preferences. It’s only really a problem when the same people demand everyone else, regardless of their experience, age, physical ability, or even a desire for challenge, go through the same level of challenge as them. I just do not understand that mindset. It seems like something so selfish, so ignorant, and so mean spirited that it defies basic logic to me.

            This topic explodes these days almost every time Nintendo releases a new video game. Nintendo have continued their efforts to put what I will call “easy options” in their games, the latest of which is an invincibility mode added to Star Fox Zero. I could go on and on about all the different options Nintendo has put in their games over the years; White Tanooki Suits, Full Party Experience Share, perma-death being optional in a series widely known for said feature, multiple variations on features that more or less just skips an entire level, or the classic easy mode. We could go over all these and more and which ones are effective or which ones are bad, but no matter what there’s always some loud backlash from gamers about the features. No matter how optional, no matter how obscured and out of the way these options can be, they feel personally attacked by the mere presence of them. It’s irrational, it’s absurd, its complete bullshit that these design decisions has anything to do with them. I like these options; I think their presence is good. People who find the challenge alienating, but still enjoy the game can do simply that, enjoy the game. Enjoying the game at your own pace, at your own desired leveled of difficulty is not only fine, but the way everyone should be enjoying games. I feel Nintendo understands that. Nintendo understands that the 8-bit era of brute forcing your way through a game designed purely to resist the player is long, long gone and we can finally let people in.

            This is all not to say that games should just remove all challenge entirely. Challenge is an aspect of games enjoyed by many even if there are those who don’t or cannot enjoy it. Also challenge isn’t just the resistance a game, but can also be a very important ludic device for a game’s story. Intense difficulty can highlight a world’s feeling of oppression on the player character. I feel this playing Shin Megami Tensei where the worlds are harsh post-apocalyptic hellpaces and the game’s own resistance to the player’s progress is directly related to world and god-like beings (or well very often gods of course) resistance to your own motivation to change the world. Undertale has a very good example of this as well, but I would like to avoid spoiling it. If you have played Undertale, you may have had a bad time and are likely very familiar with how a narrative can use difficulty to its advantage. Dark Souls, Metal Gear, Deus Ex, Drakengard, a lot of games use challenge or optional challenges to the benefit of their narrative. Challenge isn’t just a ludic principle for bragging rights.

            So we’re good right? Challenge is important and not something to just be discarded with the times, but it’s not something I feel is always appropriate. Absurd difficulty is not something I feel makes sense in children’s games. Children tend to be newer to games for obvious reasons and giving them a cruel wall of difficulty right away could scare them off of the whole media right away. A lot of people don’t see that. They see only their own experience when they were young. They struggled through those impossible NES games to get where they are now in their hobby. There’s definitely a lot of gross idealism in this debate. People who feel kids need to toughen up and get over challenges to deserve their place in the hobby. It’s an old man begrudging modern advancements because when he was young he had it harder. I don’t really want to get into this debate of “tough love” vs coddling mostly because I’m not very experienced around kids, but that kind of mentality is what seems to be at the heart of this argument. In my mind, the kids who want difficulty will seek it out. I don’t see anything wrong with some kids playing Super Meat Boy and the others preferring to play Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Yet I still see some full grown adults online yelling about Star Fox including a mode for “children” or “toddlers”, its full grown adults pushing kids over on the playground and telling them how to play with their toys.

            Children are by far not the only people who gain from accessibility options. There are a ton of people who would love to enjoy games but can’t due to various disabilities. To be honest I have it pretty good. None of my physical or mental disabilities really get in the way of my enjoyment of games. I’m speaking from a position of privilege. I do understand though that others are not as well off as I am and we can do better to help close that gap in videogames. Some changes to help these people can be so minor too. Some small visual and audio fixes or optional settings could be huge for people with hearing or sight disabilities. Easy modes can be helpful for people who can’t deal with tight reaction times. Alternate or customizable button layouts could be a life saver. The list goes on. Sadly there are a lot of people who feel outright spiteful about trying to make changes for people with disabilities. It’s another extremely ablest mindset that I cannot understand whatsoever. The excuses they come up with to defend themselves are bullshit. “You can’t make a game for everyone so why bother”, that accessibility changes limit what games can do, that the suggested changes go against the author’s intentions. The excuses pile up and none of them make sense. We can come to compromises like the changes being optional if they really do effect the game’s expression for whatever reason. You can’t make a game that everyone can possibly play, but we should be trying to maximize all we can instead of not trying at all. Games’ culture can be disgustingly cynical and ablest about these things and I think that’s also something we should be working to change too.

            Still no matter how old you get and no matter how able you are to play videogames, sometimes you just don’t care for a challenge and just want to play the game. I feel that’s perfectly fine. Gaming doesn’t need to be a meritocracy. There is no shame in playing the easy mode. Off the top of my head I can easily think of reasons why. Maybe you just want to enjoy a story that you don’t feel gains anything by the resistance to the player. Maybe a certain difficulty option like perma-death really bothers your anxiety about losing characters and the game is just enjoyable without countless resets. Maybe a game is just taking too long and it would be a lot more convenient if it were easier. All of these are fine, and you should enjoy games the way you want to. No one else should be shaming you for going for an easier difficulty. The experience of a videogame is a very subjective thing. There is no “true” way to play a videogame. Not every game is for everyone, but we don’t need to limit a game’s audience as much as possible. Also, easy modes can just be a lot of fun. Back in the day there used to be cheats like “noclip” and “godmode” that were a lot of fun to play with even if they remove all the difficulty from the game. Beating a game at the highest difficulty can be a lot of fun, but it’s not the only way to enjoy that game. You aren’t “special” for beating the game on hard, you just enjoyed the game in the way you preferred, and I don’t see why others can’t respect the reverse other than letting their pride get the best of them.

            There’s just a lack of respect going on here. The gamers, particularly older gamers from eras of gaming designed with less accessible games, are stuck in the past.  They’re stuck in a past where parents were harsh, a past where the ideals of “hard work” were everything, a past where kids were sold games that were difficult to stall for time so players would feel they got their money’s worth. There’s a lot of abuse, deception, and exploitation going on here. Gamers seem dead set on making this vicious cycle continue on, even if they know it or not. Gamers are used to this harshness but twist it into pride so it’s easier to swallow. Whatever the case may be, easy options in Dark Souls, invincibility in Star Fox, an overhaul in fusion mechanics in Shin Megami Tensei with less randomness, removal of frame perfect combos in Street Fighter, or whatever there’s always this mean spirited backlash of, dare I say a conservative side of games’ culture. Sadly sometimes these backlashes work and I think games are lesser for it. Even the cynical hardcore audience loses out here. They complain about games being designed to appeal to the “casuals”, but if these “casuals” have their own separate set of accessible options, the options intended for the “hardcore” audience could be better designed to suit their needs. Instead they feel more people being able to complete or even enjoy games makes them less “special”. It’s real sad that we can’t just respect each other.

People should be able to just enjoy games, pure and simple.

[Personal Update #3]

            If you are getting sick of seeing these updates well I’m probably twice as sick as them being the only content I can make for now. So much for the bright new year.

            In short, my laptop problems are not over. Turns out a $60 used laptop is just about as worthless as that sounds. I’d be okay if all it could run is Microsoft Word, but even worse some of the keys are dead already, making writing impossible.

            I decided to do what I should have done in the first place, buy a keyboard to use on my old laptop. Sadly even something as simple as that couldn’t go smoothly. Seeing a $70 keyboard going for $15 I thought I had myself a steal, but turns out I bought a Bluetooth Keyboard and had to wait the whole holiday fortnight for the Bluetooth receiver to come in the mail. Even this isn’t that great of a solution. The keyboard disconnects constantly if I don’t touch it for 5 seconds or minutes or whatever the case is. It’s better than literally nothing I guess.

            That’s about it I suppose. I might still write some late Game of the Year blog post since those are all the rage this time of year (spoilers: Its Undertale). I have nothing else that exciting to add. I recently played Drakengard 3 and Rodea the Sky Solider (the Wii version of course). I don’t have much to say about those. I recommend Drakengard 3 to fans of the series, but those who aren’t are probably better off just sticking with NieR. Drakengard 3 isn’t that bad it’s just… very Drakengard. It did surprise me that it’s actually a straight up black comedy, a lewd as hell one even.

And for Rodea, I played only an hour so far. I’m glad I have this game… the Wii version, which is apparently supposed to be a pre-order bonus or whatever with the shitty Wii U version (it’s a port of the 3DS version). The real version of Rodea might become a rare collector’s item or something soon so I’d recommend getting that as soon as you can. Remember though look for the Wii U version that “comes with the bonus game” or else you could be wasting you money. I bought it new from Amazon and I can only assume I got lucky, but maybe people have been exaggerating. If you are a fan of Sega, Yuji Naka, the Wii, or just neat inventive 3D Action games find this game it is good.

I’m not entirely sure what is next for this blog. I have a few possible entries in mind that I’d like to at least draft out but we’ll see if the keyboard gods let me. If you are curious about what I’m playing, I just bought Chrono Cross so I’m going to be trying that. I’m also thinking about emulating some kind of RPG. I do really need to get around to Megami Tensei or Phantasy Star. I feel like I have thousands of games I want to play which is a nice feeling I haven’t felt in a while.

Anyway 2016 is here so here’s to trying.

Oh My Swirls! - Yo-Kai Watch

            If it wasn’t really clear before, I am a big fan of Pokémon. Not just Pokémon, but I really do enjoy the “rpgs for kids” subgenre of RPGs. I suppose you could say that I still have a knack to enjoy the smaller, simpler games that would’ve been playing if I were 10 today. I also really like cute monster designs so of course I latch onto games like Pokémon and Yo-kai Watch to go and collect a team of the cutest monsters to conquer the world with.

            Of course the big question when talking about Yo-Kai Watch is “Is Yo-Kai Watch going to be the next Pokémon outside of Japan?” Unfortunately a large part of that question is more of marketing question about the financial success of the game, anime, and other merchandise on a global scale. Personally, I have no expertise in these areas of business and cultural impact nor do I have much interest in these parts of the question. Ultimately, I’m mostly just interested in one thing, “If I enjoy Pokémon, will I enjoy Yo-kai Watch?”

            The short answer for that is, yes if you enjoy Pokémon you will likely enjoy a lot of what Yo-kai Watch has to offer. However, it’s not quite so simple to just say Yo-kai Watch is a serviceable Pokémon-like with more of a focus on Japanese mythology. To be honest, I wouldn’t even say Pokémon is the best comparison in my mind as Yo-kai Watch is very, very different. But yes, if you enjoy a small adventure collecting cute monsters and doing battle Yo-kai Watch has a lot to offer for you and I recommend it.

            Now we can dive into the deeper specifics of “What is Yo-kai Watch?” Yo-kai Watch is a monster collecting JRPG about discovering and befriending mysterious creatures called Yo-kai. Yo-kai are a collection of creatures and spirits from Japanese mythology, though Yo-kai Watch expands this into a lot of original creatures and concepts based on strange events and behaviors of modern life. There are the small handful based on actual creatures from Japanese mythology, but most in the game tend to be of the latter variety. Unlike its contemporaries, you aren’t exactly on a quest to save the world (or at least not initially) or to become the greatest at Yo-kai battling. You aren’t even that encouraged to “Catch ‘em All” to complete your Medallium. In Yo-kai Watch you act more as a helper to those dealing with issues caused by mischievous Yo-kai. You mostly just run around town helping people… and that’s great! It’s a nice change of pace for these kinds of games, and it only really expands into a world saving quest at the very end. The game feels more like playing through episodes of the tv show and fighting the “Monster of the Week” than a big adventure.

            The setting of Yo-kai Watch is also very, very different from most other RPGs. Yo-kai Watch almost entirely takes place all in one town. It’s actually pretty impressive how they make 5 parts of a town feel like a full game world. It isn’t something I even really noticed until I riding my bike through the entire game world in only a few minutes way after I completed the main story. There is a lot to do in your humble town, plenty of Yo-kai to discover and people to help. My only real complaint about the setting is that it is named “Springdale” despite clearly being a very Japanese town complete with its own temples and shrines.

            “Springdale” isn’t the only example of sad attempts to westernize this game based on a Japanese setting with Japanese mythology. Most the character names are changed to more western friendly names like Keita into Nate. Thankfully there are a lot of the Yo-kai themselves who keep parts of their Japanese myths in their localized names such as Kyubi, Walkappa, and the Tengu Yo-kai, but sadly there’s a number who have completely changed like Orochi became Venoct and Muramasa being pretty unceremoniously dubbed… Snee. Snee the Cursed Blade just doesn’t have the same ring to it sadly. Cheeksqueak still exists, a Yo-kai with a butt for a face in the US version so at least that’s nice. Most of the “mascot” characters kept their iconic Japanese names so Jibanyan and Komasan are here to stay. Now with any localization this brings up a lot of concerning issues, especially with games meant for children, from the erasure of foreign cultures to foreign cultures “corrupting” youths. A lot of these issues I do not feel the authority to tackle in full being I am not an expert on Japanese culture and (probably more importantly) I am not from Japan and am not Japanese. I can say from my perspective, an American playing a localized video game, that the localization is spotty at best. At least Komasan’s cowboy accent and “Oh My Swirls!” catch phrase are pretty cute.

            Speaking of cute, the monster designs are mostly very good. Not quite as iconic as a lot of the earlier Pokémon generations, but still filled with a lot of adorable designs in its own right. Considering Yo-kai are not strictly just super powered animals, they can afford to get creative with butt faces, more humanoid designs, and man-faced-dogs. My personal favorites come from the Noko line, Noko, Bloominoko, and Pandanoko. All are designs based on the Tsuchinoko a legendary snake from Japan. (Fun Fact: Dunsparce, one of my favorite Pokémon, is also based on the same creature) Also as I’ve mentioned before, I do have a soft spot for the adorable Komasan and all the other Yo-kai designs related to him. That does bring up one issue with the roster of creature designs is that in the 200+ Yo-kai there are a lot of pallet swaps and slight redsigns. This includes the before mentioned Noko family with Pandanoko just being a pallet swap of Noko to look like a panda, Komasan has a pallet swap brother Komajiro as well as a slight redesign with the Legendary Komashura. Unlike the Shiny variants in Pokémon these are completely different Yo-kai with different abilities. Even with a lot of roster filler there’s a lot of Yo-kai to choose from to befriend and battle and there’s likely some Yo-kai for everyone.

            Of course I haven’t even gone into detail about how you battle and befriend these Yo-kai which is another part where Yo-kai Watch differs a lot from Pokémon and where Yo-kai Watch honestly has more in-common with a series like Shin Megami Tensei than anything else I’ve played. In Yo-kai Watch you fight in real time battles in a 3-vs-3 format. During battle 3 of your party of 6 Yo-kai are in the front active space on a rotating wheel while your other 3 can be rotated in and out on the wheel at any time. In battle you actually do not have much direct control over your Yo-kai as they choose their own attacks and techniques to use. You the player have 5 key interactions with battle; rotating your Yo-kai party, items, selecting targets, purifying inspirited Yo-kai, and activating a Yo-kai’s Soultimate move. Rotating, targeting, and items are pretty self-explanatory if you are familiar with RPGs, though you can use food items on enemies to try and befriend them. Purifying is curing a Yo-kai of being inspirited by an enemy Yo-kai. Effects of inspiriting can include many harmful debuffs and status ailments on your Yo-kai so it is very important to rotate an inspirited Yo-kai out to purify them which also requires clearing a touchscreen micro-game. And finally you can activate a Yo-kai’s Soultimate move. Similar to purifying Soultimates are activated via a touch screen micro-game, but also require a full spirit gauge. While you don’t have as much direct control over your Yo-kai as most RPGs there’s still enough to do that keeps the game from being boring in my opinion.

            Also while an AI automated team might make the game seem real simple it’s actually pretty complicated. The Yo-kai seem pretty capable at doing the job they are designated to do by their Tribe. Tribes are like a Job or Class that each Yo-kai fills. There are 8 Yo-kai Tribes in total; Charming, which specialize in speed, Brave who specialize in physical damage, Mysterious Yo-kai are your magic attackers, Tough Yo-kai are your defensive Yo-kai or “tanks”, Heartful Yo-kai are your healers, Eerie Yo-kai are your Yo-kai who specialize in inspiriting enemy Yo-kai to afflict them with statuses or debuffs, Shady Yo-kai excel at techniques that drain enemy HP, and Slippery Yo-kai are good at dodging enemy inspirit techniques. You can mix and match these Tribes to make for a well-balanced team or you can position Yo-kai of the same Tribe adjacent to each other to give them a bonus stat boost. Teambuilding can get really complicated in Yo-kai Watch when deciding between balance and specialization in specific areas.

Honestly that’s just the tip of the iceberg in how deceivingly complex Yo-kai Watch’s teambuilding can be. You still need to factor in every Yo-kai’s physical attack, Technique, which is either an offensive spell or heal, Inspirit, which can either be a beneficial buff for your own party members or a negative debuff for enemies, and a Yo-kai’s Soultimate move which can have a variety of effects. You can even dive down deeper and factor in a Yo-kai’s Skill, a single trait that each Yo-kai has, Attitude, which governs both how much a Yo-kai will loaf around and do nothing as well as specialize their stat growth, a Yo-kai’s Rank, and every Yo-kai has their own stats to factor in and you can equip an item to your Yo-kai. I could go on, but I’d be writing for a long time and people are still discovering more depth in Yo-kai training and teambuilding.

            I suppose my main gripes about Yo-kai Watch’s combat are that I don’t find a lot of balance in the game. I barely found much use for inspiriting enemies so I barely used an Eerie Yo-kai. I don’t think I have used a single Shady Yo-kai on my journey. Tough and Heartful Yo-kai can help keep a team alive, but some of my more offensive Yo-kai could take enough punishment anyway. Healing with items is on a cooldown after use, but it usually outclasses any Yo-kai’s healing abilities. Personally I just focused on offense and inspirit buffs and tried to overwhelm the game’s bosses which worked most the time. Yo-kai Watch is very easy like one would expect and I feel that’s fine, just there’s a lot of tools I never found the use for even against the toughest fights in the game. Combat is still a lot of fun, but it could definitely use some work to help make more Yo-kai useful.

            Speaking of gripes though… let’s get to finding and befriending Yo-kai. I am going to go as far to say if you are expecting to find and befriend every single Yo-kai you are going to have a very rough time. To befriend Yo-kai in battle you must give them food. Now that sounds simple enough, but each Yo-kai has their own preferences in types of food. By my count there are 11 different types of food and tiers of effectiveness within each type. Every Yo-kai has 1 favorite type so each battle is a 1/11 guessing game for every individual Yo-kai, and you only get 1 shot per battle. This is especially a nightmare for rare Yo-kai who has an incredibly low spawn rate so wasting an encounter on guessing the wrong type of food. Sadly that’s not even the worst part. The worst is that the rarer the Yo-kai, typically the less likely they are to befriend you even if you gave them the optimal food choice. Sometimes it really does feel like even when you are doing everything right you still have a 5% chance to befriend them. There is nothing more you can do aside from having a Yo-kai who helps with befriending, but even they only help so much. Finding rare Yo-kai can be a huge pain, but the odds of success even when you find it are depressingly low. Certainly this isn’t a deal breaker if you just want to enjoy the main story and its combat, but it’s such a bummer for people who want to “Catch ‘Em All” or even just want to have their favorite that happens to be a rare. If that wasn’t enough, the final nails in that coffin is that there are a few Yo-kai who are exclusive to a Gatchapon-style machine that requires rare coins to use, Yo-kai that can only evolve with incredibly rare item drops, Yo-kai locked behind quests that require incredibly rare item drops, Yo-kai locked behind quests locked behind the other rare item drop quests that ALSO requires its own rare item drop, Legendary Yo-kai that are locked behind a list of required Yo-kai to obtain before you can summon them which… yes requires a lot of the former mentioned examples, and for me the worst is Pandanoko, the sole Yo-kai locked behind the Streetpass feature.

            Yo-kai Watch is definitely one of my favorite games I’ve played this year. It’s not quite a world changer like some other releases this year, but it’s still a very good game and I highly recommend it. It’s got a lot of glaring issues, but it is a really solid first in this series. I mean if you compare it to how Pokémon Red and Blue measure up in their own respective series you’ll find a lot of glaring major issues, but still a very solid foundation. Of course Yo-kai Watch 2 already exists. I personally don’t know much about how it improves on what Yo-kai Watch 1 started but I’m definitely excited to try it if they bring it over. After all, it’s clear how much I love Pokémon’s 2^nd attempt so Yo-kai Watch 2 could win me over in big way. Still, Yo-kai Watch has satisfied me enough. I love this game and I’m glad that it’s a game that kids really seem to love in Japan. It’s a new game, their game. We can bring up all the Pokémon comparisons we want, but it’s a new game for a new generation of children. I’m glad they have this game and series to fill their hearts with joy. I do really hope kids worldwide will enjoy it too. It makes me think about how much I loved growing up with Pokémon in my life. I do feel like a game like Yo-kai Watch, if not one of its sequels, has the potential to bring that kind of feeling to a new generation of children, and I care about that a lot more than the game’s success on the worldwide market, or even how I and other adults feel about the game.

[Personal Update #2]

            I apologize if 2 Personal Updates in a row are a bit much but I promise to keep this brief. The next entry in Girl Sideward is almost complete and should be up soon though sadly a bit late.  Sadly what’s been keeping me from working on my blog has been some technical issues.  My laptop that I’ve had since middle school unfortunately stopped working. It has been falling apart for quite some time now and they keyboard stopped working. I am able to still use it borrowing a USB keyboard, but at this point it just made more sense to buy a replacement. I don’t have a lot of money, so the replacement that has just came in the other day is a bit rough. It’s an old Windows XP era Dell but still works. Its real slow but it runs a web browser and actually came with Microsoft Office already installed which saves me the trouble of …uhh “acquiring” it. I’m not going to be able to play any games on here, but I can at least write and check my Twitter which is all I really need. Maybe if it’s not too much for my laptop I could get to some older games I’ve been meaning to play via emulation. I just found out the original Megami Tensei has a fan translation and I’ve been on a monster collecting kick lately. I’ve also been interested in trying Phantasy Star among some other classics from that era that aren’t… well Square SNES games.

            Anyway, I said I’d keep this brief. I have a REALLY late Yo-kai Watch review finished and should be up soon. I pretty much just need to get it off my external hard drive (which I happened to really need as soon as Cyber Monday came around) and add some finishing touches. It’s not great and pretty late, but might be helpful if you are considering picking up a portable game for your holiday trip or a 3DS game to wrap up for a present (spoilers I liked it). This has been quite an obnoxious and expensive few weeks but I hope to get back and more serious about writing more than ever after the New Year comes around. I guess you could say it’s a New Year’s Resolution.