ElkinFencer10 wrote:I'm playing Octopath Traveler which, according to the internet, is the most sexist game ever made.
There was one activist "journalist" that wrote something about it, and a few, lets say, 'ideologically possessed' people that may have parroted those sentiments.
But no one rational among JRPG fans or gaming community at large would ever say that, especially about a pixelated throwback game with barely anything inherently controversial.
Then again 'isms' get thrown at games of any kind these days regardless of rationale and context so is hardly surprising that Octopath Traveler got hit with some mud.
Anyway, I took a break from Shenmue these last few days, to start Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu!
I had fully maxed out both starter Pikachu and Mew so I had no Pokemon to carry with me on my walks anymore.
As such, for most of the game I've been one-shotting all the things with Pay Day for the money advantage. It wasn't until the late 20's early 30's that some Rock Pokemon would survive one and is not until the early 40's that non Rock or Steel Pokemon could occasionally take more than one to bring down. A Golem I just fought around the Seafoam Islands took four, he holds the record so far.
That made a very easy game even easier, but I think it actually made the game better overall.
You see some of the changes they added, especially when it comes to 'quality of life' adjustments were generally welcome and probably long overdue for the series. But spam catching Pokemon for level-ups was probably the worst addition to the game, and being forced to do it with the inaccurate motion controls only makes matter worse.
For me, because I didn't need to spam grind anything because I already have the two Poke's that are probably capable of taking down the Elite Four together (if I actually use a move other than Pay Day) the game flows better, since I only catch Pokemon I see and don't have in my Pokedex yet, rather than spamming 50 Rattata's back to back for an experience bonus.
I've been sticking to a schedule of two Gym Badges a day so far, and I got the last two left for today, I'll probably sneak in some Elite Four and post game action by the end of the day if I can, but I will be returning to Shenmue starting tomorrow, since completing this game entails a number of things, including trading with the other version of the game, and most importantly an
extreme grind of almost every single Pokemon in the game for the Master Trainers they thought it be a good idea to add.
. It brings back a lot of memories of older, hard but flawed platformers on the NES and SNES. A lot of really relentless enemy barrages with limited ways to hit them (ala Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania on NES) as well as some leaps of faith to platforms you couldn't possibly see (like a Super Star Wars or something like that on SNES). Some of the bosses have been great, but a lot of them have also been SERIOUS bullshit, and the same goes for the platforming, which ranges from fluid and fun to absurdly hard pixel-perfect jumps. It captures a good deal of those old games' design, but the horrible pixel-perfect jumps really take the cake on top of an older design that I've never really cared for. It's a very pretty game, but it's just so often an unfun level of difficult that boarders on unfair that I've many times contemplated on just setting it down and giving up. I'm so close to the end though that I figure I may as well push on through this final boss (and escape scene afterwards, probably).
