Tag: Nintendo Switch

Thursday Media Review: Pokemon Legends Arceus

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: The following review contains spoilers to the game, so do not read if you do not wish to be spoiled

Pokemon’s one of the most significant IPs out there, and ya boy’s here have reviewed Pokemon Sword and Shield, and did play Brilliant Diamond/Stunning Pearl (will write a review of that game soon). However, one of the most anticipated titles released for this year since its announcement. Released on January 28th of this year on the Nintendo Switch, Pokemon Legends Arceus is a game that many said has made some very anticipated changes for the franchise for good and maybe helped out the somewhat lackluster Sword and Shield series. Does it stand up to the game? Well, here’s my review of Pokemon Legends: Arceus.

Story Summary and Gameplay

PL: Arceus starts with your main character being teleported into the past by the pokemon Arceus, the god of the Pokemon world. He only tasks you with one goal: “Seek out all the pokemon” and teleports you to Hisui, which is Ancient Sinnoh. You meet Professor Lavanton, and after a brief tutorial of the game, you are whisked with him to Jubilief Village and the headquarters of the Galaxy Team. There, you are introduced to your supervisors, Cylene and Commander Kamado, and your rival and fellow corp member Rei/Akari (determined by your character’s gender selected.) Laventon tasks you with compiling the Pokedex of the Hisui Region, all while solving the mysteries of Hisui. Meanwhile, you’re aiding the native Diamond and Pearl clans with the sudden frenzy of their Noble Pokemon. Eventually, more of the world is revealed, and you learn of the mystery of how you were brought here, to begin with, and a final battle with the one who brought you to this ancient land in the first place.

Gameplay-wise, PL: A carries some of the typical pokemon gameplay mechanics of fighting, but you now have some very different things that deviate from the normalcy of the older pokemon games. Pokemon are no longer found in the tall grass and can be found wandering the world, for starters. They can either have three kinds of behaviors: They can be indifferent/friendly toward you, flee from you upon seeing you, or outright attack you if they spot you. Another new thing is that you don’t need to capture Pokemon through battling but indirectly. If you’re sneaky enough, you could launch a Pokeball at an unsuspecting pokemon and catch it without fighting it. Your chance of catching it increases if you use items to stun or distract them.

With aggressive Pokemon, you’ll either need to be more creative or go the old-fashioned way. The aggressive Pokemon can hurt you unless you use your Pokemon or dodge the attack. The screen will darken then go red before you are knocked out and rushed back to the next camp (and lose your items.)

As you progress through the main story, you’ll meet the Noble Pokemon; Pokemon worshipped by the Diamond and Pearl clans as avatars of Almighty Sinnoh. Some Nobles like Wyrdeer, Ursaluna, Basculegion, Sneasler, and Braviary will help you on the journey by lending their strength to traverse the lands faster, fly over it, cross waters and even scale mountains.

Others such as Kleaver and Arcanine need to be quelled due to the effects of that mysterious frenzy. Unlike most old battles where you must fight the Pokemon, Noble Battles behave like some action RPGs where you must reduce their bar to zero, throwing balms at them. Sometimes, if the opportunity arises, you can have your pokemon duke it out with the noble and, by KOing them, doubles the balm’s effectiveness for a short time. Also, should you fall to a Noble, you are given a chance to continue the fight where you left off without resetting the fight.

As your Pokemon gets stronger, they will be able to master some of their moves by leveling or using an item called a Seed of Mastery. Mastery allows you to use actions in either Agile or Strong forms. These forms have their pros and cons.

For example, an Agile move can have a chance of making your pokemon move faster or attack again on the same turn but with weaker damage.

Meanwhile, a Stronger move will be more damaging and accurate but may make your PokemonPokemon slower and vulnerable to an extra attack.

Lastly, when you capture a pokemon in PL: A, you need to fill out the Pokedex more than catch the Pokemon, and that’s it. When you capture them, you need to gather more data on them until it’s completed, like how many of that Pokemon you caught or evolved, where or when you caught them, or if they were doing an action like flying or if they were unaware of you when you caught them.

Legendary Greatness: What made PL: A good?

Pokemon Legends Arceus has some pretty fun aspects of the game. One of them is the open map exploration of the five areas: Obsidian fieldlands, Crimson Mirelands, Cobalt Coastlines, Alabastor Icelands, and Coronet Highlands. Each region has its biomes, environments, and Pokemon found in those environments. It also gives the backstory of what would be ancient Sinnoh.
Another liked is the capture mechanic system. Instead of battling Pokemon, you can catch them unaware and skip the whole thing. Great for catching some strong pokemon without risking harm to your team.

Another liked is the capture mechanic system. Instead of battling Pokemon, you can catch them unaware and skip the whole thing. Great for catching some strong pokemon without risking harm to your team.
Another is the crafting in the game. I didn’t mention this, but in PL: A, you can craft supplies for your inventory. Gathering resources like Apricorns and Oran Berries in the wild, you can prepare them into Poke Balls and potions for your journeys. Crafting is great for saving money on other items or new clothes for your character.

Lastly, you can get ALL The Pokemon. No more split versions in PL: A; you can catch them all without relying on trading or gimmicks that make it very difficult, like in the past. Want a Machoke to a Machamp? Just get a Linking Chord and evolve it! Want Scyther to a Scizor? Just use Metal Coat on it.

Forgotten in the Past: What the game lacks

Though PL: A is excellent, some problems annoyed me or need improvement in these categories.
One such issue is that though the game is excellent, there isn’t much outside of completing the dex or the story. Sure after you finished the Hisui Dex, saved the Hisui region, and such, there isn’t much of anything like trainer battles. You do get some rematch fights in Jubileaf Village and the occasional run-ins with the Miss Fortune trio of bandits and maybe rematches with the Noble Pokemon. Still, beyond it, nothing much once most of the series is complete.
Another problem that can be a bit of an annoyance is some of the new pokemon evolutions. Some Pokemon, like Kleavor, require one item to evolve them, and most trade-equipment items needed for trade evolution were made so simple that they made the game enjoyable. However, some evolutions like Wyrdeer and Overqil require some more unique evolutions, such as using their signature moves being used in combat several times until they’re ready to evolve. Also, my favorite Pokemon, Ursaluna, requires the use of a Peat Block but sadly must be done on a full moon night in-game. That can be frustrating indeed.
Lastly, the issue comes to recovering your items lost if you blackout. If you recall, I said you lose your items if you blackout, but it can be reacquired through a Lost and Found side-mission where you explore the map and retrieve lost sachels left by NPCs or by other players if linked to the internet. Sadly this is the ONLY way to get your lost items back, and you can’t seek them out on your outside if you lose them. Thus you have to rely on the online aspect to retrieve your stuff.

Secrets of the past

Before I go to my conclusion, here are some secrets for those who want to get Pokemon Legends Arceus (info from Serebii.net)
If you have to save Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee data, you’ll access free Pikachu and Eevee Masks.
Suppose you have Save Data of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Stunning Pearl. In that case, you get a double feature: You’ll get access to the Team Galactic outfit (the modern version) and access to a special Request mission that lets you capture Darkrai.
Pokemon Sword and Shield save data do the same but give you access to the pokemon Shaymin and give you a Shaymin.
Though Shaymin and Darkrai do not go toward the Hisui Pokedex requirements, they’re pretty good to have them.

Should you Get it?

As a Pokemon fan, I’d endorse getting Pokemon Legends Arceus if you’re a fan of the franchise. The game’s a big breath of fresh air for a franchise that needs one. Open exploration with creative methods of capturing and battling while taking place in an old region of the past. New forms and evolutions of old Pokemon?

All it’s missing is you setting up a Pokemon league. Though there are whispers and rumors of some kind of DLC, there’s no confirmation of its validity. But hey, a guy can dream can’t they?

References

Monster Hunter Rise Armor Review: Gathering Sets

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Happy Thursday everyone, it’s ya Boy Choujin here. Today we’re going to be doing a change of pace with our usual broadcast to bring you a special: Armor reviews for Monster Hunter Rise. Some may be either found online, submitted by people playing the game or even those ya boy cooked up in the Bird’s Nest research labs (eat your heart out Honeydew!)

The first thing in the core of monster hunting has you doing besides just killing monsters is gathering resources like Minerals and plants. Sure you can go into your hunting gear and gather the sources but you may not be gathering as much as you can bring back during an expedition. What if I told you ya boy has an armor set that’s easy enough for you to make and can help gather as much rocks and plants to help you out on your future hunts?  It’s also pretty easy to build and focuses on two aspects you need: Geology and Botany. With that, let’s get our first review of ya boy’s first armor submission.


The first set is a default set uses the following

Chainmail Headgear (Botany 1, Defense Boost 1)
Melahoa Jacket (Botany 1, Recovery Up 1)
Chainmail gloves (Botany 1)
Melahoa Folia (Botany 1, Recovery Speed 1)
Leather Pants (Geologist 1)
any petalace
Breeze Talisman (Geologist lvl 2 )

The set is pretty easy to make and isn’t limited to any weapon. The Chainmail Headgear, Gloves and Leather Pants can be made with common low rank materials you can find like Iron Ore and Leather. The Melahoa pieces do require some items exclusively found in the Argosy trading hub in the Buddy area of the village. However, these sets will make gathering armor much easier through your low rank and some high rank areas as you’ll be able to harvest more things like ore, mushrooms, bones and herbs in one go.

Later on, once you unlock High Rank hunting, you’ll gain access to a high rank materials and thus you’ll gain stronger materials and some harder areas.  Here’s a High Rank variant that’ll help you out should you need it:

Chainmail Headgear S (Botany 1, Defense Boost 1)
Leather Vest S (Botany 1)
Chainmail Gloves S (Botany 1, Defense Boost 2)
Chainmail Belt S (Botany 1, Guard 1)
Leather Pants S (Geologist 1)
any Petalace
Breeze Talisman (Geologist lvl 2)

The armor here does have some protection and flexibility when it comes to the high rank perk should you gain some decorations to add some unique traits to help you out or implement more viable ways to cover the armor. Also, there are better substitutes that can fit the set such as replacing the Leather Vest S with a Rathian Mail S as it provides a Recovery Boost alongside Botany. This makes the high rank set a bit more sought after and with some guard bonuses can allow some monster hunting (though not against more dangerous foes).

Gathering Sets (Low and High Rank)

Pros:

  • Both Armors can be made easily and with materials early into the game
  • Allows more resource gathering from plant and ore nodes, thus making basic resources easier to find and saves money on needing to buy bowgun ammo or potions.
  • High Rank Gathering set can uses sockets to add more survival and versatility for more specific needs.

Cons:

  • Both not really fit with hunting monsters (Low Rank especially)
  • Low Rank Melahoa parts will require Argosy to gather
  • Requires a lvl 2 Geology talisman to gain the lvl 3 requirement from Leather Pants
  • Low Rank set is outshined by later High Rank set.



Does ya boy recommend them?

I’d say yes, though replace the low rank with high rank once you got the chance. Otherwise, the set’s a good way of getting more from the land than usual.

Do you like this set? Have your own set you want to share or a fun set found online? Then post on the comment section and you might see it be reviewed in the next Armor Review. Until then, you have a good one.

(Late) Thursday Media Review: Monster Hunter Rise

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: The following review may contain spoilers to the game.







Monster Hunter, I’ve really gotten interested in since my first introduction with Monster Hunter Tri on the Nintendo Wii and the more recent Monster Hunter World and Iceborn. Though one game is released on the Nintendo Switch. Launched on March 26th of this year, Monster Hunter Rise is one game that everyone has been waiting for for a while. Does this game put a big expectation that World left? We’ll let’s do our review.

Story+Gamepay

The Story of Monster Hunter Rise has you being a recently graduated hunter sent to the village of Kamura. The town is being plagued with an event known as The Rampage, and even that transpires throughout the event. You are tasked with aiding the village in protecting them from this calamity while solving the mystery of the Rampage source.

Monster Hunter Rise’s gameplay has you using Kamura Village as your central hub for various things like crafting/upgrading your armor, buying/crafting tools, accessing special features like the Training room or the Argosy Trading post, and of course, accepting missions. Missions are the bread and butter of Monster Hunter Rise as they provide you resources and currency needed to progress your character. They can range from gathering quests to your typical slaying quests, and a lot are straightforward enough to learn. Complete the task without dying three times, running out of time, or failing a specific objective like letting the gate fall in a rampage.

Speaking of Rampages, the newest mode in Rise is Rampage missions. Unlike the usual missions here, Rampages are a tower defense mission in which you must protect the main gate of Kamura village from being busted down by invading monsters. You’re given various arsenals from ballistas, cannons, bombs, and even Gatling guns to repel the wave-like horde. Some missions may have you fighting a powerful leader called an Apex Monster, ridiculously stronger than any other leader or monster.

When you complete any quest, you’re given the reward of money and Kamura Points. You also gain resources like monsters such as claws, fangs, even oddities like mud, or even gems off the monsters. Those parts alongside the money rewards you acquire are vital for crafting the armor and weapons needed to help you move through. When it comes to weapons, you got a whopping fourteen weapons in Monster Hunter. The heavy-hitting Greatsword, the head-smacking Hammer, the long-ranged bowguns, the odd Hunting Horn and the speedy Dual Blades and Longsword. You have various weapons to hack, slash, shoot, impale, explode, vault, and crash.

But wait, there’s more to your tools and traps. Rise introduces you to two new things. The first is the Wirebug, a weapon that replaces the launcher and clutch claw from World. The Wirebug allows you to briefly fly into the air, sticks to walls, even can be used to hang in midair and swing about. Best of all, it can be used offensively with your weapons to unleash an excellent trait called Wyvern Riding. This allows you to mount a monster and control it like a puppet. It can help turn an unwelcome party crasher into a helpful weapon against your target or just to humorously smash its face into walls. The second is a new companion called the Palamute. This Dog-like companion is a partner for your hunter while going solo. Alongside your default cat-like Palico, the Palamute can serve as an offensive ally but also as a trusty steed to help you traverse the map fast to hunt monsters.

Between your new toys, you also have to deal with a menagerie of monsters out there. Some are saurian like the whip-tailed Great Izuchi, while others are odd, like the mud brushing Almurdon or ice slashing Goss Harag. However, nothing tops the series’s flagship, the ghostly but dangerous Magnamalo and its hellish powers that’ll put you to the test. You best bring your A-Game to the field because this monster will make the hunter the hunted. Whether it be in the abandoned Shrine Forests, the Sandy Plains, the Frozen Islands, or even in the volcanic caverns, it’s a battle between colossal monsters.

Hunting Prowess: What makes the game great

Rise brings plenty to the table. One such example is the Quality of Life features brought over from World. The barrier removal of allowing ranged weapons and melee weapons to one armor set over needing separate sets to function makes not needing two different sets for the job of hunting. Another feature is the ability to track monsters across the map. Older games had to require you to use a paintball to track your target and have skills that require you to know when it was about to die. Now you don’t need those skills to see where the monster is anytime, anywhere. The game is pretty stunning, and that’s thanks to the RE engine that runs the game. Thus, the game doesn’t need loading zones for each instanced area on the map as everything is seamless. The environments are also exciting places that make exploring, hunting, and gathering oh so impressive. The Forest Shrine and Flooded Forest give you a mix of two types of jungle vibes, with the Forest Shrine giving you an abandoned village motif and the forest a jungle ruin to explore. Other spaces like the Frozen Isles and Volcanic Caverns give you a very hostile environment to hunt and such. The hub of Kamura Village has a very Japanese vibe to the series that makes it a very good ascetic feeling throughout the game. The last personal favorite is the monsters, the bread, and butter of the franchise. Rise has the new monsters in the series, but you also have some returning favorites. Some like World’s Pukei-Pukei and Anjanath make their recent return in Rise. While fan favorites like the Mizutsune, Zinogre, Nargacuga, and Rajang also enter the roster of the series to test your prowess in hunting.

Quest Failed: What the game lacks.

Though Rise has some good parts, there’s plenty of lacking features in the game that you don’t see and are neglected. One such feature is that though some features do make a return from World, not all of them make a return. No more are the days of capturing endemic life to decorate your home are there, which I missed so well. Another problem is that most of the single-player story ends a bit early and doesn’t continue like World. Once you complete one part of the story in the village, the rest is continued in the Hub quest, which can confuse some folk upon completing the missions. One problem is that though some monsters have made it into the game, not all of them have, and it leaves some confusing parts. Examples are that though the Jagras, Zamites, and Jaggi lines are in, their larger counterparts did not. Not only that, but compared to the last Switch Monster Hunter game, the pool is lacking compared to each game and even compared to World. It’s a darn shame that the monster pools are minimal, but no subspecies are in the game. However, we may see it later on with the DLC.

Hunting Report

If a veteran or a beginner to the franchise, Rise is a good jumping point to get yourself into the game. With many improvements compared to World and its predecessors, Monster Hunter Rise is one such game that you will enjoy immensely by yourself or with allies online. Just remember that in life, there are monsters, and there are Monster Hunters.

References

The Following sources used

Friday(Thursday)Media Review: Animal Crossing New Horizon

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: This review may contain spoilers to the game. If you do not want to be spoiled and want to be surprised, don’t read.

Heya, it’s ya boy, Choujin here.

I recalled my last media review, we talked about the Animal Crossing movie that I wanted to do a review of the newest animal Crossing game. For those who might not have been paying attention, the Nintendo Switch had one game released on March 20th. It’s a hugely anticipated game that people were waiting for a very long time. So enough with the banter and long-winded chat, and let’s get started with the review of Animal Crossing New Horizon.

Summary of the Series and Gameplay

Animal Crossing, in general, is basically a soft life simulator game where you move into a village of animals where you explore, collect furniture, do jobs, catching bugs and fish, digging up treasure, make friends with your virtual animal neighbors (or with other players or friends) as well as participate in holiday events. Though animal crossing is known for not its story, things changed in New Leaf, where you become the mayor of your town and can build items called Public Works Projects.

In Animal Crossing New Horizon (like all animal crossing games), you play as a villager. However, in this game, you are part of Nook Inc’s Deserted Island Package. You and two other villagers (in my playthrough I started out with Reneigh the horse and Poncho the Bear) are greeted by Tom Nook. You are then given the first task in setting up your tent (and helping out your first two people with their shelter) as then you’re tasked with gathering items and food to celebrate your first day on the island. You get to name your island at this moment, too (for me, I called my island Astera), and you’re on your way of island life.

Though throughout your game, as the first player (known as the Island Representative by Tom Nook), you are tasked to improve the island. Such tasks include having stores opened (both The Nooklings and Abel Sisters), getting the Museum, encouraging villagers to move into your town and planting plots for their houses, and finally building up your town’s rating in order to attract K.K. Slider to your town for a performance.

Though throughout your everyday life, the game encourages you with a cool feature called DIY (Do It Yourself), which at the beginning of the game lets you build furniture and, in some parts of the story, things like your first bridge and plots for new neighbors. Of course, it’s also used to craft yourself tools like shovels, bug nets, fishing rods, and slingshots. Best of all, the DIY system requires you to gather resources. Some resources are made from stuff like twigs, rocks, iron ore, wood, and even odd things like Easter eggs and peach petals.

Oh, and if you need more resources, your town’s airport, known as Dodo Airlines, will take you to other islands to gather resources. All it costs you is Nook Miles, a currency you get through doing daily activities like catching fish or talking to neighbors. Sometimes, you may get random events besides holidays. Some days you may get visited by C.J. the Beaver or Flick the Chameleon (both buy fish and bugs at higher prices as well as hosting tournaments), Saharah the camel who sells wallpaper and carpets for your house, and others like Kicks the Skunk or Label who sell you rare clothing.
Animal Crossing doesn’t have any limitations save for what your mind can do and how far you can do with your island.

Island Paradise: What makes New Horizons great to me?

New Horizon brings several different things to the table than previous expansions. One such unique feature is the whole early part of the game. While the first Animal Crossing games had you move into a village and New Leaf lets you become the mayor of your town. New Horizon has a plot where you have Tom Nook setting up a deserted island into a thriving Island town or city. The satisfaction of watching your town start from just tents to houses and seeing it develop gives you a sense of pride.

Another thing I like is the DIY system. The ability to craft your own furniture does shopping for furniture a bit easier. Why waste money when you can make your own bed? Acquiring the recipes are also pretty fun too, as you can find them from your neighbors, the Nookling store, bottles that wash up, and even from balloons. Each is pretty unique and cute to boot. This makes decorating your house pretty fun.

Finally, what makes the game good is from what is described as they incorporated the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. This means that summer happens during Christmas if you register your island as being Southern Hemisphere. Something that I never thought would be implemented in Animal Crossing. One factor is that they also incorporate the Welcome Amiibo feature from New Leaf. Later in the game, once you have built the campsite, you can recruit villagers through the use of old AC Amiibo cards. This can make getting favorite villagers much, much easier. Though as the game has some feats I like, there are some parts I felt are lacking.

Island Issues: what the game needs improvement.

One glaring issue I find annoying is tool durability. As I mentioned before, the DIY system lets you build tools, and sadly the tools break over time. Flimsy items break the quickest while the iron (and unfortunately gold) break the slowest. This can become a pain in the butt if you’re trying to use them and suddenly having them shatter after a few uses. You either have to make multiple items in case one break (which means that it takes up space). Another issue I felt was the story takes a pretty slow pace. As much as I know, Animal Crossing is more of a journey than a destination, it can become a bit of a slog when the game takes its fat time. I felt annoyed when Blathers arrived, and I had to wait the next day just to get the Museum, and one factor was when I had 3 neighbors move in, I had to wait 3 full days just for all three of them to move in (they moved in one at a time) so it felt inconvenienced for my goal to play the waiting game.

Especially when you learn that it takes one month (without changing your switch’s internal clock) for the Nookling shop to open. One issue I may have is the neighbors. Sure, they greatly improved on the neighbors’ design and have them do some interesting things like having them sing and having sheep villagers finally wear shirts instead of scarves, but the problem is their personalities. Though each character is an individual, they still have the same default personality categories (e.g., snooty, grumpy, lazy, etc.), which means that some villagers (example Ketchup and Flora) will share the same mannerisms and words despite being different. It can be frustrating to notice that, and it doesn’t help that some of the Amiibo Villagers aren’t in the game (these were exclusive villagers that came from non-AC amiibos such as Epona from Zelda amiibos and Felyne from the Monster Hunter Stories Amiibos.) It feels a bit annoying I can’t have those characters as I had good memories of them from New Leaf.

Lastly, though, the game’s big feat is the multiplayer, as you can have up to eight players. The problem is that whenever someone arrives or leaves, everything is paused, and you have to go through a bit of a cutscene. Not a problem if you got one or two people visiting, but when you got more..it can be SOOOO annoying when hosting things as simple as Turnip trading or just get-togethers. I’m sure you’re going to ask me, “But Choujin, what about the One Island per switch thing.” I didn’t put that on the list as I don’t need another island, and one island is enough for me to enjoy. However, I do feel for those who share the same game and the same house with family but are fearful of being locked out.

Should you go across the New Horizon?

In short, the game is a pretty fun game to play and something you can pick up for a few hours a day to check up on your villagers and build your island to the ground up with only your imagination. Would I suggest New Horizon for anyone? If you’re an Animal Crossing fan, yes! If this is your first foray into the Animal Crossing franchise, I’d go for it too and start off. It’s a perfect game for anybody who is following shelter in place orders and beyond that. What makes it also enjoyable is that there’s going to be future DLC and events that’ll make the game last longer for those who bought it on release day.

References