Something that I noticed as being common sentiment amongst a few burgeoning adults whom I follow for their work is the idea that children of the culture and modern day will be and are unable to understand aspects of the past. Claiming that the idea of modern conveniences such as smartphones, the internet, and various services will be so ubiquitous with everyday life that they will be incapable of understanding an earlier era in human history. It is a notion that has always annoyed me, as it runs contrary to my experience as a young child, where I was able to understand the idea of a world without things like washing machines, electricity, and grocery stores from an early age. It was not a full understanding, but I was able to imagine what that was like and gained some understanding. I mean, if there is one thing about children that you should not underestimate, it’s their imaginations.
So, this week brought forth very little to talk about, so forgive me if there are a lot of stretches here. Starting off, I want to talk about Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee. Now, I have not been the most positive towards this game, and I want to begin by emphasizing how much I want to be head over heels for this game, and how much the idea of a kanto remake does have a lot of merit to it due to the evolution the series has undergone over the years. As the first HD “console” title from Game Freak, I think it makes a lot of sense too, and I do not even mind the generation 1 “pandering”, mostly because I just view it as smart from a business standpoint.
However, the more I see of the game and the more neat and interesting things it does, the more I think this game will wind up with a very mixed reception amongst the people who play most mainline Pokemon titles. The game is doing a lot right with regards to its general presentation and intractability, yet I still worry about the concessions the gameplay will need to undergo and the way it is being geared towards being a very accessible and open experience, in a bad way. The kind that negatively impacts the game for some and prevents others from playing this game in general what with the forced Joy-Con controls, which is kind of missing the whole bloody point of accessibility. I will be shocked if I do not hear about a disabled child who is unable to play this game due to its control scheme, despite being a fan of the series on previous systems.
Speaking of Pokemon, new details on the upcoming (at least for Japan) Yo-Kai Watch 4 were revealed, and while I do not really enjoy the gameplay of the series or a lot of the art direction found in the earlier titles, it is too easy to compare and contrast what these two titles are doing for their first Switch iteration. With a camera shift to a behind the back perspective, a notably more fleshed out looking world, and a core gameplay loop that revolves around traversing between three worlds all with differing Yo-Kai designs between the classic, which I always found to be a bland looking, and new ones that look weirder and edgier, almost entering the aesthetic of Digimon actually. As a reminder, the game is a Switch exclusive, and it will hopefully get an English release eventually. Though, seeing as how 3 is not even out yet, it could be a while.
Anything else… Well, there was a new Atelier game announced for the west, along with some remasters of older titles, but I have yet to play any game in the annualized crafting based RPG series , so I cannot really way much about it. Yeah… See ya next time!