>play game >read a bunch of reviews >more complaints than compliments How was this a step up?
The entire game feels like padding without trying to hide it. Star ranks feel like arbitrary goals to increase the total gametime and there are very few battles during the main storyto break up the monotony of filling out your dex.
The bosses are laughably easy as well. I understand this is a game for kids, but I think they went a bit too far. It's especially bad that using your mons to battle most things (when given the optino not to) is much slower than just continuing to throw balms.
The whole main gameplay loop feels extremely reminscient of PGO which, although appealing to a general audience, is a disservice to the franchise. PGO already had weird vibes when you start to realize you need to catch tens or hundreds of the same mon with very bonding aspects with your Pokemon.
The de-emphasis on strategic combat is also a disservice to the core games. I understand most Pokemon players as casual, but non-attacking moves (yes I know there are non-attacking moves in PLA, but they're pushed far more than not) provide a puzzle-solving aspect to players who DO want a challenge of some kind. You can purposefully underlevel your team or put some other restriction on yourself and rely on less orthodox strategies to do well.
Like PLA does some things well, but in all it feels like less of a "Pokemon game" and more homogenized in nature.
I really hope Game Freak doesn't take this game as a signal to make every future game a copy of this and instead goes back to a more traditional formula with the strong elements (quick capture, snappy battles, some more action-y content) included.
While writing this, I had the "brilliant" idea of having the next mainline game having multiple gameplay modes for progression. Players can choose to focus on catching (do research tasks) to gain exp and progress while avoiding trainers or focus on battling (fight trainers as they travel) and capture as they see fit. Both modes would have soft requirements in either category (gym badges even if you're focusing on research and occassional dex checks for the battlers) to at least incentivize people to not just go one way or another
Owen Ross
I’m sure all these threads are bait. No way can anyone be this autistic.. surely?
Landon Rogers
>The de-emphasis on strategic combat t. didn't play it
Dylan Phillips
>reductionist argument made by a fan of a game that has a 3 hour tutorial You're way past the kakuna fights while you're still stuck eating mochi for the 10th time in the intro.
Aiden Butler
>“click A to win” And in PLA wins you spam A to get past the cutscenes
Jeremiah Lopez
>reductionist please explain to me what gameplay is here other than clicking flame wheel 2-3 times
It literally de-emphasizes it. Move pools cut, stat boosts homogenized, switching de-emphasized, lack of abilities/items to give mons more unique roles...
The only thing PLA adds is initiative for battles (getting a free strike on wild mons) and the strong/agile system which ironically removes the interesting aspect of dealing with speed in the mainline titles.
Juan Morgan
If your argument is going to be showing me an overlevel'd starter mon, I will claim that Arceus is just as grindy by virtue of needing to catch X of N mons. Because you're ignoring the nuance of exploring other strategies or ideas in the same way I'm blatantly ignoring the other types of research tasks.
Michael Martin
>OP brings up well thought out points without shitting on everything and even brings up good aspects of the game >PLA shitters can't handle nuance so they get upset you're making a real bad case for yourselves
Austin Gonzalez
>it feels like less of a "Pokemon game" my favorite argument ever, as if anyone but the devs were in a position to determine what is and isn't a pokemon game
Hunter Jones
>grindy by virtue of needing to catch X of N mons play the game before criticizing it
Tyler Ward
Yes, we must always defer to the devs and not act like we have any agency in how we interpet their work, retard
Matthew Powell
>didn't read the second sentence Are you really this retarded?
Ayden Miller
user, don't you get it? it's not a pokemon game unless there are dozens of pointless piss easy filler trainers to battle, has random encounters, and copies kanto's formula for the 9th time
Robert Butler
PLA fans don't like pokemon
Carson Martin
>didn't read my previous post Are you really this retarded? Still waiting for you to explain what gameplay is there other than clicking Flame Wheel 2-3 times btw.
PLA fans don't like low quality games, I agree
Isaiah Reyes
>has to get the starter into it's 30s to beat whitney these are the same niggas that complain about johto level curves
Cooper Martin
>agency Careful with that word, nugenners like to pretend it doesn't exist.
Jeremiah Clark
PLA fans just press ZR + A and hold forward btw
Camden Flores
>The bosses are laughably easy as well. Not that they're particularly difficult, but embalming Arcanine is more difficult than any mainline Pokémon gym or champion by a factor of 20. I've had more Pokémon faint in this game from fighting and trying to capture alphas than all other games combined. And where are you seeing all these negative reviews? Most people I've seen praise the game, many even say it's the best Pokémon game in the past 10 years or the best Pokémon game ever. How is it similar to PoGo other than you catch a lot of Pokémon? PLA is literally SwSh Wild Area but Done Well: The Game. The game is just more like other JRPGs now, with sneaking up on enemies and combat that lets one attack more than once at a time.
Nathaniel Campbell
If you didn't like any previous game then why were you on the board to begin with
Evan Hughes
no, because if you do that then the bosses will kill you.
Grayson Barnes
>yawnfag
Parker Gray
>doesn’t dodge Get wrecked by aggressive Pokémon bro
Nicholas Carter
I'm reading the reviews. They're all littered with criticisms more than compliments. They often sidestep the lack of quality or missing features as "Well, it's a good direction!"
>Not that they're particularly difficult, but embalming Arcanine is more difficult than any mainline Pokémon gym or champion by a factor of 20. I've had more Pokémon faint in this game from fighting and trying to capture alphas than all other games combined. Not really? Just dodge and throw ad infinitum.
Owen Campbell
Sorry you're right, I forgot the occassional Y press every few seconds.
But it's okay, you guys need to occassionally press down, go to bag, and select a revive so it's an equivalent change. :)
Dominic Jackson
I liked PLA but I gotta agree. A shame that all of the Marvel brain-washed zoomers can't take an inch of crticisim and start reeeeeing once you bring up any issues with it
Owen Sullivan
And Mario is just jumping Halo is just aiming Chess is just moving prices on a board
Charles Price
you're welcome to interpret it however you like, but it's not your place to say what is and isn't a pokemon game. if legends doesn't fit your definition then the problem lies with the scope of your definition, not the game. it's as much of a pokemon game as any other, you just don't like it as much as previous games because it has a different structure and prioritizes different mechanics and elements. which is perfectly reasonable, but just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's less of a pokemon game, it's just different.
Connor Peterson
>But it's okay, you guys need to occassionally press down, go to bag, and select a revive ehhh I didn't even have to do that in HGSS, I don't think my starter fainted the entire game
The difference is there's strategy to doing those things, meanwhile the shitty stagnated Pokemon games are so brainless you can literally just mindlessly mash A to win battles.
Kevin Robinson
Yes which is why the anti-mainline argument of spamming A is an entirely reductionist argument. If you say a mainline game is spamming A through battles, I'll say PLA is just spamming ZR+A on wild Pokemon.
Joshua Wood
So if Game Freak made "Pokemon: Modern Warfare" and it's just a CoD game but Pikachu shows up and says "Remember, no Russian.", you'd consider it a Pokemon game?
Nathan Carter
Both are correct and it’s stupid to simplify a game to such basics. Tired of seeing the same talking points being used to art k or defend this game. Oh don’t pretend like all the “criticisms” are genuine
Hudson Roberts
>nd it’s stupid to simplify a game to such basics older Pokemon games literally are that basic though. There's no strategy to beating Bugsy other than just mashing A with my starter. There's no strategy to beating Whitney other than just mashing A with my starter. There's no strategy to beating Morty other than just mashing A with my starter.
Aaron Barnes
I'm surprised so many people went into PLA expecting so many standard mainline elements to return when the game looked so radically different from the time it was announced. I expected something different, got something different, and I was overall pretty pleased with the end result. It needs refinement, unsurprisingly, but I feel like there's a lot of potential here. I could definitely see this game being a paradigm shift for the series.
Tyler Watson
>Oh don’t pretend like all the “criticisms” are genuine I mean, OP is making pretty solid points (at least in their original post) and doesn't seem to be trying to be particularly argumentative about it.
There's a lot of bad faith arguers (both for and against PLA) on Any Forums, but OP's original post seems to be in good faith
Ryder Reyes
>starter is level 31 when you reach whitney Haha holy shit what ARE you doing
Parker Lewis
>purposefully takes the easiest route >complains it's too simple I just kept capturing Bidoofs for my research tasks. It easy but too simple and not very challenging.
Austin Turner
You can do the same thing with almost any jrpg. >star ranks are padding The optional thing that’s absolutely easy to complete. You only need tank 5 to beat the game which you’ll get to without any grind. OPs as disingenuous as the rest
Ryan Cooper
You can't just post a serious and thought out reply on here bro, Any Forums is for bait, dontcha know?
Liam Ward
>star ranks aren't padding? If they weren't padding, I could literally do the main story missions one after another. Which you can't. During my playthrough, despite me catching new mons and capturing alphas as I found them, I still had to grind a fair bit after the noble fights to go to the next area which ruined the pacing of the game for me because it felt entirely like an arbitrarily padded goal.
Carson Davis
Just went to look at more reviews myself. Literally inundated with positive reviews and praise. Just because someone says it has bad graphics, but the gameplay and everything else make up for it, doesn't mean they only have criticisms. >Not really? Just dodge and throw ad infinitum. Dude, shut up. I would have just pressed z-move water attack and one-shot the thing if it were a Sun/Moon totem mon or spammed surf for a fire gym or something. Having to analyze the enemies' moves and dodge and then get close enough for balm throwing, send a Pokémon out to battle a super stronk mon, then continue dodging and throwing until I whittle it down is 100x more engaging than pressing surf a few times. You actually get to see the fucking Pokémon before you as a massive creature capable of fucking you and your Pokémon up and have to whittle away at it using your abilities and your Pokémon's. That's way more fucking soul than before.
Ryan Lewis
>How was this a step up? It wasn't. PLA just say new=good and call it a day
>Haha holy shit what ARE you doing mashing A against trainers
>dude play like a retard on purpose lmao Aaaand just like that you lost the argument.
>You can do the same thing with almost any jrpg. If I play Mega Man Battle Network I lose unless I pay attention to what I'm doing. If I play Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga I lose unless I pay attention to what I'm doing. If I play Fire Emblem Three Houses I lose unless I pay attention to what I'm doing.
Maybe you just need to play better RPGs.
Dylan Jones
>>dude play like a retard on purpose lmao >Aaaand just like that you lost the argument. PLA is tedious because the entire game is just catch X Bidoofs.
Nolan Scott
Unironically, PLA has made me look more favorably at PGO.
Noah Campbell
>PLA is tedious because the entire game is just catch X Bidoofs. Any game after ORAS is tedious because the entire game is just mash A through dialogue and battles without any real gameplay or challenge.
Adam Edwards
user... are you samefriending and acting intentionally retarded to make PLA fans look like assholes? Seems like you are.
You can't mash A to capture Pokemon in mainline games. Confirmed for never playing a Pokemon game.
Christopher Morris
>You can't mash A to capture Pokemon in mainline games Correct. Since Legends is mainline and that's the game where you can't do so-- nor can you with LGPE since there's a modicum of effort needed for that system as well.
Matthew Sanders
no, because there's zero mechanical or narrative similarities between those styles of games. it's a massive exaggeration to imply legends is as different from mainline pokemon as call of duty. the idea that the formula can't be altered or deviated from in any meaningful way without becoming "less" of a "pokemon game" is retarded, such a strict standard would doom the series to stagnation. the series doesn't have to change but the idea that it can't change without becoming something else altogether is just the worst.
Lincoln Parker
Yeah you don't mash. You just press ZR + A once.
Logan Mitchell
Did you bum rush the game? Mean if your going from point a to b without exploring you might need to grind. Games probably not for you though since it strongly emphasizes exploration. Never played MM Mario RPGs require button timing and is unique I beat SS by only using Seth.
Disingenuously picking non traditional jrpgs doesn’t prove anything amigo
Levi Martinez
So at what point does a game become or stop being a Pokemon game?
Luke Roberts
>PLA is tedious because the entire game is just catch X Bidoofs. i love this argument so much, never been easier to tell who hasn't played the game, or even watched more than a few minutes of gameplay.
James Morgan
Fair. You don't really mash in the older games either you just press X instead to use the ball over and over without actually putting any thought into it like weakning the mon.
Nolan Nguyen
>Did you bum rush the game? Mean if your going from point a to b without exploring you might need to grind. Games probably not for you though since it strongly emphasizes exploration. No, I did the main quest while exploring interesting areas and trying to capture mons I wanted on my team (usually a few times to make sure I got some of the research tasks). Every time I was left with ~50% of the points remaining. I don't find it fun to keep re-exploring and re-capturing mons just to continue through the game so it was tedious to me.
