T. K. Arispe

 Yeah, it's not like there were half a dozen people in the Game Corner tipping me off about checking a poster on the back wall.

On a somewhat related note, I'm reaching the end of Legends: Z-A (the base game, not the DLC, which I will get ASAP), and I like it more and more on a story level the more I progress. At the beginning of the game, characters and events around Lumiose felt kind of disjointed, but when you reach the higher ranks, they start to gel into a cohesive whole, the significance of reaching rank A in the Z-A Royale makes sense (although I kinda wish AZ would have explained it to me earlier), and the plotline does a lot to follow up on the events of Pokémon XY in ways that are really satisfying for people who have played those games. 

Legends: Z-A feels like the spiritual successor to XY that those games have been waiting a long time for, and more than makes up for the fact that XY never got a third version/alternate version/etc. It's a proper dive back into Kalos that I'm really enjoying. As I said, I'll post a full writeup of my thoughts about the game once I finish (because of course the ending could just ruin everything for me), but so far it's looking good, and I'm enjoying it way more than Scarlet and Violet (developers take note). My only real gripe is that it's trying really hard to be on-trend, which feels kind of alienating for people like me who are older Pokémon fans and don't care about trends. But I guess it was bound to happen eventually that we'd get a Pokémon game with a character who's addicted to watching a gaming stream on his Rotom Phone. Such are the times we live in.

Speaking of Pokémon, previews of Pokopia have been floating around the web* lately, and it makes me wish the Switch 2 was more affordable. When the game was first announced, I'll be honest, I took a look at the blocky landscapes and thought it might basically be Pokémon trying to be Minecraft, with a heavy emphasis on sandbox-style gameplay and a minimal (or nonexistent) plot. And that worried me, because I've wanted a Pokémon life sim for a long time, but not one with no built-in objectives, or character development, or indeed any sort of in-universe reason to be doing what you're doing, because I just can't get into those sorts of games at all**.

Thankfully, what we're hearing about the game sounds like quite the opposite. We're already seeing adorable characters (Professor Tangrowth though), an honestly really intriguing storyline (a Ditto looking for its missing owner who it transformed into the likeness of is just the saddest and most adorable thing), and plenty of daily objectives to help pad out the gameplay in a meaningful way. It also sounds like the sheer content in the game is staggering, and I love a game with tons of stuff to do that will take me a long time to satisfactorily explore (and for the price of Switch 2 games, that's what I'm paying for). So I'm actually really looking forward to Pokopia - even if I can't play it yet - and when I finally do get around to getting a Switch 2, that's definitely going to be one of the first games I buy for it.

*Does anybody really call it "the web" anymore? Am I hopelessly stuck in the 90's? I kinda want that modem dial-up noise as my ringtone, just to remind me of my technological roots.

**My one exception to this is the Animal Crossing series, but that's because it's just so adorable, and the character dialogue is hilarious and masterfully written, and there's just so much to do in the game besides be sandboxy (technical term) that it's still something I can have lots of fun with despite there not being any compelling overarching goals. Contrast with Minecraft, which I'm sorry but I am just not a fan of***. The aesthetic is not my favorite, there is absolutely zero storyline, the minimal lore does nothing to catch my attention, and most of the game's gameplay appeal centers around creating and exploring user-generated content and the multiplayer experience, which are both things that just don't appeal to me in video games. (I kinda play video games to get a break from other human beings, honestly.)

***After this big long rant about Minecraft, I have to admit that I enjoy watching my niece play it. But that's more because she's my niece and I love spending time with her. (Her favorite thing to do in the game is collect animals.)