T. K. Arispe

 In a villainous base full of people who use Poison-types, you can bet there are going to be some pretty funky smells hanging around.

I wonder if the Rust Syndicate has this problem. Which of course is a segue into me talking about Pokémon Legends: Z-A! I finished the main game and I'm working on the post-game missions now, and overall I like Z-A way, way more than Scarlet and Violet. It's not perfect and I do have a few quibbles, but it does so much right that it's been a joy to play through. And I gotta get my hands on that DLC! I'm still planning to do a full blog post with all of my thoughts about Z-A because sometimes I like to pretend this is a gaming blog. I've just been really slow getting through the game because a) it is a delightfully massive game with lots to do and b) I've had a lot of other things going on, but that's okay because I'd rather have a life than spend most of my time gaming unlike Canari.

And speaking of pretending like this is a gaming blog, I want Pokémon Pokopia so bad! It looks amazing and adorable, and is the first game that makes me actually want a Switch 2 (move over, Mario Kart). I'm not really sure when that's going to happen (I'm an artist, not a millionaire), but it's awesome that Nintendo has given Pokémon fans such a substantial side title to hold them over until Pokémon Winds and Waves releases next year. I feel like Pokopia is giving off very similar vibes to Animal Crossing, but will probably hold my attention a lot longer because I quickly get bored of games that have no storyline.

And speaking of Winds and Waves, I watched the teaser trailer and I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about Gen X (or are we calling it Gen 10 to differentiate it from the real-life Gen X?). The environments look lovely, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they'll improve upon the open-world concept from Scarlet and Violet (it looks like you can go underwater?!?!?!). That said, I'm feeling a little on the fence about the setting, because we already got a tropical archipelago with Alola, and so far I'm not seeing much that distinguishes the setting of Winds and Waves from Alola. Considering how many unique and vibrant areas of the world there are to base Pokémon world regions off of, I'd be really disappointed if we just kinda got Alola all over again. (I'd love to see a region based off India, or the Mediterranean, or the western US, or Australia, or so many other places.)

Also, the starter Pokémon are just a bit... uninspired in my opinion. We already have a starter Pokemon who's a round leaf bird (Rowlet) and one who's a blue water lizard (Sobble), and two fire puppies (Growlithe and Houndour). I know there are over 1000 Pokémon now (saying that makes me feel so old), but surely the designers haven't run out of original ideas for at least the starters yet, have they? I just hope their evolutions go in different directions than the aforementioned earlier Pokémon. If we've reached a point where Game Freak has to start recycling Pokémon concepts, maybe they should just stop making new Pokémon. #controversial

Anyway, of course I'll still buy it. But I just really hope Game Freak have learned some valuable lessons after Scarlet and Violet. (Also, when are we getting a Gen V remake or two*? That was my second favorite generation after II and we're due for another remake, methinks.)

*Remaking Gen V might be difficult because they were the first generation of main series games to include the initial two paired games and then a direct sequel with a brand new storyline, not just an updated third version of the base games like previous generations. So I'm not sure if you could remake Black and White but omit Black 2 and White 2, because that would essentially leave out half the Gen V experience. Obviously the solution is that they should just remake both.