Pokemon Moon Version Review (Spoiler Free)

Hey, guys, what's up? I've brought myself here today to review the new Pokemon games that have released earlier this month. I will be reviewing Pokemon Moon as that is the game I bought.

  

So, shall we begin? First, let's start with the formula of the game. Is it the same as the previous Pokemon games? Yes, to some extent. The distinctions are: new challenges, Pokemon, and features that are quite neat. You still get to choose your starters and battle your friend/rival at the beginning. The more things change, the more they stay the same. What you'll find in the 7th generation of Pokemon on the exciting region of Alola are not gyms scattered about awaiting your challenge; instead, you'll come across and venture into the midst of trial challenges. Trials challenges are somewhat like gyms, just with variations and conditions that must be met before you can progress to the final part.

 

Also, this game is a lot more cinematic and dialogue-heavy; which means more story and exposition. Even the beginning of the game felt like a movie sequence (which was pretty awesome). The four islands of Alola are quite lively and full of color and adventure. At first, I thought only four islands wouldn't qualify as enough content to explore for Pokemon fans, but surprisingly, the islands are bigger than they appear, and there are many nooks and crannies to explore; especially if you hope to find some nice items and TMs. Speaking of TMs, HMs (hidden machine moves) have been completely omitted from the game entirely. No more shall you have to subject one of your precious Pokemon to being a HM-slave (yes, I'm referring to my poor Bidoof from Diamond version). This is fantastic because you are able to focus on your team build and their move-sets, making the story of the game far more enjoyable. 

Now that I mention the story, I have to tell you that the game is nearly 30 hours long, depending on how much you decide to explore, of course. And I assure you there is much to explore in this brand-new Pokemon quest. They have brought a new feature that allows you to warp to a whole-new place where only WiFi gameplay exists. You know, like wondertrading, battling, global link and all that. Yes, those features are back, rest assured. The separation between online play and single player mode is great, in my opinion, and I say this because it means you simply won't get pestered by online players when you're cruising through the story mode and having fun with your Pokemon. Pokemon Refresh, which is like Pokemon Amie is back and it's much better, too. You can play with your Pokemon and feed them, and even heal them from status conditions when they're paralyzed or poisoned. The game will even prompt an option requesting to take you to Pokemon Refresh after a battle.

This goes without saying, but I should tell you anyway, there are many new Pokemon in Sun and Moon, as well as version exclusive Pokemon and Legendaries. There are many Legendaries in the game and it is up to you to seek them out and battle them. There are even new forms of old Pokemon from Generation 1 (Kanto), which are called Regional Variants. All in all, the game has an amazing sense of adventure and grandeur, as well as whimsicality and excitement. The in-game soundtrack is wonderful and even odd at times (in a good way, of course). The new Team of the games, Team Skull, are basically like Team Rocket 2.0 and they act like complete gangsters, and they are very awesome. Z-moves are enhanced and beefed-up versions of Pokemon's original moves that depend on typing and Z-crystals. You can even ride on Pokemon. Yes! You read that right! You can literally hop atop a Tauros or ride astride a Stoutland to traverse volcanoes and plains of lush green. Overall, the game has definitely lived up to the hype and is well worth the time and money. And if you're wondering whether or not there are any cons to the game, well, there are.

    Gamefreak didn't seem to optimize the game's engine as well as they could; this is particularly noticeable in double battles as you will experience frame drops. Also, I wished the game was a little more challenging; it's fairly easy--but I will say, it gets the difficulty better than that of X/Y and OR/AS. Some characters are memorable, some are easily forgettable. The removal of dex-naving is a shame; that was my favorite part about OR/AS. Though, the new Rotom-dex is pretty amazing, I have to say.

    

Wrapping this up, Pokemon Sun and Moon are definitely games worthy of standing aside their predecessors, and they are truly memorable and fun games. And as a last note, the two main Legendary Pokemon have really grown on me, becoming my two new favorites. I give Pokemon Moon a solid 9/10. Happy playing, trainers, and remember: you gotta catch 'em all!  

  

My "The Evil Within" Review

    I understand that this game came out about two years ago, and I'm very late to the party, but here's my review regardless.

    Shinji Mikami, the father of the survival horror genre, has returned with more than just a few bone-chilling nightmares. The Evil Within, known as Psycho Break in Japan, is a game brimming with intense sequences and utterly horrifying visuals. When you enter the game, you play as detective Sebastian Castellanos, who has been summoned to investigate some grisly murders in a mental hospital. And from that moment on, the game takes a spiraling descent into chaotic madness.

    Now, the story of the game is something you have to have an open mind for to enjoy. And if you pay attention and refer back to notes and messages, you'll understand it. In my opinion, I think the game has a great story!

    If you're wondering what makes this game so great, well, I can tell you. It's the fact that it actually is a survival horror game, unlike some of these other games parading around as survival horrors yet they insist on throwing you mounds of ammo. The Evil Within is brutal, and very much unforgiving. If you hate dying a lot and being punished for rushing and making mistakes, you'll have a hard time with this game. If you run around wasting ammo, you're gonna have to scavenge. And when you scavenge, you'll only find about two or three rounds. That means ammunition in this game is scarce. Enemies are agile and quick to attack and pursue you. There is a stealth mechanic woven into the game; so use it. Sneak around, stealthily kill zombies and monsters. Utilize the match system to burn their bodies or time it correctly and burn multiple enemies at once.
    Although the game sometimes falls prey to the run-and-gun shooter play of most survival horrors, it does spice up the genre by adding great gameplay elements to the mix. Sometimes, you can simply dash past enemies and move on. Sometimes, you'll find that you're outta ammo and must sneak around to get past the monsters. The sprint system in this game relies upon using your stamina meter, and let me tell you, you can only sprint for about 4-5 seconds (yes I know, you can upgrade it as you progress). Imagine running through a dark corridor and encountering a sinister creature that resembles a spider-woman with four arms and claws. That is how this game likes to scare you. It adds  the sensation of tension mixed with gruesome visuals and terrifying sounds. The texture is very reminiscent of a 90s horror film. In many ways this game feels "old school".

    So all-in-all, is this game actually scary? Yes and no. The visuals are creepy--disturbing even. The sounds are gut-wrenching and fantastically unsettling. Dark corridors, shadowy parking lots, doom-filled catacombs are all terrifying places you'll find in this game. This game isn't about jump-scares. It's about throwing you into a web of psychotic madness, leaving you to twist and writhe in the cold wind as you progress through a journey of gradual, intense insanity. But then again, some of it is predictable. You might just get used to it all and maybe the horrifying charm will wear off. Who knows? But then again, how many horror games today are actually that scary?

 
  Shinji Mikami said he wanted to make a survival horror game that stayed true to its roots, due to seeing all of the disappointing horror games that have come out in the last several years, and I do believe, he--and his team--have achieved that.

I give The Evil Within a 9.5/10. It's one of the best games I've played in a while, and also one of my all-time favorites, if not my favorite game ever.

My favorite game of all-time: Final Fantasy XII

Hey, everyone! Today, I'd like to talk about my favorite game of all-time. Final Fantasy 12.

Oh yes, oh yes, indeed. Now, I know that many hardcore FF fans might leer at me in disgust for this, but truthfully, I don't care. Haha. This is, in my honest opinion, the best Final Fantasy game, next to X and XIII and XIV, of course. Let's begin with why I love the game so much, shall we?

Now, I understand that some of the characters aren't well-liked in this game, but I don't really have a problem with them. Yes, Vaan is bland and dull and has a terrible voice for the main character of the game, but he kinda gets drowned out by the other awesome characters, such as Balthier, the badass sky-pirate, Fran the bunny-stripper--I mean, the Viera, and Basch the Kingslayer and Ashe the princess. Penelo is whatever; she's all right, I guess. In the context of the story, Vaan and Penelo kinda suck, otherwise, I do like them. There are other interesting characters woven into the game, such as Vossler the knight, Dr. Cid, and even Montblac, though those characters don't receive much development. I think Square should've appointed either Basch or Balthier as leading man, but hey, Balthier already calls himself the leading man in the game anyway. And who could forget Vaan's award-winning line, "Hey, buckethead!"

O.K. onto the story. Yeah, in terms of the story, I'm not too much of a fan of it. It's heavily lined around the subject of politics, and deeply so. If you're into that, you might like it. Also, the story echoes Star Wars's plot: a gang of friends team up to help a princess against a malevolent empire. Sound familiar? Yeah, it's not original, but at least they added their own spin on it, such as: the manufacturing of nethicite, and magick, and gods who weave the humans' fates behind the curtains. Essentially, it's Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings.

Ah, but the lore, the lore, my friends, is amazing. It has so much depth and detail: of how the world came to be, the Espers who served the gods and rebelled against them. Of the beasts and creatures who roam the expansive lands, and of warring nations, and creatures that hide in pots that could devastate gods with their magick. The bestiary is very interesting, too. If you take the time to read the Sage Knowledge (the data-library of the game) you'd be in for a very fleshed-out and fun time of reading. Basically, the lore really adds a lot of depth and color to the world, making it feel heavy and rich, instead of bland and dull.

                             

Now onto the combat system. Man, what a refreshing spin on the battle mechanics of the series, eh? So, they basically mixed turn-based combat with real-time action. Freaking amazing! Essentially, you get to move around as you fight whilst awaiting a meter to fill up so that your characters could attack. I really like this addition of combat in the game; it felt so new and fun and just different. And it was cool that you could simply hold R2 and your characters would sheath their weapons, enabling you to flee freely.

Now, if I talk about the combat system, I have to mention the part that truly fleshes out the combat system: Gambits. Oh man, gambits. What can I say about them? Well, for one: you could literally set up your gambits in a way that you wouldn't even have to really press any buttons. Yeah, no lie! You could just set up your gambits to attack all enemies, heal yourself whenever your health dropped below a specific percentage, and heal your allies, too. It was amazing how I could program my gambit table to cast heal on undead enemies (to kill them), buff myself when high-level enemies were in sight, or even set it up to where I could have a mage/healer character in the party.

The boss battles in this game are incredible, and leave no lesser expectations of epicness. Seriously, the chorus music, the magical stages, along with the awesome boss-designs make for memorable and badass fights, sure to leave you in awe. And the difficulty is definitely up there (so long as you don't over-level your team). Remember the boss at the start of Raithwall's tomb? You know, the Demon Wall? That was awesome! The way the boss would chase you down that narrow bridge, hacking and slashing with its swords. I didn't even know there were levers to stop the boss from pushing you off the end of the bridge. And remember the Elder Wyrm? I was stuck on that boss for like two weeks. Damned thing had those tree golems to swarm you, and it would disperse a cloud of toxic pollen to expedite your death. That boss was tough, but so satisfying to vanquish.

                                                          

       (Demon Wall)                                                          

                                  (Elder Wyrm)                                                                                                                           

All-in-all, I want you guys to know that this game is very underrated, and wrongfully so. The amount of work and effort put into the game really goes unnoticed. The vast, lush plains, the snow-decked ranges and mountains, the diamond-white coasts, the shadowy network of caves, tall palaces, sandy dunes, all of which blanket the massive and impressive world of Ivalice. The stunning architecture of Dalmasca, the futuristic imperial city of Archadia. The hordes of dastardly creatures and enemies that litter the lands. The sidequests (most notably, the Mark Hunts, which are utterly fantastic). The large slew of weapons to choose from: katanas, greatswords, axes, hammers, swords, poles, spears, hand-bombs, guns, bows, crossbows, rods, staves. So much detail, depth, and gameplay is woven into this game, that it is seriously beautiful. I even like how some of the areas in the game are interconnected. I finished the main game at around 70 or so hours, and ended off the remainder of the game sitting at about 300+ hours.

If you ask me what I'd rate this game, I'd give it a 9.75/10. Astoundingly fantastic! Please, Square, I know you guys are busy with the highly-anticipated FF15, but please, port FF12 over to PS4. I would buy that in a heartbeat.

An honest look on the new Pokemon games

Hey, trainers! Looks like the all-new, and extremely exciting Pokemon installments shall be dropping this November. Let me tell you, I am beyond hyped, so hyped, in fact, that I literally can't sit still. But there are still a few things that irk me about the long-awaited Gen VII games. First, let's begin with the legendary Pokemon: O.K. are you serious? Let me elaborate: the "mascot legendaries" on each respective game look cool but the problem is they don't look as though they should appear in Pokemon. By that, I mean they seem as though they'd fit better in the realm of Digimon more so than Pokemon. Don't believe me? All you need do is google-image search some Digimons and compare them to the new Sun and Moon legends. And of course I understand that my above statement is completely subjective: though, to me, I feel if we look back on the history of the legends in the Pokemon series, the Sun and Moon legends do look a tad out of place.

Next, I'd like to mention the starters...oh boy. C'mon guys, are you kidding? The only remotely cool-looking starter is the fireball-kitty-tiger-cat-thing (and that's with the wishful notion that it'll evolve into an epic fire-breathing tiger). The otter looks...like a clown...and the owl doesn't even feel right. Of course, as with all Pokemon, we must not judge them based on their initial designs; we must wait to see their evolutionary stages (I'm hoping they'll be awesome).

GameFreak is unleashing the new iterations of Pokemon with the classic water, fire, grass trio; which is a let down, to be honest. I know that it's following a tradition, and that's fine, but I somewhat wish they would spice up the starter type wheel, for sake of variety and also to bring something refreshing. All-in-all, knowing what GameFreak is capable of (see Pokemon X and Y, and the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire games), they will surely deliver amazing games for us. By the way, the new games are going to be set in the Alola region, which has a very Hawaiiesque ambiance.

Oh yeah, you thought I forgot, huh? Trainer customization is returning! Need I say more?!!! Despite some of my personal irks with the choices of the games, I believe Sun and Moon shall be amazing installments worthy of being placed next to their brethren games. Get hyped, trainers! November 18th couldn't come sooner!