Divine Visitation · 1:38pm Feb 7th, 2022
Consider the following:
You are transported into the sanctum of God Themself, Who commands thee to go on safari. They then bless your cell phone so They can stay in touch without needing to ignite any bushes, then They yeet you into 19th century Hokkaido, where you leave a lasting crack in the local spacetime upon entry.
But you don’t have time to worry about that right now, because the village who takes you in isn’t sure they want to. See, they’re barely getting by in a region where the wildlife is more than capable of killing every man, woman, and child in town, and they really can’t spare any resources for some layabout. If you can’t prove your worth in an impossible challenge, they will explicitly leave you in the wilderness to die.
Fortunately, you’re a professional cockfighter. What they call an impossible display of mastery over nature, you call little Timmy’s first trip to the petting zoo… though, as you quickly realize, the typical rules of engagement have yet to be established. Still, you’re the best darn specimen collector the local zoologist has ever seen, and so now you’re getting paid to carry out your divine mission.
Still, your combat prowess will only help so much with the town’s ongoing political tension with the local tribes. They may barely be willing to speak to one another due to ongoing religious disputes, but if there’s one thing both agree on, it’s that they’re wary of the foreign weirdos who keep shoving nature spirits in hollowed-out acorns.
Yes, I’m talking about Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and this is all established before you’re done with the tutorial. It’s perhaps the most innovation the franchise has had since Red and Blue, even if a fair chunk of it is copying Breath of the Wild’s homework. But hey, if you have to pick a role model for revamping your formulaic Nintendo franchise, there are far worse choices. I lost yesterday afternoon and evening to the game and I’m having a blast. Highly recommended.
Because, you know, that’s why you follow this Fimfic account. Video game reviews. 
(Note: I am making no claims as to the morality of Pokémon battles. Calling trainers "cockfighters" was just part of the gag.)
Sounds like It's as close to isekai equestria we're going to get.
Despite being a die-hard Pokémon player, I haven’t yet picked up the game. Just had other things on my plate. But all the positive reception is very encouraging, so I’m looking very forward to it.
And I say this as someone who’s still played every main series game since XY to completion, and isn’t as bothered by the series’ staleness as some, but acknowledges it is very much an issue. Glad innovation has finally happened, and all it took was keeping Sword & Shield as the main competitive entries for another year while farming out lazy, regressive remakes to another developer! Because that’s karma, everything’s in a balance. 
Funny way of telling the setup too. Got a chuckle out of me!
The instant you said Hokkaido, I knew this was Pokemon, and I know zip about the new game. :)
I was sure this was a feghoot.
No, we follow it for Magic cards. What, you couldn't design one card related to this blog post?
5634385
You do find Ponyta in the starting area...
5634402
Well, since you asked so nicely:
The Arc Phone 3
Legendary Artifact
3, T, Discard your hand: Draw a card for each color among permanents you controlled as you activated this ability.
An object so clearly out of its proper time and place must have been touched by the Creator.
< God WUBRG
Arceus, Origin of All WUBRG
Legendary Creature — Antelope God
Ward — Exile three permanents you control.
You may look at the top card of your library of your library any time.
Exile a nonland card from your hand, your graveyard, or the top of your library: Copy the exiled card. You may cast the copy without paying its mana cost. Activate only during your turn and only once each turn. (A copy of a permanent spell becomes a token.)
4/4
< Artifact 3
Gameplay wise it's really fun. Though coming off of Sword/Shield there are some gripes about QoL stuff missing. ( I guess the small indie company with one of the world's biggest IP can't carry over features? At full 60$ pricetag?) But I really do like the feel in having the trainer be more of an involved entity and the speed of the game in general.
And then there's:
Me in town
For those looking to view 5634416's link:
This works for other things by people who don't realize the first bullet, too. It's just that I'm trying to keep it at least tangentially relevant.
>Copying BotW's homework
The limited inventory and simpler crafting are much more Monster Hunter, not that the design DNA isn't heavily related.
I am also losing hours to it, but going to note a bit more mixedly- the game really likes diegetic rough spots (all the balls and throwables have slightly screwy flight patterns that you just have to memorise or focus, manually running away is a treat, and finding out the alpha you just challenged is 40 levels up) and a good chunk of just plain unpolished ones (Are you supposed to get up this ledge now? Why not spend ten minutes dodging into it to find out? Need a specific rare thing? Why not wait for a timed event and hope it spawns?).
When a rough spot scratches an itch, though, it does it very well.
All in all, most fun fiddling with my balls while frantically running through the woods since before X/Y and MH World.
5634417
Oh thank you for the instruction. It looked okay on my screen (but I guess that was because I was the one who put it up?)
Are there any image hosts that work better with fimfic? I hate to make people jump through hoops just to see a silly thing.
5634418
The first mount you get is the Giant Stag of Sequence Breaking that lets you climb *so* many cliffs you obviously weren't supposed to and in several cases jump right over a giant boulder that looks like it's supposed to be smashed by a power yet to be acquired.
5634422
That just ups the scale of jumping into things, though it does help. If anything, the bear and climbing guy are the most annoying, doing exactly one thing each.
As near as I can tell, the cracked boulders are just breakable with anything.
5634426
I haven't found anything that breaks the boulders at all? I tried a bunch of different pokemon, and charging them with the mounts, but there was no effect.
If they're supposed to be easily breakable it explains why they didn't test if they actually blocked you.
If I wanted a Switch action RPG where you team up with captured creatures to battle and investigate extradimensional anomalies I'd just play Astral Chain again. It's better in every category.
5634434
The tunnel on the first map?
Otherwise, they might just be an environmental bit. Rock Smash, maybe?
While I'm monopolising the comments section,
>sometimes requests need the stuff in your inventory and sometimes not
>seeing the town develop is cute as hell, though
>that one guy that wants to squirrel vs. squirrel me can sit on a fence and spin
Well in fairness, many children's stories involve absurd or borderline-cruel responsibilities being placed an a stunningly-mature child or teenager.
...MLP being a fair example, itself.
Amusingly, I just beat Sword yesterday myself. I haven't played a Pokemon since Red and wanted to try it out.
It was... okay? A lot of flash and cutscenes, really optimistic and friendly, was ultimately really easy. The last few battles were decently challenging, but there was nothing stopping me from grinding through with items.
An excellent summation, FoME.
This was something else that got me chuckling: nerfnow.com/img/3035/4599.png
Now we know where the modern Pokémon get the hiding in the grass instincts. :P
5634409
I always found Arceus to be more of a llama, personally. And also if you want to get unreasonably technical they're no longer the original God but probably only a fraction of it, but that's more complicated.
5634436
That's kind of like saying that if I wanted good stories I'd pick a book from my shelf instead of being on this site. Brand attachment is a thing and your pure negativity is honestly distasteful here.
5634409
Speaking of Ponyta and its evolution: they finally restored its original shiny colours.
What people lose sight of is that Pokemon are as eager to battle as Trainers are. It could be said that Ash is Pikachu's car.
5634613
Believe me, I wish the franchise was better. I spent over half my life as a huge fan. But with each new game, the slow pace of change becomes all the more apparent.
5634416
Among other things, I do appreciate that the player character actually reacts to events around them. The SwSh PC's constant, unshifting smile gave me the same vibes as the "Animal Crossing Villager is a serial killer" memes.
But yeah, being able to change your party in the field without having to backtrack to a base camp would be a big help in fulfilling research tasks.
5634418
This is the part where I admit I've never played a MonHun game.
5634434
If you mean the giant cracked boulders with conveniently inconvenient placement in obvious paths, I can confirm that I broke one with a Pokémon below level 20. Maybe there's an unannounced event flag? This was after I calmed the third noble.
5634436
Based on my experience with The Wonderful 101, Platinum games are beautiful, dynamic works of art that I cannot play for love or money.
5634537
There's a great bit early in Legends where a character flat-out says "You look about fifteen, old enough to be earning your own keep." Really drives home the values dissonance of a harsher time. (Yes, they send ten-year-olds scampering into the wilderness in the modern age, but no one's expecting them to hold down a job.)
5634613
Unless G5 does something very interesting, I'm not going to get the chance to use the type line "Antelope God" again any time soon. (Though, going by the taxonomy, "Camel God" also would've worked well.) And yes, I'm aware Arceus is just the core remnant of the Original One. That's why the Yawgmoth's Will + Future Sight + Omniscience combo is only once per turn cycle.
5634665
Very true, but something like "Fortunately, you're the Don King of wildlife prizefighting" wouldn't have flowed as well.
... Okay, maybe it would have, but I only just came up with it.
5634703
>MonHun
Don't start with world or the rpg.
And yeah, I almost wish it was more gritty on the job angle, like having to tote a quota of food or materials back every few runs or having to buy specific survival gear (instead of running around a glacier dressed like a pimp).
5634688
Blame that on the series's peak in quality coinciding with the worst sales and Gamefreak choosing to pivot into a different direction, coupled with them being stupidly stubborn and unable to admit they don't have the technical capabilities to properly deliver on their products. But Arceus at least offered a slew of quality of life improvements that everyone is hopeful will make it to the main series. The way it handles movesets and evolution, and the gaining of experience without interrupting the flow of gameplay, are just objectively better than what the main line does. Again, though, Gf is stupidly stubborn so we'll see what actually gets carried over.
5634709
On one hand, "oh no he knows Pokémon lore too". On the other, that probably means you'll enjoy those aspects of the game.