I’m exhausted because I’m generally tired and today’s Pokémon Presents has DRAINED me. But in a good way as I’ll explain.
This post will be me giving my meandering thoughts on each part of the announcement. If you’re looking for deep analysis, there are better publications out there for that. Let’s go! (lol)
25 Years of Non-Stop Adventure (intro montage)
Pure goosebumps. It was my entire childhood played out before my eyes—literally. It made me well up and got me so hyped for the event and I’m really excited for Pokémon Day tomorrow.
New Pokémon Snap
We already knew about Snap going into Pokémon Presents but it was nice to see more footage and I’m very excited to play this again. I played the original years after it came out and still enjoyed it. It’s the perfect game for the Switch and players will have hours of fun.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl
The rumours were true and so were the leaks (which I only saw the night before). I’m not cool with game leaks, especially Pokémon ones, because I don’t know what leakers gain out of it besides an ego boost for knowing something other people don’t? But that’s it. Everyone will eventually know and own the game at the same time as you so it’s all just hot air. Well done for knowing eventually useless information a few days before everyone else!
Now that I’ve got that out of my system, onto the game. I’ll admit I was hoping for Let’s Go! Johto because I got sick of everyone going on about Gen 4 remakes. I only played HeartGold/SoulSilver from that generation because Diamond/Pearl/Platinum were excruciatingly slow and long for me. I’ve noticed a lot of the most vocal fans in the community started on Gen 4 hence the hype and that makes sense. They got what they wanted. Except it didn’t sound like they did.
Having not really played Sinnoh all the way through (I own Diamond but the cart I bought on eBay was completed—hacked with 999 of every item—so I never restarted it), I’m a blank slate and while the 3D Chibi-style graphics aren’t to my tastes, I’m looking forward to playing it. I’ll have to figure out my team beforehand.
But the response from fans was… mixed. They weren’t pleased with the graphics, they weren’t pleased with the footage of gameplay. I don’t know what they wanted. Oh wait, I do—they wanted a Breath of the Wild clone. And that leads me nicely to the final part of Pokémon Presents.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
To quote The Joker from Batman (1989):
The Pokémon Company changed things up considerably by going back in time to a more Feudal Japan style setting and recycling old mechanics. You get the standard Grass-Fire-Water starters but they’re mixed up: you get Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott. It’s like something out of a ROM hack! Amazing! What’s more, it has the BOTW aesthetic fans craved. But they were still underwhelmed. They didn’t know if it was a main title or a side game. What will happen to VGC now? Why aren’t there any new Pokémon in it?
For me, I’m more excited about this game. It’s different enough to pique my interest but familiar enough that I won’t feel out of my depth having to learn another new region and the hundreds of new Pokémon within it. Not that I haven’t enjoyed Galar but I’m a Gentwoer, remember?
Final thoughts
This tweet from @TAHK0 on Twitter sums it up for me:
Unfortunately, I do know what other fans think and I care enough that I’ve ranted about it in this article. But it won’t stop me buying both games and any related merch I can afford. I love Pokémon and I always will (as long as there doesn’t have some kind of covert criminal underbelly or something).
