Pokémon

Nintendo Direct 3/27/2025

I would have liked to do a live reaction to this one, but I was conducting an interview when it aired, and that’s not just something one can put off for later. So here’s a recap of the things I found the most interesting. But only the things I find interesting! No “I don’t care about this” notes this time around.

Dragon Quest I & II HD Remake – Looks great! DQ1 is my very first RPG, so it has a soft spot in my heart. I’ll probably buy this out of nostalgia and forget to ever actually play it.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – I’m sure it’s “because Switch” but I like the more cartoony look! At least, slightly more cartoony than I’d expected. Gameplay looks bang-on with what I would expect from the series, so I’m obviously 100% on board. Very curious if it’s going to be a dual release on Switch and Switch 2.

Pokémon Legends Z-A – No joke, this is my most hype game of 2025, based mostly on the strength of Pokémon Legends Arceus (which is my fave Pokémon game). Last month’s overview trailer got me pretty pumped, and this one just added fuel to the fire. And there’s finally context for the weird subtitle now! Hooray!

Marvel Cosmic Invasion – Hmmmm… Looks like a 90’s arcade brawler… Made by the same team that did Shredder’s Revenge… Despite the fact that my interest in Marvel has atrophied greatly, I may have to play this.

Pokémon Presents 2025

Traditionally, I’ve written out my thoughts on this kind of thing, but it’s 2025 and we’re (finally) pivoting to video!

Pokémon Concierge

I can’t remember exactly when it was, but at some point Netflix released a short animated series called Pokémon Concierge. I sort of knew it existed, but never got around to watching it until recently, when all four episodes were made available on YouTube. After “binging” all four episodes yesterday, I have a few thoughts to share!

The first thing I need to remark on is how the show looks. It’s made using stop-motion animation with a little VFX to jazz it up, and it looks so good. Stop-motion is basically a lost art in this day and age, but I adore it, always have. The models and sets were clearly made with the utmost care too; there are so many little details crammed in all over the place and the pokémon are made out of different materials to make sure they look fluffy or fuzzy or sleek as required. The human characters look great too, having exaggerated features to make them recognizable, but no so much that they look overly cartoony. All in all, it’s simply a joy to look at.

Pokémon Concierge follows Haru, a tightly-would businesswoman who has had one too many bad weeks and has taken up a job at the Pokémon Resort to start fresh. When she arrives, she’s completely distraught at how laid back and cheerful everyone is, as opposed to the stressful urban lifestyle that she’s used to. Over the four episodes, the focus is mostly on how she learns to unwind, be happy, and connect with both people and pokémon. It’s a nice little story about appreciating the little things in life and not taking things too seriously. A message I can fully get behind.

That said, it’s obviously a very chill show meant for all ages to enjoy. Kids can enjoy the bright colours and slapstick humour. Adults can watch it and have pleasant daydreams of living such a carefree existence. Me, I appreciated both angles! But that means it never gets overly deep, and mostly just relies on cuteness and very high-level themes to entertain. That said, the fourth episode is so sickeningly sweet that I had a hard time holding myself together at the heartstring-tugging climax. Friggin’ Pikachu, man.

The Pokémon representation is wonderful, and even though Haru is really the focus of the show, a lot of pokémon get a chance to shine. They’re all so cuddly and adorable, and there isn’t a single battle throughout the series. The Psyduck that Haru befriends is the source of a lot of the show’s humour, and Pansear, Panpour, and Pansage get a ton of screentime to showcase their goofiness. Mudkip, Dragonite, Wingull, Graveler, Metagross, Pidgeot, Hoppip, Magikarp and (of course) Pikachu are kind of the “focus” where pokémon are concerned, but we get to see far more than that. What I thought was a little bit strange is that (with the exception of Dedenne) all the featured pokémon are from the first five generations. I guess maybe it’s a covert attempt to appeal to older fans’ nostalgia, but I think some newer ‘mons like Rockruff, Pawmi, and Sinistcha would have fit in perfectly at the Pokémon Resort.

Now obviously I’m not going to say that this is a show for everyone, but I genuinely enjoyed it. Watched the whole damn thing with a big, stupid grin on my face. Even giggled a couple of times. If you’ve got roughly an hour to kill, I’d absolutely recommend it. I’ll definitely be a little quicker on the draw when season 2 comes out.

The Price of Mastery

This weekend I finally completed the pokédex in PokéDoku. It took me 268 days of play to do so, and you could even shave 20-30 days off there since the dex feature wasn’t even added until I’d already been playing for a while. So that’s not too bad!

Of course, the question now is: what comes next?

Well, more PokéDoku, of course. A couple months back, shinies were added into the game. If you’re not a pokémaniac like me, shinies are pokémon that are a different colour than usual and have a 1/8192 chance of appearing. Or, that’s their odds in the real Pokémon games, anyway. In PokéDoku, there’s a 1% chance of a pokémon being shiny, which is way more likely. Still absurdly rare, but not mind-bogglingly so.

I’ve never really been a shiny hunter in any pokémon game. My very first natural shiny was a Sunkern in Pokémon Soul Silver, which was not terribly exciting. I did try to hunt another one in Pokémon Alpha Sapphire years later, but never found one. I participate in community days in Pokémon Go to take advantage of the boosted shiny odds for the pokémon highlighted on those days, but don’t really put much more effort into it than that.

Have you played PokeDoku yet?

Since sometime around Xmas last year, I’ve been playing a little online game (almost) every single day. That game is PokeDoku – something of a twist on sudoku, where you fill in a grid with pokémon instead of numbers. It’s also only a 3×3 grid instead of sudoku’s traditional 9×9. It’s perfect for poop breaks!

How it works is along the top and left sides are six conditions. You have to select a pokémon for each cell that matches the two conditions that intersect on that cell. For example, in the top-left corner of the screenshot below, you’d need to choose a pokémon that is ice-type and can learn the move earthquake. Avalugg was an easy choice there: it’s obviously ice-type and is a big behemoth so it was a pretty safe bet that it could learn earthquake. Galarian Mr. Mime in the top-right corner, on the other hand, was a lucky guess since I knew it’s an ice-type but wasn’t sure if it has a secondary typing (it is in fact ice/psychic).

The screenshot above is actually a perfect example because it uses one of almost every kind of condition; though there are also conditions for each region, as well as starters, mega evolutions, and gigantamax forms. Technically you could also say it doesn’t show “mythical” or “ultra beast” or “paradox” either, but let’s be honest: those are all just different ways of saying “legendary.”

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: September 2023

~ Game Over ~

TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge (Switch) – Played story mode once to clear the game with Usagi, a second story mode run with my family on my birthday, and spent a bunch of time playing the new DLC survival mode.

Wario Land 3 (GBC) – Wrote some words about this here. TLDR: I had fun, but the game has a couple of very annoying issues that may prevent future replays.

Pikmin 4 (Switch) – Completed all post-game content. Except for getting gold/platinum medals on all the Dandori Battles, because honestly doing well in those feels more dependent on RNG than skill. And nuts to that.

Peglin (PC) – We will Peglin ’till we die!

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: June 2023

~ Game Over ~

Peglin (PC) – Well, it’s a roguelike. And therefore highly replayable. Especially since it’s got a mode that adds a new handicap every time you beat it.

Inhabit (Switch) – A cute puzzle game about taking care of yourself. It took less than two hours to beat, so it was really just a li’l appetizer of a game, but it was fun. Also, I recorded my playthrough for YouTube.

Gargoyle’s Quest (GB) – An action-RPG spin-off of the Ghosts ‘n Goblins series, and much more enjoyable in my opinion. While it’s got blind jumps and cheap deaths for sure, I did have fun revisiting this one for the first time in well over a decade.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: May 2023

~ Game Over ~

Peglin (PC) – Imagine Peggle, but as a roguelike. Not something I’d normally give a second thought, but it’s so much more fun than it has any right to be. It’s a bit short, but still in Early Access, so there’s potentially a lot of room to grow.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (Switch) – Now THIS is the heaping helping of fanservice that I was hoping the base game would be. Simply being able to go on another adventure with Shulk (and Rex too, I guess) made my heart so happy. Plus they added a similar system as the last few Ys games had that tracks all the collectibles and treasures you’ve found, which really should be in every RPG.

Lost Alone Ultimate (PC) – I watched let’s plays of all three chapters of Lost Alone when they were originally released last year, and really enjoyed them, so I was very excited to play this remade collection. Easily one (three?) of my favourite Steam horror games in recent years.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: April 2023

~ Game Over ~

Ghost of Tsushima (PS5) – I wasn’t too sure about this one for the first few hours, but it really grew on me over time. An excellent game in most regards, though it does feel very repetitive, as open-world games usually do. My favourite parts by far were the side-stories of Jin’s allies. Folks who ignore side-quests in games would absolutely be missing out on the best parts of this game. Norio and Masako in particular were characters that I really liked adventuring with. Platinum trophy’d.

Super Mario Land 2 (GB) – Yes, again. But this time, the colourized romhack! It’s… the same game, but looks nicer. Also, you can be Luigi!

Resident Evil 4 (PS5) – Everything I could have hoped for. It’s generally a very faithful remake, but remixes a lot of the content in different ways to keep veterans of the original on their toes. That plus a whole bunch of new elements, and MUCH improved boss fights across the board. Basically exactly what a remake should be, in my opinion. It also fleshes out the story and characters way more than the original, which is definitely a nice-to-have. I’ll absolutely be playing this a few more times before the year is done.

Top 10 of 2022: Runners Up

These get a separate post because the main article is long enough as-is, but I still felt like they deserved a little recognition!

Triangle Strategy (Square-Enix / Artdink, 2022)

This was probably the hardest finalist to cut. I’ve never been able to truly get into any tactical RPGs besides Final Fantasy Tactics, but Triangle Strategy came real close. The story is interesting, the choices you make carry a ton of weight (and there’s almost never a clear “correct” choice), and the battles are great fun. Despite all that, however, I got pulled away from it when I was only halfway though, and never felt compelled enough to pick it back up. I keep looking at the case and saying “I should really finish that”, but I have a feeling it’s just not going to happen.