So the last two days have been brutal. I did play quite a bit today, but all of that’s written on actual paper, like some sort of savage.

Instead, quick overall notes:

I want to say that I really, really liked the girl’s design for once. She’s in the same tiny shorts as always, and yes, the boy got the longer shorts they always do, but his shorts are those awful knee-chokers and anyway, it’s a tropical island, tiny shorts actually make total sense. Plus, she gets actual shoes and he gets a twisted ankle. And while we have the usual serious trainer/different pose thing, this time she looks so happy and engaged that he looks boring in comparison.

It’s very cute and mostly been pretty good at presenting pokemon as beloved pets with battling being a sidenote. BUT, I also got to the point of the rotomdex, so not only can pokemon say something to people who can understand them, but they sound exactly as smart as people. I really don’t think this can hold. (Especially when the dialogue is still fine with talking about battles as being just between two trainers – I really think someone paying attention could take the basic things being said and just tweak the dialogue a little to give the sense the humans do consider and value pokemon at all times.)

I love that the battling system and pokemon cuddling system have been integrated. I hate that it tells me what move is effective and I can’t even turn it off. Also, my rival is a weakling and I only barely had difficulty at the beginning by not healing any of my pokemon and charging straight ahead with nothing but my starter and my nearly dead captures. Really doubt the difficulty curve is going to kick up much. I do hope that the whole z-move thing is actually the huge gamechanger they’re presenting it as, since that’d mean not using it would actually make things challenging.

Good lord this is a sausagefest. And I played the opening of the demo since then, and found out that you’re just automatically a boy and the rival is still a boy anyway and everyone else you talk to there is a boy. Actual game has your mom and Lallie vs every other important character. And although the random trainers are mixed, it’s really noticeable how the girls as the same size and age as I am while the boys are toddlers.

Oh, and as to the votes. They boiled down to a lot of people suggesting litten and a bit for owl. My brother said to do seal because he wants owl. So I’m doing seal!