Okay, so actually the movie thing looks moderately interesting. You have to figure out the right moves to fulfill the script. And you do get items for succeeding! Unfortunately it’s set up in a rather punishing manner, where it’s easy to fail due to chance move use.
But moving on.
I haven’t mentioned it, but I really like how the weather just comes on and off at random times, it’s cool.
Also, I get a ton of medals at once because I finally talk to the pokecenter guy. It’s actually kind of tedious… I think it’d have been a better idea to have something that happened automatically, because then you feel immediate accomplishment, and also because then you have a better idea why you’re getting the medals – as it is, I have to check to see what they actually mean.
So, I guess I need to get on the boat now. By going through the endless babble, I did get the captain to decide he’s bored with being a star for the moment.
And it’s Roxie, and my rival, and the guys in pirate hats. Crew?
Roxie: So, are you guys Team Plasma, then?
Okay, so not crew.
That’s right! We’re Team Plasma! Two years ago… We were betrayed by the man
Oh, so you know Ghetsis was lying and you’re going to actually be pro-pokemon-liberation for real this time? Awesome! Bring on the world-changing heroics! Bring on the land-scorching dragons! LET US WRITE OUR WILL UPON THE EARTH!!!
we respected as our king and hero!
fuck they’re talking about N aren’t they.
So our conquest of the Unova region ended in failure! However! We’ll never give up! We will persevere! We already have another plan in motion.
You know what, fine. I don’t care if it’s evil, hypocritical, or nonsense. Just bring the epic and I’m good.
Gary: Shut it!
Shut it, Gary.
You guys are the worst.
Gary what did I just say? N had a goddamn castle shoot out of the ground after he crushed Douchy beneath his heel. They summoned the dragon of legend. They are fucking awesome.
You talk about saving Pokemon, but you’re just Pokemon thieves!
Nothing about that actually contradicts, Failry.
Don’t think I’ll ever forgive you!
So I guess they stole his pokemon? Man, he sucks if he got a pokemon stolen by them.
Team Plasma: In the ranch, we got chased by Lillipup…
You mean herdier? Or that there were wild pokemon dogging them? I feel I should point out I didn’t get chased by the swarms of lillipup there because I beat them into bloody pulp every chance I got. Friendship!
Team Plasma: And now we’re getting involved in trouble. This kinda stinks.
Does Nintendo even hire scriptwriters, or do they just reach out the door and snag whoever’s wandering by?
Team Plasma: Well, it’s OK, isn’t it? If we steal their Pokemon… OK, kiddos, when you’re ready, give it your best shot!
Three of them, and there’s two other people on “my” side so I bet I only get one battle, huh? Damn it. Nintendo, having NPCs steal my battles does the opposite of making me like them!
Gary: I’ll crush you and your new plans!
And then I’ll crush you, you killstealing bastard.
I can never forgive Team Plasma!
I hope we find out N or one of the true believers had his pokemon and it’s now frolicking happily in the wild.
…and no battle happens? I have to initiate the battle? And then I actually get a yes/no option on if I want to fight? And I can pick no without consequence? Jesus christ, Nintendo. Who the hell wants this.
Ha ha! Your Pokemon will be helping us take over the world in a few seconds!
Well, I guess it’s an improvement if they’re just straight up evil and not butchering the liberation idea any longer. But I’m not sure how I’ll get my epic hero vs hero thing out of this, and that was really the only good thing about last game’s plot.
…the guy has a L15 patrat? Seriously? Fuck you, game. I didn’t pick challenge mode to face someone vastly weaker than the gym leader I just beat.
Team Plasma: I can’t believe kids like these caught us off guard! Tch… Let’s run!
…and they actually shove me out of the way before running past all three of us. So that’s the second time Nintendo failed to do a sane retreat. Why?
Gary: Tsk! What a bunch of creeps!
god shut up
Roxie: Split up! You, go check Route 20!
She starts to run off, then circles back to talk to me.
If I’d lost, my precious Pokemon would’ve been taken!
Couldn’t you just have run like they did? Relatedly, if you’re so upset by Team Plasma having pokemon, why don’t you make any attempt to take those away from them?
Thanks, you two!
God, you suck. If the one you fought was anything like the one I did, they were a pushover. Why can’t you have some faith in your own ability instead of fawning over us for saving you like you’re some damsel in distress?
Use this!
Items sure are common in these conversations. It’s like the designers knew they were being annoying, but thought this would be enough to make up for it. It isn’t.
Still, it’s an HM, cut, which is pretty good. Better yet, she runs off without repeating that it’s a HM in dialogue.
Of course, Failry then has to ruin things by coming over to do that.
Gary: That’s… a Hidden Machine, right?
A term that makes less sense with each generation, and lost all clear meaning by the time they made all TMs reusable.
It’s Cut!
Yes, the text just said that.
Pokemon that know Cut can use it even when they’re not in battle to cut down small trees! Oh! But more importantly, let’s go after Team Plasma!
I’ll grudgingly acknowledge that this whole conversation actually wasn’t so bad. HMs need to be explained at some point. It’s really just that this sort of conversation should be the exception rather than rule.
C’mon! We’re splitting up and searching Route 20!
Also, it doesn’t need to keep going on and on. I get it.
He finally runs off. So back to Route 20, I guess.
For some reason he’s just hanging out on the bridge.
Gary: Help me check Route 20!
Uh, hello, what do you think I’m doing?
And there’s a Plamsa grunt, expressing irritation I won’t let things go. No, I’m fine with that, I just want more experience. And oh, she’s a girl.
Uh…at least it’s not a skirt?
Let me just repeat this for comparison’s sake.
But it’s totally not sexist, really!
L15 purrloin.
Now that I think about it… If I run this way, no one can help me! I have to head toward the ocean! So, with that in mind… I’m going to flee again! Goodbye, Virbank City!
And to my shock, she runs by me again. What the hell Nintendo, did one of your designers argue this was hilarious or something?
Gary: Well, they’re really good at running, anyway…
Arguably. They’re pretty good at getting past me, but someone actually good at it should know to avoid getting cornered and needing to run past your opponent in the first place.
Still, she just said something useful! They must be moving around by boat!
Or, you know, water pokemon…
Castelia City has a big port… I wonder if they headed there. OK! Let’s go back to Virbank and look for someone who looks like they know a lot about ships.
Oh come on game, I already knew I needed the captain to get farther even before you started this subplot.
If I remember right, there was a place to board boats on the docks.
Thank god you remembered, I thought the place was on top of a building or something. Docks! Who’d have thought it?
He walks off, I guess not appreciating my sarcasm.
So, back to the docks.
Roxie: I thought your movie was pretty good.
Pop Roxie:
Holy shit really game? Really?
So you saw it… That movie was… No, it wasn’t the movie. It was me. I was so excited that I didn’t really become Riolu-Man! Acting like that won’t thrill or excite anyone…
Roxie: C’mon! Don’t get down! You can keep trying while you continue on as captain!
Yeah, considering how the movies can be done whenever and take little time, it actually isn’t a problem.
As long as you don’t cause anyone trouble, I won’t get mad. I don’t know how the Pokestar Studios people feel about that, though!
Then Roxie realizes I’m there.
Oh… Did you hear us?
You’re talking in the middle of the street.
Well, it looks like everyone from Team Plasma got away… I don’t feel really good about it, but at least they’re gone. Oh! There was a lot of ruckus, but you can sail to Castelia City now!
Pop Roxie: OK! I guess I’ll do my best as a captain! I’ll excite and thrill everyone by barreling through rough waves!
He goes inside a building. Following, I see Failry. We get on a boat together. Some nice animation, although I’d have rather had the chance to walk around the boat. And now Castelia City!
Failry goes on about getting revenge on Team Plasma, then registers his number so he can bug me whenever. Yay.
That’s a strange ship. A sailing ship in this day and age?
Eh, it’d hardly be the first weird thing.
And he leaves again. Time to explore!
That black sailing ship… What could it be?
Oh hey, it is black. So I guess it’s Team Plasma’s?
On the next screen a clown jumps me to tell me that apparently there’s some “Castelia Harlequin Hunt” where I bet I have to find the clowns. But hey, I get a bicycle, so whatever.
Everyone’s faces blend together! Is that because I’m tired? Mildly creepy potential there!
Another guy mentions trainers fighting their pokemon in the sewers. Sewers? Sounds fun. Where do I get in on that? It looks like there’s some entrance under the dock, but the guy telling me this also happens to be blocking my way.
Let’s see if I can leave.
We’re inspecting the Skyarrow Bridge to make sure it’s strong enough.
Arg.
This is the first inspection in a few years, so it may take a while. Please wait. Thank you.
Someone else gives me a quick claw, though. So at least there’s that.
You can’t leave. Anywhere. Ever. The map is completely closed. It’s infuriating.
Also, the killsteals never stop. It’s gotten to the point where every story battle is five minutes of me killing my “partner”‘s three pokemon because I’m at the point where halving the experience I’m getting results in me loosing thousands for each guy I kill.
I want to kill Failry. He’s a completely extraneous character. All he does, ever, is run around and tell you what the place you’re already headed is, then he killsteals, then he whines about some stolen pokemon we don’t give a shit about.
Though some Plasma guy does tell him to STFU about the stolen pokemon because no one cares, which made me happy, but I think it was a case of characters rebelling more than a sign that Failry is less annoying in the future.
Also, I haven’t met N yet (I don’t know if you do), but they actually do something I really liked with his part in the last games’ team Plasma.
Yeah. I was fine with a lot of the first game plot being about N, because I thought he was awesome and it was setting up that I was equally as cool as he was to be his rival, and I would defeat him eventually because I’m the main character. Cheren and Bianca could be annoying, but they weren’t too obtrusive really and I could imagine why my character might like them as her childhood friends. What I do not want is to be the sidekick in someone else’s quest, particularly a person a hate and a quest I think is dumb.
I’m not sure how I feel about the plot dropping most of the pokemon-liberation plot in favor of we’re-evil-take-over-the-world-thieves. On one hand, the first game’s plot had so much more potential than the one this eventually gets into. On the other hand, the first game fucked up everything a lot, so maybe it’s better when they don’t even try for anything deep and meaningful when the answer’s always going to be “You’re morally right to have pokemon battles, now buy more games”?
I don’t know if you’ve finished the game (I haven’t), but the player character only gets less and less important as time goes on.
It’s extra ridiculous because this could have been a really good plotline. Player Character has a younger sibling’s whose pet is stolen, and embarks on a quest to find it, taking the gym challenge to become strong enough. But they get swept up in all the “take over the world” crap and find out they’re the chosen one or however it ends. There! Perfectly good plot, we’re the main character, and there’s an awesome vengeance motive.
This plot only gets more and more pointless for the player as it goes on. I have no idea what I’m fighting for or why. I’m basically just doing what I’m told. None of the antagonists even talk to me. I don’t effect them. I’m a sidekick. Why did this seem like a good idea?!
Right, this might be far behind but I figure this would the appropriate section. I was addicted to the movie game but only a few fruitless attempts before I finally figure out how to work the script. It’s frustrating getting the actual directions would be obtuse.
Anyway, the funny thing I’ve found, all the initial movies seems to reflecting parts of the plot. Kinda. Parts of it anyway. Like a spoiled prince/ss learnign to care for another person (N maybe), Alien invasion that ends with message of aliens trying to get along with pokemon and humans (aliens as stand in for humans who try to conquer pokemon). And then the time travel plot that shows Bug Pokemon evolving as the dominant species and subjecting Humans as pokemon. The really funny thing about that last one was the capitalized Human and them using Human Balls.
Mm, sounds like a stretch. N always cared about others, it was just he was pokemon focused and thought humans were hurting them, and the alien plot seems like the general “our way of life converts the intruders” thing.