So, today a brand new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon was announced for this Winter.
Part of me is pretty excited; afterall, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is one of my favorite side games. On the otherhand, the the last Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game was my least favorite to date. While the story was still good, I disliked nearly everything else. Even if personality quizzes do not return, I hope we will have more Pokemon to choose from this time and maybe even have all Pokemon in it.
As it is, the title makes me worried that it will be a free-to-play/freemium game and I just do not see it working well for this kind of game…
Right now though, the only information we have so far is below.
Players can look forward to even greater, randomly created dungeons that change each time they enter. In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, players will battle alongside Legendary and Mythical Pokémon to save the world in a sweeping tale of adventure and mystery.
Hopefully we will hear more information at E3. At the very least, I’m sure Mega Evolutions will be in the game.
While life on Pink Sea Island has still been slow (and costly trying to keep couples together), there’s still been a few things happening plus the second DLC item of the month!:
Schoolgirl Uniforms! They cost $50 each and are available in dark blue, pink, purple, and blue.
Besides that, it’s mostly just been more letters and visits from kids off traveling (plus sending more off):
Yoshi’s Wooly World is a game that I’ve been getting more and more excited for since it’s announcement. It feels like every new information that pops up is just really great and it’s hard not to be more excited. And honestly, I didn’t expect to get more excited than when these were announced:
There is just so much to love about these Yarn Yoshi Amiibo and I think it’s hard to resist getting them all. I’ve been doing my best to concentrate on just two, but after watching this video, I’m not sure I can:
I was only expecting some patterns based off characters as leaked here, but seeing those… Just knowing there are so many is super exciting and I can only imagine the character ones.
I mean, just look at all these patterns:
They just look great. Also, not a costume, but I wanted to highlight my favorite “power-up” look:
I love that they switched up the knitted part for sequins for the scales and that is just amazing. I hope we see some of the Wooly Yoshi patterns also showing sequins and other kinds of knitting accessories for even more ideas.
I’m not sure if I can even pick a favorite right now, but I do know I’m even more excited. I’ve been waiting to see if a Bundle with the Amiibo comes out before I pre-order, but I feel more and more tempted to preorder sooner rather than later with every new update.
Hopefully we may even see some of the Amiibo-related costumes during Nintendo’s E3 announcements tomorrow!
There’s a lot of great things about Girl’s Mode 3. There’s so much more for you to do and you can even design clothes and make your own emblem! That’s awesome! And chances are, you may know by now that I greatly enjoy planning ahead. So, once I figured out the emblem size, I decided to make my very own emblem for the game. Unfortunately, I made one poor assumption–that we’d get to pick our palette. Afterall, the emblem designer is like Animal Crossing’s pattern maker, why wouldn’t we be able to pick our palette like the latest Animal Crossing game in the series?
It’s not necessarily a far-off assumption, but it was an assumption nonetheless and one that proved to be wrong. You’re stuck with 16 static palettes (which, a big thank you to Sosostris for the clear photos of them so I could play around with them. She’s been streaming the game on Twitch almost every day so if you’re dying for new info, check her out! And well, do so anyway because she’s awesome) which really stinks. It’s a design game so the lack of a free color range here is kind of frustrating. And when it comes to colors, it’s not my only frustration.
You thankfully can get a lot more colors for the actual designs as they go by the same colors you can earn in the game for hair and make-up.
As for the frustrations I mentioned, It’s disappointing to see with the addition of the Dollhouse rooms, you can no longer customize the room your character stays in. Even though nobody got to see it, I loved having a pink room and having this bright orange room now really stinks. The dollhouse rooms are great and I do enjoy them, but I wish they were a bit bigger… They just feel way too small. Similarly, shop exterior customization seems downgraded a bit (And I feel some of the combinations don’t match as well–I really hate the blue window for the Princess Exterior and the blue dress inside :( ). The interior customization is still pretty much the same, except now you can add some of the items you can also decorate the dollhouse rooms with (Up to 3). I wish you could change a bit more (like certain clothing items shown in the interior), but it’s still a nice touch to be able to do more in the interior besides general look and music. The exterior just downgrades so much with removing things you could do in Trendsetters (I was also really hoping I could pick my window separately from my walls in this game, but oh well) and the Display Window with your mannequin is especially downgraded as “props” are now just pedestals or boxes that you can put a Dollhouse item on… I liked having a full tea party look with sparkles and all this other cool stuff and it feels like you can barely do anything with it besides an outfit and two tiny props with a pre-set background and floor combo (which you could pick separately in Trendsetters).
I’m guessing the addition for all this new stuff meant some of the old stuff had to be changed up… I really hope maybe they could add these things back through DLC (which we’d hopefully get this time)–especially a custom design palette.
But yeah, I’ll stop here for now–I’d like to save most of my feelings on it for when I have the game myself and can properly review it. Going back to the main point of this post and the poll, I assumed incorrectly about how the emblem design would work and thus despite working super hard on this emblem:
I can’t even use it in those colors. :/ I knew the exact colors wouldn’t be there, but I figured I could pick close enough ones and it’d be very close. In fact, I even played around with it through all 16 color palettes and here’s what it’d look like if we could pick and choose:
Color 1: Palettes 2 & 5 | Color 2: Palettes 7 & 8
Color 3: All Palettes | Color 4: Palettes 7, 8, & 9
Color 5: Palettes 7, 8, & 9 | Color 6: Palettes 7, 8, & 9
Color 7: Palettes 7, 8, & 9 | Color 8: Palettes 7, 8, & 9
Color 9: Palette 13 | Color 10: Palette 3
Color 11: Palette 6 | Color 12: Palette 9
Color 13: Palette 6
And still three spare colors. It’s not exact, but it’s at least closer than what I’ve had to make instead.
So, now onto the poll showing the outcomes of having to try and use pre-set color palettes… obviously, if something changes before the game comes out here (still have my fingers crossed), I’ll use the one above, but it’s unlikely so help me decide which you think would be best!:
So, today has been a pretty filled Nintendo day. I’ll start with talking about Splatoon as there was a special Nintendo Direct for it today. As most of you know, I’m still undecided on if I want to get Splatoon or not so I figured the Direct would be a good way to make up my mind. While it still hasn’t completely, it was a pretty good Nintendo Direct so if you haven’t seen it yet, I’d recommend checking it out below:
It was a pretty fun Nintendo Direct. Jelonzo is pretty adorable and probably my favorite NPC. I’m still pretty worried on customization stuff, but was incredibly happy to see we can add slots to lower ranked items to keep using them. Unfortunately, it seems the abilities can’t be selected if you do re-roll for new ones, but I’m happy there is at least a way to change them… even if it may be a long time before you manage to get the one you want.
Splattershot is probably my favorite weapon, but I think many were pretty neat. I really like the Seeker support and the Bubbler special though.
Solo play looks pretty fun. And I think the scrolls sound really nice as well.
Also, the Squid NPCs seem pretty neat. I really want Callie’s hair and earrings:
Something tells me that won’t be possible though. :(
I’m also pretty excited by the polls:
I always loved voting in the Polls on the Wii (that and Check Mii Out were things that got me to check the Wii everyday) and these look pretty fun. That said, I’m a little sad by how short the events are. I would’ve expected a few days at least over just one 24 hour period. If I do get the game though, I’m so voting for dogs. That dog is so cute. I hope we can vote differently per user account though as my fiancé really wants to vote for cats.
Which brings me to my big issue… How is local play working on it? I know there’s the training fields for local play, but what if we want to go online and play with friends? Can we both play together like in Mario Kart and Smash Brothers? Considering you also get switched around in teams I feel like this may not work unless they have it so you are always with your friend. I really hope they do have local play. As it is, I don’t really care for ranked play or playing online much so even full local matches would be nice too.
Speaking of Ranked Play, my biggest issue is that there’s SO many neat modes for Ranked Play only… it’d be nice if we could play those modes more casually too :/ As I don’t need a terrible ranking in my face all the time. I know I won’t be very good.
Regardless, I think trying out the Splatoon Global Testfire will be our final go at figuring out if we’ll get the game or not. I just hope I can catch one of the openings. I think the final one will be my best shot. But yes, here are all the openings for those curious:
● Friday, May 8, 8-9 p.m. PT (11PM-12AM EST)
● Saturday, May 9, 4-5 a.m. PT (7AM-8AM EST)
● Saturday, May 9, Noon-1 p.m. PT (3PM-4PM EST)
At the very least, the direct has definitely pushed me more to “yes” when it comes to getting the game.
There will also be plenty more events and even new stages and things through free DLC once the game comes out which is really nice. I’m also really excited about what the Rainmaker may be. And you can even get a Splatoon costume for your Mii in Smash Brothers if you preorder through Gamestop.
Finally, I want to talk about the Amiibo. While I knew they would come with a challenge, I didn’t expect it to be 20 challenges each which is really nice. I think any Splatoon Amiibo, besides the fact that they look incredibly well made, will be pretty popular just due to how much they bring to the game. The game itself has tons of little minigames and stuff right in the main hub so it definitely feels like a game that offers you plenty to do and will continue to do so.
Of course, the Splatoon Nintendo Direct wasn’t the only big Nintendo news today…
Nintendo has partnered with Universal Studios for a Nintendo Theme Park. Universal has always been pretty good with their themed parks and despite not going to Universal in ages (mostly due to lack of time and not renting a car while in Florida), I feel like this is something that will definitely make me go back.
There isn’t much news as to when to expect this or specifics, but that doesn’t make this news any less exciting:
“Together, these two storytelling giants will create spectacular, dedicated experiences based on Nintendo’s wildly popular games, characters and worlds.
The agreement brings two icons of entertainment together and represents a significant partnership for Nintendo as it expands the reach and popularity of its characters and intellectual property.
Universal theme parks offer incredibly popular, innovative themed family entertainment experiences based on compelling stories and characters – using powerful storytelling and innovative technology. Nintendo has created remarkable and imaginative worlds filled with captivating stories and beloved characters.
Now, for the first time, those stories and characters will be brought to life in entirely new ways—only at Universal theme parks.
The immersive experiences will include major attractions at Universal’s theme parks and will feature Nintendo’s most famous characters and games.”
I’m hoping more news will come soon. I don’t think we’ll see any at E3, but it’d be neat if we did. I’m not sure what I’d be most excited to see, but just the fact that it’s happening is really exciting to me. It probably won’t be just like Nintendo Land, but the fact that we’re now getting a real life one is great.
I hope something is worked out with Pokemon/Game Freak though as usually they aren’t featured in big group Nintendo stuff (Smash is really the only example I can think of where they are, but like there wasn’t anything Pokemon-y in Nintendo Land and other than a hacked item in Animal Crossing, we’ve still received no Pokemon-themed DLC).
Regardless, I know I want to book a trip as soon as the grand opening is announced. That’s something I don’t want to miss.
This update is a bit later than usual due to a very busy day today, but I hope you still enjoy it! To start, it’s the first of May so we have a new SpotPass DLC item!
Import Wear Uniforms! They are available in Black/White, Black/Yellow, Black/Pink, and Black/Green and cost $40 each.
Not too much has been happening on Pink Sea Island. Been trying to get more travel tickets for people to stay together, but it hasn’t been going well. Kids have still been traveling around–Tyler and Kayden especially:
So I am very happy to say that I finally completed my Pokedex in Pokemon Rumble World! I was hoping for a special cutscene or something (afterall, the goal of the game was to get more toys as the King only had Pikachu), but there wasn’t anything sadly :(
I only have two challenges left now–Return of the Phantom Thief (which I really want to beat as it gives me the outfit I want) and World Championship X. I’m not sure if I will ever be good enough to beat them sadly and having already seen the credits and stuff for the King’s Challenges, it’s hard for me to even want to do them… but Princess outfit T___T
Regardless, I don’t plan to be done juuuust yet. I think I’ll go for all the gender/form differences next. You can keep up with my progress on the Pokemon Rumble World page :)
I don’t expect to go for all the titles though–while this probably covers most, I’m not sure I’ll ever do the “catch 50 of every Pokemon” ones for example.
As a completionist, most people assume I generally do not have a problem with how achievements tend to work in gaming, but that’s not entirely true. I think when it comes down to it, I had a lot more fun when games were “simpler” and didn’t feature all these excessive requirements to get certain things.
That doesn’t mean all achievements are necessarily bad, but I think a lot of how they work nowadays is just kind of frustrating. There’s a lot of differences in how people play games and when it comes down to it, some ways are much more popular than others. I hate competitive Pokemon. This is an argument I have often with friends because while I dislike it greatly, a lot of my friends do it. I personally feel EVs and IVs and the Battle Frontiers are something that ruined Pokemon and I feel the series could be just as good without them.
One thing I always liked about the Pokemon series was the idea of going off on this journey and making these new friends to experience everything in your adventure. And EVs, IVs, and the Battle Frontier tend to contradict that message. If you’re Pokemon isn’t trained this way, doesn’t have these proper attacks, isn’t one of these… etc. etc. etc. I’ve heard so many things and in something as cheap as the Battle Frontier, it’s frustrating. I wouldn’t care as much if there wasn’t any reward to it (Statues, Ribbons, etc.), but as much is the key phrase here. As someone who loved being able to take on everything with a team who got you there in the first place and then being told “Stop. You’re not good enough.” is awful. It’s not a fun feeling. And seeing people tossing egg after egg because the Pokemon isn’t good enough or just replacing with ease makes me feel really sad. And that’s kind of what hits me–if you’re on a team with a group of people and you get to the final game, are you going to switch off the Weaker people for stronger ones just because they aren’t good enough? I’m sure there are people who would say yes, but how is that not heartless?
Smash Brothers is generally a game where I think most people would see me as a casual. I prefer playing with items on (especially just Pokeballs) and am not too keen on the Final Destination No items playing. To me, that kind of stuff makes Smash no different from most other fighting games. I love exploring stages and tossing items and just having fun with it. And that’s part of why the achievements in the game really frustrate me. There was something fun about just playing and hoping a trophy would fall. Having achievements for things I just don’t care about or wouldn’t do is very disheartening. I have no interest in ever doing the Master Fortress or whatever, but if I want all the trophies (one of my favorite things to get in Smash Brothers since the beginning), I don’t actually have a choice.
I like being able to play things how I want to play them and I think a lot of the fun comes in how differently people may play things, but when you put these kind of achievements out, it generally forces people to play one way. A strategy gets made to do them and if you don’t do it that way, it’ll be incredibly hard. This kind of stuff is why so many similar teams end up at the top of Pokemon competitions or why so many people use the same character in a fighting game. And what fun is it to just see the same thing over and over again?
I think if people want to play that way, they should be able to, but I also think that people shouldn’t be essentially cut off from completing or earning things just because they don’t want to play with the same character as everyone else or don’t enjoy a specific mode. Video games were made to be something you enjoy and when you have an obligation or have to suddenly use a character you don’t care for or a difficulty that is a bit much, it just stinks.
And I don’t think those rewards are really needed. If someone wants to play on a harder difficulty or challenge themselves, they can. I know I still do sometimes. But there’s a different for feeling up to it and having fun challenging yourself versus doing something and hating every moment just to get something you really like. And I feel the latter is happening more and more with forced achievements.
I don’t necessarily mind checking into games everyday, but I wish there wasn’t so much punishment if you didn’t. Sometimes you can’t actually progress and could get behind due to not checking in. Or like with Animal Crossing, your plants could all die and all your favorite villagers could leave you. At least the Beautiful Ordinance can help with the former, but the moving mechanic is incredibly broken and I wish they would make a way for you to keep villagers you’ve become attached to. As many people know, I’ve been having issues with the badges I have left as well as I generally don’t need any of the reasons why I would do what I have to. I love completing the museum, but once I have it done, I really have no reason to fish/dive or catch bugs much anymore. By then, I usually have as many bells as I need and it’s not really what I find most enjoyable about AC. Playing with friends and customizing my house and being friends with villagers is nice… except when you get too close and suddenly they want to move :| Or like with the Medals, I don’t need any of the items and I’ve played all the Tours by now… doing them over and over is the same repetitive stuff that gets incredibly boring at this point.
MMOs especially get into the whole “need to do things everyday” as you get towards the end. Dailies are stupid. They become a chore and when it comes down to it, you have enough chores to do in real life and they just aren’t very fun. Raids add in the same kind of chore-behavior pield with randomness and it’s just… dumb. You shouldn’t have to be forced to pair with tons of people to progress nor should you have to keep doing the same thing over and over. And yet this broken thing is what MMOs keep doing and it’s incredibly disappointing. I generally don’t care about having the best gear, but when I can’t progress through the story due to it, it gets upsetting. Especially as I generally play with only a couple of people and I’m not sure if I’d ever be comfortable being in a guild ever again.
But yes, in short I just wish Achievements were just a goal to aim for because you want to or because you find it fun and no longer became a thing that you were forced to do to get what you want. No, I don’t want to walk over objects without touching the floor for an entire level in an FPS just to get the pretty gun I like. No, I don’t want to play on the hardest difficulty to get the trophy I want.
If I put the time into a game and am having fun, there should still be a way to earn something I’d like without having to play a way that wouldn’t be fun. Because if video games aren’t fun anymore, then what’s the point in playing?
To start, I will say I like this DLC more than the first set. The first set wasn’t bad at all, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much. Wario’s Gold Mine being remade is nice and I think Dragon Driftway is really cool, but the only course I really loved was Hyrule Circuit. I never liked SNES Rainbow Road and was happy to see it gone when 8 came out (so not thrilled that it came back) and found Ice Ice Outpost rather boring. Excitebike Arena, Mute City, and Yoshi Circuit were just okay for me–I didn’t dislike them or anything, but nothing particularly stood out for me about them. I don’t regret buying the DLC or anything (I really hope Nintendo will make more DLC packs like this, honestly) and still had fun with it–it’s just nothing really becomes a top favorite for me.
In DLC Pack 2, we already start with more characters I am excited for and would actually play as with Villager (Yay for female one) and Isabelle. They even have the Animal Crossing sound effects which is awesome. I really enjoyed playing the Female Villager and she’s definitely part of the characters I like to play as (My Mii, Peach, and Pink Gold Peach are the other ones). My opinions on the karts are pretty much the same as with DLC Pack 1. I like the City Tripper, but I’m not a Bike Person and it still doesn’t beat out the Prancer Kart for me.
As for the courses, I never cared for Baby Park or Neo Bowser City so I wasn’t thrilled at seeing either of them. Cheese Land is okay, but a bit plain. I love the other courses though. Ribbon Road is amazing and is filled with so many neat Easter eggs and I love the music.
Look at that adorable Pink Wooly Yoshi Amiibo! And the castles! And the big version of the Teddy Buggy! The Teddy Buggy is my second favorite kart in the game. If it was pink, I think I’d have an extremely hard time picking between it and Prancer.
Ribbon Road is definitely my favorite of the pack, but I really love the Animal Crossing tracks, Super Bell Subway, Wild Woods, and Big Blue as well. Winter and Spring are my favorite looks for the Animal Crossing tracks, but I prefer the Winter and Fall versions of the music. I wish we could pick which season we were racing in though–it took longer than I’d have liked to even try all four. The course also features Bells over Coins (signified by a Money Bag in the corner) similar to how Hyrule Warriors had rupees.
Wild Woods and Super Bell Subway are really fun. I don’t have too much to say about either, but I love all the little details. As for Big Blue, I love all the water parts and the music is fantastic. I do wish it wasn’t a “one full loop” course though. I’ve never liked those and preferred my long 3 lap (or more) races over there being check points as you got further along. I wish they would stop doing that.
Anyway, I uploaded highlights of each course up on my Youtube channel so be sure to take a look if you’d like to see them in action :)
I honestly didn’t expect to get the Milk ones the next day and yet, they did arrive this morning. It went a lot faster to check the stickers since I didn’t need to look at the snacks as well, but yeah. You can check out Part 1 here.
But yes, as for the haul, well…
I was a little frustrated at first as 4 are exactly what I got from the Vegetable Snacks :/ The rest were, thankfully, unique, but I ended up getting my hopes up when I got new mega after new mega only for my final one to be Torchic. Considering the Pokemon in this sticker set, I do feel it is highly likely Mega Audino/Mega Tabunne/メガタブンネ has one. I can’t really justify buying more boxes to try (and they are sold out anyway, but I am feeling pretty sad–I would have loved to get two (one to keep as is and one to actually place in my sticker book). I think it’s likely enough though that I will put it on my Wanted page.
I don’t know what I will do with any of them yet (except Pancham who will be going to a good friend of mine), but maybe I could find someone who’d want to trade or something :(
Bonus bits for collectors:
Snack bag is yellow with various Pikachu posing.
Inside of the box has a little…maze thing going that shows Pumpkaboo, Furfrou, Litleo, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Pikachu, Charmander, and Eevee.
Pikachu is on the box of each one with a Mega Rayquaza Sticker sample
Stickers displayed on the side are Pikachu (with Ash’s hat), Pancham (with Serena’s Sunglasses), Braixen, Frogadier, Mega Slowbro, Mega Sceptile, Primal Kyogre, Primal Groudon, Mudkip, Torchic, and Pikachu.