Current Obsession
So... I never thought I'd see the day that I'd cop to playing Pokémon. It isn't from any sort of previous active dislike for the whole franchise. Indeed, I've always been a little intrigued by it.
Lil Bastard has been playing different Pokémon games and watching the cartoon series for years. The show seemed to promote friendship and helping out other people... and, well, we'll sidestep some of the potential "issues" regarding zapping animals into tiny little balls and throwing them out to beat on other critters thing...
One nice thing about the cartoon is that it's actually watchable. (Unlike, say, Yu-Gi-Oh... which I loathe to this day. Who the fuck makes a cartoon about a card game and make the show about the people the card game is about actually... play the stupid card game. DUH DUH DUH DOOOOL!!! Gag me vigorously with a serrated knife.)
Pokémon actually seemed like a decent cartoon with an okay plot. And you actually learn stuff about the game watching the show. But it's subtle... unlike the beat-you-over-the-head-with-a-horse-pizzle method YuGiOh seems to go about it in. Anyways, I digress...
So, with the veritable fanboy orgy over Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, coupled with Lil Bastard's interest in the series... I figured it was time to give the game a shot and see what the big whoop was all about. Final Fantasy III was wearing a bit thin (playing IV, VI and III one right after the other kinda burnt me out, I think), and there were all these new features... including trading/battling/TALKING over WiFi.
I picked Diamond after doing a little researching on the Internets. This seemed to be the most popular choice with this "generation" of games, and I decided to follow the crowd for a change.
I chose a Chimchar as my "starter".
ISN'T HE SO CUTE!! ZOMG!1!
Ahem... anyways... err... where was I. OH! Right...
I named him George because, as we all know, if you are playing a flaming monkey in a video game you're bound by unwritten laws to name them George. Because flaming monkeys named George kick more ass than flaming monkeys named, I dunno, Bill. Or Bob. Or Frank. Or... Tim.
And here is what I have learned about Pokémon since I began playing:
> The game is deceptively simple on the surface. Wander around, battle other people with Pokémon to make money. Battle wild Pokémon for experience/capture new Pokémon to use. Unravel some plot involving bad guys using Pokémon in bad ways. Wash, rinse repeat. This formula has, apparently, been used in the previous games as well.
> As you get further in, though, an incredibly complex system unfolds in front of you. "Training" Pokémon so that their stats are raised in certain ways. Hunting wild Pokémon for critters with the exact base stats you want that you can then train the way you want. Insane permutations of stats and "move sets" (what Pokémon use in battle against other pokémon). Breeding Pokémon for specific movesets, personality types, AND base stats. Entering Pokémon in "talent contests"(?!wtf?!). Raising their "conditions", which will actually cause some Pokémon to evolve. Oh, and the whole evolving thing... many of the Pokémon turn into bigger, more powerful Pokémon when certain conditions are met. Usually it's level, but other require specific "triggers" to make them evolve and... yeah.
> Building teams of Pokémon to accentuate their strengths and mitigate weaknesses. Battling with other people via DS -> DS or over WiFi. Trading Pokémon via DS -> DS or over WiFi. Digging around the "Underground" so you can create secret bases, find buried dino-Pokemon, hard to find items, etc... etc... there's a metric assload of stuff you can do aside from the main storyline.
> Like cigarettes, crack rock, black tar heroin and the Animal Crossing games... it is addicting as hell. Especially if you have one of those "collector" personalities like I've got. Gotta catch them all, indeed. The Diamond/Pearl (D/P) games contain something like 150+ critters... the ENTIRE series of games has nearly 500. The awesome (yet sinisterly brilliant) thing is that you can actually import the captured Pokémon from the GBA versions of the game into the D/P games. Then... all the stuff with movesets, breeding, etc that I mentioned above gets even more complex and insane. The game is an obsessive's worst nightmare. ;)
> I suck at Pokémon. :D I've been playing for over a month or so now and am only about 1/2 way through the game. I find myself trying to capture every wild Pokémon that I encounter... and often trying to capture pairs so that I can breed ones that interest me. The critters I capture I like to level up manually... so I spend a lot of time doing training and whatnot. Then I'm like "Oh... you know, if I actually played through the entire game... a lot of what I'm doing might be easier!" Derrrrrr!
For example, I spent several days farting around in the Eterna Forest because I had a heal slave NPC there. If I'd just plowed a little further into the game I could've been fighting higher level stuff and getting more experience... yadda yadda yadda... see where this is going?
Since I haven't really concentrated on a single group... most of my critters aren't terribly high level at this point. However, I've got like 20 or so mid leveled critters, which is sort of cool... I guess.
> Given the hidden complexity of the Pokémon games, there's a RIDICULOUS amount of information about them available on the Internet. The arguments and debates people get into over this game rival the worst obsessive fanboy stereotype you can conjure in your mind. We're talking clashes on par with the "Kirk / Picard: which is better" type debates. Or, "What would win, a Star Destroyer or the Enterprise". Or "What's better, a PC or a Mac"... or "PS3, Xbox360 or Wii". You get the idea.
It's crazy.
So, in general... the game is deceptively cute and simple. What lies beneath is a insanely complex machination designed to suck you in and immerse you in the PokéWorld, collecting Pokémanz... relentlessly... endlessly...
And apparently, it works.
Must... catch... them... ALL!!
someone... please.... help... me... ;)