Archibold
17 Reviews liked by Archibold
Man, early Pokemon was so full of life. You can see in games like Pokemon Emerald just how clearly full of passion the design team was for these games once upon a time. Gen 3 of Pokemon's greatest strength is just how enduring it is, these games are collectively over 20 years old now and they still look absolutely amazing, the pristine pixel art has allowed them to hold up for longer than any 3D models ever could. You can see your own reflection in puddles as you run over them in this game, for the GBA that still kinda blows my mind! Not a thing about these games look dated even today, and the UI and menus are still sleek and gorgeous too.
Pokemon Emerald (and Gen 3 by extension) has so many cool, unsung little setpiece moments that help it stick in the mind. The route before Fallarbor Town being covered in volcanic ash from the nearby Mt. Chimney and having brown grass that only turns green when you run through it, the series of long-winded forest routes leading up to and past Fortree City (one of the coolest locations in any Pokemon game) and the vast and open-ended oceans you can begin exploring to your heart's content as soon as you get Surf.
Pokemon Gen 3's world design, both literally and figuratively are brilliant. Hoenn is a lush, tropical region so beautifully realised by all those little moments of artistry I touched on, but in terms of progression it's also incredible. So open-ended, so rewarding to the player for paying attention and thinking about the world. Once you beat Norman and get Surf, the game never tells you that you're supposed to go east of Mauville City to progress to Fortree, but you as the player are rewarded for caring and paying attention and thinking to yourself; "hmm, I should come back here when I can Surf." There's so many little moments like that peppered throughout the game like coming back to Meteor Falls to get Bagon when you have Waterfall or using Surf to go back yourself to the places near Dewford Town and Slateport City that Mr. Briney used to have to ferry you across. (And perhaps discovering the Abandoned Ship in the process!)
HMs do feel antiquated and needlessly restrictive, especially given the modernization of more recent games - and the physical/special split not yet existing hurts the game mechanically, but almost everything else is so well done. The new Pokemon designs are charming and do a great job at reflecting Hoenn's tropical nature, the soundtrack is lively and optimistic - enhancing the game's adventurous aesthetic and hell, the story might not be too much to write home about but it too has some interesting setpiece moments here and there and better yet - it doesn't insult your intelligence and insist upon itself at every given opportunity! Wow! What a novel idea! Next you'll tell me that this game had meaningful post-game content or something!
These games still looking so good today serves as a great microcosm of how well they still hold up in general. It's Pokemon Emerald, but it might just be evergreen. If you ever want to remember why Pokemon was so beloved, go back and play a game like this.
Pokemon Emerald (and Gen 3 by extension) has so many cool, unsung little setpiece moments that help it stick in the mind. The route before Fallarbor Town being covered in volcanic ash from the nearby Mt. Chimney and having brown grass that only turns green when you run through it, the series of long-winded forest routes leading up to and past Fortree City (one of the coolest locations in any Pokemon game) and the vast and open-ended oceans you can begin exploring to your heart's content as soon as you get Surf.
Pokemon Gen 3's world design, both literally and figuratively are brilliant. Hoenn is a lush, tropical region so beautifully realised by all those little moments of artistry I touched on, but in terms of progression it's also incredible. So open-ended, so rewarding to the player for paying attention and thinking about the world. Once you beat Norman and get Surf, the game never tells you that you're supposed to go east of Mauville City to progress to Fortree, but you as the player are rewarded for caring and paying attention and thinking to yourself; "hmm, I should come back here when I can Surf." There's so many little moments like that peppered throughout the game like coming back to Meteor Falls to get Bagon when you have Waterfall or using Surf to go back yourself to the places near Dewford Town and Slateport City that Mr. Briney used to have to ferry you across. (And perhaps discovering the Abandoned Ship in the process!)
HMs do feel antiquated and needlessly restrictive, especially given the modernization of more recent games - and the physical/special split not yet existing hurts the game mechanically, but almost everything else is so well done. The new Pokemon designs are charming and do a great job at reflecting Hoenn's tropical nature, the soundtrack is lively and optimistic - enhancing the game's adventurous aesthetic and hell, the story might not be too much to write home about but it too has some interesting setpiece moments here and there and better yet - it doesn't insult your intelligence and insist upon itself at every given opportunity! Wow! What a novel idea! Next you'll tell me that this game had meaningful post-game content or something!
These games still looking so good today serves as a great microcosm of how well they still hold up in general. It's Pokemon Emerald, but it might just be evergreen. If you ever want to remember why Pokemon was so beloved, go back and play a game like this.
Dark Souls
2011
A revolution in game design, it's not hard at all to see why Dark Souls has been so influential in more modern games. It's so rare that you see a developer who are;
#1: So willing to let players miss out on huge swathes of content by tucking away entire, interconnected areas behind secrets, and;
#2: Willing to be so thoroughly, unapologetically evil to the player. Brutal boss fights, little to no handholding, enemies constantly ambushing you and hiding behind corners, NPCs who betray you and so much more.
You combine these things, and you have a recipe for player immersion. I'd be willing to bet that a large majority of the reason players talk up how consumed they were by Dark Souls is due to how "hands off" the game is. It never explains any of its countless nuances, it leaves the player to their own devices to discover how certain mechanics work; how to survive enemy attacks by using the I-frames on your roll, how to dual-wield weapons or use a shield in tandem with another one or use a single weapon with both hands. During my playthrough on stream, I shot arrows at the pressure plates in Sen's Fortress to trigger them without stepping on them, and my chat totally popped off. None of them had ever seen someone do that or even thought to do such a thing and it worked! That was so sick, and also I'm a genius! If more games were willing to trust their players to think for themselves and experiment, they might be hailed as just as immersive.
It's incredibly impressive how many builds and playstyles Dark Souls' combat and systems allow for, combine that with the non-linearity and potential for constant sequence-breaking with its world as open and interconnected as it is and you have a game that's also extremely replayable. At its best, Dark Souls honestly feels like an edgier and less clunky 3D Zelda only designed by people who hate you.
There are a couple things that hold it back from the complete top score for me. The second half of the game noticeably dips in quality from the first, it never quite reaches the heights of Anor Londo and Sen's Fortress again once those areas are over, and some areas like Tomb Of The Giants are outright unenjoyable for me, even as someone who likes difficulty. The Bed Of Chaos is an obviously awful boss in every regard so notorious that I hardly even feel the need to go off on it, the menu'ing is pretty clunky and unintuitive and I personally don't like having to do the "run up" to a boss again every time you die to it. I love difficulty, but I don't think that's interesting difficulty or gameplay - it just seems like padding to me, and it's especially frustrating against bosses like Gwyn who are pretty brutal and whose fight can be over in about 30 seconds, yet you have to do a like - 3 minute run-up to every time you wanna rematch him. Ugh.
Still though, anything I can find wrong with this game pales in comparison to its achievements. Very few developers have the balls to do the things Dark Souls does. In my playthrough, dastardly NPC Lautrec who betrays you if you let him live backflipped off a cliff during our fight and just died, I just got his item for free and the game just let me roll with it. Now THAT's game design. No restrictions, no refusing to let players cheese out a W, just dudes backflipping off cliffs. Fuck yeah, Dark Souls. Fuck yeah.
#1: So willing to let players miss out on huge swathes of content by tucking away entire, interconnected areas behind secrets, and;
#2: Willing to be so thoroughly, unapologetically evil to the player. Brutal boss fights, little to no handholding, enemies constantly ambushing you and hiding behind corners, NPCs who betray you and so much more.
You combine these things, and you have a recipe for player immersion. I'd be willing to bet that a large majority of the reason players talk up how consumed they were by Dark Souls is due to how "hands off" the game is. It never explains any of its countless nuances, it leaves the player to their own devices to discover how certain mechanics work; how to survive enemy attacks by using the I-frames on your roll, how to dual-wield weapons or use a shield in tandem with another one or use a single weapon with both hands. During my playthrough on stream, I shot arrows at the pressure plates in Sen's Fortress to trigger them without stepping on them, and my chat totally popped off. None of them had ever seen someone do that or even thought to do such a thing and it worked! That was so sick, and also I'm a genius! If more games were willing to trust their players to think for themselves and experiment, they might be hailed as just as immersive.
It's incredibly impressive how many builds and playstyles Dark Souls' combat and systems allow for, combine that with the non-linearity and potential for constant sequence-breaking with its world as open and interconnected as it is and you have a game that's also extremely replayable. At its best, Dark Souls honestly feels like an edgier and less clunky 3D Zelda only designed by people who hate you.
There are a couple things that hold it back from the complete top score for me. The second half of the game noticeably dips in quality from the first, it never quite reaches the heights of Anor Londo and Sen's Fortress again once those areas are over, and some areas like Tomb Of The Giants are outright unenjoyable for me, even as someone who likes difficulty. The Bed Of Chaos is an obviously awful boss in every regard so notorious that I hardly even feel the need to go off on it, the menu'ing is pretty clunky and unintuitive and I personally don't like having to do the "run up" to a boss again every time you die to it. I love difficulty, but I don't think that's interesting difficulty or gameplay - it just seems like padding to me, and it's especially frustrating against bosses like Gwyn who are pretty brutal and whose fight can be over in about 30 seconds, yet you have to do a like - 3 minute run-up to every time you wanna rematch him. Ugh.
Still though, anything I can find wrong with this game pales in comparison to its achievements. Very few developers have the balls to do the things Dark Souls does. In my playthrough, dastardly NPC Lautrec who betrays you if you let him live backflipped off a cliff during our fight and just died, I just got his item for free and the game just let me roll with it. Now THAT's game design. No restrictions, no refusing to let players cheese out a W, just dudes backflipping off cliffs. Fuck yeah, Dark Souls. Fuck yeah.