I think this (expenditure, understanding, realisation, release) is a release (heatwise) cloaked in minimalism of my fave people (virtual relationships) who have been a bit of the old town (environmental context adaptations) and music schools (where I grew up) in the same email (text body and messages field) because of my fave games of yore (youth)
what does the above mean? it means, in extended form, this...
Pokemon Franchise - A Travelogue (Finalised)
Introduction
What is Pokemon? Good question. Its "pocket monster" translation is simple. Life is a monster. This essay was one too...
Pokemon, to me, is LSD chess. (Keep in mind I don't recommend LSD, I've unknowingly tried it). A psychedelic playing experience. Bishop, Pokemon one. King, Pokemon two. Pawn, Pokemon three. Queen, Pokemon four. Rook, Pokemon five. Knight, Pokemon six. Keep in mind that the chess Catalan (playing style) and Pokemon battle system are polarised. Meaning that they do not operate visually the same. Rather, chess (strategy) is integral. And this applies for all Real Time Strategy gaming.
RTS (Real-time Strategy) games as a genre has developed a lot since C&C, Sonic, Metroid and The Legend Of Zelda in the 80s / 90s. I'm 30 years old this month, so my gameplay timespan is horribly limited. i grew up in 1988 in Kent with a Master System from Sega, Sonic The Hedgehog 1 built in, and an Alex The Kid cartridge. The game of life - nerds like us who live on the net don't have a life besides (I got somebody) and you get what I mean: gaming is experience. Life is experience, hence the reason I got out there and travelled Europe while I could in the nineties to noughtie-1s. But now, I've retired from all that. Family in holiday mode is as much as I can manage nowadays. But how does this all tie in with the Pokemon franchise?
Well. In Pokemon, the original parochial (naturalised) structure was to travel the islands including Kanto, Johto, Alola (this generation, VII), and celebrate your successes as champion of the game, islands, and whatever. That, however (for I at least) has never been the appeal of Pokemon.
The appeal, dear reader, is in the humane care of Pokemon! Keeping pets, catching them wild, raising them, being there, and letting them bask in the glory of being wanted. As a before teenager the first wave of the Pokemon franchise (I was 10 years old) the meeting of natural and the synthetic in gaming for creatures to call friends (at least virtually) was a real breath of Stardust. So much of the nineties generation I grew up in revolved around fast-paced action, shoot-em-ups, novelty gaming, and etc, that the true slow-paced builder strategies were getting lost on my generation. Pokemon really busted the seal on all that. And with anime-illustrated magic trading cards one of the accompanying ways to keep this thing going, all manna of mannas broke out.
Fast-Forward
This post originally started as a gushing article about my Xmas present of 2017 (besides seeing my girlfriend) - a special Nintendo Beta (testing module) cartridge that combines both Sun and Moon games together as one. It also travels you back in time to Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Alola, aka thru-Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Black, White, Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and Alola (Sun and Moon) as well as Aether Paradise, the two new (organic and synthetic) islands of the central plot.
I bought this cartridge on Amazon before Ultra Sun and Moon was officially released, so I guess it was a gift from Nintendo, as I am part of their developers club, having won a Brentwood Nintendo Magazine convention for Pokemon Stadium back in the day, to name but one achievement. That was with my mate Matthew, who helped I prepare and played Bomberman multiplayer to calm I down. The set up that day was people would take their GBA cartridges to stand in line, and wait, and wait...until NOM invited a game.
What attracted me wasn't the conventions, though, as you could surmise from my introduction. It was importantly pet related. The whole reason the game took off (Pokemon - "gotta catch em all!" is the slogan) was its collectable aping of Tamagotchi, a digi pet technology brought to these shores and popularised in the UK since 1990 (instead then, I was 2). Indeed, seen Dragonball Z in recent times? Yugi-oh? These two accompanying franchises are based on battling and breeding; Pocket Monster ties it all in.
So, the game I played WiFi'd (hence developing) that has got I to the stage of acquiring charger drives for the publicised new Ultra Beast Pokemon Genesect, let alone Necrozma and Darkrai, is all to come...and I have the foundations of it all set. Last week, I evolved Type:Null, Gladion's doggie, to Silvally, what I named it in my head, translated to the game code via ECG. I am wondering whether the Prism Scale object evolves Lunala into Necrozma at final Mega_Evolution, though it's cordially unlikely. I caught Tapu Koko, originally named Tapu Lele, this week, as it re-appeared at the Ruins Of Conflict and gave into a Nest Ball.
What got I through this game so quickly (I have defeated the elite four, Kukui Professor, and Hau my inner self), was Lillie, my female accomplice and as Olivia described her, "your partner". I really hope she will show at Pokemon League. In the game Lillie falls in love with your character in shy ways that I won't spoil for you if you're a fellow ambient sad sack. It gives the game player lovely feelings, even if you were female...remember, the kids are only 11 in this anime!
Lillie in my version goes to train in Kanto, but what partner never returns? She moved onto Johto, and is now back as part of my Festival Plaza, a new function where you can provide arrtractions to visitors, trade and battle, engage in activities, etc. I particularly like that Lillie asks questions at the Plaza, which are randomised depending on your mood. "What do you look for in a person?" "What is most important to you?" The Johto set of items she brings came in handy. Also check the Pelago for Mohn, your father, where you can see which beasts want to battle with you the most, and collect Poke Beans.
Poke Pelago, a nice addition, ultimately because of its 8-bit harking back to the days of Pokemon Red and Blue, is perhaps a tip and nod to the retromania that has existed in the gaming war between Nintendo, Sony and Sega (now collapsed into Nintendo) via the excised pressure of 3D network games like Halo and Call Of Duty. Sega still operate the Xbox, granted, and this has been the greatest heights of popularity they have achieved, but my point is that the demand for the anime and non-bloodgames are abundant.
Inside the TCG concept's (Mega) Evolution
Pokemon, historically, really blossomed due to the incendiary trading card section of the game. The Game Boy Colour games and Plush cuddly toys brought the first wave full circle, but the simplicity and complexity of the trading card game is what got the public's attention. Games were much more 8-bit back then - story over graphics every time. Ash was the central character of the original Pokemon games; in Sun and Moon, the player is left to choose one's own title and even clothes eventually.
My father likened Pokemon to Snap!, the 50s-2000s popular family game that became popular at the time due to simplicity. Yes, Pokemon is easy to get into, but somehow I believe there are many more elements to it than matching values. Trading card states also from the virtual games, such as a Pokemon becoming burned, frozen, or paralyzed, flip the script on that paroxcysm, just because it re-introduces the chess elements. Thinking one to ten steps ahead, for as long as you can, as quickly as you can.
Crucially, the warping of reality - and, to that extent, the dark magic genre - has always been key to development of the TCG. For more up to date info on that, please visit:
www.pokemon.com/tcg or
www.pokemon.com/tcgo for adding a collection. Indeed, that's why you won't always find youth toy shops stocking Pokemon, because it is related to dark magic and zooology.
To play the game, one can just select two windows in Windows or Mac screen from the main web page, and see whose attacks serve each player's hand better (if you are playing yourself, it's just to gauge the attacks potential, a good exercise). Damage counters can be replaced with 1p coins; if you're playing with someone, how about wherever buying your mate a round for winning?
The point is the rules are simple: with a deck of maximum 60 different Pokemon (including doubles or triples etc), take 6 "Prize Cards" (the old way of swapping cards one really wants) from the opponent's deck faster than they can take them from your deck. Alternatively, if you're not playing for keeps (the way most fair people do it), the idea is just to split a deck of 60 cards down the middle, shuffle them, and see what you both come up with. It's a beautiful way to while away the hours.
Starting a collection? Easy. Since I displaced my old cards to my family, I returned to pick up six Ultra booster packs of the Sun & Moon variety, with Pokemon including Heatmor; Lairon; Swablu; Alolan Marowak; Oranguru; Bewear; Grumpig; Mismagius, showing up to greet I in that dark, (magical) - anti-real, "not", way I love the most. But these creatures do exist. You just cannot see them, and I am away with the faeries. One thing I like to do is gaze at the cards, Holo or not, and bring out a real imaginary tale of I talking to and petting these creatures that come out of the cards...Morimoto who I greeted at a Pokemon convention back in the day said Nintendo's idea was to have Poke Balls for the electronic game, and Pokemon cards for real life, so that these wonderful accomplices could enter our headspace in the most protective way possible, wanting someone to be theirs.
Muttley - Foci Left - previous Sun & Moon & Pokemon Champion.
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