Random Thoughts! #4: Pokemon X REVIEW and 5 Reasons why Cardfight Vanguard! is getting boring

Hey everyone, just a short post to try and keep things going. Something off-topic, recently I just finished the main storyline of Pokemon X, and I must say, the story-wise was pretty underwhelming. Not because they re-used the usual Pokemon story of a young trainer who saves the world from a power-crazed, conflicted individual who leads a huge group of brainwashed members, but more of on the length of the story. Well, firstly, the plot wasn't too deep or anything, it was quite straightforward and easy to understand (Well, maybe it has got to do with the appeal to children), but I felt that as a game, the story didn't really feel LONG. The characters were not well developed, especially the rival team (SPOILERS) Team Flare, and the leader (MORE SPOILERS), Lysandre, gave off a more touch-n-go vibe, like you didn't feel for their noble cause and I didn't pity them when I defeated them. Don't get me wrong, overall Pokemon XY delivers in terms of breakthrough graphics and there are quite a few things to explore even after the plot ends, but I felt that XY was a slightly rushed job, given all the hype about its' release and announcement months back. Many crtics gave it high ratings, Gamespot gave it an 8/10, IGN a 9/10 and many others all giving Pokemon a positive rating. Overall it is a good game, with improved graphics, 3D capability and a few new Pokemon (somehow they are getting uglier and uglier, haha), and the Mega Evolution mechanic is pretty interesting (although it gets pretty repetitive after a while).

But recently with the 'game-breaking' (literally) bug about saving in the biggest city in the Kalos Region for Pokemon XY sort of showed how it may have been slightly rushed to meet the international deadline for the simultaneous release of XY. I do like how the online play function is heavily exploited in XY, which makes it a great experience knowing that thousands of other people around the world are simultaneously catching, training and sharing the same Pokemon experience with you. it really puts things in perspective. Pokemon transfer is still not out yet, and I am looking forward to the possibility of transferring my old Pokemon over to Pokemon X. That being said, another thing that I have gripes with besides the skimpy plot would be the new Pokemon in the Kalos region. I would think it would be better to incorporate more Pokemon trainers with the new Pokemon, because having the option of using Kanto/Sinnoh/Hoenn/Johto/Unova region Pokemon appeals more to me, and as such, personally I do not use many of the new Kalos region Pokemon. If you all know what I mean. 

Personally, given the plot and the game itself, I would give Pokemon XY a 7.5/10, given that it is a solid game, building upon the previous successes of the Pokemon franchise and expanding the world of Pokemon, and for that continuity aspect it scores highly, as well as the 3D graphics which are not revolutionary, but a 'nice to have' option sometimes. I would still recommend people to buy Pokemon X or Y to try it out for yourself, and maybe share in the comment section what version you play and how you found the whole Pokemon experience to be like.

Moving on, with things picking up in terms of studies and other commitments, I find that Cardfight Vanguard is starting to lose its' lustre, maybe because I havent touched the game for about a month now. Reading TehNacho's recent blog post in http://thunkofcardgames.blogspot.sg/ got me thinking: its' not just me thats' finding Cardfight Vanguard boring (personal opinion here). What he said in his blog post was more or less what I personally felt: Bushiroad is just churning out cards for the profit, and its' getting more obvious with each set that is released. Its' as if they were trying to squeeze all possible profits dry (not that I am against them for that, all companies seek profits, I understand.). Now 5 reasons why I think Cardfight Vanguard is getting boring (at least for me)

1)They are trying to make all clans 'similar'
Now, don't get me wrong. Its' good to balance out the clans' power level, and this is vital for a more varied metagame. But it seems to me their defintion of 'balancing' results in giving each clan with a unique mechanic behind them, a similar skill/ability. Just take the example of restanding Vanguards, like TehNacho mentioned briefly. For many sets now, restanding vanguards seem to be the staple behind 'good' decks. So Bushiroad decided to give almost all clans a restanding vanguard. Now restanding was unique to clans like Nova Grapplers, Aqua Force and Kagero (to some extent). But now they plan to give Genesis a restanding Vanguard? As if giving Narukami Dragonic Descendant wasn't enough, they had to overkill and give the main clans all restanding vanguard, in an effort to 'balance' the metagame, and competitive scene. Now that doesn't make any sense to me (correct me if I am wrong), but each clan USED to have something unique about themselves, Gold Paladin being lucksack heavy, Kagero defensive field control, Aqua Force with multiple attacks, Narukami with crazy retirement, Royals with high power and field presence, Shadows with sacrificing for power, Dark Irregulars with crazy soul-charging, you get my point. All clans used to have something that was unique to them, and I applaud Bushiroad for that. But now with the trend of re-standing vanguard, it seems Bushiroad is just following the statistics of 'best-selling booster packs' and making cards that re-stand. This makes the clans increasingly similar, and at the same time, incrasingly boring.

2)Crossrides are everywhere.
Now this is similar to point 1), in the sense that crossrides were seen in the past as strong and powerful and whatnot. But now, what happened to crossriding? People choose to just straight up ride the crossride Vanguard without riding the previous 'form' of the card. The intention was to make people ride the original and then 'upgrade' in order to get an advantage, much like breakride, but more defensively. But with crossrides everywhere, and the incentive to crossride decreased due to crossriding generally being a -1 and not always consistent to pull off, it seems that Burshiroad is just giving people crossrides just because 'every clan needs a crossride' reason, and because the clan may benefit more from it. It just seems redundant, and makes the game so homogenous.

3)Absurd power...everywhere.
This is another put-off for me, when it comes to playing. Now hitting 21k/23k used to be a feat only a few clans could pull off, and although it was pretty lop-sided when it came to the competitive scene, where Kagero/Royal/Gold dominated majority of the wins, at least we could blame it on the insane power levels of the cards. But now, with breakride giving a 'free' +10000 power for almost all clans, power levels are soaring, way above 9000 (pun intended). Again, this makes games hit crazy numbers like 36k or even 46k and so on, and after a while of all the crazy power, you get kind of used to it. It doesn't seem as phenomenal as before, where hitting above 20k was considered 'OP' and 'broken'. Well, when everyone can hit 26k and above, Vanguard seems like a pretty broken game to me.

4)They are making old booster set cards redundant.
THIS is really important. If you notice, card games that do last long like YuGiOh (can't say the same for Magic:the Gathering because I have never played it before), do not make old cards entirely redundant. In Vanguard, with every new gimmick like Limit Break, Lock and what not making the game 'fresh', but in fact it is an endless cycle  where people keep buying for the sake of staying relevant to the game, to extents where whole deckbuilds become redundant due to power creep. I'm not saying this is wrong, every card game in existence makes old cards redundant to some extent, where old cards are not 'usable' if you want to win consistently. In games like Yu-Gi-Oh, cards that date back to the early times in the game, like Heavy Storm, Dark Hole, Mystical Space Typhoon, even Synchros, which were released like 3-4 years back, are STILL used in tournament-winning decks, and are still part of game-winning combos, even with the introduction of meachanics like XYZs. Every game is different, I understand that. This is why there are banlists for games, and although Vanguard does have a banlist consisting of 3 cards, I think this banlist should be widened, such that decks do not completely become unplayable like in Yu-Gi-Oh, but hit in the way that crazy re-standing Vanguards like Raging Form Dragon or even cards with effects that are on the verge of conquering the metagame (yes I'm talking to you, Chaos Breaker Dragon) should be limited to 2 or even 1 copy, that old cards become may see the light again. And Bushiroad, I dont see the use of placing Tsukiyomi in the limited list. Just get her to 4 copies again.

5)Bushiroad seems like its' doing too many things....at one time.
 Some of you may dispute this, But I think Bushiroad has got its' hands full at the moment. Well sure, Weiss is more of a fangame rather than a competitive one, and Chaos has its' place. But seriously? Buddyfight? What kind of monstrosity is that? Vanguard isn't even 3 years old yet and you release yet ANOTHER cardgame? And it sounds SO similar to Cardfight! Vanguard if you ask me. This just seems too absurd to me. Why would you release a new game when your current game isn't well established around the world? Especially the English Print of the game, I feel it is sorely lacking proper tournament support and there is much potential in the English print (I don't play the English version), but if I was Bushiroad, I'd market the English version better, and proved better Cardfighter support for continents like Europe, or even Southeast Asia, and USA. Furthermore, won't this new game conflict with sales of Cardfight Vanguard? Don't assume that Cardfight is doing well now doesn't means it won't exit the market in 3 or 5 years time. This seeming lack of commitment to the game (you can tell from the storyline too) that this whole thing seems more like clockwork rather than a concerted attempt to churn out a good game. And this is why Cardfight to me has begun to lose its' luster. Not that I won't play it anymore, but it has lost the novelty it once had as a refreshing game.

With that, thanks for reading this post/rant and until next time,

EndBlade

EDIT:
FINAL VERDICT:
Pokemon XY:
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 8.5/10
Overall Experience (ease of use, connectability, WOW factor): 7/10
Total: 7.5/10

Random Thoughts #3: Pokemon X & Y, my experiences with Pokemon

Hey everybody, hope you guys are having a good week. Well just yesterday (Tuesday to be exact), I bought guess what, yes I got Pokemon X for the 3DS! Although my exams are in 4 weeks, I just couldn't resist the temptation. But I am limiting myself to a maximum of 2 hours a day (is that a lot?) to play the game, and as of now, I am still taking my time with the game.

Pokemon X- Isn't the deer legendary just amazing looking?

Now, the main reason I bought this game was just because I felt that since I followed the Pokemon franchise from the Ruby/Sapphire days back in 2003 (Although I did play Red version and Gold version later), I figured- why not pick up a copy of Pokemon X? I didn't really do much research into it, so I kind of went into the game not knowing anything about the new Pokemon etc. and I'll come to my first impressions of it later. But why did I choose Pokemon X instead of Pokemon Y? I think it was the cover Legendary Pokemon that sold it for me. A deer with rainbow antlers or a weird Y shaped wyvern-thing? Give me the rainbow deer anytime. Well, before I proceed, I would like to warn all those who have not played the game that I may reveal some spoilers about the game (although as of now I have only reached the first gym and completed that), so I guess the spoilers in terms of plot won't be so significant, and I might do a full-on review once I get to finishing the main storyline and side-quests.

First Impressions:

Now, Pokemon X and Y are set in a new region, the Kalos region. The beginning is pretty much the same, although the way in which you get your starter Pokemon is not directly from some Professor-named-after-a-tree, but from your new 'friends' (how kind). I cant say too much about the battling system, its' reminiscent of the Diamond/Pearl and Black/White type of touchscreen interface, albeit more polished and with some slight differences (not really significant). But the thing that sold it for me so far would be the graphics, a notch up from the previous Black/White and other generations preceding it, although I was happy they did keep the L-button = A-button option, that is really convenient for single-handed play (although I don't know why anyone would do that). Another thing that struck me would be the ability to see 'passers-by' online, it really made the world of Pokemon seem much larger and I realized that Pokemon has such a wide reach and has impacted many, like myself. But one thing that was slightly off for me was that the picking up of items took a while with the new animation they implemented, as well as the battles seem to be slightly slower paced, (not that I am rushing through the game or anything) with all the animations and what-not, even after I disabled the battle animations (hey I just don't like to see the battle animations, don't ask me why, just personal preferences, haha)

Some of the Pokemon games that I played, couldn't find them all (pun intended)

Now although I have played close to all the main Pokemon games from Sapphire being my very first experience with Pokemon, Emerald (I think I clocked more than 300 hours on that game alone), FireRed & LeafGreen (yes I played both), Diamond, Platinum (I even have the Japanese version of it), SoulSilver and finally most recently Black (I didn't get Black 2, mainly because I felt the differences were too minor to warrant me getting it, and personally I didn't really like the 5th Generation Pokemon), I was blown away by the huge leap in graphics by GameFreak this time to utilize the 3D function (although in some cases may seem underwhelming and gimmicky), but still the way the game was worked (I am still getting used to using the Circle-pad on my 3DS), and the overall graphic changes were such that although it made the game look more appealing, it did not detract from the overall nostalgia that I had when I chose my first Pokemon, and the background music so far is just...fantastic.

That being said, I am no pro at Pokemon, although I do know about effort values, Natures, breeding and all those mechanics behind Pokemon, I personally do not care for them, with the exception of once I tried to create a Attack & Speed variant of Gallade (my favourite Pokemon, besides Blaziken), I have never bothered to EV train my Pokemon, or breed them for 'special' egg moves, so you can say that I am a Poke-noob. But who cares, its' the fun from playing Pokemon that makes the experience all the more unique to every player, instead of mechanically training and breeding the 'super-Pokemon', although I am not in any way discouraging you from doing so (but it is really boring and taxing).

Back to Pokemon X. Hmm for now, with the limited time that I have played on my 3DS for this game, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has played Pokemon before and are looking for the game to jump back into the Pokemon world, this is the game for you. For those who have never played Pokemon before (where were you the last 18 years), this fresh take on Pokemon does not disappoint (for now) and although revolutionary in graphics, Pokemon stays true to what it knows best, soothing background music and the simple gameplay makes it really a game for all ages, for both beginners and old players alike. This is speaking from a player who has played almost all the versions of Pokemon, although in recent years has become less hardcore. But I think the money paid for Pokemon X is worth very single cent. It is likely I will do a final review and score it once I have finished the main story, so do look out for that post (won't be anytime soon though).

On a side note (but still related to this in some way), do you guys think I should continue to post sections on 'Random Thoughts' in between every Cardfight Vanguard article? I will create a poll to see how the response is like, if for some reason you guys like the current posting format I will continue to do so, so do vote on whether I should continue to post these types of articles, and feel free to comment on how I can improve/ what I can include in future posts in the Comments Section below. But thats' it from me for now, thanks for reading and until next time,

EndBlade