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JOYSTiCK Ep. 3: ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ – an iota of effort

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By: Daniel Kendle

As the good old-fashioned saying goes, “he who puts bad graphics over great gameplay is like putting the cart before the horse.”

Hello, and welcome back to JOYSTiCK, the HPSH serial that enjoys reviewing and exploring video games. Today’s subject is the game ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus,’ which, while flawed, shows that innovation is the way to go for decades-old franchises.

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I’ll say that I’ve had a… mixed relationship with the Pokémon franchise over the years. On one hand, Gamefreak (the company behind the video games) have made games that have been held as classics by millions, practically defining their generations of consoles respectively. The franchise has also been dear to my heart for a long time, and even now in high school, I still get the games when they come out.

On the other hand, modern Pokémon games have become so formulaic and stupid that it’s almost a little insulting to buyers. No more are these games adventures with a party of your 6 favorite monsters, we here you can explore a world and become the best trainer you can. Nowadays, with games like ‘Pokémon Sword and Shield’ as well as ‘Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl,’ they’re become bogged-down, soulless entities. Yeah, the objective is to become the strongest Pokémon trainer there is, by going through all the gyms and eventually beating the Champion, but the ‘adventure’ aspect feels largely gone. Each game as of recent memory has an EXTREMELY linear, tight path forward, with only the slightest deviation every once in a blue moon.

‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ was the Gamefreak redemption arc. It was the first mainline game to differ heavily from the original games, instead being more akin to ‘Monster Hunter.’ Instead of having button prompts to throw things like Pokeballs and berries to catch and lure Pokémon, you instead have free-aim control on, like some kind of 3rd-person FPS shooter. There’s also many other changes, both big and small.

So, is this game good? Is the Pokémon formula screwed, with this being just a trash-flavored cherry on top of this pile of maggot-ridden compost? (My allegories could use some work, honestly) Maybe this is a breath of fresh air for the franchise, and possibly even RPG’s as a whole. Let’s take a look!

….. PART ONE: GAMEPLAY

Ooh, this game’s mechanics are so GOOD!

Like, seriously, this game is great to play. I’ve never inherently disliked the core Pokémon formula, though what I will say is that it is repetitive. Walk into some tall grass, encounter a randomized Pokémon, weaken it until you catch it, repeat. It never progresses in difficulty outside of a Pokémon’s levels growing in number, becoming tougher and stronger. But the problem with THAT is that your Pokémon gain levels as well, and normally stay in the same range as wild Pokémon. Or in other words, your Pokémon and other trainer’s and wild ones are basically all the same level for normal gameplay, making the core gameplay loop stay practically the same from beginning to end. It’s really, really degrading.

But ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ does something different, though it still keeps familiar aspects of the old games. You still have levels around the same as other NPC’s, but the game has become more strategy-based and focused on combat that rewards clever thinking and planning out attacks rather than brute-forcing battles.

In truth, I won’t be able to get to every gameplay aspect in ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’; there’s just TOO many. Stuff like Research Tasks, Pokémon Battles and Catching Mechanics and Requests will be talked about, but things like Farming and Rideable Pokémon are either not essential to gameplay or I don’t have a concrete opinion on.

Starting with the new Catching Mechanics, they are super smooth. Catching Pokémon has always been locked into a button prompt in previous titles. “Press the A button to catch the yellow mouse! Press the A button to catch the deformed caterpillar!” It’s never been a bad system, though very tedious. It takes multiple screens to show you through the menus and stuff, so the time taken for something really small like catching your 1,718th Bidoof in a row or catching the god of all Pokémon is the same, and by the same I mean monotonous.

But in ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus,’ the player has “free-aiming,” allowing them to throw Pokeballs freely, outside of battle and actually aiming and throwing them like you’re in an FPS-Shooter. And honestly, it’s great!

It feels SO smooth to control, whether using the Gyro-Aiming functionality or simply using the Joystick to control. It’s also very quick. One moment you could throw a ball at a Pokémon before going and finding some resource deposits to loot.

Speaking of resource deposits, the throwing mechanic also extends to other parts of the game. For instance, throwing one of your party Pokémon at a gemstone or fruit tree lets the Pokémon collect the resources from the deposit, which is pretty cool. I like how instead of collecting crafting materials yourself, (which you can still do for some smaller materials) some require you to rely on your Pokémon, which is cool! You also throw your Pokémon out at wild Pokémon to initiate a battle, throw berries to lure Pokémon to the fallen fruit’s location, and in the game’s boss fights (technically a first for the series) you throw balms at the raging Pokémon to soothe them. You get so much functionality out of this throwing function; it’s awesome!

The second piece of gameplay I’ll talk about are Battles, and the numerous new parts to that leg of gameplay. Past games have a solid gameplay loop but again, it’s been over 25 since the first game came out, and it’s safe to say that the ball isn’t really rolling on this anymore.

Here’s how they function:

  1. Walk up to a Pokémon trainer or walk around in some tall grass for a random encounter.
  2. Wait for the battle scene to finish playing.
  3. Open up the menu and click, “attack.”
  4. Click the move that either a.) does the most damage, or b.) has the type advantage. (‘Types’ are basically categorized elements that each Pokémon has that gives it strengths and weaknesses against other types, like Grass, Fire, Water, etc.)
  1. Wait for battle animation to finish, then the opposing Pokémon attacks.
  2. Rinse and repeat until boring oneself into a coma.

Even writing that was tiring. And that’s the rub with this system: it’s tiring. Every battle after, like, the first hour of the game is monotonous, tedious. Once you’ve got all 6 of your Pokémon for your team down, what’s the point? You don’t need to further progress if you’ve gotten your final squad, and then exploration is boring, which gut-punches the entire game.

Now, I’m not going to say that ’Pokémon Legends Arceus’ fixes everything about past battles. There are still times when you have to slog through a mandatory trainer fight or gain XP from fighting other Pokémon in order to level up more. But while it doesn’t redo the entire system, the game refines it.

Recent Pokémon games have had these sorts of “gimmicks” in order to spice things up, ranging from pretty solid to breaking the online meta entirely. ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ does have these gimmicks as well, but there’s more of them and they’re actually really good!

The first is the introduction of Strong Style and Agile Style moves into the game. When picking what move to use, you can now also choose if you want the move to be in 1 of the 2 styles. Strong Style makes the move deal more damage but loses you a turn, and Agile Style makes your move deal less damage, but gives you another turn. I’ve got to say, these are really fun mechanics that can actually provide some strategy into battles. NPC characters and wild Pokémon also use these to their advantage, making battles more challenging in the long run.

Also, Pokémon can move more than once at a time! Finally, no more even fighting, with you and your opponent going one at a time and waiting for the other to go. Now, it’s not uncommon for your enemy to move once, twice, even thrice in a row. Heck, when you’ve got more than one Pokémon join the battle, that number can jump up to 4 or something. The only bad thing about this is that this change, along with Strong and Agile Styles, makes it so the game doesn’t have either online nor local battles with other friends, a staple of other mainline titles. This is honestly pretty disappointing, and drags down the game’s replayability after you finish the main story.

To finish off this section, let’s talk about Requests. Requests are little side missions that have you talking to NPCs with a little icon above their head. Upon entering a conversation with them, you can get a little mission added to a list. These missions have you go out into the world and either catch some Pokémon, get some resources, or sometimes walk into a small “mini-narrative,” like fighting some bandits or something. These are cool, though very basic outside of you doing something for some more materials from them. I feel like they’re basically fodder for drawing out the game.

PART TWO: GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION

Alright, let’s get this out of the way: ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ looks AWFUL.

Looking at other Nintendo games, the company has basically perfected the idea of polish for their games, with cool art styles and beautiful scenes in most of their in-house games. Pokémon is technically a 2nd-party production; Gamefreak is its own thing, kinda like how the ‘Xenoblade’ and ‘Fire Emblem’ games are technically by other studios. So I guess the Pokémon franchise can get off not having the same graphical fidelity as Nintendo’s works, but still…this game looks gross.

Let’s start with the animations, and while I have much worse to say about textures and geometrical layout of the game later, the animations are much nicer in this title. Pokémon will actually run up to an opposing monster to attack it, whilst previous games had you “shooting bites,” or whatever. Pokémon outside of battles now sleep, eat, turn around without just lazily flipping their model 180 degrees. It’s nice, though these new animations are compensated by the fact that there are only around 200 Pokémon in this game, a far cry from prior titles. Humans, environmental things, stuff like banners and lanterns, all move like how they would in real life. At least this, the animation in and out of fighting, is good.

But the graphics themselves are a whole different story. Even for a game on the Nintendo Switch, which is beaten out by the Xbox and PlayStation for best hardware power and capability, this is mind-bendingly bad to look at. I’ve heard people say that this looks like a Wii game, which is honestly true (It’s also a bad thing, seeing as the Wii was released in 2006, 16 years ago).

The textures have this weird, muddy look to them. You look around the ground and rocks, and while some things look fine, like the trees, others look like garbage. Things with lots of details like specialized images on shirts or logos on banners or clothing look horrendous, being able to COUNT the pixels.

Another thing is the lighting, and it’s… strange. I’m not someone who’s an expert on lighting in games, but what I will say is that the lighting in this is pretty decent, but the insanely terrible-looking textures and geometry of landscapes mixed with somewhat-solid lighting makes ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ really weird to look at.

The geometry of the landscapes of the game is surprisingly bad. Polygons are practically embedded into every surface, with round-looking objects a rarity at best. I will say that over time I did get used to the wonky world around me, every time you enter a new area you get that feeling of depression once again, looking out onto a biome that, in all honesty, looks more like a tech-test than a final product.

And aside from that, I don’t really know what else to say. Like, 3D Pokémon games have never exactly been “lookers,” but this game feels like it went out of its way to look like this Frankenstein-amalgamation of decent lighting and animations, but atrocious polygons and textures. While not the worst looking Nintendo game out there – far from it, actually – it definitely feels like it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to Nintendo’s other 2022 products. ‘Kirby and the Forgotten Land,’ ‘Splatoon 3,’ even Gamefreak’s next game ‘Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’ look WAY better from the trailers and gameplay we’ve seen. So, why does this game look like sewage in comparison?

PART THREE: STORY

I actually quite enjoyed the story this time around. In ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ you begin as a 15-year old kid who’s sent back in time to a place known as the Hisui region, which is revealed later on to be the past incarnation of the Sinnoh region, a modern day land.

It’s revealed that Arceus, basically this God-like Pokémon, has sent you back in time in order to do… something. It’s a little vague, but it’s implied that the reason is to catch all the Pokémon in Hisui. You also get to customize your name and look during this segment.

Eventually, your phone is turned into this sort of device that lets you communicate with Arceus, and you’re dropped into the past. You awaken on a beach, where you’re led into having to catch some unruly Pokémon with the region’s professor, who’s lost them. After doing so you’re brought back to the professor’s village, where you’re like an outcast with your strange finesse with catching Pokémon, something that was very difficult back then. You enter a trial to become part of the Galaxy Expedition Team, an organization that has you catch Pokémon to expand something known as the Pokédex, which is something that all games have had to record your progress catching monsters, but is revealed to be the first ever in this game.

After picking out a Starter Pokémon you start off into the wilds before meeting a traveling trader known as Volo, who battles you. This is a tutorial for battling other trainers. He gives you some helpful information, and you’re finally able to go explore the Obsidian Fieldlands, ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ first large, open area to explore.

You quickly learn of rampaging Alpha Pokémon that have been out of control ever since you were dropped into Hisui. You head back to the village to speak with the professor, and he figures out that throwing “soothing balms” at the berserk monsters will calm them down. You make a basket of the little baggies, head to the arena where the rampaging Pokémon is at, and face it down.

And actually, the story goes on like that for most of the game! Reach a new area on the map, explore for a while, learn about the people and lore of the place, fight the rampaging Pokemon’s designated warden, and eventually calm down the creature. This continues until the end, which is honestly kind of touching, or at least as touching as a game where you throw balls at innocent animals and have them brutally battle each other. There are times where it’s stupid, yes, but while ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ may seem like an ugly game… its beauty is on the inside. The inside of the packaging, at least.

PART FOUR: CONCLUSION

Wait, so I actually LIKE this game?

Yeah, actually! ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ is a flawed package, but within those flaws is a tightly-wound gameplay loop and fun story that shows that innovation from old formulas does pay off. While it kinda looks like the equivalent to a dead rat in a sock, other aspects look very promising towards this franchise’s future.

In the end, I think ’Pokémon Legends Arceus’ is a 7.5 out of 10 for me. While its story and gameplay are both good and awesome respectively, the overall look of the game brings down the score considerably, along with the removal of battling friends and Requests being somewhat shallow. Still, this is a great game that just needed a few tweaks, in my opinion.

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Once again, that’s all for this episode of JOYSTiCK! I hope you enjoyed this review, and others as well. See you next time!

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘One of Us is Lying’

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By: Kaylen Fuentes

*Warning: contains spoilers*

The television show ‘One of Us is Lying’ first premiered October 7th, of 2022. The series is based on Karen M. McManus’ book ‘One of Us is Lying’ which was published in May of 2017, followed by the sequel ‘One of Us is Next’ published in January 2020.

Season 2 of ‘One of Us is Lying’ premiered October 20th, 2022. After leaving off on a cliffhanger at the end of season 1, fans had been waiting a little over a year for the release of season 2.

The TV series ‘One of Us is Lying’ follows the story of 4 high schoolers who were framed for their classmate’s death after being the only ones left alone with him moments before he died of an allergic reaction. The show follows them trying to figure out what happened to their classmate and who framed them for his death. However, this season, after figuring out who was responsible for their classmate’s death, they try to cover up another and keep their secrets hidden.

At the beginning of season 2, a new antagonist is introduced by the name of Simon Says. Simon Says knows the club’s secrets and what really happened to their classmate Jake. The group killed Jake out of self defense and vowed to keep their heads down, tell no one, and not speak to each other to look less suspicious because they knew the police would suspect them, and they didn’t want to get into even more trouble. Which is where last season ended off. But this season, Simon Says comes out saying that they have proof of the club’s involvement with Jake’s murder. All through this season, Simon Says makes the group do dares which if they don’t go through with, they will have secrets they don’t want revealed out, They also blackmail them into doing some of their work to make the club look even more guilty.

I’ve seen many people on social media confused on why season 2 doesn’t follow the entirety of the book ‘One of Us is Lying’. My thoughts are that season 2 follows what happens between the ending of the first book and what happens in the sequel ‘One of Us is Next’ following different kids from the same high school as the students from ‘One of Us is Lying’.

This season deals with romance, discovery and of course mystery. One of my favorite plot points this season was getting to learn more about a newer member of the club, Janae. They open up about their gender identity and how they don’t feel like a boy or a girl, as well as letting their girlfriend and the rest of the club know how they feel. I think this representation is important because it gives others who are watching this show insight on how to deal with your emotions and feelings as well as learning about how to deal with friends who open up to you about their gender identity. 

However, one thing I didn’t like about this season is it was slow paced, as well as the unnecessary plot points that did little to nothing for the story. One example of this is there was an entire episode dedicated to a character: Vanessa. Vanessa is the club’s number one enemy, she used to be Addy’s best friend until in the first season the secret was revealed that Vanessa’s boyfriend TJ, cheated on her with Addy, and ever since Jake’s “disappearance” Vanessa has always linked the club to it. In Vanessa’s episode, it is told from her point of view, of her figuring out a ton of things we (the watchers) already know. To me this felt unnecessary because there could have been much more interesting things happening other than rewatching and learning about things we already knew.

The season ends very abruptly and of course on a cliffhanger which sets the show up for a season 3, leaving many fans asking what happens next because many people don’t see how the cliffhanger connects to a possible 3rd season. This season was slower paced, in my opinion, and there were a few plots that didn’t make sense and didn’t do much for the story. 

Overall, I rate the 2nd season of ‘One of Us is Lying’, 3.5/5 stars.

‘One of Us is Lying’ season 1 and 2 are now available to watch on Peacock.

Books/Art

‘Chalice of the Gods’, let’s talk about it

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By: Abisola Dosunmu

On October 18, 2022, Rick Riordan posted on his blog the new book he’s planning on releasing sometime next year, ‘Chalice of the Gods’. The book plans on following the original trio (for the first time since 2010) from Percy’s POV, and Percy’s quest to get into college. This plot only makes sense when Rick Riordan writes it.

As many PJO fans know,  there’s an upcoming live action adaptation to the Percy Jackson series (featuring Walker Scobell as Percy, Leah Jeffries as Annabeth, and Aryan Simhadri as Grover). This book release is a direct tie to that, as Rick himself admitted to.

Many readers have varying opinions about this new book. Some fans are excited about this new book. PJO fan always-reading-fantasy wrote: I’m so glad we’re getting another book from Percy’s point of view because I’ve really missed seeing the random things that go through his head sometimes lol.

Some are more skeptical about it. Another PJO fan olympusrox wrote: Riordan. I love you. But please stop blasting out books in the pjo universe unless it’s either a continuation of the Daughter of the Deep book, a short mcga novel or a short kane chronicles novel. Stop putting Percy in unnecessary situations. We have fan fiction for that.

Some fans would claim it’s a publicity grab, and they would be right as Rick himself confirmed it. Over a decade later, however, he writes, I figured such a book would not only be fun to write once again — it would promote the show and vice versa. Everybody would win!  He finished on his blog with news Chalice will be coming out shortly before the PJO adaptation starts.

This isn’t the only book Rick plans on releasing. This spring, ‘The Sun and the Star’, a Nico di Angelo and Will Solace novella, will be released.

I get where a lot of fans come from with being mad about the “publicity grab” and that’s valid, but I don’t think it’s that bad. I mean, it happens a lot in the media when there’s an on screen adaptation about to be released, and it’s a good idea since it catches the attention of the fans and makes them more excited to watch the show. Rick isn’t the first to do it. He won’t be the last.

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Movies/TV/Theaters

HYBE: New girl group NewJeans

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By: Stephanie Caballero Benitez

K-pop, is a music genre that has gained lots of attention and popularity. In this article I will be discussing the newest group of HYBE: NewJeans. 

HYBE is currently one of the biggest ruling companies in the K-pop industry. HYBE was founded in 2005 by the current chairman Bang Si-Hyuk. HYBE, back then known as “Big Hit Entertainment” was a very unsuccessful company. The company only started gaining popularity in the year 2015 with their K-pop group BTS which is a worldwide known boy group. Since then the company has taken many talented people and turned them into what are called “K-pop group Idols”. 

The group NewJeans debuted on July 22, 2022. This girl group began their pre-debut around October of the year 2019. After 3 years of training, HYBE began to announce the debut of their new group. Their debut song “Attention”, for the album ‘New Jeans’, came out on the same day as their debut, July 22. 

The song “Attention” gained popularity quickly just as the group did. Some people believe that this is because of the company they are under. Others believe that they have talent and gained their platform by their own talent. With people stating their opinions online on the group it had begun to gain more popularity.

Later on, more songs for their debut album ‘New Jeans’ came out. It consisted of 4 songs: 

  • Attention
  • Hype boy
  • Cookie
  • Hurt 

Out of all of the songs in the album “Hybe Boy” and “Attention” have done the best as they were used by K-pop fans on ‘Tik Tok’ which made them well known. Their songs made it to the Billboard Global chart with “Attention” at No. 82 and “Hype Boy” at No. 116. 

NewJeans consists of 5 members: Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein. This group is made out of girls with a wide range of age, with their youngest member being 14 and their oldest 18. 

Just as other K-pop groups, NewJeans sold a physical album. Theirs was a little different as it didn’t come in a box but instead in a bag that came in colors red, white, and black. Their album bag consists of the bag, a pin-up book, a CD, and photo cards. 

Overall, this girl group has done very well in the K-pop industry considering their age and how short of time their pre-debut was.

For more information, please visit: 

Books/Art

‘Until They Bring the Streetcars Back’

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By: Leticia Buggs-Sam

‘Until They Bring the Streetcars Back’ serves up a nostalgic journey through the streets of post war, 1949, Saint Paul, those wistful days of sodas, big band music, and burning leaves.

A harmless prank, a chance conversation, and Cal Gant stumbles onto cruelty, incest, and murder when he attempts to save a girl, named Gretchen, from her abusive home.

‘Until They Bring the Streetcars Back’ is about teenagers and how their lives are in and out of school, and what they go through on a daily basis.

Gretchen is one of the characters where she’s so not social with people at school or anywhere, and where she has a very abusive home and a strict dad. Her dad does not let her talk to boys. And when she met Cal, she was afraid that she would get in trouble from her dad.

Gretchen also had a crush on Cal but Cal had a crush on somebody else at the time. Gretchen and Cal talk to each other everyday. At first it was hard because Cal was popular and Gretchen wasn’t. People started to say that Cal and Gretchen were together and they started to make fun of their relationship/friendship. The people in school are like that because they know that Cal can do better and find a better girl, and they just think that Gretchen is weird.

While I was reading this book, I had the following questions:

I thought she was not allowed to talk to boys?
Yes, she’s not allowed to, that’s what made their friendship/relationship so secret from her dad because she was afraid of what her dad would do to her. So, Gretchen and Cal started to make a plan to meet in secret on when to do it, how, and where. And from there, friendship started.

Who was the girl he liked if not Gretchen?
He liked a girl named Lola. In the book you can see that for homecoming he did not take Gretchen out to homecoming but instead he took someone else. And in the begging of the book he claims that he does not like Gretchen, he likes Lola and that’a what he told his friends.

Cal is another character that struggles with things from home and school, his parents fight but they’re still together. Cal is an athlete that plays football and basketball. He was having some difficult times because he got caught up in Gretchen’s problems at home.

Another difficult time is where he tries to get his dad to come to his games. His dad always says “Yes” or “I don’t know” or “Just no, I’m too busy with work”. He never ends up going, and it shows that how much Cal wants to hang out with his dad more and make memories with his him.

And another difficult time is when his mom said stay out of people’a business it’a not your problem and their’s. Well, he had a difficult time with that when he met Gretchen and got sucked into her problems at home.

In the end, it was a good book and I would give it 4/5.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Scream Queens’ season 2 review

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By: Semaj Carter

‘Scream Queens’ is a show about sorority girls named Chanel Oberlin, Chanel #3, and Chanel #5 They were named this because Chanel couldn’t remember their names. I also think it’s a sense of ownership and an example of how Chanel sees the world.

*Warning: spoilers ahead*

Season 2 opens up as a recap of season 1. The season was about the “Red Devil Killer”, who chased down the sorority girls and killed their “friends”. One of them, was Hester Ulrich, who was behind the Red Devil Killings, and framed the Chanel’s, who then were sent to a mental hospital.

I think the first season shows the privilege of the Channels as white women because Chanel murdered the housemaid for the sorority house and got bailed out immediately without questions or punishments. The Chanel’s get a job as doctors and get to have their TV show even though they’ve never studied or majored in a medical university. A quote from one of the characters named Wes Gardner, kind of explains it all “Even if they fail they succeed”.

One thing I would like to address is that they treat Chanel #5 like she is not logical or she’s so weird and crazy, which I know is just for comedic relief, but I just find it so entertaining how she’s the only person that’s the closest to normal and everyone treats her like she’s not.

A mystery about this show that has been bothering me for a while is that Chanel #3 hides her ears with earmuffs and I have always wondered what is so bad about her ears that she has to hide them.

I think this show should’ve gotten a season 3. I might be wrong, but I heard many people say that it got canceled yet when I research it online it says a season 3 is coming out. I can agree with people when they say that Chanel is a very horrible person, she’s racist, ableist, and very self-centered, the only reason I like her as a character is that she’s the most authentic and interesting one besides Kathy Munch, A.K.A Dean Munch, one very underrated character. I also think another character that deserved a lot more screen time is Zayday Williams, played by Keke Palmer. I fell in love with her character ever since she first appeared on the show.

You could tell the writers didn’t care much about Zayday and when they got tired of writing for her character they just kidnapped her. In the first season, she was kidnapped by the Red Devil Killer, and in the second season, she is kidnapped by the Green Meanie who was just a copycat of the iconic Red Devil.

Anyways, this is my quick opinion the ‘Scream Queen’ characters in season 2. I hope this article made sense and helped you form your own opinion of the characters and such. Overall, I would give it a 6/10. If you want to watch ‘Scream Queens’ it is available on Hulu.

Movies/TV/Theaters

A review of ‘Hocus Pocus 2’

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By: Julia Sikorski Roehsner

Warning – spoilers

Fans of the original ‘Hocus Pocus’ movie, which was released in 1993, to great success, were likely excited by the announcement of a sequel. ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ was confirmed as in production in December of 2020, and was released to Disney+ on September 30th of this year.

‘Hocus Pocus 2’ runs about an hour and 45 minutes long. Its story line picks up three decades after the events of the first movie and is set in the present day—with a quick visit to Winifred Sanderson’s past in 1653 Salem.

The viewer learns that she was banished from the town after she refused to consent to a marriage arranged by the despicable Reverend Traske. To avoid separation, Winifred and her sisters, Mary, and Sarah, venture into the nearby forest, into which the people of Salem are too scared to pursue them.

There, the sisters encounter Mother Witch. At first wanting to eat the girls to preserve her youth and beauty, she stops when she senses Winifred’s witchly power.

Mother Witch gifts Winifred a magic spellbook—recognizable as Book from the first movie—as it is Winifred’s sixteenth birthday, but warns her to never cast the power-gaining spell of Magicae Maxima. She also makes the mysterious comment that a witch is nothing without her coven.

The flashback ends, and the viewer is soon introduced to a new cast of characters. First and foremost is a teenager named Becca. Not only is it Halloween, but it is also the day of Becca’s sixteenth birthday. She and her friend Izzy are preparing for their customary night of fun celebration, though without the company of their third friend, Cassie Traske, who has become distant in the wake of her new relationship.

The two girls pay a visit to their favorite magic shop, located in the former home of the Sanderson sisters, and Becca receives a candle as a birthday gift from the store owner, Gilbert. Per tradition, the pair then venture into the forest.

Upon lighting the candle, Becca and Izzy discover that the 1993 banishment of the witches—now a local legend—was not so permanent after all; the candle turns out to be another Black Flame Candle.

Winifred, Mary, and Sarah are back once more.

Thus begins an evening full of adventure and twists and turns as Becca and Izzy do their best to escape the Sandersons and get rid of them once and for all.

Pulled into the mix are Gilbert, who turns out to have tricked the friends and is now facing the consequences, and Cassie, whose father is the spitting image of his ancestor—Reverend Traske. There is also an appearance by the familiar corpse, Billy Butcherson. And, of course, what is Winifred Sanderson without her beloved Book?

It’s only one night, but a lot can happen in one night when there’s magic involved.

Perhaps controversially, I found ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ pretty enjoyable. Common complaints that I’ve heard about it are that it’s not up to the standards of the original ‘Hocus Pocus,’ that it lacks that same feeling of Halloween spookiness, that it’s disappointing that more of the original cast didn’t return, and that the plot itself was boring.

I can understand these complaints, but they were things that didn’t bother me personally. I am not a longtime fan of ‘Hocus Pocus,’ so nostalgia was less of a factor for me when watching ‘Hocus Pocus 2.’ I also didn’t mind that it was aimed at a wider, and potentially younger, audience.

I particularly liked the cinematography and editing. The scenes were crisp and clean, and the coloring followed a consistently pleasing color scheme.

Overall, it was a light and comedic watch.

However, there were a few moments where I found myself frustrated at the characters for not realizing the obvious, and some of the scenes felt a bit forced, both in storyline and in acting.

Therefore, I give ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ a three and a half out of five star rating. As mentioned earlier, you can watch this movie on Disney+

Music/Concerts

“Midnights Mayhem with Me”: Everything you need to know about Taylor Swift’s new album

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By: Erin Moore

On October 21, 2022 at midnight sharp, Taylor Swift, global pop sensation, released her twelfth, if you’re including her rerecords, studio album. 

Since its release, it has obliterated records both regarding streaming platforms and sales of physical copies, and it has ignited much excitement regarding a potential tour of the six albums she’s released since her previous tour for “Reputation.” 

In this article, I will give an overview, my opinions on the album, and related news since the release of the album in that order. 

Prior to the release of the album, Taylor Swift posted videos on TikTok titled “Midnights Mayhem with Me,”  announcing the titles of the thirteen tracks to be on her upcoming album. The videos received a cumulative 79.3 million views. After this, she posted additional Instagram Reels providing the inspiration for three of the songs in the album, which achieved 54.2 million views. 

Roughly a week from its drop, billboards in various major cities released various lyrics from the upcoming album. Additionally, she released clips on Spotify announcing different things that kept her up at night, leading to the subject of the songs (self-loathing, fantasizing about revenge, wondering what might’ve been, falling in love, and falling apart). As an avid fan of Taylor and her music, I saved these lyrics and subjects and predicted which songs they were referring to, very clear proof that these methods were very successful at building up excitement for the album’s release.

‘Midnights’ contains thirteen songs, totaling at forty-four minutes. The longest being “Snow on the Beach (ft. Lana Del Ray)” with a length of four minutes and sixteen seconds and the shortest being “Vigilante Sh*t” with two minutes and forty-four seconds. Thus, it is the shortest of any album she’s put out as of yet. 

The songs in the album will be titled as follows:

  1. Lavender Haze
  2. Maroon
  3. Anti-Hero
  4. Snow on the Beach (ft. Lana Del Ray)
  5. You’re on Your Own, Kid
  6. Midnight Rain
  7. Question…?
  8. Vigilante Sh*t
  9. Bejeweled
  10. Labyrinth
  11. Karma
  12. Sweet Nothing
  13. Mastermind

Prior to the album, yet after hearing the track titles, I guessed my ranking of the album, my top five being “Vigilante Sh*t,” “Karma,” “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” “Mastermind,” and “Question…?” 

‘Midnights,’ as mentioned previously, came out on October 21st at midnight and I absolutely love everything about the album. Every lyric is beautiful, the overall sound is amazing, and the album itself is very cohesive: it fits the theme of “thirteen sleepless nights” across her life, just as it was described to the public prior to its release.

Additionally, if you know her music and albums well enough, you can tell which musical “era” each song was written in. For example, “Karma” and “Vigilante Sh*t” were 100% written around the same time she wrote ‘Reputation.’ 

However, this album was nothing like what I predicted. Many people were predicting it would be a rock album, but it was electro-pop. I thought “Mastermind” would be similar to the two previously mentioned ‘Reputation’-esque songs, but it was more similar to something you’d hear on ‘1989’ or as a ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ vault track. 

I will discuss individual reviews for each song in the album (from my least favorite at the time of writing this article to my favorite at the time of writing this article).

Thirteenth on my ranking, and second in track order, is “Maroon.” I thought it would be significantly more melancholy and sad than it was (specifically with the general sound of the song), however the song was more floaty and upbeat(ish) than I thought it would be. However, when predicting, I felt like it would be a meh song based on its title, and it was amazing. While it was my lowest, I don’t have a single critique for it. 

“Midnight Rain,” twelfth on my ranking, and sixth in order of the album, was a shock for how it began, but again, a happy surprise. The concept of the song (“he was sunshine I was midnight rain”) was not what I expected it to be, yet I’m very happy this was the song we received. I really enjoy the floaty, breathy, higher way certain lyrics are said. 

Eleventh on my ranking, and twelfth in track order, was “Sweet Nothing.” This song, unlike the majority of the album, was similar to my prediction. It was good, but as I prefer upbeat songs over slower, sadder, more melancholy ones, I ranked it lower than most of the songs on this album even though it was a very good one.

Tenth was track ten on the album; the song “Labyrinth.” While I absolutely adore both the production and lyricism in this song, it doesn’t compare to that of which the higher ranked songs have. This song, as well as any of the other ones on the album could move up or down at any point. However, it currently isn’t one of my absolute favorites from this album.

The first track of the album, “Lavender Haze,” is ranked ninth for me. This is because the music behind it is great, but in my opinion, several other songs on the album are better lyrically and show more depth than this song. However, as she described it in one of her Instagram Reels, it accomplishes her feelings about fans and other members of society trying to get more information about her relationship with her current boyfriend from the past five years, Joe Alwyn. For example “I’ve been under scrutiny, you handle it beautifully,” shows how he’s helped her ignore and overcome the media’s portrayal of her and also has overcome what the media has said about him in relation to her. 

The second music video she released, eighth in my ranking, ninth track on the album, and the basis for a major dance trend is “Bejeweled.” My understanding is that this song is about her transition back into pop music from her past few albums (‘folklore’ and ‘evermore’) which were essentially the opposite of previous genres she’d done. 

Seventh in my ranking is “Snow On The Beach (ft-ish Lana Del Ray).” This song has been the most major switch from a lower ranking to a significantly higher one thus far as it started out being last for me. I originally had it lower because it didn’t feel like a collaboration and I didn’t have an understanding of the song, nor did I find anything to relate to. However, after listening to it more I really appreciate both the well-crafted lyrics and the music that truly feels like snow on a beach. 

In sixth place was “Question…?”  I love the main idea of it and while this may not be her intent with the song, to me it feels like it’s about someone who found someone they truly loved and enjoyed being with, but it didn’t work out and that person found someone new, so the first person found someone new too, and that new person feels like they’re second best to the original partner. Hopefully, that sentence made sense. 

Track five and, coincidentally, fifth place for my ranking, is “You’re On Your Own, Kid.” Taylor is known for having very emotional track fives, and up until the bridge, it didn’t feel like it was up to that usual level of raw emotion (especially with “Anti-Hero” as a potential alternative). However, the bridge completely changed my mind. Another thing I’ve seen pointed out by fellow fans is that it feels like a rundown of all of Taylor’s various albums over the years, which makes the bridge that much better. 

Fourth in my ranking is “Anti-Hero,” the first music video she released and the most streamed of the album thus far. Again, I feel like her description of it in her short Instagram Reel series was very accurate: it goes very deep into her insecurities and (as has been made clear by its amount of streams) is relatable to many people. The music video is also excellent at portraying those insecurities and all of the feelings she mentioned within the song.  

The song I ranked in third place is “Karma.” I love so many aspects of this song that I can’t even put into words. I think my favorite part of the song is probably “Karma’s a relaxing thought. Aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?” I think this is a hilarious way of showing how whoever of the many possibilities (Kanye West, Scooter Braun, any of the exes that treated her badly, everyone who turned on her in the mid 2010s) this song is about, they will receive their karma and it will hit hard. I also love that it’s called “Karma” as that was what was suspected to be the title of her sixth studio album.

Second for me is “Mastermind.” I love how sweet it feels, how hard she worked to be with someone she knew she’d work well with. I also love how it’s proven to be very relatable as it has sparked a trend of people explaining some unusual things they did to date someone. I also love the end in which she reveals that the person this song is about knew she did everything that she did to date him and he was completely fine with it. 

One of my favorite songs ever and my number one ranked song on the new album is “Vigilante Sh*t.” I absolutely love every single part of this song and am of the belief that there are absolutely no flaws to this song. Some of my favorite lyrics are “don’t get sad, get even,” “lately I’ve been dressing for revenge,” and the entire echoey part in the middle of the song prior to its continuation. It’s everything I hoped the song would be and more. 

However, as you may know if you have prior knowledge of this album’s release, Taylor Swift didn’t only release these songs. Three hours following its initial release, she added seven more songs to what she called ‘Midnights (3am Edition).’ This had the initial thirteen songs followed by the seven additional ones: “The Great War,” “Bigger Than The Whole Sky,” “Paris,” “High Infidelity,” “Glitch,” “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” and “Dear Reader.”

The new version of the album had the same cover, but was now an hour and nine minutes instead of the initial forty-four. Since I’m going with the assumption that the thirteen individual reviews were already very tedious to read through, I will simply say that my favorite of the additional tracks was “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” and my least favorite was “Glitch.” Overall, I mostly preferred the initial tracks, but again, I don’t have any major criticisms for any of the songs on the normal edition or the 3am edition. 

In addition to this, Taylor Swift also had three additional songs on the Target exclusive lavender vinyls and CDs; “Hits Different,” “You’re On Your Own, Kid (Strings Remix),” and “Sweet Nothing (Piano Remix).” I absolutely love “Hits Different” and if I were to add that into my album ranking, it would likely be somewhere in the top five. 

I also decided it would be fun to ask my friends for their opinions because of the ones that didn’t listen to it of their own volition, the majority succumbed to peer pressure and listened to it eventually. Yay! Jo Knorr says, “I’m not a massive Taylor Swift fan, but I really enjoyed this album, ‘Karma,’ ‘Vigilante Sh*t,’ ‘You’re On Your Own, Kid,’ ‘Sweet Nothing,’ and ‘Anti-Hero’ immediately went on my playlist.”

Brogan Frey, another friend of mine who chose to listen to the album without my forcing her to do so, said, “I wasn’t a huge fan before—I wasn’t a die-hard fan, but I enjoyed her pop music—but I loved every song on this album and I’m still listening to them weeks later, and they’re all on my playlist.” 

Additionally, Ava Bird said, “Personally, I don’t really like most of Taylor’s recent albums, but ‘Midnights’ is different. It’s beautiful. The music is amazing, the lyrics are thought-provoking, the whole entire thing is sort of like an emotional rollercoaster. I love it.” 

Additionally to being loved by people I know, this album was loved nationwide and broke many records. It was the first album to take all top ten songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the first time in history that the top ten had no men on it. It also passed Madonna’s record of thirty-eight top ten songs of any woman in history, achieving forty. 

It broke records both for most first-day streams and most second-day streams. It also was the third-largest streaming week for any album and the largest of any female artist. 

According to Billboard, it received 1.578 million forms of the album sold in the United States over the course of the first week, which, according to Entertainment Weekly, “It is the biggest week for any album since Adele’s ’25’ notched 3.482 million in its first week in 2015.” 

In addition to those, it also received the most vinyl sales since Harry Styles’ ‘Harry’s House.’

With this album on all streaming platforms also came many new options for purchase: various editions of vinyls and CDs as well as several different merch lines. 

Each vinyl/album has five editions: moonstone blue, jade green, blood moon, mahogany, and lavender. Moonstone blue is the original standard edition and jade green, blood moon, and mahogany are similar musically, they simply have different pictures within the vinyl and on its cover. The lavender, however, as I mentioned earlier, has three bonus tracks. These vinyls also come in CD form with the exact same differences as with the vinyls. 

So far, Taylor Swift has had three merch lines released. The “Lyric Collection,” “The Midnights Album Shop,” and the “A Color I’ve Searched For Collection.” Of the three, I personally found the items from the “Lyric Collection” to be the most stylish and aesthetically pleasing. In fact, this is the collection I chose to order merchandise for. The main “Midnights” shop has various items such as tools to make the four vinyls into a clock, a “Bejeweled” bracelet with colors for each of her albums released thus far, and a “Midnights” water bottle. the “Lyric Collection” had, as you can likely assume from the title, various types of clothes (shirts, crewnecks, hoodies, and a mug) inspired by or including various lyrics from songs on her album.

On October 24th, Taylor Swift went on “The Tonight Show” to discuss her album. In the interview, she also mentioned she would be going on tour, but would not yet disclose when she would do so or officially announce dates. She also went on to discuss the recording process and how each song she wrote was made. 

So, back to the tour topic. 

On November 1st, she announced “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” along with her US tour dates. She will have thirty-three appearances throughout the country, stopping in Minneapolis at US Bank Stadium on June 24th. Tickets will be available to the general public on November 18th, at 10am local venue time. Signups for pre-sale are open until November 9th at 11:59pm ET and if you are selected, ticket sales will be on November 15th. 

With her, on the tour, will be nine different openers including Paramore, beabadoobee, Phoebe Bridgers, girl in red, MUNA, HAIM, GAYLE, Gracie Abrams, and Owenn. Specifically for the Minneapolis date, her openers will be girl in red and Owenn. 

Another detail of the tour is that it is sponsored by Capital One. Thus, if you have a Capital One card, you will also get early access to tickets (only four hours after those with pre-sale). She also partnered with Capital One for a commercial in which her various eras appeared throughout to show different things you can do with a Capital One card. 

TL;DR: “Midnights” is an amazing album and you will love it, so you should definitely go listen to it if you’re considering doing so. 

For more information, visit taylorswift.com, streaming services to listen to her album, any of her social media accounts, and also streaming services so you can listen to her album. 

Editorials/Student Voice, Travel/Food

The scam of the keto diet

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By: Irene Cohen

The ketogenic diet, or keto for short, is a diet that focuses on extremely low carbohydrates with high fat content and protein in their foods. The idea of using this diet in order to lose weight is that the low carbohydrate intake and high fat intake forces the body to go into ketosis and burn fat instead of carbs. This, theoretically, results in burning body fat for energy and subsequently losing weight.

The ketogenic diet was developed in the 1920s by physicians from the Mayo Clinic. It was developed as a means to help treat epilepsy, as it mimics fasting metabolically. Fasting has been used as a treatment for epilepsy for over one thousand years, and this new diet provided a more accessible and healthy way to mimic fasting while avoiding most of the negative side effects. This diet was a very popular method of treating epilepsy until antiepileptic medication was developed. The mystery of why this diet works for treating epilepsy is still unsolved.

The keto diet requires you to eat 80-90% of your daily caloric intake from fat, with less than 100g of protein and 10-15 grams of carbohydrates. This forces your body to go into “starvation mode”, or ketosis, where instead of using glucose as an energy source, it breaks down fat stores into ketones in the absence of sugars.

What most people experience as fat loss due to the keto diet is usually just a calorie deficit, according to experts. Tracking your macronutrients and calories makes you more conscious of your food intake, which in turn makes someone more likely to lower their intakes as a reaction to this awareness.

This diet is also incredibly hard to follow, and many people end up not even going into ketosis, instead just having a high fat diet while still having enough carbs to break them down as usual.

The ketogenic diet can even have consequences for those who don’t have a professional nutritionist to aid them or those who do not need to follow this diet in order to treat neural diseases, like epilepsy. With such a large chunk of your diet being fat, your heart takes a hit. Such a high fat intake for so long can really affect your arteries in the long run. Not only that, but limiting your carbs to such a degree limits the nutrients you can consume. Eating just one small apple can meet your daily carb limit, and think of all the nutrients you get from fruit with a high, but healthy, sugar content.

The keto diet is another fad diet of medical studies being taken out of context for those who are desperate to lose weight. Most professional nutritionists say that at best, for the average person, keto might be moderately healthy. The possible consequences of damaging your metabolism and heart long term in order to shed a few pounds is not worth it. Eating a balanced diet of fruits, veggies, and whole grains is almost always the answer, most professionals say. Leave the ketogenic diet to those using it as a means of treatment for various diseases.

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Editorials/Student Voice, Tech/Games

We should be using Chromebooks, not iPads

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By: Ava Bird

For us students, using iPads for school every day is what we’re used to. And many of us are perfectly okay with it. But there are also those who recognize the downsides that come along with using iPads for our learning – and there are a lot of downsides. 

First of all, almost every mobile application is different from its desktop counterpart, and when on a Chromebook, this is usually beneficial to the user.

For example, on the desktop version of Duolingo, you don’t have a limited amount of hearts; in fact, hearts aren’t even a thing, meaning that you can make as many mistakes as you need to without purchasing a “Super” membership (previously known as “Plus”). 

Another example is Schoology. On Chromebooks, students have a better, somewhat more advanced version of Schoology that is more organized and has more functions than the iPad version. One of these functions is how you can edit Google Doc assignments without even leaving the schoology app. There is a “My Document” button, which allows you to view and edit a teacher-created Doc, whether it be open-ended writing or a fill-in-the-blanks study guide, directly from Schoology. If you wanted to open the document from the Google Docs website instead, there’s an “Edit” button which allows you to do so. Any document opened via Schoology automatically saves under your Google account. 

On the iPad version of Schoology, on the other hand, there’s a button which allows you to create a written submission, but you can’t see the directions for the assignment while editing it, and you can’t easily go back and forth between the directions and your writing. And this isn’t the only part of Schoology where iPads don’t compare; there’s so much more, but it’s best to just leave it here.

Another thing that makes Chromebook usage much simpler than iPad usage is how, in most cases, everything you need to do can be done from your browser. This means that everything is right in front of you, and nothing will get lost behind layers and layers of forgotten apps and websites. If you’ve never used a Chromebook, it may seem like having too many tabs open at once would result in confusion and lack of organization, but there’s actually a very simple way to group tabs into different subjects or categories. 

Grouping tabs compresses the selected tabs into a folder of sorts, which you can then name and color code to your liking. For example, you can have a yellow tab group labeled “History,” in which you can store all of your tabs from that class; a blue tab group labeled “English;” and a green tab group labeled “Science.” The tab groups don’t even have to contain class materials – you could also have, say, a purple tab group labeled “other,” which might contain random things such as a Google search, a Netflix show, and the daily sudoku. For many people, however, grouping tabs isn’t even necessary, since there is a large enough view to contain a good amount of tabs.

If you’re worried about not being able to draw or take handwritten notes on apps such as Notability, or if you simply like having a touchscreen, that’s no reason to keep using an iPad; there are Chromebooks with touchscreens. And, unlike iPads, use of the touchscreen isn’t even necessary to perform the functions that your flimsy iPad keyboard/case can’t. Plus, it’s really nice to have a built-in keyboard mouse. 

There are some iPad apps that don’t have web versions, like Notability, but you’ll soon find that apps like that are easily replaceable. Notes can be printed and handed out to students, taken on paper or in a notebook, or shared via Schoology or through a Google Document. The same can be done for worksheets, and many people appreciate the occasional hard copy, as it helps maintain the handwriting skills that are vital to everyday life. There are also apps that are similar to Notability, such as Google Keep, which allows you to take notes in a way that is similar to Notability. But even so, once Notability and similar apps are taken out of the equation, many will find that they are easily replaceable or not even a necessity in the first place.

There are so many more reasons why we should be using Chromebooks instead of iPads, and I could go on and on about this, but here’s the bottom line: It’s time to stop pretending that iPads are the best option for our education. They’re not.