By: Semaj Carter

‘A Plague Tale Requiem’ is a horror fantasy game about a girl named Amicia and her brother Hugo set in the 14th century. As you can guess, this game is based on the Black Plague. The game opens up to Hugo and Amicia running away from Lucas, the alchemist of the group, because they are playing king vs the sorcerer. You start playing in the tutorial by playing hide and seek with Lucas; that’s how they teach you the basics of stealth in the game and how it works.

After the tutorial, Lucas leaves to go back to Amicia and Hugo’s mother, who is also an alchemist. In my opinion, I think the mom is the worst character in the game because she acts like she doesn’t care that much about Hugo, and when she does, she favors him over Amicia. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, in the first game, Amicia didn’t know much about her brother at all, he was basically isolated away from everyone including her, except for her mom and dad, who didn’t really pay attention to her.

This game is really depressing, so if you actually pay attention to the story, which I normally don’t do, be prepared and grab some tissues. 

Now let’s talk about Amicia and her overprotectiveness towards Hugo and Lucas, but mostly Hugo. Understandably, Amicia is, according to the prophecy, a protector to the Macula A.K.A. Hugo. If you don’t know what the Macula is, and no, I’m not talking about the thing in your eye, it’s a mysterious, ancient curse that runs in the bloodlines of certain families. It plagues the de Rune family, and in particular has awoken in Hugo de Rune’s blood.

Nearing the end of the game, Hugo and Amicia sail on to sea with their friend Sophia, and eventually reach an island where they suspect the pond that can save Hugo is present.

Overall, I thought the game was really sad, and I was upset with the ending. I still would give it a 10/10 because it was the first game that made me cry, and I was really invested in it. You can get ‘A Plague Tale Requiem’ for the PS5 and XBOX.

By: Manny Ochoa-Reeve

Game Freak has just recently come out with a new Pokémon game called ‘Scarlet and Violet’. This game is packed with a lot of new features and content.

If you don’t know what Pokémon is, it’s a video game franchise where you can catch creatures called Pokémon, and train them to be stronger, and level them up to have stronger stages of themselves called evolutions. There are over 1000 Pokémon to catch spread out in 9 different generations. Generations just tell you around what time these Pokémon came out.

One of the biggest new things in the new game is the new Pokémon. Generation 9 has just released 107 new Pokémon in the game. These generation 9 Pokémon are very well designed because they are simple but still have lots of detail.

Not only are there new Pokémon but Pokémon from old generations are getting new stages in their evolution. These Pokémon are Primeape, Dunsparce, Bisharp, and Girafarig. I would tell you about the new evolutions and Pokémon but I wouldn’t want to spoil them.

Something Game Freak has done with all of their games is they come out with two versions of the game. Both versions are the same game but the only difference is the exclusive Pokémon you can catch and the exclusive legendary you can catch. In the new game, you can choose between the versions Scarlet or Violet.

Violet is based on futuristic Pokémon and you will be able to catch more futurist Pokémon along with a really strong electric legendary Pokémon.

In Pokémon Scarlet, you get Pokémon from the past, so this game has more ancient Pokémon with a really strong fighting type Pokémon.

In my opinion it doesn’t really matter about the version exclusives because you can buy all of the Pokémon from trading online.

The story in this game is really good because of how much there is to do. In the story you attend a school where they give you a “treasure hunt” which means you go out and explore, and if you choose to you can complete 3 main story paths.

One of the biggest parts of the storyline is to defeat different gym trainers which are very powerful Pokémon trainers and once you defeat them you can become champion of the island.

The other part of the story is going to different hideouts to defeat bully’s across the island. This part of the story doesn’t really make sense to me and to me wasn’t really necessary.

My favorite path of the story is you go to defeat Boss Pokémon to find different plants so you can power up your Pokémon. This brings a lot of interesting fights.

This Pokémon is different from others because it’s open world. This game is really good because you can really do whatever you want. You can train your Pokémon, fight everyone, defeat the boss Pokémon, catch more Pokémon, and beat the bully’s. There’s also a bunch of towns you can visit to complete side quests.

Another part of this game is the different regions that have different Pokémon, for example, the mountain where you can find ice Pokémon or on the ocean you can find water Pokémon. There’s a lot of different areas and things to explore but the only way to find them is to explore it yourself.

In my opinion, this Pokémon game is definitely, probably, the best of the series. All of the things you can do in this game really makes it so you won’t get bored. The only bad thing I can think about from this game is the frame rate which can make the game slow at some points but it really isn’t that big of a deal. I recently beat the game and I can say that this game was a 10/10.

By: Daniel Kendle

Uh oh.

Greetings, and welcome back again to JOYSTiCK, the HPSH serial that enjoys reviewing and exploring video games. Today we’re taking a shot at our 4th game on the docket, eternal pain and suffering ‘Minecraft Story Mode,’ which I’m not even going to try to hide my disgust of.

…..

So, I really, REALLY like ‘Minecraft.’ Like, to an abnormal amount. And it being the prince of gaming giants in the industry, of course it would eventually get a spin-off.

As of writing this, there have been 4 ‘Minecraft’ games made besides the original. ‘Minecraft Dungeons’ is an isometric dungeon crawler based on ‘Diablo,’ ‘Minecraft EARTH’ was – I say “was,” as it’s been permanently shut down due to COVID-19 – an AR game similar to that of ‘Pokémon Go’ and ‘Pikmin Bloom,’ where you built stuff in the real world using resources obtained from resource deposits (similar to that of the base game), and then… There was ‘Minecraft Story Mode,’ which similar to the rest of Telltale’s games – the company that teamed up with Mojang, the creators of Minecraft – followed a “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” format. There were actually 2 games, being season 1 and season 2. Each had the same characters, but different stories. For this review we’ll be looking at season 1 only.

So, to preface this review, this’ll be mostly about the story of ‘Minecraft Story Mode,’ as the game doesn’t have much to offer, gameplay-wise. It’s mostly focused on telling a narrative rather than actually having you move around and do stuff on your own merit, like most games. So, for this review, I’ll be discussing the story first, then eventually the music. If you’re looking for a review of a game with the player actually “playing” instead of just clicking through multiple-choice questions, then this isn’t the review for you.

So, ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ is a bad game, it’s not like I’ve tried to hide it in the title and introduction alone. But, why is it like this? Well, the answer is pretty interesting, actually.

PART ONE: STORY *Warning, Spoilers*

Settle down everyone, this might take a while.

For context, I don’t actually own a physical copy of ‘Minecraft Story Mode.’ However, the first game has actually been archived on Netflix, of all places, categorized in their “Netflix Interactive” group, a group made up of playable movies. This is because Telltale eventually shut down, and these 2 games were removed from production lines forever. Thank goodness Netflix was able to swoop in and save this insanely-bad experience.

But now, the game’s story. Keep in mind, ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ comes in an episodic format, having 4 episodes for the main game and 4 additional episodes after completing the first half. I’ll be covering the first half for this review.

We open on a bit of background The Order of the Stone, a group of legendary heroes that once defeated the Ender Dragon, a powerful creature that lived in a place known as The End. Afterwards, they disappeared into legends, where they have since split apart and gone their separate ways.

After this we open on our playable character, Jessie, as him (or her, you can choose their gender) and his friends prepare to head off to take part in a building competition in order to win tickets to Endercon, a festival that they’ve always wanted to take part of.

After a rival group causes a commotion at their 1st-place winning build, Jessie’s pet pig runs off into the forest. After saving him they’re ambushed by monsters – or “mobs,” as they’re normally called – being saved by another friend, Petra. The three go off to Endercon and meet up with Jesse’s friends in order to exchange a Wither Skeleton skull for some cash.

The stranger that they’re to trade the skull with ends up cheating them, taking the skull and leaving some dirty lapis in return. Jessie, Petra, the pig and the friends all chase after him. They reach the main convention hall and head down to a basement library, where they find the stranger’s been working on some sort of demonic summoning practice, constructing a statue in order to resurrect the Wither Storm, a monster capable of destroying entire cities with ease.

The group runs to warn the public, stumbling into a Q&A with Gabriel, one of the members of The Order of the Stone. They try to tell him of the plans, but Jessie is interrupted by the stranger, now known to be Ivor, another past member of the order. He uses the Wither Skull with 2 others and a machine known as a Command Block to summon the Wither Storm, though it’s revealed to only be a ploy to scare the crowd, as Ivor has the potion to subdue the beast. The problem is that one of Jesse’s friends, Axel, took the potion for himself, replacing it with one that turns out to be useless on the creature. It quickly starts destroying the town, and Jessie, his friends, his pig, and one of the members of the rival gang have to enter a portal to escape.

Now in a place known as the Nether, they travel across a minecart highway in order to travel away from the destruction back home, and reach another portal to get back to the normal world and end up far away from Endercon.

After finding The Order of the Stone’s past bunker, they split up to find 2 more members of the order. This is one of the game’s BIG player-made choices, allowing for Jessie to either find one or the other, which takes a large chunk of the next episode to do.

You go to find either Magnus or Ellegard, both being pyrotechnics and “Redstone” engineers, respectively (In the normal ‘Minecraft,’ Redstone is a kind of circuit-like ore. I wont cover it here, but I wanted to give context for the confusion). After some hassle getting them to come back, Jessie, a friend who came with them depending on the order number chosen, and the order member all leave after the Wither Storm reaches them again.

Upon getting back to the bunker, they find out that the friend Jessie didn’t go with got the other member, so now the group technically only have one more member to find: Soren, the group’s expert builder. He’s located in The End, a dimension surrounded by an endless void. After getting him, the gang has to make their way back to their normal world once again.

The main story ends with Jessie and Co. all defeating the Wither Storm through a series of inventions that let Jessie access the monster’s core, slaying it in the process. Unfortunately, his pet pig dies too, which is used as a sad moment in the plot. The past order is shown to be frauds and are either forgiven or not, and the new order becomes the guardians of their town, or something. The. End.

Wow.

So as I’ve said… this is a really, REALLY flat story, tonal-wise. It’s obviously meant for a smaller age demographic, seeing as Minecraft is a kid-friendly experience.

I’d say that my main issues with ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ is that it feels like it wants to more like an adult-focused adventure with mild swears and somewhat-dark themes, like death (in a “bad” way) and basically the genocide of hundreds of citizens, though its writing is so stupid that it feels like satire at times.

Characters in the game are just annoying, there’s not many I find decently likable. Pretty much everyone is either rude to our heroes or ARE the heroes, who are 10 times worse! The Order of the Stone has most of the 5 members be dismissive, weirdly paranoid or just a very mean character in general. When going off to find 2 of the members, Ellegard and Magnus, their characters are seen exclusively as these petulant whiners that only care about themselves and couldn’t give less of a thought towards the people they lead.

Looking at the actual story itself, it’s… fine? Like, I’ve seen worse, though I’d say that ‘Minecraft Story Mode’s’ biggest detriment is that, as I said, it feels like it wants to be both a kid friendly romp through a fictional ‘Minecraft’ world, and also a semi-dark take on the ideals of evil, not trusting those around you, etc.

The main message of the game is to not trust those around you. However, the moral doesn’t come off as many other kid-friendly media do, because whilst something like ‘Arthur’ or ‘Curious George’ can teach viewers that blindly believing in someone or something can be hazardous without proper reasoning, ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ says that trusting ANYONE is dangerous. Though unfolding events the plot has pretty much any character, unimportant or not, be these hostile, arrogant folk. It’s almost disturbing how there’s practically no one in the game that’s a genuinely nice person; it feels depressing. The characters save the world from an extra-dimensional deity, and what changes? Nothing. People still act callus to you and your friends, as if all you’ve done is prolong the drought, metaphorically speaking.

Going back to the characters, I do like a couple. I stated in the story that Lucas, a member of the gang, comes with you, and he’s actually decently-written. His arc is of how he’s arguably the nicest towards Jessie’s group, and breaking away from his toxic peers. Then again, this is an exception, not the rule. Or dare I say, THE exception. Outside of this, there aren’t many other characters that have somewhat-compelling motivations and arcs.

If I could change anything, it’d be ‘Minecraft Story Mode’s’ message. Having this sort of paranoid theme of trust and “stranger danger” is convoluted at best and dumb at worst. Instead, I feel like a message of “trusting others through conflicting ideals and thought complexes” would be a solid choice. Considering the source material is a multiplayer game where you’re able to literally make anything, a theme of adapting to another person’s different morals and beliefs could work well in what is basically a more story-focused version of ‘Minecraft.’

PART TWO: MUSIC
So, you’d expect that for such a bad game, the music would be too, right? Fortunately, no.

When I went into this review, I was only gonna talk about the story, and maybe the creepy animations too. However, I decided to write about the music because – and you might not want to hear this – ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ has amazing tracks.

The albums for both season 1 and 2 were made by Antimo & Welles, otherwise known as Skyler Barto and Andrew Arcadi. Looking at their YouTube channel, the soundtrack for ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ is arguably the most popular of their works.

If asked to describe the feelings the playlist gives me, I’d say “atmospheric.” This isn’t some kind of Lo-Fi soundtrack where it has these relaxing, calming beats. Instead, the game has a somber, almost eerie list of songs, though seeing as this game has an annoyingly creepy undertone throughout its duration, at least it knows it’s weird. Some of my favorite songs include the following.

• “Ivor’s Theme” is my personal favorite. If anyone had to ask me the perfect mix of a horror theme and Lo-Fi track, this would be one of them.
• “Wither Storm Theme” has a very fitting sense of dread and anger, seeing as the monster it’s named after destroys part of a city whilst this plays. I like it, as it feels very epic in scale.
• “The Finishing Blow” is from one of ’Minecraft Story Mode’s’ various DLC episodes. I have not played any of them, so I don’t actually know what this song correlates to. I do know that it’s very good, however.
• “Mob Grinder” slaps, and there really isn’t anything else to say about it.
• “Boomtown Suite” feels like it belongs in a completely different game than this, akin to ‘Borderlands’ or ‘Splatoon.’ Nifty!
• And finally, “Ivor Fight” isn’t as good as its companion, but definitely rivals it.

PART THREE: CONCLUSION

So, that’s that. The skeleton in the closet that’s been bugging me since September has been freed, and ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ has been reviewed.

No, it’s not a good game. No, my opinion hasn’t changed. And no, this review isn’t nearly as much as I could talk about it. Honestly, I could write an essay on this game and its tonal problems, story struggles, and beautiful soundtrack. A part 2 could happen, though I’d have to somehow buy the 2nd season off of Craigslist, seeing as the 2 games are no longer in print.

And finally, I can definitively say that ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ is a 3/10 game. The music entirely keeps this above a 1 or 2, which isn’t a good look. And seeing as I’m one of, like, 10 people who’s given an in-depth look at this game, I feel I need to warn the public of this menace to society. We need to stop this game from infecting the brains of children across the globe! But how? How could we destroy all the copies of ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ in existence? Hmm…

Well, shoot, now this fiendish game shall go on to take over the world with its hazardous mediocrity. And I will NOT let the game do this; it must be stopped.

Hmm. Oh, that’s it!

Everyone who has a copy of ‘Minecraft Story Mode, listen up. Go out and PURCHASE A NUCLEAR MISSILE AND UNLEASH IT UPON THE HORRID CREATURE THAT IS ‘MINECRAFT STORY MO-!’

…..

And that’s all for this episode of JOYSTiCK. It was a little shorter than usual, though this is more akin to a special rather than a full-length story. (That also explains the ‘explosive’ ending). Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

By: Reed Morris

Preface

In my articles, I prefer to look at events in the form of a story, however, the disaster that has been Elon Musk and Twitter over the past year or so is something that must be attacked chronologically to fully comprehend. Musk’s decision to buy Twitter for $44 Billion has to be one of, if not the worst, financial decision since the Enron disaster at the turn of the century (see my previous article if you want to know more about Enron). People will lose their jobs, Twitter will crumble, and immense risk has been put on Musk’s other financial endeavors. Such a terrible series of decisions can only be tackled chronologically, so let us start at the beginning. 

January 2022 

Musk makes his first investments in Twitter. The exact amount is unknown, but his investing did begin in late January according to documents filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the following months. 

March 2022

Musk decides to take control of the company. His share percentage in Twitter reaches 9.2% which is the highest percent holding of any other shareholder. This is when the larger public became aware of the ongoing overtake. At the time, there was uncertainty if he would go further or stop where he was at. As we now know, he continued to buy up more and more of the company. 

April 2022

April was a wild month in the Twitter dealings. At the start of the month, Musk officially disclosed the amount of money he really had sunk into the company. His shares reached a whopping $2.9 Billion. After he disclosed his true involvement with Twitter, shares in the company rose over 27% the day of his announcement. 

A day later, Twitter officially announced that Musk would be joining Twitter’s board of directors. He was welcomed aboard in a tweet by now former CEO, Parag Agrawal 

Shortly after being invited to the board, he flipped direction and said he would no longer be joining. 

Only four days after refusing to join the companies board, he proposed an official offer to buy out the company at $54.20 a share, valuing the company at a laughable $43 Billion. The offer overvalued the company by 38% but he stuck to his guns regarding the price. 

Twitter immediately responded with what is called a “poison pill” which essentially devalues shares for current board members allowing them to purchase more, but making it extremely difficult for Musk to purchase the necessary shares to take over. However, this strategy never took full effect as only a week later, Twitter decided to accept Musk’s original offer. 

While this feels like a good ending point to the story, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

May 2022

In May, Musk buckles down and starts to look at how he would finance such an acquisition. He gathered $7 Billion worth of financing from several investment firms including Sequoia Capital and Binance, a crypto exchange (you’ll hear more about them in the next article.) To fill the $43 Billion price tag, Musk also had to sell $8.5 Billion worth of Tesla Stock, dropping the company’s value ever so slightly.

All throughout May, Musk makes several claims and promises with little to no basis. The biggest of which was the claim that he could increase Twitter’s yearly income four fold, up to over $26 Billion a year. 

With hindsight being 20/20, we can now see that was an absolutely insane claim. While during the writing of this article, Musk has not been in ownership of Twitter for long enough to make financial changes, however the business model he seems to be adapting to is currently losing more money than before he bought the company. 

Musk, soon after making these claims, and presumably finally doing research, he quickly realized he made a mistake. He quickly announces that the deal would be on “temporary hold”, the reasoning of which, Musk claims, was the supposed prevalence of bot and spam accounts on the platform. 

Not long after he announced a temporary hold on the deal, a Reuters report surfaced claiming that less than 5% of the accounts active on twitter were bot or spam accounts. Musk requested more information but seemingly never received it. 

Only hours after announcing the deal’s stallings, he announced that he once again had changed his mind and was going through with the deal. 

Summer 2022

The Twitter excitement slowed down in volume but exploded in intensity during the summer months, so June, July and August will be grouped together for continuity’s sake. 

Musk once again jumps back on an old train and demands that Twitter supply more information regarding the possible prevalence of bots. This time, he threatened a full retraction of contract and claimed he would no longer buy the company per the deal he signed. 

After the Twitter board essentially said, “You know all we know and what we know is the truth,” Musk still moved to terminate the acquisition. 

On July 12th, 2022, Twitter sued Elon Musk in a Delaware Chancery Court. They sued on the basis that Musk knowingly breached his contract and that Musk must follow through with his deal. 

With tens of billions of dollars, several massive companies, and gargantuan investment firms involved, the outcome of the court case would have extreme ramifications no matter which way it sways. 

The court date would be set for late September, later stalled for mid October.

October 4th, 2022

Musk finally agrees to follow through with the deal, and to acquire Twitter at the original stock price. 

October 28th, 2022

Elon Musk officially becomes the new private owner of Twitter.

Final Thoughts

In theory, Elon Musk can afford this whole Twitter debacle, however on paper, things are much different. The aspect of this that scares me so much is the fallout it could have on his other businesses and ventures. While I am not a fan of Elon Musk himself, the engineers and scientists he employs at Tesla and SpaceX are doing truly spectacular work. 

In making this $43 billion deal, Musk put a lot of risk on his other businesses. Tesla stock is the main collateral involved in all of his extensive loans, and SpaceX bends at the will of his other enterprises. The question is not if Musk can keep Twitter from collapsing, it is merely if he can make it profitable, and how fast. The interest on his loans float around a billion dollars a year and if the economy faces more struggles or Elon can’t pay it all back, there will be serious ramifications. 

Musk put everything on the line for this passion project, and we will see in the coming months and years how it all turns out. If in the next 15 years Tesla and Elon Musk are forgotten or infamous names, then he failed. But if Elon Musk is still kicking and Tesla’s are still zooming around, and Falcon Heavies are finally taking people to Lunar bases, then maybe this whole Twitter debacle turned out alright. As we can’t see into the future, all we can do is buckle up, keep your arms and feet inside the ride, and let’s watch some more billionaire drama unfold. 

By: Ava Bird

Roblox is known for its endless amount of unique, user-generated online multiplayer games, most of which are creative and interesting. But in this article, I’m only going to focus on three. So, without further ado, here are some of the best food-focused games on the platform.

Created by Deud1, ‘Work at a Pizza Place’ dates back to 2008 and has secured its place as one of Roblox’s most iconic games. Players contribute to the pizza place, Builder Brothers Pizza, by working one of six jobs: cashier, where you can take orders from NPCs (non-player characters), who can choose to get either a cheese pizza, a pepperoni pizza, a sausage pizza, or a fizzy soda; cook, where you can make pizzas; pizza boxer, where you can box pizzas; delivery, where you can drive to houses to deliver orders; supplier, where you can drive trucks to restock pizza ingredients; and manager, the one-person supervision job that everyone wants to claim.

If you don’t want to work, you can go on break and decorate your house or hang out with friends. Working earns you coins, which you can spend on furniture, decorations, house upgrades, pets, and presents, which can contain a variety of things, depending on which one you buy. You can also earn trophies by completing event activities, such as the corn maze, which appears annually in the fall. A favorite of many, this game is a must-play.

Made by Ultraw, ‘Restaurant Tycoon 2’ is the new-and-improved successor to the classic ‘Restaurant Tycoon’. In this game, you get to create and build your very own restaurant from scratch. You can unlock over 195 different foods from 25 different countries and regions to be featured on your menu, and you get to pick and choose. As you earn money, you can grow your restaurant and improve your ratings by hiring workers, adding tables, decorating, upgrading, and expanding. You have control over every aspect of your tycoon, giving you the opportunity to make your restaurant truly unique. You can cook, take orders, serve food, and do everything else you can expect to do in a restaurant. In addition to NPCs, you can also serve actual players, if they choose to visit your restaurant. If it is deserving, players can give your restaurant a like. This game is a new classic, and it’s worth a try.

Though it isn’t at all centered on food, Coeptus’s ‘Welcome to Bloxburg’ is a life-like roleplay game that treats food like the real deal. There are 45 (and counting) main dishes that you can make year-round, and each of them can serve multiple players. In addition to these dishes are 24 ‘quick meals,’ which are single-serving snacks instead of meals. There are also seasonal foods that you can make during different holidays, the most popular being Halloween and Christmas, and you can either eat them then and there or put them in your fridge to save them for later.

However, cooking in this game is a ‘skill,’ and there are 10 levels of any given skill. For the cooking skill, making food grants you progress, and leveling up unlocks more dishes you can make. In a way, this is comparable to real life: the more you practice a skill, the better you become at it. Each dish also costs money to make, ranging from 3 to 80 in-game dollars. Some players build creative restaurants or cafés that other players can go to, and each one deserves a visit. Overall, the food in this game is unique and fun to make, and it’s worth taking the time to level up your cooking.

I hope you enjoyed this article, and I highly recommend all three of these games.

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.

…..

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.)

5. Wait for battle animation to finish, then the opposing Pokémon attacks.
6. 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.

…..

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

By: Daniel Kendle

When ‘Contra’ meets Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, I guess.

Hello, and welcome to JOYSTiCK, the HPSH serial that enjoys reviewing and exploring video games. This episode is of ‘Cuphead’, a 2017 indie game that has become one of the most popular of it’s category in the last half-decade, partially being that it’s the only known video game to be entirely made up of hand-drawn cell animation, rather than digitally-drawn, CGI or other forms. But is ‘Cuphead’ a shining example of gaming? Let’s take a look.

‘Cuphead’ was created by brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, who were not video game developers at first, but then jumped to making the game after their recollections of games as kids. Reportedly, the first iterations of ‘Cuphead’ were based around a “school grade” aesthetic, with the game progression also having you move up in grades and art style. Eventually they went with a “rubber-hose” style after their friends saw them use an old 1930’s cartoon character as a stand-in for an actual game model. And then after that, they created Studio MDHR.

To talk about rubber-hose animation, it defines cartoons such as Betty Boop, Popeye, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and other Disney and Fleischer Studios work. It gets its name from the rubbery, unrealistic animation in most shorts. These are some of ‘Cupheads’s’ main influences, but the other prominent one is of “Run n’ Gun” games from the 80’s and 90’s, like ‘Super Ghouls n’ Ghosts’ and ‘Megaman’. These titles were normally difficult, grind-centric games that had players face off against bosses and enemies, focused around dodging attacks first and dealing damage second. They rewarded muscle memory and quick reflexes, as players would normally spend a good amount of time learning bosses’ movement and attacks in order to win.

‘Cuphead’ was first introduced in E3 2014, in a short trailer that didn’t feature much, except the art style chosen. Even with the relatively-small amount of info, the game was a highlight of the Xbox press showcase. The game had periodic updates shown until eventually releasing September 29, 2017. It was very well received, with over 1 million copies being sold within its first 2 weeks on the market. Its art style, difficulty, and gameplay were praised, and the game has been running smoothly ever since, selling 6 million copies by July 2020.

PART ONE: GAMEPLAY

‘Cuphead’ is, as stated previously, a Run n’ Gun game, where the player has to shoot targets and enemies whilst dodging attacks. ‘Cuphead’ is divided into 2 different types of levels: boss levels and platform levels.

The main focus of ‘Cuphead’ are the bosses. The game is one big Boss Rush, with most levels being where you have to fight a powerful enemy with multiple stages. The game is a VERY challenging game, reminiscent of other games in the genre. Most of the game is you reattempting bosses and stages, though it’s not annoying most of the time. In fact, defeating a level is incredibly satisfying!

The game’s moral of “tough but fair” lets the game designers not have to create bosses that scale with difficulty, if by only a little bit. They instead mold them around the idea of muscle memory and skill, the way a player proceeds through their journey being of their might rather than of a scaling difficulty. This is something other famously-hard games practice, like ‘Dark Souls’.

But diving into actual play, ‘Cuphead’ has someone shooting projectiles out of their fingertips (More on this in the Story section). There are 9 different types, each with different values and properties.

• The Peashooter is your basic shot, the one given to you at the start of the game.
• The Chaser is the weakest, but can track a target around and hit them without needing the player to aim.
• The Spread has great damage in a small radius in front of the user, so it’s good for close-quarters combat.
• The Lobber shoots gravity-affected balls that bounce on the ground.
• The Roundabout is like a boomerang in that it loops back after firing it, so you’re able to hit something even when your back is turned.
• The Charge has a short charging time (duh) between shots, but does the most damage out of any weapon. It’s also the only shot where you’re able to hold it without having to auto-fire.
• The Crackshot is arguably the best shot. Like the Chaser it follows targets, but also does a lot more damage and will do more damage by shooting an enemy before the shots break away to track and hit the target.
• The Converge is a 3-way shot that narrows its flight path when the player is locked into shooting. (I’ll explain this later as well.)
• Finally, the Twist-Up is the opposite of the Lobber, flying upwards instead of down.

Along with these shots are things known as Charms, little abilities that give Cuphead extra perks. These can range from extra hearts to a smoke bomb, from axe-parries to even more hearts! They mix up gameplay just enough that, like shots, can dramatically change how a boss fight plays out depending on what loadout you use.

While 2 shots can be equipped at a time, only one Charm is able to be.

But where do you get shots and Charms from? The shop, of course! The game has a traveling shop that can be found on 4 of the isles of which the game is played. Each item costs coins, which can be found in the platform levels, each with 5 coins each. I enjoy having to buy your power ups; ‘Cuphead’ isn’t exactly the type of game to have power ups within the levels, there’s only 6 platform levels along with the 34 boss fights, so there just wouldn’t be enough space to level out the progression if shots and power ups were inside the levels themselves.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about the platform levels. Each has unique theming and gameplay, with some focusing on different mechanics entirely. While the bosses have you shooting them up until they eventually run out of health, platform levels have you reaching an end goal. And honestly… they’re fine.

We’ll get to the bosses soon, but with the 6 platform levels, they feel like they have less of that “grandness” of the rest of ‘Cuphead’. While fine in their own right they feel more like afterthought than a mainstay of the game. They follow a linear progression, with you more or less traveling right while shooting enemies. No big baddies, no interesting concepts and ideas, just… eh. They’re alright, but “alright” isn’t cutting it for a game like this.

The main characters Cuphead and Mugman also are okay to control. Since the main game revolves around shooting, having the player be able to shoot in multiple directions is an obvious addition. However, hand-drawn animation is extremely time consuming, so animating hundreds, maybe even THOUSANDS of different poses would’ve taken forever. Instead, it was decided to only have players shoot in 8 different directions: forward, backward, up, down, and diagonal versions of all of them. This is VERY janky; I found myself more often than not shooting forward only, elevating and de-elevating if needing to shoot up or down respectively. This is very awkward, and doesn’t work very well. It’s a moment where it feels like the art direction and game design clash, making a worse experience.

‘Cuphead’ has a ‘lock-in’ mechanic that lets you access this 8-way shooting. When holding down the respective button, you’ll be locked into place, allowing you to aim as you fire using what you would normally use to run. This is also bad to control, as ‘Cuphead’ is a game where you need to be constantly moving around in order to dodge attacks, and having a button lock you in place is disorienting to the rest of the game, sorry.

PART TWO: BOSSES

‘Cuphead’s’ bosses are arguably some of the best in the business, in my opinion. They ALL have some of the best quality in gaming, with snappy combat and powerful attacks that combine with their incredibly creative concepts. There’s too many to list like from my last review on ‘Metroid Dread’, so I’ll simply mention some of the best and most interesting of the bunch.

Bosses in the game all have generally whimsical and fun ideas, just like how the 1930’s style of animation had very crazy and loony settings and characters. I feel like this gives them a distinct appearance when compared to another game’s enemies. Overall, I love this game’s bosses, for they feel like creations that remove themselves from the mold of the rest of the gaming industry’s blueprints.

There are 2 bosses that I’ll consider “Tutorial” matter, though I’ll only be talking about one: The Root Pack. Made up of 3 mean vegetables, they’re essential in teaching the player the 3 main ways attacks try to hit you, and how to dodge: jumping up and down, moving left and right, and a combination of the two. And the fights are fun too! I’m glad that they made the first bosses to the same standards as further fights, showing the complex polish of the bosses.

Another is Cagney Carnation, one of the most iconic characters in ‘Cuphead’. The flower’s fight is also great fun, with raised platforms and more challenging attacks to avoid. They also introduce the idea of bosses changing form, with him eventually turning into a tangle of weeds and barbs by the end of the battle. A fantastic fight; one of my personal favorites.

Moving farther up the ladder is my favorite boss in the game, Werner Werman, this German tank pilot who controls a giant mechanical cat in his fight. I don’t know why, but this fight is just so fun. I like the idea of having a smaller scale fight (literally) and have the two be the size of actual mice. I don’t know if this is controversial, but this is my favorite boss in the game, personally.

Finally, let’s talk about the final boss: the Devil. He’s one of ‘Cuphead’s’ hardest fights, and for good reason. You’ve made your way all the way to Hell, and he’s certainly fit for his kingdom. The fight’s chaotic and eerie, but man, defeating him is satisfying as all heck, and comes to make you realize what you’ve just done: beaten the game. While I do think that some of his attacks feel a bit RNG-based, the Devil’s a great way to end the main game. And speaking of the Devil…

PART THREE: STORY

I didn’t touch on ‘Metroid Dread’s’ story due to it being the final entry in the main Metroid saga, and I didn’t want to spoil anything. ‘Cuphead’s’ story is much more simple, and pretty easy to figure out. It’s not a detriment to the game though; I like having a more basic plot compared to other games having complex, moving narratives.

Cuphead and his brother Mugman are two kids who one day come across the Devil’s Casino. After gambling for a while they find themselves on a winning streak, to which the Devil notices and gives them a wager: if they can win their next roll, they get all the casino’s riches. If not, the Devil gets their souls.

Mugman doesn’t want to spread his luck dry, but Cuphead blindly rolls again. Of course, he gets snake eyes, and the Devil now gets their lives. The boys beg for mercy, and the Devil admits he’s gone too far… before tasking the 2 to go out and bring back the souls of those who owe him theirs.

Not knowing how to get others’ souls, they go to their grandfather Elder Kettle, who gives them a magical potion to let them shoot lasers out of their fingers. Eventually, after using their powers to defeat all the bosses (debtors) Cuphead and Mugman storm into the Devil’s casino again, and after beating his lackey King Dice, defeat the Devil as well, and free the debtors from the demon’s grasp, ending the story in a happy light.

Like I said, the story’s not very complex, instead feeling like something an actual Disney short would be about. I like it, though I do feel like we don’t see the bosses outside of battle, and now knowing them to be the debtors the boys have to beat it would’ve been pretty cool to see them after the main game is done, and maybe be able to talk to them and stuff.

PART FOUR: GRAPHICS

I mean, what is there to say?

‘Cuphead’ is arguably one of the best looking video games of the past few years, and possibly even of all time. Its unique hand-drawn animation style lends itself to some gorgeous graphics and fidelity beyond anything of recent memory.

One thing I noticed is that it feels like something straight out of a Disney cartoon. The backgrounds have such a warm feeling, I wish that I could look at them without having to be constantly sweating through the boss battles!

Oh, and the animation! It’s SO good. Studio MDHR used a type of animation called “Squash n’ Stretch” to animate moving objects, which basically means that a lot of frames exaggerate and contort frames of things to feel more fluid-like, which gives everything such a fascinating appearance that hasn’t been seen in many other games. It was practically eye-candy to myself, someone who loves animation in movies and cartoons. Great work all around.

There are some blips in quality here and there. Some bosses feel a little more constrained and bland compared to the animation of others, the same going for standard enemies and other sprites. Occasionally there’s some landscapes in the game without the polish seen in others. What I’m getting at here is that the few problems I have in the graphics department mostly come down to fluctuating art and standards seen in it. I’ll admit it, some places in the game look better than others. Whether that’s the art direction’s fault or the area’s theming, it’s still an issue nonetheless. But still, this game looks like some kind of blessed artifact from the 1930’s that ironically holds up greatly 5 years later.

PART FIVE: CONCLUSION

‘Cuphead’ is a great game. It’s snappy combat, beautiful visuals and – while not mentioned – great music makes it an awesome game to explore and play. However, some issues do arise, like boring platforming levels, semi-inconsistent graphical quality and clunky controls. For this, I think ‘Cuphead’ is a solid 8/10. While it does flub in some areas other games don’t, this is a great package, and deserves the recognition it has received, and hopefully will continue to gain.

That’s all for this episode of JOYSTiCK, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it! I plan on doing other indie games soon, so if you’re into that, make sure you stick around and not only check out my work, but other people’s as well.