The Dumbest Game Feature Ever | Castle Super Beast Clips

[@goodninji8]

"You require Black and White friends to adjust your difficulty setting." -Gamefreak

[@StubenhockerElite]

Maybe the game designer had a talk with HR and got it all wrong?

[@stirredwhiskey]

@Jucabro My friend lost his shit when I told him the story significance behind black characters as hard mode.

[@alphonseurshon405]

"Enjoy our weird 9/11 desert" - also GameFreak

[@lemeres2478]

"It is ok. I've got a black friend."- Pokemon White player.

[@music79075]

@@stirredwhiskey what was the story significance?

[@SuperfieldCrUn]

My god, the way GameFreak approaches Pokemon is so alien and weird. Like, they never played another game since the 90's and have gone off in their own evolutionary path Galapagos Islands-style.

[@Rafaeleao2]

Holy shit... that's an amazing analogy.

[@bryanadkins6776]

I mean, Pokemon's dominance has ensured that they have to take basically no cues from any other extant game. Their games can be as shitty and behind the times as they want to be and they'll still turn a profit because pokefans will eat that shit up.

[@miguelnewmexico8641]

@@bryanadkins6776 children* children eat that shit up

[@JoelBurger]

It's not just Game Freak, consumers also hold Pokemon to a completely bizarre separate set of standards to the rest of the gaming world. Where any kind of criticism about the backwardness or stagnation of the franchise is met with "well it's Pokemon, what do you expect".

[@YorkJonhson]

@@JoelBurger Yeah, I understand that Pokemon carries a lot of nostalgia for a lot of people, but as someone who loved the old-school Blue version as a kid I haven't really seen any reason to jump back into the franchise in the last fifteen years or so. It's just the same game of rock, paper, scissors, that it's always been with a few new visuals. But Sword and Shield apparently made more money than God despite looking less advanced than a PS2 game, so what do I know?

[@travissloan9411]

Do you want to choose between Performance or Quality mode? Beat the game on Hard Mode

[@sphealingit222]

You need to beat DeS on PS3 in order to play the remake, complete with the PS5 emulating the old system.

[@habadasheryjones]

@@sphealingit222 Wow that one is extra busted considering the Ps5 straight up can't run ps3 games. No one plays the remake except for some crazy modder somewhere who fused the two consoles together or something.

[@SilverEternal22]

If there’s one thing Game Freak’s consistent at, it’s adding unique features to a Pokemon game and immediately dropping them the next title regardless of how much the fans like them, all for the sake of trying to keep things “fresh”

[@travissloan9411]

Mega Evolution, Z moves, Triple/Double Battles, Contests....the list goes on. The mainline pokemon games have basically run themselves into the dirt because Gamefreak tries new things, then immediately drops them for other stuff rather than trying to expand on or improve the last thing.

[@Graysett]

It's the Sonic problem all over again. I miss rotation battles...

[@sphealingit222]

I WANT MY BASES BACK GODDAMMIT. at least character customization stayed in, GameFreak would definitely make a world where you can be black in one Gen and only white in the next.

[@SilverEternal22]

There’s so many things cut like megas, z-moves, etc. but if there are 2 things that need to be brought back it’s the FULL DAMN NATIONAL DEX and the PSS from gen 6. XY introduced one of the best multiplayer menus I’ve seen in any game but it got tossed in gen 7 for fEStiVaL PlaZa

[@AdamTheHedgehog]

I just wish they didn't axe the EV Training minigames. They made getting mons tourney ready way more convenient.

[@laughingocelot2097]

What's even crazier, I loaded my White Mode save one day and for no reason at all I acquired acres and acres of land. My friend playing Black Mode the very same day realized that his income taxes increased out of nowhere. Very strange indeed

[@music79075]

Lmfao

[@Abdega]

I had to trade with my friend who had White mode to get 40 acres and a blitzle

[@music79075]

@@Abdega LMFAO they shortchanged you bruh. Blitzles can't be domesticated! shoulda gone with a Mudbray!

[@trenchcoatjoe1891]

Dear Black version players, Just select easy mode

[@TrueUnderDawgGaming]

This is hilarious in a cosmic sort of way. Having to unlock sound settings

[@WTFisTingispingis]

Fucking insanity.

[@wado_ichimonji2311]

To be fair, it's a pokemon game, sound settings were never necessary in the first place, idk why they added that

[@johnromero6315]

Pat's incredulousness at Black and White 2's easy mode is the only correct response.

[@at0micl0bster]

pokeman games are already easy...i wonder how easy it is in easy mode

[@bahskintimulholde6191]

​@@at0micl0bster Magikarp used Splash! Critical hit! It was super effective! Dragonite fainted! Gary was defeated! Gary's mom was aroused! Ash wins the lottery!

[@music79075]

@@at0micl0bster iirc all the other pokemon had their levels lowered by five including wild pokemon. Also they would rarely use super effective moves. AI in general basically gets lobotomized.

[@perkypears]

its funny too because hard mode in those games is actually the easier way to play enemies being higher level sounds hard but these are also the games that introduced gaining shit loads of exp scaling with enemy's level vs yours so you just ramp up to higher level and evolve your pokemon faster and stuff compared to the easier difficulties

[@wadespencer3623]

@@perkypears Oh so it's just higher levels, not an overhaul to enemy movesets, teams, etc? Lame. I would love an Emerald situation where all the gym leaders have more mons and better options.

[@Fluttersniper]

Congratulations on beating the game! You’ve unlocked Easy Mode! What.

[@comingupooo]

Vergil: **Confused Motivation**

[@wantnotwant]

Congratulations on winning the Superbowl! You may now try-out for Pee-Wee Football!

[@nintendork9207]

See... if this was the case in both games, that'd ACTUALLY be hilarious, but because it was the key system, it was a tragic mistake.

[@smokey0111]

You know it'd make a lot more sense if "easy" mode actually meant you unlocked cheats, like max level or unlimited resources.

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

Mega Man Legends does this and no one whines, but Pokemon does it and it's bad???

[@kholdkhaos64ray11]

Woolie and Pat's eyes slowly changing as they read further and further about the dated stupidity of GameFreak is just wonderful The ending is pretty gold too

[@Abdega]

What show was that ending from?

[@williamzou8833]

@@Abdega Not a show. It's taken from the opening of a PS1 game released only in Japan. Here's the link to the full opening: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mH6yaohmZdWNac0 Leave it to the Japanese to turn Uno into an anime RPG.

[@music79075]

You have to beat the elite four to unlock easy mode in White 2. You have to beat the elite four to unlock hard mode in Black 2. From here both can activate their respective keys but it will only affect the post elite 4 part of their game, which is actually quite a lot because you still have team plasma and the elite four rematch. Otherwise they can trade keys and start a new game. But even BETTER than that is that when you unlock a key it is tied to your save file. If you try to start a new save file you cannot overwrite your previous save. You have to delete the save file and start a new game fresh. Doing this deletes the unlocked keys!!!! EDIT: for whoever may read this I also discovered that it gets EVEN *DUMBER* So first off in order to unlock the new modes you needed a key. Easy mode is in W2 and Challenge mode in B2. Heres step 1 of the stupidity, what is step one you may ask? Beating the Elite 4. Thats right. With W2 you only get access to Easy Mode after beating the gane normally! Heres step 2: You only get ONE key per save file. Step 3: You cannot start a new game and use that key on it. The key is tied to the save file! Finally Step 4 and this is by far the dumbest, yet most complex, step of all. See, because of the way damage and experience points are calculated Easy mode is actually the hard mode and challenge mode is actually the easiest. How you may ask? Well, y'see, you get less experience for killing pokemon at your level or below but MORE for killing enemies above your level. You also deal increasingly more damaged the higher your level is and less for the higher their level is. Now why would this a problem? WELL Challenge mode was developed first but only until roughly the 4th gym did they put intensive thought into it. After that it was just "one more pokemon, they all hold items and they are slightly higher level than normal" The key word is "than normal". Basically you could grind your way to power in Challenge mode still and it was easier because everything gave more exp. Sure its a slog for the first 4 gyms but thats 30 percent of the game and its still not that hard. But "Easy" mode? Well remember how I said that you get less exp for killing monsters lower level than you? Well this means that it takes exponentially more and more time to grind every level because everyones levels are either slightly less than yours or equal to yours. Now I know many of you are saying "gee Karnacle that just sounds annoying not hard" well *heres the kicker* : They didnt scale the stats to the new difficulty. You see that level 69 Garchomp on challenge mode? It actually has the stats of a level 53 Garchomp on Hard mode. But on Easy mode? That level 40 Garchomp has the *stats of a level 53 Garchomp* Have fun grinding for 30 hours to get that next level!

[@SomeRandomJackAss]

This being Pokemon, there are no other save files.

[@music79075]

@@SomeRandomJackAss yep. Also you only get one key per playthrough. So iirc you can only trade the key once

[@bronytr]

Congrats Dante! You beat Vergil 3 on Devil Hunter. you really are a Son of Sparda. . . . Easy mode is now selectable.

[@AnarchicArachnid]

*pat falls over dying*

[@Malamite]

To be fair, if Fromsoft finally started adding easy modes to their games that could only be unlocked by beating the game first, it'd be the greatest most hilarious thing ever.

[@mikekazz5353]

New game+: ok here's your map and all the stuff that you missed from the last play through.

[@FunkBastid]

That would be an intentional goof, though. Gamefreak is pants-on-head stupid

[@ARandomClown]

new game-

[@sodathejunker]

FromSoft doing it would be so perfectly tongue in cheek, especially if Easy mode was a total joke like it was NewGame -1,-2,-3…

[@thoschgold6436]

It would actually be a pretty good idea for lore hunters. You get to experience the game as intended on your 1st playthrough and any following playthrough can be played on easy so you can focus on the lore.

[@FinalDragoon]

They didn't even go over the fact that, due to how exp works in Gen 5, Hard mode is actually easier than normal and Easy mode is harder than normal.

[@MonkeySharkPro]

Care to explain? How'd they change exp in gen 5?

[@FinalDragoon]

@@MonkeySharkPro Exp scales based on the level difference between opponents. If you're underlevelled you get a massive exp bonus and if you're overlevelled you get next to nothing. Hard mode then becomes easier because every trainer has higher level teams meaning you get better exp throughout the whole game, while easy mode is the exact opposite causing you to overlevel far too quickly and leaving your team exp starved by the end.

[@JoeCoolMaveric]

1:00 - 1:43 Like, this was so stupid, because Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee/Pikachu had sound settings from the start! Like, why the f*** did Game Freak made this into a key item 1-2 hours into Sword and Shield!? Like, it's so frustrating for no reason!

[@belakitu8331]

Lets Go was made by one of the side game teams, not the main line team, so I feel they actually cared somewhat about modernizing a bit

[@tylerhind6709]

Marketing guy: "Cold opens, it's cinematic, like a movie!" Yeah, but what happens when you put in a DVD? You're confronted by a MENU with subtitle settings, chapter select, bonus features and the play movie option.

[@SomeRandomJackAss]

Well, a bunch of ads first and then a menu. And the previews and ads are unskippable.

[@chrisdaughen5257]

They're the kind of people of who like VHS

[@Abdega]

John Marketting: one more backsass like that and you’re outta here!

[@theskullraider5058]

There are DVDs that drop you right into the movie, and once the credits end and shit, THEN it takes you to the menu screen. You'd think this nuisance would be fixed in the next generation format, but some Blu-rays actually make it even worse! Not only do some Blu-rays start immediately with the movie, but the menu screen is now a HUD that you have to bring up WHILE the movie is still playing! So if you're watching something foreign language, you can switch between options in real time! A lot of these Blu-rays do have an additional main menu screen separate from the in-movie HUD, but others simply do not and just let the content loop forever! I have no idea why these design decisions are so common.

[@sphealingit222]

GameFreak needs new blood like a starving vampire, my God

[@theotherjared9824]

The problem is they have less than 100 core employees and treat themselves like an indie studio, despite owning the highest grossing media franchise of all time. Many have speculated the whole national dex debacle was because they simply didn't have the time and hands to put every pokemon in the game despite already having the models ready to go, so they pulled the hardware limitations excuse out of their ass to save face, which blew up in their face. But sword and shield was the best selling game in the franchise, so they see no reason to change.

[@wolflance64]

the problem is gamefreeak recycles its blood every game... they dun keep people long enough to become seniors the people at top just churn them like butter.

[@7Majum7]

@@theotherjared9824 despite all that. Fans will just keep supporting it while turning a blind eye to the negatives because of nostalgia, casuals, etc. The "vote with your wallet" mentality is the only thing I can think of that will send the message loud enough.

[@7Majum7]

@@Morose_Melon yeah that's fair enough point that I sometimes forget as well to be honest. At the end of the day the game is mostly targeted towards children. Which it kind of makes me think of the "children deserve better argument" as well. Enjoying the game fully back-in-the-day would require you to have both versions of the game or buy the 1.5 version of it (like emerald or platinum). Now with Pokemon Unite and sword and shield leaning towards DLC practices kind of make worried for future. Luckily it hasn't reached the Skylanders type of formula that was popular years ago.

[@JayceCH.]

@@theotherjared9824 The other problem is that every other type of Pokemon media/merch sells so well that theres no reason for them to expand.

[@brendanb2982]

Best end to the podcast to date.

[@KreuzDrache]

I was mouthing off "oh no..." when Woolie brought it up. EDIT: Is this what FGC calls a "frame trap"?

[@destinationskyline07]

Wtf happened? I'm confused?

[@brendanb2982]

@@destinationskyline07 Watch it live whenever you can. It's best experienced without prior knowledge.

[@thelaughingrouge]

Hands down without a doubt the GOAT of endings.

[@invaderpez12]

@@brendanb2982 can only watch it if youre a sub on twitch iirc

[@toiletsinjapan9933]

Can we stop for a minute and talk about the best feature in a video game? In the port of Silpheed for Sega CD, the developers knew that the console they were developing for was prone to disc read errors, so that when you got a disc read error on any level, rather than the game just breaking, YOU START THE LEVEL OVER WITH AN EXTRA LIFE! This could potentially continue infinitely, until you either beat the game or your Sega CD bursts into flames. Good game too, for what its worth

[@habadasheryjones]

Wanna save your game? Beat it first on hard in a single sitting, No deaths, loads or pauses.

[@iller3]

...while Nintendo C&D's every website hosting Emulators

[@TonyTama]

Like dead space 2 but extra steps

[@CNightmare072]

I mean, this is actually most NES games lol

[@Charredasperity]

The closest to this being reality I've seen is Crash Bandicoot 1 where you can only save if you've gotten all the relics on a stage

[@teacakes6861]

Unskippable cutscenes? Ok, i can deal with this. Unskippable credits? Fair enough, people put a lot of work in it. Unskippable tutorial? My rage will burn through universe to give a birth to a myriad of galaxies filled with nothing but hate.

[@feeblecursedone2540]

I can understand if it is unskippable the first go around, especially if there is story stuff that happens during it. But on subsequent playthroughs it should be skippable every time.

[@teacakes6861]

@@feeblecursedone2540 I spend hours to get 100% in the first and last missions in MGS V. My salt was measured in tons.

[@saddemon2022]

It's extra painful when the game's story is shit but you're forced to sit through it if you want to play

[@ZeroStrife1396]

tbf, a friend recently got God Eater 3 and the first time we played together I had to explain a lot of basic and essential mechanics (one of them being the entire gimmick of the game) he didn't know even existed, which baffled me because how would you not know this tutorial shit?... but then I remembered I've been playing that series since 2010 and the tutorials are kind of optional in GE3 with just some broad-strokes NPC dialog in the middle of the first few missions as a reminder that you can absolutely miss if you aren't paying very close attention because a ton of it is given while you're fighting enemies. So a forced tutorial would've been helpful for him, but annoying to someone like me who's gone over it like 9 times over the past 10 years

[@LinkinMark1994]

On the other side of the issue, It’s kind of annoying when they just skip past the opening/tutorial on a new game + like in Ghost of Tsushima. Like I actually wanted to experience the whole game over again and you just skip past the stuff between passing out on the beach and your first encounter with Khotun Kahn?

[@FrostyFin]

Game Freak are the masters of dropping the ball. Black/White key system, Sword/Shield sound options, no Battle Frontier in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

[@KreuzDrache]

Apparently there is speculation that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will also not have a Battle Frontier either. :(

[@CrocvsGator]

@@KreuzDrache But the original Diamond and Pearl had them though?

[@CrocvsGator]

Didn't Sword and Shield have sound options, they were just selectable by an NBC in the middle of nowhere you would never talk to?

[@KreuzDrache]

@@CrocvsGator nah its a feature in Platinum not Pearl/Diamond, just like how there was one in Emerald, but not in Ruby/Sapphire.

[@CrocvsGator]

@@KreuzDrache but then where did you catch Heatran? I thought there was a post game area?

[@HoChiMints2007]

The Quiet Man: Beat the game to unlock actual sounds and speech

[@AzureAiluren]

Yeah, it makes perfect sense when you realize that the volume slider was literally ON the gameboy, and every gameboy descendant.

[@InfiniteTangent]

Dear god. They're literally just dinosaurs that lived too long without learning or adapting, coasting on an unkillable IP.

[@spencechan]

I don't think that's relevant. It's not about being able to turn master volume up or down, it's about being able to turn voices/music/sfx up or down individually.

[@Ike_of_pyke]

@@InfiniteTangent *crocodile game IP don't give a shit*

[@FOBIsMyNickName]

I love that split second where Pat thought that the stream had crashed only to realize Woolie was so done with the conversation that he’d purposely stopped it.

[@KingNanoA]

The worst part is, a difficulty selector would seriously help Pokemon. If it were handled in a sane manner, of course.

[@TerasOde]

12:41 You can almost _hear_ as the gears start turning in Woolie's head after Pat says it.

[@tylergregoire1763]

To be honest, I don’t know a single person who can’t beat Pokémon on normal given its simplicity. The option would be nice though.

[@IndoorSitup]

If you want your Pokemon games to be more challenging then try going into the game's settings and switch the "Battle Style" setting from "Shift" to "Set".

[@johnromero6315]

@@IndoorSitup That hardly changes anything at all. These games are designed to be easily beaten by literal children. Losing the ability to switch between pokemon makes almost no difference since every opponent (through the main story) is designed to be easily beaten.

[@wolflance64]

​@@IndoorSitup if you want a hard pokemon game there are plenty of options, i recommend pokemon mmo if ya have a pc ,its cranked up the difficulty to a decent point, tho its not for people who want to fly through the game to just go shiny hunting thats for sure.

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

As a kid I’d use this Japanese dialga who would listen to 1 in 10-15 orders. I’d just mash an attack until it listened and I’d win. A 10 year old being played by a 9 year old decided losing wasn’t a choice

[@josh-oo]

I didn't even know that Pokémon had difficulty settings.

[@KAPTAINmORGANnWo4eva]

I usually hesitate to call even AAA franchise games "lazy" because I don't know what's going on behind the scenes to make something like Cyberpunk a shitshow of glitches and cut features. But for either the biggest or second biggest franchise in _the history of video games_ Pokémon really strikes me as being made lazily.

[@RicochetForce]

It's a franchise whose developers have 0 realistic competitors, and they're handsomely rewarded by mindless consumers buying anything they put out in droves. They have 0 incentive to improve things.

[@JayceCH.]

Its called a multi-media franchise guys. Stop living under a rock.

[@Brave_SJ]

Devs can be lazy without each individual dev being lazy. I'm sure Johnny Codemonkey is busting his ass, the people above him are the ones that are deciding they want to just do the same thing they did last game.

[@brokentower3148]

I don't know how the FUCK they didn't have an asset pipeline for CP2077. Delegation of labor is literally the only job managers HAVE and they fucked it up.

[@brokentower3148]

Like, HOW? How did the game get MADE without an asset pipeline. The assembly line is a millennia old technology and Cyberpunk 2077 rolled out the fucking garage like an artisanal German tank.

[@spehizle]

I love how powerful the disbelief over how stupid the "beat the game on normal to unlock easy" thing was...AND THEN THE REALITY WAS EVER DUMBER THAN THAT.

[@TeapotBird]

6:43 You can tell by the venom in his voice that Woolie had to deal with this shit MULTIPLE times doing QA.

[@akba666]

Taking "you've unlocked easy mode" to the next level.

[@LilAnonomus]

I feel like GameFreak doesn't really get game design and just winged it this whole time.

[@UltimatePhantasm]

Bingo

[@RicochetForce]

That was the case back in Gen 1 and 2 as well. Gen 1 was a Bethesda-level glitchy mess with substandard visuals compared to other games of the time. It was so buggy they released a fucking fixed version in Japan a few months later (This was the basis for the versions released overseas). In Gen 2 Satoru Iwata actually helped them sort out their data management issues to get the goddamn game on the cart. The technical and game design incompetence has been there from the start. They have no reason to improve given the sales success of each entry.

[@Chiznitz]

​@@RicochetForce I've at least heard that cramming something like Pokemon onto an 8MB cartridge was a feat back in the day, but the fact that they haven't come very far since then is pretty damning.

[@BaconheartStuff]

@@RicochetForce The Iwata thing is even better than just fitting the game on the cart. Gamefreak were struggling to fit Johto onto a single cartridge, Iwata comes in and whips up a compression algorithm in a couple days that not only compresses Johto enough to fit, but gives them enough free space left over to add the entirety of Kanto as well.

[@RicochetForce]

@@BaconheartStuff Thanks for the reminder. Just, fucking hell GameFreak fucking suck.

[@Terramagu]

Megaman Legends 1 had a thing where you could unlock Easy mode BY BEATING HARD MODE. Though it should be mentioned that it wasn't so much an Easy Mode as it was Normal Mode but giving you an item that maxed out your buster stats, so you would just hold down the button and mow motherfuckers down. I think it was just meant to fuck around in, like an Exploration Mode.

[@RefMr]

Yeah I thought of this too while watching this! But that one yeah I cannot think of it in any other way than just as a power-fantasy reward. Because don't you have to beat Normal Difficulty to unlock Hard Mode and only after beating Hard do you unlock the "Easy Mode" so you have to beat the game twice and on the hardest difficulty to even get there. That says to me the developers were thinking: yeah we know you've already mastered the game, here is your super-powered reward to just destroy everything. The only thing that trips people up is calling it an Easy Mode as that's not usually how we think of Easy Modes in games. But also its literally not wrong either, it is a very easy mode so it does describe it well. xD

[@KruxisV]

Very similar to RE4's Chicago Typewriter

[@LinkinMark1994]

Not just the Buster MAX part but early jet skates as well. And I agree, it’s not really a traditional easy mode, more like Ultimate mode from Onimusha minus the inventory full of healing items

[@HelixSnake]

I want to point out that your reward for collecting all the stray beads in Okami, which is a time consuming effort you're probably going to need a guide for, is essentially easy mode, as it gives you a necklace in new game + that makes you do 10x damage and essentially leaves you with a new playthrough where you get to experience all the puzzles you've already solved and a bunch of slow, poorly paced cutscenes you've already watched (to be fair you can skip cutscenes but you can't skip all the text boxes) but the part of the game with actual depth (the combat) is essentially skipped. It's one of the most disappointing rewards for 100% collectable completion behind Skyward Sword; I guess it's the same idea as heaven or hell mode in DMC but the problem is DMC works because it doesn't have like 5 hours of text boxes. I think the worst part about it is that Okami doesn't really have a hard mode, but the combat has a ton of depth and the game deserves to be replayed to explore it. I recommend people to replay the game with only the first 3 weapons (the lowest level Reflector, Glaive, and Rosary) for a makeshift hard mode; almost every enemy has secret ways to do considerably more damage using certain moves or certain brush strokes at certain times and this is the best way to explore those mechanics.

[@Homodemon]

Yeah, back in the day I only got down to collect the stray beads once I had collected all the other rewards, and at that time I had already spend around 3 weeks worth of gameplay time. I love okami to bits, I love the story, I love the look and the music and the characters, but man, you should only tackle the bead search once you got nothing else left to do and if you really like the game.

[@DestinySpider]

That's good to know. I have only played Okami once (pretty much 100% it) and have let it sit since then, after starting a NG+ where I wanted to try out the unlocks for a bit (beads and all that), but I did intend to eventually go back to it and try experience it once more again, in an attempt to like.. experience it like for the first time again. Probably won't work tho since I still remember everything lol. Anyway, one of my biggest gripes with that game is indeed that it was too easy. My interests in games have changed quite a lot from RPGs where I always went "big number good" to DMC where I now go "sick technical combo good" I'm really hoping that a replay with no gold powder upgrades and staying with the starting weapons might allow me to try experiment some more and hopefully squeeze some depth out of the combat system that in my intial playthrough it kinda lacked since I just kept using charged sword strikes and the intended brush techniques

[@HelixSnake]

@@Homodemon Okami is one of the games I put in a category with Shadow of the Colossus and Ori and the Will of the Wisps as a game that does not get enough credit for gameplay depth because it's overshadowed by the story, the art style/visuals, and the immersion. I rarely see these three games get credit for their replayability and their reward for experimentation or mastery because most people stop at praising the story and the art style.

[@manekimoney]

Even with all the strong weapons limited, the game can still be very easy just because your brush techniques do a set amount of damage. I'd recommend doing the game with starter weapons, no using items, no upgrading any stats and not using the revive mechanic, while also not using brush techniques unless absoultely necessary. While it does kind of scrap the main point of the game (using the brush), it can be kind of fun figuring out beating the bosses in pure combat. But it also can get kinda tedious, just because some bosses have way too high HP for that style of gameplay, like Orochi. Even with that, I would consider the game relatively easy, because of the shield you get from doing combos, with some fights being an exception, like Oki (suprisingly) or the final boss just for the length alone. While I love Okami, the easy-ness and no harder difficulty mode, made me do some questionable playthoughs of the game, including a minial ending score run, lol

[@DestinySpider]

I wonder whether those trees that Ammy can send shooting up from the ground have some comat utility. I know in the opening cutscene Shiranui used a tree to block fire, but I never tried to do it in combat. Probably should, though the trees looked a lot to slender for them to be of use, even if they had hitboxes

[@kingofbel6499]

lmao that ending But yeah, I always say that if it wasnt for Pokemon blowing up like it did, GameFreak would have for sure closed their door many many years ago. Even as a big fan of the Pokemon games, with White/Black being my all time favorites, I can say for sure the whole series is not that great and would have been much better in the hands of actually competent developers.

[@Hegataro]

They really been fucking up more and more as time went on When they cut the dex in SWSH, they could've said "we've decided to do a big reset of sort, since we're on a new level of system, so there are only going to be new pokemon, none of the old ones", instead of what they did say, which was "oopsy poopsy, we did a fucky wucky"

[@johnarbuckle9345]

If Pokemon didn't blow up like it did, GameFreak would actually have incentive to put in effort and expand their development to match the rest of the industry. They'd likely be in a better place quality-wise if Pokemon was just a mild success.

[@jawwer00]

@@johnarbuckle9345 If their "passion project" Town is anything to go by, they aren't resting on their laurels, they really are just averaging 70 points of IQ

[@byronlyons3548]

@@johnarbuckle9345 If Gen 2 was supposed to be originally their last hurrah of the franchise. So naturally that should be enough to make them do their best then, to send the franchise off. And guess what? It still wasn't enough, and they needed the miracle worker Satoru Iwata, to come in and fix their broken shit. So really, it wasn't going to get better than what is already displayed throughout these past 2 decades, no matter what way you slice it. And again, them doing the same thing during Diamond and Pearl, as said by interviews with them, of them wanting those games to be the "Ultimate" Pokemon game. And will be honest, gen 5, despite these cave dwellers (Pat and Woolie) just recently finding out about the difficulty setting unlock for it, was really their last good game. The best for them even. They did a pretty good job with them. And that's without them going into gimmicky bullshit, such as Megas, Z moves, and the such, to have "quality". But that's the best they will be ever to do or capable of, and expecting any more is just asking to be disappointed.

[@leithaziz2716]

I thought the sound settings being a forced unlockable was mind-boggling enough, but needing both versions of a game to UNLOCK Easy mode is peak absurdity. Needing to BEAT the game with a harder difficulty DEFEATS THE WHOLE POINT OF AN EASY MODE. WHAT? Edit: To be fair, in DMC you also "unlock" Easy mode, but the game will give it to you if you keep struggling and end up dying enough times. So the game will throw you a bone when it's appropriate. This would be like DMC3 only unlocking Easy mode if you first manage to beat the 1st Vergil fight.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

I can only see beating a game to unlock easy mode as a variation of New Game+ "Now that you've beaten the game you can steamroll through it next time" except New Game+ is way cooler and better (Damn Web of Shadows was good)

[@leithaziz2716]

@@cyberninjazero5659 If you wanna do that, just make it so that you can re-do the game with the same difficulty but you start out with all of your upgrades that you've unlocked during your last run. New Game + is usually easy enough because the game expects you to win at the start without any upgrades. Yakuza games are a cake walk on New Game +, even on Legend (barring some annoying sections like the Car Chase in Kiwami and Jingu's boss fight. Those just suck.)

[@cherrygrabber7172]

Odin Sphere Leithrasir does the New Game+ where the hardest difficulty is unlocked, similar to Uncharted 2, and I started at Hard to begin with. Which makes it a good incentive to play again but with all the level ups and abilities acquired up to that point, so the challenge goes all out right there.

[@Bizarrejoe]

you can unlock easy mode in devil may cry

[@JoelBurger]

@@Bizarrejoe Yes, in the way a sane person would design it, i.e. if a player is struggling you give them the option. Not unlocking easy mode after they've already played through the game on a harder difficulty.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

Cold Open in Video Games are a big loud "THIS GAME WAS DESIGNED FOR CONSOLES" Sign

[@Hegataro]

Which is really fucking weird, since not everyone's TV is going to be set up the same in terms of gamma n shit

[@Mantis47]

To me it also screams "WE WISH WE COULD BE MAKING MOVIES INSTEAD OF THIS"

[@cyberninjazero5659]

@@Mantis47 Every "cinematic" game says that throughout it's runtime

[@FightCain]

Unlocking stuff should be FUN like unlocking Spartan Nicole-458 in Dead or Alive 4 or Guns and Camo and etc like in MGS games. Unlocking like a basic function like volume or difficulty feels like the worst thing I’ve ever heard of and really unrewarding

[@DurableTomb]

How about the "fun" and "immersive" feature of most 3DS games, where you could only buy the DLC in the game's in-game store after progressing in the game to a point, instead of getting the DLC conveniently from the E-Shop?

[@devilord3271]

Speaking of 3DS games 3 save slots No option to erase

[@perkypears]

@Simple Barghest oh god i erased that from my mind. every single game ever had this back in the day it was so dumb. why would you need a whole cheat code to delete your save file. did they have that little trust in kids accidentally deleting files its even worse on a GBA or DS game (which most of these were on) because that stores the save file and more often than not if youre deleting the file its because you bought it used

[@Roanan.]

Or the just as bad: 3 Save Slots Can only delete all of them at the same time by formatting the game itself.

[@AusSP]

Sword and Shield being the first Pokemon with sound settings actually makes some twisted sense. Up until now, they're all on Handhelds. Changing the volume with your finger is far easier than adding a settings menu, and they have two output sounds - BGM and sound effects. Not a huge deal, all up. So that makes sense. Now that it's on console, where you may be a couple meters away, and you need to balance the console with your DVD player, that's when adding the sound menu makes sense. The rest of it confuses me, though.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

The next level is get 50 hours into a game before you can change the resolution

[@theotherjared9824]

Somehow beat the game without playing it to unlock controls

[@tempheror112]

More proof that Gamefreak is the most incompetent game development studio of their size. Not saying they are the worst, but considering that they make the games for one of the largest franchises in the world, its baffling how many mistakes and strange decisions they seem to make.

[@olis1876]

Not just one of the largest franchises in the world. THE largest media franchise in the world, video game or otherwise. I’d guess that part of the reason why there’s no real drive for them to improve is because there is literally no better-selling competitor.

[@sylverlune]

I mean it makes sense, they are the biggest best selling franchise, so like they say "If it ain't broke don't fix it". Why would they try hard knowing they'll succeed regardless.

[@byronlyons3548]

They've always been incompetent though, even from the start with Red and Blue. The largest franchise, and the games we all bought in the first place, was always like this.

[@Spootnik]

@@olis1876 Far from THE largest, at least now. Maybe in the late 90's or early 00's they were close but there are bigger franchises in the world now.

[@RippahRooJizah]

@@Spootnik As far as I know, Pokemon is still measurably the highest grossing media franchise ever.

[@AntiRivet]

I knew the SECOND Woolie mentioned cold opens that Horizon would be next on the chopping block, haha. You have to actually exit the game in the middle of their lore cutscene with baby Aloy to just get to the menu or just sit through the pixelated mess.

[@EATABAGOFHELL]

You can only turn anti-aliasing on by trading a pokemon holding a "Jagged Stone" item to another player (the other player will be stuck with AA off until they manage to trade the stone away to somebody else)

[@grahamcarpenter5135]

The first game I ever remember having a cold open is Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003) on PS2. You get the New Line Cinema Logo, the developer's logo, and then it immediately drops you onto the slopes of Mount Doom as Isildur cutting down tons of Orcs. I was pretty confused as a 12 y/o playing it for the first time, I thought it skipped the title screen because of a glitch. MAYBE it was even the first game to ever have a cold open. I figure it was because of the whole "cinematic experience" thing.

[@Lakatu]

And they did really well too, because it was at most ten minutes of easy button-mash tutorial till you got to the main menu.

[@Mantis47]

Not as bad as the ones described, but I remember being baffled finding out that doing all the Time Attack and Hard Time Attacks on Shadow of the Colossus rewards you with all kinds of crazy stuff, like explosive arrows, an invisibility cloak and even a freaking paraglider. Entire game mechanics that are hidden under super hard challenges that most people aren't going to even try, and even if they get them, they're barely going to use them because at that point you had to pretty much learn to speedrun the bosses on hard mode to get them.

[@David9413]

10:40 Love how Pat reaches for Zangief as he annoyedly answers no, as if reaching for his emotional support dog.

[@castform57]

Gamefreak: game customization for player preference in our game? Not in our game!

[@Ellievsgod]

This is the perfect example of something I've said many times, game freak designs games like they live in an alternate universe where the pokemon games are the only video games in existence and they are the pioneers of every idea.

[@inktoxicant]

3:05 another premium Woolie laugh reaction

[@megasartshack]

"Oh cool a Challenge mode! Time to reset my save and- where did the option go?"

[@Biodeamon]

I remember Astrebreed not only disallowed you to set up a controller setting (even though its unplayable without it) with its cold open, but also if you skip it the intro will never play again and completely spoil the game

[@iamnuff1992]

"And black can make things harder for white." is the end of that final sentence, I think.

[@adams3627]

Pat's little öh ñö is sending me

[@mariannalovegood2418]

Fable 3's pause screen sending you to a giant location for JOhn Cleese to yell at you makes that game totally unplayable.

[@miguelnewmexico8641]

i beat Fable 3. i don't remember that.

[@RahkshiMaster]

@@miguelnewmexico8641 how do you not remember that???

[@jaydixon9837]

@@miguelnewmexico8641 I do- remember, having to go back to a physical location to change weapons and armor?

[@gatfatf]

I'm just imagining a Gamefreak exec with military grade sunglasses like they use at nuclear test sites looking at a guy holding a Nintendo DS with the flesh of his head burned off, saying "Brightness Settings are a priviledge"

[@Loffeleif]

Capcom needs to save Pokemon from its domestic abusive relationship with Gamefreak

[@RicochetForce]

To this day, this was the fucking breaking point for me losing all hope in Pokemon's myriad issues being fixed. Absolutely, thermonuclear-powered stupidity went into these decisions when all it really takes is toggling fucking values and a setting in the options.

[@michaelgjrjvebs]

It is easier to get the cotton pokemon in pokemon black than it is in pokemon white.

[@lemeres2478]

No, it is actually harder. But don't worry, you can get your friend with pokemon black to go and pick it up for you.

[@micheljavert5923]

And this is why two years later, in 2024, Palworld sold millions of copies in a matter of days.

[@chriswolfe351]

A cold open on video games was only tolerable back in the days of consoles, where there was only one option for how the settings should be. It was still really bad, but it was at least tolerable in that case.

[@Nencha.K]

Black 2 and white 2 are pretty good games that did allot of cool things with that I wish more pokemon games did but yeah the key system to get difficulty modes is really silly and arbitrary

[@Blackheartzero]

"Wanna play through Easy and Challenge Mode? Own 2 DSes and both games, and then BEAT both games!" ... Or just buy a cheating device and input a code that gives you both keys! Don't just _cut_ the middle man out, _frigging Kill him!_

[@KreuzDrache]

@@Blackheartzero I can't believe Gameshark was right the whole time...

[@Americanbadashh]

When it comes to PC all game settings should be accessible from a launcher or store front launcher. You should never have to actually boot the game to fix the settings!

[@LinkinMark1994]

Unless there’s something you wanted to fix in game afterward. Like if you ticked the wrong box or set the wrong resolution. Having to close the game every time would be frustrating

[@catastrophecorvid8309]

The thing about a settings menu / Holotape (for Bethesda titles) instead of integrating with MCM or another menu is to keep the mod as compatible as possible, requiring as few external resources or dependencies/requirements as possible.

[@ryanbacker4870]

It's like getting on a bus and it goes a stop too far. You need to change something, do some work, but it keeps going and when you ask it to stop the game says "you can change your settings at the next stop" Fuck that shit. Cinematic my fucking ass.

[@Jgt612]

As a stupid widdle baby who’s just started dipping their toes into PC gaming, it really do sometimes feel like the devs are out to spite you. I do love KOTOR booting me back to desktop every time a cinematic starts - big immersion

[@Constant_Boredum]

Congratulations! you completed Elden Ring with 100% completion! You can now play as Luigi

[@spencechan]

Devil's advocate : in DMC3 you could unlock 'infinite devil trigger Dante' by beating Dante Must Die. So you were unlocking an easy mode after beating the hardest normal mode (hell and hell is harder but it's also bullshit). Super Dante never appealed to me, but I had a friend who begged me for my save file and used to like to masturbatorily run around the game in that overpowered form. I imagine, in Game Freak's mind, this is the kind of player they were catering to.

[@alexanderkosten7611]

Except this is a DS game with only one save slot because Game Freak cannot do basic optimization, so playing Easy Mode requires you to give up your existing save file and everything you've accomplished on it. Also due to how EXP distribution works, apparently Easy Mode is often harder, because all the difficulty option affects is enemy levels. Yet somehow, this bare-minimum difficulty slider was not only locked behind a postgame, but never came back in any future game!

[@NekoUrabe]

There is another similar thing that happened with Heart Gold and Soul Silver where you pretty much had to get all 16 badges to unlock the gb sounds. Which replace the music with (not exactly the same) sounding music to the original versions. I did wish we could have had that as an option at the start since on a repeat playthough it would have been fun to play the games with the old school style music.

[@baku270]

I’m liking these thumbnails for podcast clips. Good work

[@Blackheartzero]

It helps then that the town with the third Gym is the first major town you go to after leaving Postwick. Plus the NPC isn't "just in some alley," he's on the way to the lift to the gym. The moment you enter the town, just talk to everyone dead ahead. You'll find him in no time. It isn't as stupid as Woolie's making it sound, but it is pretty stupid...! *Edit:* Holy Shit, Black 2 and White 2 are on _crack!!_

[@KreuzDrache]

I dunno man, I could see people easily skipping the npc and just play the game, especially towards the third gym. Its an option that should be in the game's options menu already lol. Maybe if the NPC stopped you or looks really unique compared to other NPCS, like the Ball Guy. Honestly, It would have been kinda cool, but still dumb, if you could use it change music to various in-game tracks too. Yeah, it probably STILL should in the in-game options to begin with, but at least it be KINDA favorful. Maybe make it so players have additional tracks to find throughout the world. Maybe take it a step further and allow the player to change certain sound effects to older versions too.

[@shikileaks]

I discovered this during my B&W2 replay earlier this year. It's incredible how addicted to shooting Pokémon games' replayability in the foot with weird temporary FOMO technology Game Freak is. There isn't a generation of Pokémon without a weird gimmick that doesn't work 5-10 years after release, and the gimmicks are never tiny, nothing features.

[@DarthSpiderMario]

I'm with Woolie, I hate when you don't get the opportunity to change settings (like turn on subtitles for example) before the game automatically throws you in.

[@TheSteakJustice]

Like not going to bat for GF because it's a dumb decision to do, but the third gym leader's town is the first one you go to when the game opens up, and the guy is standing near the shops, so it's still before you're actually close to fighting in the first gym.

[@7Majum7]

The sad part of all this is despite all that.. they won't change the way they have been doing things since "it just works". Fans (old and new) will continue to buy their game despite all the common complaints over the years.

[@Zeronigel332]

Except they are changing their main games as you can see with arceus just having completely different yet similar systems and more approaching open world

[@PredictableEnigma]

@@Zeronigel332 Arceus is a spinoff

[@synthiandrakon]

One thing that's infuriating is fake pause menus. This is a thing in a lot of jrpgs especially where if you pause during a cutscene, you just don't get access to any of the menus. It's especially infuriating if you just forget to check your settings before starting the game and just have to alt f4 because you forgot to turn on subtitles or whatever

[@Gatherway]

To be perfectly fair, of all the issues that people have with the pokemon series, "the games are too hard" is absolutely NOT one of them.

[@aerodblade1601]

That moment when the "easy mode is now available" is a compliment.

[@swagtasticpanda]

So you know how Bruce Lee once said how Chuck Norris is scary ASF for knowing how to land a roundhouse kick because Norris' has worked on that one kick forever? Why is game freak running on the polar opposite of that saying? Especially given that the one thing that arguably improves between the mainline games are the sprites and their quality.

[@N00BSYBORG]

It's almost like Game Freak has been making the same game over and over again since 1998.

[@pleaserespond3984]

That would be fine, but they KEEP GETTING WORSE AT IT.

[@N00BSYBORG]

@@pleaserespond3984 Why bother getting better when people will buy it anyway?

[@J_Themborn]

Or at least be like Ratchet and Clank and have more consistency.

[@miguelnewmexico8641]

1996.

[@Hyper_Drud]

@@J_Themborn I really want to play Ratchet & Clank 2 right now.

[@Kaarl_Mills]

FTL, as in the roguelite Faster than Light? That doesn't have a cold opening, it might have earlier in development, but as of now it doesn't

[@demilung]

If you want easy mode in black, you need a white friend.

[@bumblebee9736]

I have an example and i personally like the way it works, but i understand, if people think it's stupid. So, in Mega Man Zero games, starting with the 2nd one, you can earn new skills... by achieving a S-rank (or high A) on each respective stage. And it's the only way to do it. They are not required to beat any of the games, Zero has elemental chips by default, which can serve as weaknesses for bosses, but if you're going to accept the challenge - good luck, there's a reason, why MMZ series is considered one of (if not THE) hardest in the franchise. And the ranking is continuous, meaning if you ace the intro stage - you have to keep doing it, otherwise the law of averages will screw you over and you'll have to reload the save and try again (also, if you buff yourself with cyber elves, that have a permanent effect - your rank will automatically tank, no matter how good you are until the next playthrough. Good times).

[@SBJ_Tube]

Mega Man Zero is bizarre for being such a tryhard difficulty series when the core Mega Man games are already fairly challenging. No idea why Inticreates thought people wanted harsh rating penalties and powerups you get punished for using (when collecting the powerups is the intended goal in all the X games). Mega Man 9 and 10 were much better in that they HAD super hard modes, but they were clearly side challenges or achievement hunts, not the main gameplay mode that everyone has to suffer through. The happy ending to all this is that the Collection offers a bunch of new easier mode options, so someone involved there had some sense.

[@bumblebee9736]

@@SBJ_Tube Eeeeh, "suffering" is a stretch. Like i said, no one is pointing a gun at your temple to make you acquire these, and the option to add extra checkpoints in the collection won't magically improve your ability as a player. Though, the majority of those games' tech comes from these skills (especially in Z3), so, there's that. I guess, because i played the MMZ branch way back when - i'm more fond of this whole system, than others.

[@Zeikier]

I think GameFreak has a thinktank where they come up with a good mechanical idea, then find ways to make it as bad as possible so they can see the backlash against it and take the wrong things away from it. "Oh I guess players didn't *want* a difficulty meter!"

[@MidgarMerc]

Black and White are great. The difficulty thing is for the sequels Black and White 2

[@barkon34]

Lmfao Woolies face at 5:11 need to be turned into a meme.

[@chiyo-chanholocaust8143]

Imagine having to beat the game on hard to unlock easy mode, then halfway through easy the game stops and says you need to play in a harder difficulty to progress. That would be amazing

[@SixCubitMan]

regarding New Vegas modders putting menu settings in your inventory instead of the menu - if you're installing a mod, there's a good chance it won't be your only one, so modders have to be conscious of making their content compatible with other mod content. if you rearrange a menu to shove a new setting in it, and another mod *also* rearranges the menu to put in their setting, your mods will be completely incompatible. so unless it's designed for a mod pack, or designed for a type of mod specifically designed to expand menus for modular modding, it's better to have the option in your inventory since that's infinitely expandable.

[@dearcrowns]

I admit I think the B2W2 key system is pretty neat in like a general sense but having difficulty options tied to it (or at least making them unlockable and version exclusive) is baffling

[@perkypears]

it wouldve been way cooler if it let you look at more version exclusive stuff, like maybe swapping to the other version's wild pokemon in the grass, more version exclusive areas you can swap between, etc. cool idea just piss poor execution, mustve run out of ideas and decided to just drop the difficulty slider in there to pad it out

[@dearcrowns]

@@perkypears I agree, like being able to toggle black city/white forest was cool, as was the memory link stuff (though I wish they took the chance to let you fight the first game's MC a la Red), but otherwise you get difficulty modes and unlocking the Regis which is a weird implementation.

[@2la84me]

To be fair, TO BE FAIR, Black and White 2 (that sounds weird out of context) were on the DS. And the DS has the volume slider literally on the bottom half left half of the console. As well as the 3DS has the Volume slider on the upper left half side. Now.....I'm in full agreement of how incredibly stupid and odd sounding locking away sound settings well into the game BUT it's not like it wasn't possible to just turn the game down. As backwards as the logic is I can kiiinda see why they thought like that. It's logic from the age of the dinosaurs for sure but just imagine if there was a game where you had to: "UNLOCK THE RUMBLE AND SAVE FEATURES". Now if that sounds weird then you'd be wrong because rumble and memory paks weren't always included with N64 purchases. As well as games from the NES-SNES era didn't even have volume options a lot of the time. (If I lost you here with weird examples then that's okay, the point being that it has similar vibes to me) I fully understand that this is......actually just game dev Jurassic park simulator but like, Pokemon makes such a ludacris amount of money that it's actually staggering. I can see why the dinosaurs would be the most unmovable of iron rocks when they have a golden goose that they don't want disturbed unless necessary. Nintendo is also incredibly hands off with Pokemon a lot of the time. (So ends my thesis for the day)

[@matthewschoen7033]

Woolies 1000 yard stare of disbelief is just want I needed on a tuesday afternoon

[@VelocitrapLords]

Persona 5’s on launch image sharing restrictions still seem so weird

[@mushihimesamas]

If I recall Fight'n Rage did the same thing with easy mode unlocking. I understand why tho, back in the day arcade games were hard (and cheap) as hell so wanting people to play it like it was back in the day before playing easy is understandable to me.

[@LittleMissGuillotine]

I don't think a easy mode is ever a bad thing. But holy fucking shit has Pokémon not been designed to need a easier mode

[@furyberserk]

1. It better not be a boob slider. 2. The sound function was the gameboy's volume slider. Pokemon only really used one sounds at a time.

[@Ookler]

I was thinking about Dark Souls way of accessing multiplayer, but that is at least within its theme. Pokemon key items serving basic functions is just weird. It's probably the logical continuation of "you got the running shoes! Now you can move at a reasonable pace!"

[@moguuera1197]

i love checking back in on castle superbeast every couple months just to see how massive Gief is getting

[@BladeBloodTear]

I can't speak for the Black and White difficulty thing, but for the sound settings for Sword and Shield they did legitimately try to treat it as a feature since the settings also included adjusting pokemon noises to make the capturing in the live area easy/more difficult if you were the type of player to look for pokemon based on sound somehow. I can see it as their way of introducing it to players new and old since they never had the option before , but the npc isn't that far out of the way. You can talk to him within the first hour. The sound setting also wouldn't carry over since they make pokemon games only really have the 1 save. If you wipe it you wipe everything which is dumb. The whole thing is really dumb, but I can at least see the logic in it. The Black and white difficulty sends me to the moon.

[@psittacus7178]

Cold opens can be good if the frustration and confusion is the point. They removed it eventually but on launch when you loaded up Planetside 2 for the first time you were immediately drop podded into the biggest firefight on the server. It was very confusing but very memorable.

[@ZoMbi5lAy3r]

I kind of zoned out midway through the video and thought they were talking about the God game Black& White 2 up until the very end

[@davidspackagelp]

Yeah, same, for a bit. I think the first Black & White game was sold in both black packaging and white packaging so I was like "huh, I didn't know they were actual different versions"