24
« on: May 05, 2017, 07:12:53 AM »
Pokémon Black should be arriving today. In the past 15 months or so, I've played through the main games of X, Alpha Sapphire, and Moon, as well as substantial parts of all three post-games.
I've been really surprised at how satisfying I've found playing Pokémon essentially as a table-top RPG simulator. The broad variety of Pokémon designs, typings, and move sets offer an equivalency to character classes, and the game settings act as adventure modules.
My favorite part is how it imperceptibly layers meaning on subjective aesthetic choices. I find myself caring about the Pokémon I raise as I would other fictional characters, despite them totally lacking any narrative context (I mostly ignore or compartmentalize the lore/story, but very much enjoy the random NPC dialogue).
I play X the most. I suspect it's because of the setting. France is one of my favorite places in the world, and Paris is my second favorite city after New York. Kalos effectively evokes French elegance and elan and it provides a beautiful backdrop to run my teams through.
I'm really excited to explore Unova. I'm intimately familiar with all the real world towns and neighborhoods listed in the bulpapedia article. I'm hoping it resonates like Kalos does, because I'd love to try to integrate it into a larger campaign spanning the other titles.