CORRECTIONS and CLARIFICATIONS:- 2:23 I make a point of not acknowledging games released after the game I'm discussing. I ought to have mentioned that in the introduction. 1:37:14 Steelix can be caught in the wild. 2:21:36 CONTENT WARNING: SEXUAL ASSAULT. The "bunny girl" costume is not as benign as I made it out to be. Japan has very high sexual harrassment and sexual assault statistics. Japanese critics have argued that objectifying women in media, even for young children, is a contributing factor to these statistics. Having played so many Japanese games I'm desensitised to a lot of this stuff, which is exactly the problem; nevertheless, it ought to have occurred to me to interrogate it. Please accept my apologies. 2:59:10 Your options are more than doubled in Doubles. 4 moves x 4 moves = 16 combinations in a turn before we even account for switching or items. 5:00:00 This interaction is not unique to Mareanie and Corsola - Sableye and Carbink behave identically. 5:17:33 My understanding of why health depletes so slowly was incorrect. So long as there are more Hit Points than pixels in the HP bar, the game counts down each number in its own individual frame - as the Gen IV games run at around ~30FPS, the game will take 1 full second to take away 30HP. 6:22:56 The Ainu people are still around today; I unintentionally imply otherwise. 10:23:01 Arceus is not an event Mythical; it's locked behind completing all main story missions in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I think it's important and I think you're right. There's a lot of weird shit in Japanese media. A lot of it isn't navigated but instead internalised by English-speaking audiences, and that includes me. I'm desensitised to it by this point, and I just flatly assumed the bunny girl thing was okay because, well, it's everywhere. But I hadn't heard that statistic before. 1 in 3?? That's truly shocking. I'll issue a correction here with proper content warning. I've raised the point, but I don't want to further normalise that attitude.
Thanks for the Lopunny commentary. This kind of cultural norm throughout a lot of Japanese media is a big reason why Pokémon is the only Japanese franchise I’ve ever really jived with. Excellent video, congrats on getting a project this huge out! It’s nice to hear that other people love Sinnoh for so many of the same reasons I do. Cheers! 🎉
@@iversiafanatic Thank you for this comment. I've been trying to play through Policenauts on the Saturn recently and am completely disgusted with the literal assault the game just lets the player do to seemingly every woman in the game, with basically no consequence. Your comment goes a long way towards informing me why crap like that exists. Absolutely disgusting and has definitely put me off playing anything else Kojima has made.
@@NageekXLII Pokemon has unfortunately had this kind of thing from the start, at least in side media. The Electric Tale of Pikachu is *shocking*, no pun intended.
"a slag heap is what we call maggie thatcher" "we used to race snails, which was just as exciting as you'd expect" God im so fucking happy we've got a new video. your one liners crack me the fuck up. gonna be so good to dive into this over the next few days
Just want to point out how much your scriptwriting has improved since the Omega Ruby video. Feels like going from a uni thesis to a column in the paper. Real wordsmith you've become
@@shoogles_ i still really love the omega ruby video I watch it very often, hope that you still appreciate it even if you think your script for it is outdated in terms of wordplay
I just want you to know, having finally finished this video after four days of off and on watching, your voice is downright therapeutic. You have one of the smoothest, most listenable voices I've ever laid ears on. I could (and I guess have) listen to you speak for hours. I don't care of you're speaking on geopolitical conflicts or reading a damn phone book, your voice is smoother than butter.
@@Dragonatrix So you either watched a full 11 hour video less than 20 hours after it came out or didn't watch it and are saying it's full of filler... if the first, why didn't you stop? If the second, why lie?
I'm surprised you didn't talk about Buneary in Eterna Forest. I've always thought that was a brilliant little detail, and an awesome introduction to friendship as a mechanic. Buneary always knows Frutration, and is the only Pokemon who can learn it naturally, a move that becomes stronger the lower your Pokemon's friendship value. Buneary then evolves when it's friendship is high enough into Lopunny, who learns Return on evolution, and is the only Pokemon to learn it naturally, a move that gets stronger the higher your Pokemon's friendship value. It's a beautiful way to let you mechanically feel the otherwise kind of arbitrary feeling friendship stat, as you see Frustration slowly grow weaker, and get rewarded with this hella powerful move at the end of it. And all that comes from the area where you're first introduced to the idea of fighting alongside a friend.
Buneary is also the only non-legendary Pokémon that has 0 friendship when caught, which makes Frustration stronger. Practically every Pokémon other than box legendaries and mythicals starts at 35 or 70 friendship. Other than Frustration, I like this for three reasons: 1. Apparently rabbits are some of the hardest pets IRL to get to be affectionate. 2. Lopunny is really strong for the point in the game you can get Buneary, so it's a good balancing move to put that little extra obstacle there. 3. I think it's really funny that of all normal Pokémon, it's only the cute smiling little bunny that hates your guts when you first catch it.
thats such a cool detail! that is a really interesting bit of game design. shame about them axeing frustration and return but at least in the originals this is really fun characterization
In the best way possible, this didn’t feel like 11 hours-great pacing, compelling content. I loved the “what if” characters, including the art. Thanks for all the work this must’ve took (and for adding “themperors” to my lexicon).
this is genuinely one of the most impressive youtube videos ive ever seen. i used to see people joke about your oras video (that i have not seen) but damn its rare to see a video essay justify its length this well. insanely thorough and fair, great work
I think there's a pretty elegant solution to the HM problem - contextualize it as a learning moment for the trainer character that enables them to get their Pokémon to do things for them. Something like "You learned the Push command!". Then, when you try to push something, the game checks if any Pokémon in your team can learn Strength (without needing to learn it), and if they can, it tells you "You asked Machoke to push the rock. It did so happily!" - prior to that growth moment it could say "You asked Machoke to push the rock. It doesn't seem to understand you..." or something along those lines. If you don't have a strength mon, then the game can either not let you push (the annoyance of which is mitigated by immediate access to your box - maybe it can even tell you that there's a Pokémon in your box that COULD push and ask you if you want to swap out), check your box and have the Pokemon help out automatically ("No one in your party could... But Machoke heard you and jumped out of the box to help!"), or just default back to having a random Pokémon from the grass help you out (I like this one least), depending on how lenient you want to be. This way you get rid of the weirdness of the growth coming from an item and it still prioritizes that team effort aspect, doesn't force wasted move slots. There's even precedent for your trainer learning to be a better trainer having an impact on mechanics - the traded Pokémon level cap for obedience increasing with each badge in earlier games.
I feel like either the "Your Pokemon jumped out of the box ro help!" or the wild mon solutions are the best ones of these suggestions. The idea of needing the mon to be in your party to do the task being balanced by the ability to access the boxes anywhere sounds fine on paper, but in practice it ends up kind of being a tedious thing to switch a pokemon in and out of the box just to cut down a tree or push a rock and then swap them back in. Its a lot of menuing for no real additional benefit
What if using Pokémon to do them for you was necessary at first, but later you're given a tool that lets you do the actions yourself, skipping the tedium later on and turning it into a progression thing. So say early on you'll need a Pokémon to cut trees, but at some point you obtain shears so certain types of Pokémon are no longer required for that. It would help if you have to find the items too rather than be part of the main story progression, maybe the shears can be found by exploring a city and talking to the clerk at the gardening shop, or exploring the forest and speaking to a lumberjack who lends a random 10 year old his old axe just because they asked him for it.
@@Invisibool The only problem I could see with this is the implication that a Pokemon can just leap out of the Boxes at any time. It works for the Pokeballs because they're more physical, always kept on you. But leaping out of the PC might make newer players confused about how it works.
I've long maintained that your Omega Ruby retrospective was likely the best-written Pokémon video of all time. Now, over 6 years later, we get to tackle an even more controversial entry into the series, and with even more hours of entertainment and insight. Beyond excited to dive in - props to you for creating what I'm sure will go down in community history! (Also I find it very amusing that, commenting 7 hours after it was uploaded, I can know for a fact that not a single individual on TH-cam has watched it in its entirety 😂)
"The only way I could possibly enjoy Sinnoh on the same level I did back then, is if I could somehow go back in time." Ah, so we're doing Legends Arceus next then, eh? ;)
Scottish man poetically and thoroughly deconstructs and analyzes a remake of a 17 year old children's game in a deadpan voice for 11 hours. My beloved king has returned
I think there's something very charming and funny about this video's empathetic approach to game development. In this age of internet hot takes, it feel almost absurd to apologize for something as commonplace as calling a dev team lazy or a previous video's unnecessarily strong stance on something. And yet i think it lends a very wholesome and forgiving air to the critique that makes the actual criticism come across as all the more valid, because you know it comes from a place of love for the game and empathy for the devs and fans.
The ability to look back at a previous work and make corrections and call out past mistakes or past opinions which are now outdated is genuinely rare and valuable, especially in our age of absolutes. Appreciating the mediocrity (in its etymological sense) of something has become a very rare quality as well. It adds nuance and raises the quality of the critique as a whole. In the same way, being able to focus about the matter which is critiqued without looking to attribute blame shows a level of respect and maturity lacking in the current media. For all of this and more, thank you very much for this great video!
after watching this once through, i think my absolute favorite moment is when you held down a gym-badge for too long and got gym-badge jumpscared. the incredulity was like watching a tiger cub play with its enrichment toy
god this went by so quickly i'm always blown away by how good you are at these, pokémon platinum was the game that made me love games when i was very young, and it shaped so much of what my tastes are even now. sinnoh's commitment to a believable environment and its unique sort of quiet atmosphere, that contentment to just exist in a space, gently shrouded in myth and mystery was a perfect second home for me to let my young imagination run wild beyond what was probably ever intended. to see you care about these games so deeply and highlight those very specific qualities that felt like these intangible childhood feelings, and put them into words made me so so happy, like no word of a lie i got a bit choked up when you were describing route 209's theme, amazing stuff
It wouldn't be considered vandalism, because there wouldn't be anything left to consider it as anything after the fact. Nothing would happen. Everything would just be gone.
I'm so excited to watch this! My girlfriend used to live 3 and a half hours away from me and I would listen to your Omega Ruby retrospective on the drive up there and back every time I went to visit her. It's one of my favorite pieces of media ever so I can't wait to really dig in to this!
I wish so badly that ambipom had an ability that let it hold two items. That would give it such a niche that no other Pokemon can compete with, and potentially made it actually decent in battle despite being middling otherwise. It wouldn't help the design much but it would give it a reason for being like that that makes it super unique.
oh my god thats genius. its probably be a bit overpowered off of ambipoms 100 base attack stat (life orb+choice band+stab would be ridiculous) but itd definitely be really cool. i like that idea
Make it so it holds one permanent +one consumables :) this can give it a niche like holding the water bulb, or cell battery or if not too frail, a weakness policy would be super scary
THE FOLLOWUP TO THE GREATEST POKEMON RESTROSPECTIVE OF ALL TIME IS FINALLY HERE!!! YESSSSSS!!! Thank you for all your hard work Shay/Shoogles, sincerely. We all appreciate you more than you know.
I didn't recognise the channel name but thought i'd give it a watch anyway. I click play, then go back to working on my first screen and then i hear it. The unmistakable rolled R of Shaymay, only 00:00:02 seconds into the vid. We get the follow up we've wanted for so long :)
Somehow every single time there's a joke it feels like it comes completely out of the blue and cracks me up, no matter how many times I can never see it coming.
Damn. Truly one of the best TH-cam videos of all time. What is really interesting is that here you didn't just talk about bdsp. In this video, you took every opportunity to look at pokemon as an entire series, touching everything from basic mechanics to level design to EVs and IVs. I truly appreciate the gigantic work
I feel the animations discussion gets misconstrued constantly. A Game with 1000 pokemon and great animations on everything is impossible. But a game with 1000 pokemon and bad animations is certainly possible. A greatly reduced pokedex and great animations, conversely, is also possible. The issue is that game freak gave us a reduced pokedex AND bad animations.
then perhaps they shouldn't have went into 3d... they wouldn't need a 1000 good animations since they already cut out over half of the pokedex yet pokemon pbr has far better animations with 400+ pokemon and that game came out over a decade ago.
@Blanktester685 Battle Revolution did have 3 generations of animations to build on from Stadium and Collesseum. X/Y built like 600 pokemon from scratch.
Shay, your Ruby video has been a favorite of mine for years - I still put it on in the background and spend an entire day listening to it. I can’t wait to spend a whole day listening to this one, too!
Congrats on finally getting this out. We know it's been an overly-rough journey but you heckin' did it man. You're gonna make my entire work week more interesting by giving me this monster to listen to!
this video has been my go-to youtube content for the last week or so. I finally finished it today, and I must say this is genuinely one of my favorite videos I've seen on this platform. it resonated with me to a surprising degree and I'm almost sad to see it end. I played brilliant diamond shortly after release and dropped it before the pokemon home compatibility update, presumably once I got to the battle area and couldn't be bothered with the pokedex stuff. "I'll come back to it once home updates"... oops. now, however, I'm incredibly motivated to give the game another look with fresh eyes to complete what I have left. truly wonderful content, much appreciation for the time and effort this must've taken!
It’s wild getting to a video this long after it’s only been live for 3 hours. Cause that means NO ONE has finished it yet. And no one will for a while. But seeing all the happy messages and the excitement for the vid is super heartwarming. Looking forward to watching this!
God this was so good. I think you have to have a certain type of charisma to make it so when I finish your 11 hour video my response is “I should rewatch his old 11 hour video again.” I love your humor, insight, speech and attitude. So glad I got to experience this and be a patreon that contributed during it!
I think your discussion around the 8:10:00 mark about difficulty falls into the middle ground fallacy. A Pokemon game's balance is a multitude of several factors. From the difficulty of the battles themselves to also the difficulty in progressing the storyline. Most Pokemon games, as you said, lay on the easier side of things -- and this is intentional, the games are designed in such a way that you don't even need to know the written words on screen to play them, from the battle mechanics to the world design. But saying that difficulty is bad because it's too easy, but that really hard difficulty is also bad in it's own right because it pushes away casual players, is the middle ground fallacy. In reality, a game that is between those extremes in difficulty is just a game that makes it hard to play casually but is easy if you know how to play it. Which isn't "perfect" balance, because it still bores extreme players while pushing away new ones. That middle ground, generally, takes the worst of both extremes, not the best.
Can I just say, thank you so much for taking the time to dedicate an entire segment of the video to the Route 216/217 music? It's my favorite song in all of Sinnoh, and my favorite route theme ever, and I thought you did it so much justice with your well thought out analysis of the composition and instrumentation! 👏
There's literally a mechanic RPGs already have for making sure not every player can catch every legendary: Meaninful choices. They don't even have to be like good/bad endings. Say the volcano heatran lives in is erupting and you can either catch Heatran to calm it down, or go catch Shaymin to protect the wildlife around the volcano. Or, the sleeping kid with the nightmares. Either you fetch Cresselia to heal him, or catch Darkrai to make them knock it off, and once you have one, the other avoids you, fearing it's counterpart..
Permanently locking you out of a pokemon in a collectible focused genre is horrible. Pokemon already has major problems with this because of the limited events, adding even more is just not it. Other RPGs can do that because they're focused on gameplay and good stories and don't focus themselves around collectable pets.
@@Cr3zant I mean... There's this ancient technology called multiple save files. If you wanna prioritise people beign able to grab everything, then, well... Dexit needs to go first and foremost, but then you could always just let someone transfer between saves.
@@Cr3zantwell technically aside trading, it’s not really locking out of anything. That’s essentially what you do w every Pokemon game since its first released Yellow, and even that game didn’t have all mons incl but it would the REALLY superior vrsn. The best I can think of is HGSS where you can get access to both legendary, you technically can only get 1 of each starter from 1-3, and you also get access to the whole trio of birds and roaming legendaries excluding Latios-as depending on which version. Also can get all hoenn catchable legendaries so I don’t really see a big deal in this, esp if their Mythicals (w.o heatran) they can go the route of giving you 1 specifically locked mythical but then again, we come back to your statement bc they did that for ORAS w deoxys. And like commenters said above me: you can have multiple save files or trade really since access to all Deoxys forms on their own is possible :)
@@Cr3zant there's been precedent for it since the first generation. Version exclusives, starters, fossils, all to encourage trading. Having choices that make sense in the sidequests is a lot more interesting to me than version exclusives, personally.
@@000Dragon50000having a limited pool of Pokemon to catch doesn't make "gotta catch em' all" a worthless goal, that's the reason why natdex and regional dex are two entirely different things. It isn't about literally having every single living thing in existence, it's about completing the game. And transferring between saves or other people would only bandaid the issue of a playthrough that is incomplete. It'd be more understandable if multiple playthroughs yielded a universal reward like a Pokedex viewable through the title screen. Doing another playthrough to retroactively complete a previous one doesn't sound like coherent game design imo.
5:20:36 "And there is just no way that Nintendo would accept the series not taking advantage of their new console's unique selling point." But that's exactly what they did. Most of the time the games aren't even in 3D, and in battles for XY/ORAS there's not too much of a sensation of depth, except for a few water attacks, which look nice! =D
I just need you to know that the whole time you were discussing the two hypothetical party member characters representing the theme of tradition vs progress I kept saying "and then they kiss, right?" The SCREAM I let out when you went ahead and made the same joke 😅
By god, the weekly search for a new Shaymay video is done. Can't wait to hear you talk about pokemon for the next two days. One of the best notifications my phone ever brought. Missed your content.
Hour 6 and I'm still going strong! Great work on this video. As someone who actually quite enjoyed Brilliant Diamond despite the general consensus, I really found this video refreshing. It's even got me wanting to replay it again now. Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much!! While I have you I just wanted to thank you guys - I binge-watched your stuff while getting back into Master Duel a couple years back! Hope you're all doing well!
Pokemon like Cinderace also feel more like characters than pokemon. They have so much inherent personality for something that is supposed to be an entire species. If one person's fire-rabbit happened to be obsessed with football, and acted very much like a stereotypical football player, that's fine. But the entire species? That is so weird to me.
I feel like this is remedied by the fact that, unless you breed or trade, there will only be the one fire rabbit that happens to like football. I can simply pretend that the other members of its species would develop different interests and personalities, since I’ll hardly get to see them anyway.
@@kamileon7065 I see where you are coming from, and whatever works for you is genuinely cool, but I just don't want to have to rely on head-canon with this type of thing, especially knowing the designers' intent
@@kamileon7065Except that isn’t true since there logically have to be other fire rabbits for yours to exist in the first place. It isn’t a legendary. It’s a starter, so there ARE more than one, otherwise Leon shouldn’t have a Charizard since you would’ve had the only fire lizard back in Kanto. They’re just rare. And the fact of the matter is, every fire rabbit turns out the same. You can pretend whatever you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that my fire rabbit and your fire rabbit will turn out exactly the same. That’s the problem with bad headcanon. It falls apart so easily that the only way it can work is if you literally stop thinking.
As a kid I loved discovering new animalistic Pokémon and was genuinely interested in all the different species, I'd read up their Pokedex entries and even these days I might look up some trivia about them and see where the inspiration for the Pokémon came from. I've pretty much always ignored humanlike Pokémon since Red/Blue, so seeing this bigger focus on those humanlike ones in the new games makes it real difficult to care. I remember being nervous about my Feraligatr upon learning that they're known to never let go of a bite, from something who's mouth alone was bigger than my entire body. I don't get that sense of curiosity with a lot of the newer ones overall, humanlike or not.
Hey, I just wanted to say that you are probably my FAVORITE pokemon youtuber there is... massively underrated, but I love how you're able to bring both the good and the bad, every little detail out in such great fashion! I really hope you keep making these long pokemon analyses (analysi?) I'd be really sad if you stopped just because you feel like it doesn't get enough views (of course the most important thing is that you yourself enjoy making the videos) but just so you know: you've got at least one very dedicated pokemon fan from Finland who will watch your every pokemon video at least three times!
Great video, love to see the In depth analysis of a game with context from surrounding interviews and media that would be otherwise lost on some audiences
Saw this on my home page and I just yelled "NO WAY DUDE!" at the top of my lungs, haha. You have picked the PERFECT time to make another one of these! I am going to devour it. Thank you for your hard work! Can't wait to see the whole thing!
only an hour in and as someone who actually quite adores these games for all their flaws, i'm really appreciating the thoughtful criticisms of the game.
Absolutely incredible. This and your ORAS video are truly some of the best Pokemon-related content on the platform, and possibly *the* best in terms of overall depth, objectivity of critical analysis, and (importantly) long-term value for the franchise as a whole, its fans, and game developers at large new and old. Not only that, but in a world where video game preservation is constantly threatened, having videos like these out there serve to better encapsulate what these game were and how they fit into the overall narrative/dev-story of the series. I know it may be too much to ask of one person, but hope you have it in you to continue this series with other Pokemon games on the Switch. At the very least it would be incredible to see both PLA and eventually a SV video, not just for what they are, but for how they fit into the overall franchise and how they square with your observations in ORAS and BDSP. That, and I'll be honest, I just really like hearing your voice. Amazing work, as per usual, please keep at it. You're an amazing human being.
10:52:28 I pride myself on doing everything legitimately but you hit the nail on the head here when it comes to available information. Tons of people that would otherwise be interested in battling at a higher level (not necessarily competitive) would want to know about stat allocations that each wild Pokemon give you, and this would be very easy information to put in the games via the Pokedex, but it just outright isn't there. The same could be said about egg moves, movepools in general, and base stats. Not everyone have the time or resources to learn the processes/best routes/best way to keep track of EV allocation. Even in your training, you didn't realize that gift Pokemon always set 3 IVs so if you wanted to get the best stats, you could breed Pokemon you originally received from fossils and get them to spread their perfect stats with a Destiny Knot. Once again, the game never tells you that the Destiny Knot even has this functionality. A lot of people don't like the grind but I do because it's kind of the whole point of training your Pokemon to begin with, but it is very obfuscated and I can't imagine that this is even intentional to sell guides, because as far as I know the only guide that I read that tells you anything about this system was the FireRed/LeafGreen official guide (then again I haven't owned an official guide in 15+ years since Serebii exists).
It’s insane how the Pokémon company remains so obstinately against supporting competitive training in their games by obscuring the exact mechanisms behind IV’s, EV’s, and breeding. It’s hostile to new players trying to get into more serious battling, and forces people to seek out third party services to just learn the basics.
@@johnpaulcross424 It's really got a vibe similar to Bethesda's view on glitches; "Why should we bother doing anything? Just let the players document/mod it!" Not considering how many months it takes for calculations on a new gen to be complete and accurate. I remember Gen VIII where the officially documented method for KO-shiny hunting was incorrect, and as far as I remember, GF still has yet to fix that particular glitch.
That comment about Pokemon being a resource management game hit pretty true for me. I remember as a kid that I hated how gen 1 only had 20 item slots in the bag. As an adult, who now knows how to use the PC, I enjoy coming back to gen 1 for the added challenge of managing the inventory, in addition to the critters I choose and what attacks they can use.
Ngl, thats my unfulfilled dream. There is a whole universe of potential for a pokemon side game series that explores greater dungeon exploration and resource management. I mean even the general type difference has begun to disappear due to different game design directions. A team could go on for years iterating on the concept "pokemon feel + traditional dungeon diver mechanics"
@sock7896 yeah thats definently a way to explore that route when you think about it. I think I'd prefer an attempt at dungeon features added to the mainline though. Im thinking breaking gym linearity with mostly skippable dungeons you can delve into throughout the map kind of vibe
Accidentally putting your bike in the box and leaving it there might be the funniest thing you could do. You might find yourself in an area where you can't use it as liberally, so when you finally have to navigate to it in your bag it's just not there lmao
The way you articulate your points and thoughts, while already very good in the Omega Ruby video, have skyrocketed so much, and it's so easy on the ears, this was an absolutely great piece to listen to and you managed to articulate a lot of feelings i think many of us have had about these games but always fail to actually express. Fantastic video
Obviously it is your choice as to whether or not you make any more Pokemon videos such as this, so do what makes you happy! That being said, I don’t know of any other videos that I’ve looked forward to more than this one. I really hope you consider doing more. These have been a bright spot to me in bleak times - they haven’t been the answer to my problems, but certainly a warm hug. Thanks for making this
I've watched your omega ruby review so much it's literally comfort audio for me (to the point where I can recite lines from memory) just wanted to say from all of us minority fans that aren't vocal, that we love the effort you put in and you have really helped with creating some more comforting anti-anxiety audio for a lot of people. Thanks Shay, you're a bloody legend.
I've just reached 3:21:51, and your explanation of the strengths of ORAS' Gym Theme makes for perfect juxtaposition to why I enjoy DPPt's theme as much as I do. To put it simply; in ORAS, the emphasis is on your struggle against the gym leader, here the focus is on the synchronicity between you and your Pokémon. The brass isn't challenging the strings in DPPt because they're working in harmony to crash into the Gym Leader with the full force of the orchestra. That's the justification for Sinnoh's heavier emphasis on the rhythm section. You, as the player, are barreling into these gyms with everything you have, and you're putting on a show doing it. Meanwhile, the Gym Leader has been built up as an obstacle by everyone you meet in their section of the game. Whether it's 10,000 light-years Brock or Volkner's overwhelming apathy, every Gym Leader in these games has people telling you how tough they are. Wake being on screen is perfect for this. Your rival, of all people is outside of his gym bragging to you about becoming his apprentice. For the time they're on screen and you're in their building, they are the singular focus of your attention. It's up to them to weather the storm of you and your Pokémon giving your all. Fighting them with this music in the background always peaks my emotional investment, regardless of the outcome. If I win, the game was cheering me on the entire time, and riding the (emotional) high feels fantastic. If I lose, my defeat is that much more jarring. "My Pokémon and I tried our hardest out there. What happened? What did I not consider?" Giving the player more wind in their sails by almost assuring their victory with this theme elevates the tension no matter how the battle actually goes. That, and uh, it's a banger. 🔥 Let's go with that.
It’s amazing what can be accomplished when you give yourself the room to address topics concisely in its own time. Algorithm aside, having these exhaustive looks allows for you to cover these topics with as much detail and attention as they deserve without being pressured to cut your thoughts short and I love it. I hope you’re able to continue to do these so long as you’re not exhausted yourself! I grew up with Diamond and as much as I had my issues with this remake, seeing this video helped me remember what captivated me back in 2007 and why these games still hold a special place for me. I’m still barely through this video but would love to hear your thoughts on Legends Arceus sometime too in relation to Sinnoh’s themes/concepts as a whole
As someone who really isn’t a fan of Sinnoh this gives me a much better appreciation for it, even if I might not always agree. The effort you put in really shows and pays off.
No matter who is or isn't to blame, the point still stands that bad localization is distracting and takes you out of the game. Bad games also still cost full price, and it's clear somebody on the chain messed up royally when a mechanic or part of the game doesn't hold up. Arguably, everyone in the chain messed up, but I'd place more blame on the higher ups. It's their job to catch that sort of thing, bad gameplay or bad depictions. I think blaming NOBODY is absurd, but I respect that you argue the logical point that blaming is itself a distraction. Although, sometimes there legitimately is a person in a position that they should not be in and is bad at it/causes problems for everyone else, anyone who's worked a corporate job knows this.
I absolutely agree with your sentiment. Though from what I can tell, his point isn’t that nobody is to blame - it’s that he (or we as fans) don’t know who exactly to place the blame upon. Thus placing blame on a person or everyone isn’t fair. I actually don’t really care to have this discussion but I’m pretty sure it’s good for his engagement.
one thing I find kinda sad the remakes don't include/replace in the Old Chateau is the guaranteed Gengar encounter in the room with the painting with red eyes if you had a Gen 3 cartridge inserted in your DS/DS lite
Shay I just want to say that the love and effort you put into this project cannot be understated! This is such a lovingly-crafted video and I hope that you are as proud of yourself as we are of you! Much love and respect for finishing such a huge passion project! Congrats man!
In order to find what's done wrong, you have to find what's done right. Quality isn't zero sum, but many design decisions are made at the deliberate expense of certain mechanics due to an attribution of focus. Understanding this helps us not only attribute faults and why they exist, it helps us understand how we can perfect those flaws as best we can under the intent presented. If we aren't doing that, we might as well be making a different game. Glad you understood something many nowadays unfortunately refuse to, even your past self.
I just finished watching through this, all the way, just wanted to say thank you so much for putting this out there it was such a delight. It’s a shame to hear you won’t be making any more of these but totally understandable. Regardless, you’ve earned my subscription and respect.
Very excited for this one! Great work on completing such a huge undertaking Shay! I really appreciate your decision to focus on the shortcomings of the game on its own terms, rather than attempting to attribute blame (outlined from around 12:00 - 16:00). Pointing fingers is generally unhelpful at best and oftentimes downright harmful. This willingness to reflect on your past work and change, I think, is a great demonstration of your growth as a critic
I really appreciate your thorough analysis on Sinnoh culture's abd themes. I skipped these remakes, but Gen 4 is a favorite of mine and I enjoyed learning about inspirations and connections I wasn't aware of before.
I remember as a kid I decided to just keep running to see how far the game would let me go and I ended up beating Crasher Wake first. I always felt so cool for doing this, and it kind of upset me when Platinum removed the option to do so.
Never realized that was possible in DP lol, but it's interesting to hear about something lost in the transition to Platinum (which largely polished up many of DP's earlier issues like the slow surfing speed, the fact a lot of newly introduced Pokemon weren't even available until post-game, the low Fire-type count etc.)
@@ArbitraryOutcome Platinum really does clean up so much stuff, but there are a lot of little interesting things that kind of just got lost to the wayside. I remember wanting to use a Misdreavus in Platinum but I couldn't get on in the forest like you could in Pearl.
@@uraaliceThat's my biggest gripe with Platinum too. Mismagius is my favourite Sinnoh Pokemon but I can't even use it! Luckily I have an old copy of Pearl but, still, why lock it away like that?
@@evaneverHonestly, my biggest gripe with Platinum has always been the opening. In DP, we have the opening where we get attacked on the overworld, but in Plat we don't and instead get given the pokemon by Rowan before we jump in. Plus the video at the opening is weaker going from the Red Gyarados to some documentary.
@@NotSpecialDudeI've felt the same too! The intro with the Starly always left such a strong mental image. I wish these remakes could have just lifted some stuff from platinum (like the more complex gym designs and new looks for the routes) if nothing else
Even if you don't do another "Exhaustive look" I'm really happy with the final result, I know these kind of videos are really hard to make and take a lot of time hence why I really appreciate that you took the time and effort to make it, listening to your thoughts while I played pokémon myself was an oddly satisfactory experience and it was fun to see where we did and did not agreed, you raised a lot of very good points that got me thinking for some time and the way you phrased everything made the experience very easy to listen and process tbh i got surprised one day when i realized I listened to it for four hours straight without knowing, I can already see myself revisiting this video lated on multiple times just like i have done with the Omega Ruby one You are seriously amazing and I wish nothing but success and happiness in the future 💖💖
While I fully understand why you may not be compelled to make future "exauhstive looks", I can't help but hope you change your mind. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of work that goes into making these, but I can say the amount of satisfaction I have gotten from this, along with your Ruby video, is monumental. Thank you for putting the time, effort, and energy into this. I enjoyed the day's worth of entertainment, and thorough perspective, it provided.
I mean I feel like this goes without saying but, this shit is absolutely incredible. You are a fantastic writer who leaves absolutely no stone unturned and somehow manages to maintain interest for 11 hours straight.
I’m working from home and my deadline got me sat down for the majority of the day this month. I just finished the entire video; leaving it as a podcast while I worked/cooked/did house chores helped me keep my mind away from the stress during the last 2 days. I enjoy your voice and the calm tone you used throughout the entire video. I’m absolutely awed by this project - congratulations on it and best of lucks for your future endeavours!!
I think the biggest problem with the "you can simply trade with your friends to get Pokemon that you need for your competitive team" is that the Pokemon Company literally discourages this; during the last World Championship they "improved" the system they use to identify hacked 'mons and told people that if they wanna be 100% sure that they won't get caught with hacked Pokemon, they should NOT use any Pokemon that they've received through a trade.
I hear you, but I don't think that's a fair interpretation of the Company's message. Reminding/cautioning players of the risk in using pokemon obtained over the internet or from a stranger is not the same as discouraging social-play. If they had banned all traded pokemon outright, or if genuine pokemon could be mistaken for hacked ones _because_ they were traded-then you'd have a point. But there's nothing to dissuade collaborating with trustworthy friends when you can all verify the pokemon are genuine.
I'm pretty sure that just means "you can't guarantee any Mon you get from a trade isn't hacked," not that legit mons will get flagged by the system just because they are traded
@@ianknielAnd that’s only applied to official tournaments, too. You aren’t going to get banned for using a hacked Pokemon ingame, so there wouldn’t be any issue with using them unless you’re taking them to actual tournaments and trying to compete with them. It’s incredibly disingenuous to take a statement about tournament conduct and acting like it’s supposed to discourage people from TRADING completely.
It's interesting how a lot of the issues you pointed out with these games (the story's intent, hidden mechanics/stats, evolution methods) all seem to stem from a lack of effective communication. It makes sense: how can you possibly manage your resources effectively when you don't even know what your options are? Anyways, don't really have much else to add that hasn't already been said, thanks for making another another fantastic video!
2:55:00 It's actually surprising to hear most people skip as many trainers as they can. Throughout every pokemon game, I purposefully fight every single trainer on every route to stay properly levelled the whole game. Strange to hear how many people just... Don't, lol
Yeah, same. I would’ve never guessed people would get their levels out of Wild Pokémon when some of the games even explain you get more exp from trainer battles.
I always thought skipping trainers was pretty bizarre. Like, the primary mechanic of the game is Pokemon battles. You probably bought the game to engage in Pokemon battles. So when the game gives you battles to do, why would you simply…not do them?
@@MisterZebra42I do make sure to fight all the trainers because completing everything gives me serotonin but I definitely don’t buy the games for battling which is why PLA is my fav. Even though I do like to complete things I never bother with the battle tower stuff because even the idea of doing so bores me to death
I always got the implication from TMs that they were meant to be demonstrational videos that are shown to the Pokémon-like a fitness instructional video.
In that case, even if single use, you should be able to show it to multiple pokemon at a time. No, TMs, combined with storing items/pokemon in a pc, and the existence of Porygon, leads me to believe it is a file that you somehow use on your pokemon.
havent finished yet but i love how much detail and love you pour into the music analysis! ive played bdsp but i never realized just how good the music was. the route 216 theme is very quickly one of my new favorite pokemon themes ever
8:49:36 My introduction to Cynthia was from the Pokémon anime. Her introduction episode had her literally body Paul's entire team with only her Garchomp. For context Paul had been curb-stomping Ash right from the beginning of the Diamond and Pearl saga and here he is getting destroyed harder by this new character (new to me anyway). Not only that but after the battle, Cynthia goes out of her way to assist the Pokémon centre to heal Paul's team and during this she talks about him and his Pokémon in high regard, showing that despite the brutality of the fight, at the end of the day she was rather kind. To put it simply, having an introduction like that definitely intrigued me as a kid and it's also why I point to Cynthia as being one of my favourite champions. Also the running bit of her taking a long time to order at Team Rocket's various food stalls was priceless. Then when I got into the games and had a similar experience that Paul had. Getting swept by her Spiritomb in Undella Town. I learned the hard way that the anime depicted her accurately.
This was a great series to watch over the course of a couple weeks! :) Really enjoyed your look at this game, from an autistic, hardcore Pokemon fan... who didn't finish Brilliant Diamond. Sadness for lost potential and all. I'm really glad to see you were able to enjoy it in the moments that it was able to matter.
The Honeytree section of the video really made something clear that I dislike about these games, despite loving Sinnoh as a whole. I'm always intrigued by how the devs characterize trainers by their choice of Pokemon. And having Barry of this game - the notoriously impatient, headstrong and rash rival - have two Pokemon on his team that require the use of a mechanic involving patience and waiting around for hours is the most baffling mischaracterization of a trainer in the series thus far. Especially given that both Pokemon are exceptionally rare even within the mechanic, requiring an ungodly amount of patience if you want to catch a Munchlax that Barry just does not have.
On the contrary, I'd say the way the mechanic works would make it perfect for someone like Barry, especially given the time frame in which he gets those two Pokémon - as the last members of his team. Slathering honey on a tree is so low-commitment it's easy to imagine him doing so quickly before rushing off to the next thing, and by the time he's backtracked to the tree again because of the layout of the region, bam! Something's waiting for him, and a couple of times he was lucky enough to find Heracross and Munchlax.
"-- I know it's a bird --", as always, top tier, no other dry analysis gets these reactions out of me 😂 Not even 10 minutes and you've got my attention for 11 hours
Sorry, I respect your opinions, but I think the Dexit explanation doesn't really hold water. While it is true that the models had to be ported to an HD system, the models were already available in HD. That's why pokemon like moltres always caused the 3ds to lag. It was a much high quality model that was downscaled for the 3ds. Since launch people have compared the models of Sword and Shield to those of XY, and they are wired the exact same. They are the exact same models, ported over. Hell, a fan was able to port Omastar over to Sword and Shield with the exact same animations it had on the 3ds. compared to creating the models, porting the models over was really not that big a project. They didn't need to fully re-animate every model that was available in HD, they already had a future-proofed base of models. That is what frustrated people. If, say, the models had all been adapted to a new style, I don't think people would have complained as much. The quote you used from USGamer is also incomplete. In the next sentence, that isn't highlighted, they continue to explain that the biggest reason for slimming the dex was balance, which is a just not true. At the first opportunity, they chose to reintroduce almost every legendary the series has had. So balance from a competitive sense was completely off the table. If they meant balance from a "catch-'em'-all" perspective, other games in the series handled that way more elegantly by using the regional dex to highlight the pokemon in the region. Only after the game was finished, did they allow you to bring over your old favorites that were not present. That was not a system that needed revision. I don't want to come across as a butthurt pokemon fan, but in the end, their explanations are just not solid enough for me to let it go. Combine that with the fact that Japanese fans were never even informed dexit was happening, and it is easy to become cynical. The only way you can see all your pokemon from the past, is by paying for a subscription service that keeps them in a cloud where they can't be interacted with in any meaningful way. It is, for all intents and purposes, a hostage situation.
i was thinking back to your 7 hour long exhaustive look at omega ruby and how much i loved listening to it. so i listened to the whole thing again. imagine how happy i was to find out that you made an 11 hour exhaustive look at brilliant diamond. made my day
I know you say this is likely the last exhaustive look you make, but I cannot stress enough how much I wish there was a video like this for every pokemon game. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have been on youtube for most of my 23 year long (and counting) life, and this is perhaps my favorite video in that entire span. The amount of care you put into this is incredibly evident, and it was an absolute joy to watch and hear your thoughts on a game and series you are clearly so passionate about. Thank you.
Thank you very much for this! I’m excited to watch it multiple times. Your Ruby video reinvigorated my love for story telling, your passion is infectious and it’s a treat to hear someone talk at length so thoughtfully about something they love.
i think one of the things people ought to talk about for the animation argument is that the battles feeling lifeless is kinda compounded by how static the poses are? if you look at a different monster collector, smt v, you'll see that they idle in a more striking, dynamic pose, and the 2d pokemon games did something similar with their 2d sprites. i think maybe making those idle poses more dynamic and expressive would alleviate some people's issues with the animations?
Yep, I think this would be a practical solution. iirc 3D Gardevoir strikes a more dynamic pose in Pokémon Showdown, based on one of its sprites, and it's remarkable how big a difference it makes. It's so much easier and more interesting to look at.
Interesting posing in Pokemon died with the release of X/Y. It’s such a shame. Boring idles can kinda be fine in the overworld, but in combat? It just doesn’t sell the action well enough. I do hope this gets better sooner rather than later, but I doubt it’ll ever change. Would love to be proven wrong though.
Can't wait for "An Exhaustive look at Pokémon Blaze Black" to give us all the answer to "what is the best use of 15 hours and 32 minutes?" Also these must be a nightmare to edit, good luck! Actually, when Black & White get remade which do you think you'll play?
Here is my internal monologue as my eyes moved down the thumbnail for the video notification: "Oh hell yes, Shay uploaded! And it's the exhaustive review too! The Omega Ruby video was, what, 6 hours? How long could he talk about Brilliant Diamond for? 3 hours? 4? OH"
Your look at Omega Ruby brought me so much joy that I thought it had to be a one-off video. But this couldn’t have dropped at a better time. I have been incredibly ill-more ill than I ever have been in my adult life-and I couldn’t imagine a better video to keep my comfort while I was forced to sleep on my bathroom floor. It’s silly, and at risk of sounding like I have a parasocial relationship, but instead of feeling isolated and alone, this video made me feel like a friend was distracting me while my body tried to violently eject everything in my digestive tract (I’m okay for the record!). I don’t think anybody who hasn’t made a video essay of this length can fully grasp the amount of hard work, the sleepless nights and stress, that went into this masterpiece. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Also, tfw when ur a fucking pupy
I wanted to say thank you for pouring so much time and effort into an incredible video. I've watched it a few times over now- it's become my kind of go-to background noise if I'm not invested in something else. 'An Exhaustive Look' has joined me in the mornings while I wash my face, in the kitchen, and just generally tidying up. It's also been with me even while I'm not actively listening to it! I think often about which games I would want to talk about in this much depth, and brainstorming what kind of team I would want to build to show off as many of that game's systems as possible. These newer Pokemon games are very odd, aren't they? As much as we can pick them apart and point out flaws we didn't see in the series 10 years ago, it's hard not to still have fun.
Finally finished.. gotta say really well made, hearing your perspective was interesting and changed some of my own thoughts about the game. It's almost a shame this is the last video of this style you'll do. It's well written
CORRECTIONS and CLARIFICATIONS:-
2:23 I make a point of not acknowledging games released after the game I'm discussing. I ought to have mentioned that in the introduction.
1:37:14 Steelix can be caught in the wild.
2:21:36 CONTENT WARNING: SEXUAL ASSAULT. The "bunny girl" costume is not as benign as I made it out to be. Japan has very high sexual harrassment and sexual assault statistics. Japanese critics have argued that objectifying women in media, even for young children, is a contributing factor to these statistics. Having played so many Japanese games I'm desensitised to a lot of this stuff, which is exactly the problem; nevertheless, it ought to have occurred to me to interrogate it. Please accept my apologies.
2:59:10 Your options are more than doubled in Doubles. 4 moves x 4 moves = 16 combinations in a turn before we even account for switching or items.
5:00:00 This interaction is not unique to Mareanie and Corsola - Sableye and Carbink behave identically.
5:17:33 My understanding of why health depletes so slowly was incorrect. So long as there are more Hit Points than pixels in the HP bar, the game counts down each number in its own individual frame - as the Gen IV games run at around ~30FPS, the game will take 1 full second to take away 30HP.
6:22:56 The Ainu people are still around today; I unintentionally imply otherwise.
10:23:01 Arceus is not an event Mythical; it's locked behind completing all main story missions in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I think it's important and I think you're right. There's a lot of weird shit in Japanese media. A lot of it isn't navigated but instead internalised by English-speaking audiences, and that includes me. I'm desensitised to it by this point, and I just flatly assumed the bunny girl thing was okay because, well, it's everywhere. But I hadn't heard that statistic before. 1 in 3?? That's truly shocking.
I'll issue a correction here with proper content warning. I've raised the point, but I don't want to further normalise that attitude.
@@shoogles_ what a nuanced and empathetic response, you seem like a really cool person
Thanks for the Lopunny commentary. This kind of cultural norm throughout a lot of Japanese media is a big reason why Pokémon is the only Japanese franchise I’ve ever really jived with. Excellent video, congrats on getting a project this huge out! It’s nice to hear that other people love Sinnoh for so many of the same reasons I do. Cheers! 🎉
@@iversiafanatic Thank you for this comment. I've been trying to play through Policenauts on the Saturn recently and am completely disgusted with the literal assault the game just lets the player do to seemingly every woman in the game, with basically no consequence. Your comment goes a long way towards informing me why crap like that exists. Absolutely disgusting and has definitely put me off playing anything else Kojima has made.
@@NageekXLII Pokemon has unfortunately had this kind of thing from the start, at least in side media. The Electric Tale of Pikachu is *shocking*, no pun intended.
"a slag heap is what we call maggie thatcher"
"we used to race snails, which was just as exciting as you'd expect"
God im so fucking happy we've got a new video. your one liners crack me the fuck up. gonna be so good to dive into this over the next few days
Just want to point out how much your scriptwriting has improved since the Omega Ruby video. Feels like going from a uni thesis to a column in the paper. Real wordsmith you've become
Aw, that's really lovely to hear, thank you!
@@shoogles_ i still really love the omega ruby video I watch it very often, hope that you still appreciate it even if you think your script for it is outdated in terms of wordplay
it’s MY sleepover. i get to decide the movie
Tell me you did not do this in real life.
This is totally something a ditzy character would put on the tv on a cartoon episode of a sleepover
Movies*
It would just be a over
@@mxtoastytoadI did it, so what nerd
He pulled it off with aplomb
EDIT: I DIDN'T KNOW HE MADE THIS JOKE
I just want you to know, having finally finished this video after four days of off and on watching, your voice is downright therapeutic. You have one of the smoothest, most listenable voices I've ever laid ears on. I could (and I guess have) listen to you speak for hours. I don't care of you're speaking on geopolitical conflicts or reading a damn phone book, your voice is smoother than butter.
Wanted to show appreciation that this 11 Hour Behemoth is subtitled!!
Oh my God it is!! Absolutely wild
It’s very impressive
Just want y’all to know if he made this a show with 30 min episodes, it would be like 22 episodes long. Bro produced an entire show
Flat out 2 cour anime
@@Dragonatrix So you either watched a full 11 hour video less than 20 hours after it came out or didn't watch it and are saying it's full of filler... if the first, why didn't you stop? If the second, why lie?
An average TV episode is actually closer to 22 minutes in length because of commercials, so this would take up 30 episodes of programming
wtf how is there a discussion on a comment that is essentially “11 * 2 = 22 😱”
Jujutsu Kaisen moment
I'm surprised you didn't talk about Buneary in Eterna Forest. I've always thought that was a brilliant little detail, and an awesome introduction to friendship as a mechanic. Buneary always knows Frutration, and is the only Pokemon who can learn it naturally, a move that becomes stronger the lower your Pokemon's friendship value. Buneary then evolves when it's friendship is high enough into Lopunny, who learns Return on evolution, and is the only Pokemon to learn it naturally, a move that gets stronger the higher your Pokemon's friendship value. It's a beautiful way to let you mechanically feel the otherwise kind of arbitrary feeling friendship stat, as you see Frustration slowly grow weaker, and get rewarded with this hella powerful move at the end of it. And all that comes from the area where you're first introduced to the idea of fighting alongside a friend.
Buneary is also the only non-legendary Pokémon that has 0 friendship when caught, which makes Frustration stronger. Practically every Pokémon other than box legendaries and mythicals starts at 35 or 70 friendship. Other than Frustration, I like this for three reasons:
1. Apparently rabbits are some of the hardest pets IRL to get to be affectionate.
2. Lopunny is really strong for the point in the game you can get Buneary, so it's a good balancing move to put that little extra obstacle there.
3. I think it's really funny that of all normal Pokémon, it's only the cute smiling little bunny that hates your guts when you first catch it.
thats such a cool detail! that is a really interesting bit of game design. shame about them axeing frustration and return but at least in the originals this is really fun characterization
Unfortunately Return and Frustration don't exist in BDSP :\
He's too busy whining about Lopunny normalizing sexual harassment or something. Imagine getting up in arms over that when Machamp and Incineroar exist
@@Luxcalibur Doesn't matter unless it's one of some specially picked groups. Women are one of those.
In the best way possible, this didn’t feel like 11 hours-great pacing, compelling content. I loved the “what if” characters, including the art. Thanks for all the work this must’ve took (and for adding “themperors” to my lexicon).
this is genuinely one of the most impressive youtube videos ive ever seen. i used to see people joke about your oras video (that i have not seen) but damn its rare to see a video essay justify its length this well. insanely thorough and fair, great work
I think there's a pretty elegant solution to the HM problem - contextualize it as a learning moment for the trainer character that enables them to get their Pokémon to do things for them. Something like "You learned the Push command!". Then, when you try to push something, the game checks if any Pokémon in your team can learn Strength (without needing to learn it), and if they can, it tells you "You asked Machoke to push the rock. It did so happily!" - prior to that growth moment it could say "You asked Machoke to push the rock. It doesn't seem to understand you..." or something along those lines. If you don't have a strength mon, then the game can either not let you push (the annoyance of which is mitigated by immediate access to your box - maybe it can even tell you that there's a Pokémon in your box that COULD push and ask you if you want to swap out), check your box and have the Pokemon help out automatically ("No one in your party could... But Machoke heard you and jumped out of the box to help!"), or just default back to having a random Pokémon from the grass help you out (I like this one least), depending on how lenient you want to be. This way you get rid of the weirdness of the growth coming from an item and it still prioritizes that team effort aspect, doesn't force wasted move slots. There's even precedent for your trainer learning to be a better trainer having an impact on mechanics - the traded Pokémon level cap for obedience increasing with each badge in earlier games.
That's brilliant, I really like that.
This would actually be cool and is really similar to the system of field moves in pokemon ranger.
I feel like either the "Your Pokemon jumped out of the box ro help!" or the wild mon solutions are the best ones of these suggestions. The idea of needing the mon to be in your party to do the task being balanced by the ability to access the boxes anywhere sounds fine on paper, but in practice it ends up kind of being a tedious thing to switch a pokemon in and out of the box just to cut down a tree or push a rock and then swap them back in. Its a lot of menuing for no real additional benefit
What if using Pokémon to do them for you was necessary at first, but later you're given a tool that lets you do the actions yourself, skipping the tedium later on and turning it into a progression thing. So say early on you'll need a Pokémon to cut trees, but at some point you obtain shears so certain types of Pokémon are no longer required for that.
It would help if you have to find the items too rather than be part of the main story progression, maybe the shears can be found by exploring a city and talking to the clerk at the gardening shop, or exploring the forest and speaking to a lumberjack who lends a random 10 year old his old axe just because they asked him for it.
@@Invisibool The only problem I could see with this is the implication that a Pokemon can just leap out of the Boxes at any time. It works for the Pokeballs because they're more physical, always kept on you. But leaping out of the PC might make newer players confused about how it works.
33:20 he was most likely joking, but for anyone wondering, the coin toss landomg on heads that many times was a 1/64 chance lol
Crazy that getting a shiny is rarer than that
Fun fact, those are the chances of breeding a shiny from another shiny in Gen II.
funnily enough, i came down here to get this exact question and was surprised it was as far down the comments as it is. thanks! lol
I've long maintained that your Omega Ruby retrospective was likely the best-written Pokémon video of all time. Now, over 6 years later, we get to tackle an even more controversial entry into the series, and with even more hours of entertainment and insight. Beyond excited to dive in - props to you for creating what I'm sure will go down in community history!
(Also I find it very amusing that, commenting 7 hours after it was uploaded, I can know for a fact that not a single individual on TH-cam has watched it in its entirety 😂)
um actually 🤓 people could've watched it in 2x speed in that time
but that doesn't matter anymore it's been 15 hours
@@catapultato1733 I only watch these types of videos in 2x speed. Otherwise it is like listening to molasses.
@@haruhirogrimgar6047 I use extentions to go even further beyond.
Are you watching subway surfers gameplay in another tab?
"The only way I could possibly enjoy Sinnoh on the same level I did back then, is if I could somehow go back in time."
Ah, so we're doing Legends Arceus next then, eh? ;)
Scottish man poetically and thoroughly deconstructs and analyzes a remake of a 17 year old children's game in a deadpan voice for 11 hours. My beloved king has returned
IT'S FINALLY HERE
POKÉMON BRRRILIANT DIAMOND
LET'S GOOO
IT’S HAPPENING!
I think there's something very charming and funny about this video's empathetic approach to game development. In this age of internet hot takes, it feel almost absurd to apologize for something as commonplace as calling a dev team lazy or a previous video's unnecessarily strong stance on something. And yet i think it lends a very wholesome and forgiving air to the critique that makes the actual criticism come across as all the more valid, because you know it comes from a place of love for the game and empathy for the devs and fans.
I wish I'd been able to articulate why I did it this way as well as you have, thank you so much!
The ability to look back at a previous work and make corrections and call out past mistakes or past opinions which are now outdated is genuinely rare and valuable, especially in our age of absolutes.
Appreciating the mediocrity (in its etymological sense) of something has become a very rare quality as well. It adds nuance and raises the quality of the critique as a whole.
In the same way, being able to focus about the matter which is critiqued without looking to attribute blame shows a level of respect and maturity lacking in the current media.
For all of this and more, thank you very much for this great video!
after watching this once through, i think my absolute favorite moment is when you held down a gym-badge for too long and got gym-badge jumpscared. the incredulity was like watching a tiger cub play with its enrichment toy
Timestamp? 🥺
@TheBeastlySort02 8:30:30 :)
god this went by so quickly i'm always blown away by how good you are at these, pokémon platinum was the game that made me love games when i was very young, and it shaped so much of what my tastes are even now. sinnoh's commitment to a believable environment and its unique sort of quiet atmosphere, that contentment to just exist in a space, gently shrouded in myth and mystery was a perfect second home for me to let my young imagination run wild beyond what was probably ever intended. to see you care about these games so deeply and highlight those very specific qualities that felt like these intangible childhood feelings, and put them into words made me so so happy, like no word of a lie i got a bit choked up when you were describing route 209's theme, amazing stuff
Destroying the universe would be considered vandalism, because many people have property inside of the universe which you have destroyed.
It wouldn't be considered vandalism, because there wouldn't be anything left to consider it as anything after the fact. Nothing would happen. Everything would just be gone.
@@turntsnaco824 Surely you could be punished for attempted vandalism in a case like this
I'm so excited to watch this! My girlfriend used to live 3 and a half hours away from me and I would listen to your Omega Ruby retrospective on the drive up there and back every time I went to visit her. It's one of my favorite pieces of media ever so I can't wait to really dig in to this!
Did your girlfriend think you had a vaguely Scottish accent? That's what happens to me whenever I listen to the Omega Ruby video.
@evanever
I always pick up accents and speech quirks after listening to people speak for ages. It's a genuine problem.
@@evaneverI get the exact same issue whenever I watch these videos, and admittedly it’s kind of cringey. Does help that I’m from Scotland though
I wish so badly that ambipom had an ability that let it hold two items. That would give it such a niche that no other Pokemon can compete with, and potentially made it actually decent in battle despite being middling otherwise. It wouldn't help the design much but it would give it a reason for being like that that makes it super unique.
oh my god thats genius. its probably be a bit overpowered off of ambipoms 100 base attack stat (life orb+choice band+stab would be ridiculous) but itd definitely be really cool. i like that idea
@@appointmenteer My brain just went to Choice Scarf + Band. They would just out-speed everything and hit like a truck without additional issues.
Make it so it holds one permanent +one consumables :) this can give it a niche like holding the water bulb, or cell battery or if not too frail, a weakness policy would be super scary
I'm not trying to be that guy, but don't "decent" and "middling" mean the same thing?
@@haruhirogrimgar6047 when Ambipom becomes mid-power-level Galarian Darmanitan
THE FOLLOWUP TO THE GREATEST POKEMON RESTROSPECTIVE OF ALL TIME IS FINALLY HERE!!! YESSSSSS!!!
Thank you for all your hard work Shay/Shoogles, sincerely. We all appreciate you more than you know.
I still rewatch this constantly. I love this format. i do hope you continue.
Cyrus being described as a funko pop version of Xavier Renegade Angel is something I didn't expect to hear.
Every character looks like a funko pop in this game. My childhood cries.
Oh hell yeah. Love your work, dude. Congratulations on finishing such a large project.
Can't wait to listen to this during work all this week.
I didn't recognise the channel name but thought i'd give it a watch anyway. I click play, then go back to working on my first screen and then i hear it. The unmistakable rolled R of Shaymay, only 00:00:02 seconds into the vid. We get the follow up we've wanted for so long :)
Somehow every single time there's a joke it feels like it comes completely out of the blue and cracks me up, no matter how many times I can never see it coming.
Damn. Truly one of the best TH-cam videos of all time.
What is really interesting is that here you didn't just talk about bdsp. In this video, you took every opportunity to look at pokemon as an entire series, touching everything from basic mechanics to level design to EVs and IVs.
I truly appreciate the gigantic work
I feel the animations discussion gets misconstrued constantly.
A Game with 1000 pokemon and great animations on everything is impossible. But a game with 1000 pokemon and bad animations is certainly possible. A greatly reduced pokedex and great animations, conversely, is also possible.
The issue is that game freak gave us a reduced pokedex AND bad animations.
then perhaps they shouldn't have went into 3d... they wouldn't need a 1000 good animations since they already cut out over half of the pokedex yet pokemon pbr has far better animations with 400+ pokemon and that game came out over a decade ago.
@Blanktester685 Battle Revolution did have 3 generations of animations to build on from Stadium and Collesseum. X/Y built like 600 pokemon from scratch.
Shay, your Ruby video has been a favorite of mine for years - I still put it on in the background and spend an entire day listening to it. I can’t wait to spend a whole day listening to this one, too!
Congrats on finally getting this out. We know it's been an overly-rough journey but you heckin' did it man. You're gonna make my entire work week more interesting by giving me this monster to listen to!
Pierce Brosnan ate Mrs. Fitzsimmons' sea bass
Pierce Brosnan did, in fact, eat Mrs. Fitzsimmons' sea bass.
this video has been my go-to youtube content for the last week or so. I finally finished it today, and I must say this is genuinely one of my favorite videos I've seen on this platform. it resonated with me to a surprising degree and I'm almost sad to see it end.
I played brilliant diamond shortly after release and dropped it before the pokemon home compatibility update, presumably once I got to the battle area and couldn't be bothered with the pokedex stuff. "I'll come back to it once home updates"... oops. now, however, I'm incredibly motivated to give the game another look with fresh eyes to complete what I have left.
truly wonderful content, much appreciation for the time and effort this must've taken!
madman actually hid his AU yuri fic behind the 7 hour mark
I made sure to use gender neutral pronouns (but I knew exactly how it would end up)
It’s wild getting to a video this long after it’s only been live for 3 hours. Cause that means NO ONE has finished it yet. And no one will for a while. But seeing all the happy messages and the excitement for the vid is super heartwarming. Looking forward to watching this!
I finished it 😎
"Mine badge now" made me laugh far more than it should have.
God this was so good. I think you have to have a certain type of charisma to make it so when I finish your 11 hour video my response is “I should rewatch his old 11 hour video again.” I love your humor, insight, speech and attitude. So glad I got to experience this and be a patreon that contributed during it!
I think your discussion around the 8:10:00 mark about difficulty falls into the middle ground fallacy.
A Pokemon game's balance is a multitude of several factors. From the difficulty of the battles themselves to also the difficulty in progressing the storyline. Most Pokemon games, as you said, lay on the easier side of things -- and this is intentional, the games are designed in such a way that you don't even need to know the written words on screen to play them, from the battle mechanics to the world design.
But saying that difficulty is bad because it's too easy, but that really hard difficulty is also bad in it's own right because it pushes away casual players, is the middle ground fallacy. In reality, a game that is between those extremes in difficulty is just a game that makes it hard to play casually but is easy if you know how to play it. Which isn't "perfect" balance, because it still bores extreme players while pushing away new ones. That middle ground, generally, takes the worst of both extremes, not the best.
Can I just say, thank you so much for taking the time to dedicate an entire segment of the video to the Route 216/217 music? It's my favorite song in all of Sinnoh, and my favorite route theme ever, and I thought you did it so much justice with your well thought out analysis of the composition and instrumentation! 👏
Honestly the best route theme in the franchise
There's literally a mechanic RPGs already have for making sure not every player can catch every legendary: Meaninful choices. They don't even have to be like good/bad endings. Say the volcano heatran lives in is erupting and you can either catch Heatran to calm it down, or go catch Shaymin to protect the wildlife around the volcano.
Or, the sleeping kid with the nightmares. Either you fetch Cresselia to heal him, or catch Darkrai to make them knock it off, and once you have one, the other avoids you, fearing it's counterpart..
Permanently locking you out of a pokemon in a collectible focused genre is horrible. Pokemon already has major problems with this because of the limited events, adding even more is just not it. Other RPGs can do that because they're focused on gameplay and good stories and don't focus themselves around collectable pets.
@@Cr3zant I mean... There's this ancient technology called multiple save files.
If you wanna prioritise people beign able to grab everything, then, well... Dexit needs to go first and foremost, but then you could always just let someone transfer between saves.
@@Cr3zantwell technically aside trading, it’s not really locking out of anything. That’s essentially what you do w every Pokemon game since its first released Yellow, and even that game didn’t have all mons incl but it would the REALLY superior vrsn. The best I can think of is HGSS where you can get access to both legendary, you technically can only get 1 of each starter from 1-3, and you also get access to the whole trio of birds and roaming legendaries excluding Latios-as depending on which version. Also can get all hoenn catchable legendaries so I don’t really see a big deal in this, esp if their Mythicals (w.o heatran) they can go the route of giving you 1 specifically locked mythical but then again, we come back to your statement bc they did that for ORAS w deoxys. And like commenters said above me: you can have multiple save files or trade really since access to all Deoxys forms on their own is possible :)
@@Cr3zant there's been precedent for it since the first generation. Version exclusives, starters, fossils, all to encourage trading. Having choices that make sense in the sidequests is a lot more interesting to me than version exclusives, personally.
@@000Dragon50000having a limited pool of Pokemon to catch doesn't make "gotta catch em' all" a worthless goal, that's the reason why natdex and regional dex are two entirely different things. It isn't about literally having every single living thing in existence, it's about completing the game.
And transferring between saves or other people would only bandaid the issue of a playthrough that is incomplete. It'd be more understandable if multiple playthroughs yielded a universal reward like a Pokedex viewable through the title screen. Doing another playthrough to retroactively complete a previous one doesn't sound like coherent game design imo.
I almost got into a car accident while listening to this. Love it!
5:20:36 "And there is just no way that Nintendo would accept the series not taking advantage of their new console's unique selling point."
But that's exactly what they did.
Most of the time the games aren't even in 3D, and in battles for XY/ORAS there's not too much of a sensation of depth, except for a few water attacks, which look nice! =D
I just need you to know that the whole time you were discussing the two hypothetical party member characters representing the theme of tradition vs progress I kept saying "and then they kiss, right?" The SCREAM I let out when you went ahead and made the same joke 😅
By god, the weekly search for a new Shaymay video is done.
Can't wait to hear you talk about pokemon for the next two days.
One of the best notifications my phone ever brought. Missed your content.
Hour 6 and I'm still going strong! Great work on this video. As someone who actually quite enjoyed Brilliant Diamond despite the general consensus, I really found this video refreshing. It's even got me wanting to replay it again now. Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much!! While I have you I just wanted to thank you guys - I binge-watched your stuff while getting back into Master Duel a couple years back! Hope you're all doing well!
It makes sense to me that Team APS would enjoy a Pokemon game derrided by "hardcore" fans.
Pokemon like Cinderace also feel more like characters than pokemon. They have so much inherent personality for something that is supposed to be an entire species. If one person's fire-rabbit happened to be obsessed with football, and acted very much like a stereotypical football player, that's fine. But the entire species? That is so weird to me.
I feel like this is remedied by the fact that, unless you breed or trade, there will only be the one fire rabbit that happens to like football. I can simply pretend that the other members of its species would develop different interests and personalities, since I’ll hardly get to see them anyway.
@@kamileon7065 I see where you are coming from, and whatever works for you is genuinely cool, but I just don't want to have to rely on head-canon with this type of thing, especially knowing the designers' intent
@@kamileon7065Except that isn’t true since there logically have to be other fire rabbits for yours to exist in the first place. It isn’t a legendary. It’s a starter, so there ARE more than one, otherwise Leon shouldn’t have a Charizard since you would’ve had the only fire lizard back in Kanto. They’re just rare. And the fact of the matter is, every fire rabbit turns out the same. You can pretend whatever you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that my fire rabbit and your fire rabbit will turn out exactly the same.
That’s the problem with bad headcanon. It falls apart so easily that the only way it can work is if you literally stop thinking.
Animals in real life have innate instincts that make each member of an entire species have similar personality traits.
Maybe its like that.
As a kid I loved discovering new animalistic Pokémon and was genuinely interested in all the different species, I'd read up their Pokedex entries and even these days I might look up some trivia about them and see where the inspiration for the Pokémon came from. I've pretty much always ignored humanlike Pokémon since Red/Blue, so seeing this bigger focus on those humanlike ones in the new games makes it real difficult to care.
I remember being nervous about my Feraligatr upon learning that they're known to never let go of a bite, from something who's mouth alone was bigger than my entire body. I don't get that sense of curiosity with a lot of the newer ones overall, humanlike or not.
Hey, I just wanted to say that you are probably my FAVORITE pokemon youtuber there is... massively underrated, but I love how you're able to bring both the good and the bad, every little detail out in such great fashion!
I really hope you keep making these long pokemon analyses (analysi?) I'd be really sad if you stopped just because you feel like it doesn't get enough views (of course the most important thing is that you yourself enjoy making the videos) but just so you know: you've got at least one very dedicated pokemon fan from Finland who will watch your every pokemon video at least three times!
I appreciate it bud, thank you. 500k views is fantastic by my standards though!
@ glad to hear that! We people are definitely out here who want long videos, even though it might not be for everyone :)
Great video, love to see the In depth analysis of a game with context from surrounding interviews and media that would be otherwise lost on some audiences
Excuse me, I need to timestamp the Pokemon High Fantasy Yuri moment: 7:23:12
Saw this on my home page and I just yelled "NO WAY DUDE!" at the top of my lungs, haha.
You have picked the PERFECT time to make another one of these! I am going to devour it. Thank you for your hard work! Can't wait to see the whole thing!
only an hour in and as someone who actually quite adores these games for all their flaws, i'm really appreciating the thoughtful criticisms of the game.
Absolutely incredible. This and your ORAS video are truly some of the best Pokemon-related content on the platform, and possibly *the* best in terms of overall depth, objectivity of critical analysis, and (importantly) long-term value for the franchise as a whole, its fans, and game developers at large new and old. Not only that, but in a world where video game preservation is constantly threatened, having videos like these out there serve to better encapsulate what these game were and how they fit into the overall narrative/dev-story of the series. I know it may be too much to ask of one person, but hope you have it in you to continue this series with other Pokemon games on the Switch. At the very least it would be incredible to see both PLA and eventually a SV video, not just for what they are, but for how they fit into the overall franchise and how they square with your observations in ORAS and BDSP. That, and I'll be honest, I just really like hearing your voice. Amazing work, as per usual, please keep at it. You're an amazing human being.
I've been saving this for a long train ride, and today is the day. Thanks Shay!
Safe travels, and hope you enjoy!
10:52:28
I pride myself on doing everything legitimately but you hit the nail on the head here when it comes to available information. Tons of people that would otherwise be interested in battling at a higher level (not necessarily competitive) would want to know about stat allocations that each wild Pokemon give you, and this would be very easy information to put in the games via the Pokedex, but it just outright isn't there. The same could be said about egg moves, movepools in general, and base stats. Not everyone have the time or resources to learn the processes/best routes/best way to keep track of EV allocation. Even in your training, you didn't realize that gift Pokemon always set 3 IVs so if you wanted to get the best stats, you could breed Pokemon you originally received from fossils and get them to spread their perfect stats with a Destiny Knot. Once again, the game never tells you that the Destiny Knot even has this functionality.
A lot of people don't like the grind but I do because it's kind of the whole point of training your Pokemon to begin with, but it is very obfuscated and I can't imagine that this is even intentional to sell guides, because as far as I know the only guide that I read that tells you anything about this system was the FireRed/LeafGreen official guide (then again I haven't owned an official guide in 15+ years since Serebii exists).
It’s insane how the Pokémon company remains so obstinately against supporting competitive training in their games by obscuring the exact mechanisms behind IV’s, EV’s, and breeding. It’s hostile to new players trying to get into more serious battling, and forces people to seek out third party services to just learn the basics.
@@johnpaulcross424 It's really got a vibe similar to Bethesda's view on glitches; "Why should we bother doing anything? Just let the players document/mod it!"
Not considering how many months it takes for calculations on a new gen to be complete and accurate. I remember Gen VIII where the officially documented method for KO-shiny hunting was incorrect, and as far as I remember, GF still has yet to fix that particular glitch.
That comment about Pokemon being a resource management game hit pretty true for me. I remember as a kid that I hated how gen 1 only had 20 item slots in the bag. As an adult, who now knows how to use the PC, I enjoy coming back to gen 1 for the added challenge of managing the inventory, in addition to the critters I choose and what attacks they can use.
idk, when there's so many danged key items you use once and never get rid of, it gets grating imo
Ngl, thats my unfulfilled dream. There is a whole universe of potential for a pokemon side game series that explores greater dungeon exploration and resource management. I mean even the general type difference has begun to disappear due to different game design directions. A team could go on for years iterating on the concept "pokemon feel + traditional dungeon diver mechanics"
@@assortmentofpillsbutneverb3756 pokemon mystery dungeon?
@sock7896 yeah thats definently a way to explore that route when you think about it.
I think I'd prefer an attempt at dungeon features added to the mainline though. Im thinking breaking gym linearity with mostly skippable dungeons you can delve into throughout the map kind of vibe
Accidentally putting your bike in the box and leaving it there might be the funniest thing you could do. You might find yourself in an area where you can't use it as liberally, so when you finally have to navigate to it in your bag it's just not there lmao
The way you articulate your points and thoughts, while already very good in the Omega Ruby video, have skyrocketed so much, and it's so easy on the ears, this was an absolutely great piece to listen to and you managed to articulate a lot of feelings i think many of us have had about these games but always fail to actually express. Fantastic video
Obviously it is your choice as to whether or not you make any more Pokemon videos such as this, so do what makes you happy! That being said, I don’t know of any other videos that I’ve looked forward to more than this one. I really hope you consider doing more. These have been a bright spot to me in bleak times - they haven’t been the answer to my problems, but certainly a warm hug. Thanks for making this
I've watched your omega ruby review so much it's literally comfort audio for me (to the point where I can recite lines from memory) just wanted to say from all of us minority fans that aren't vocal, that we love the effort you put in and you have really helped with creating some more comforting anti-anxiety audio for a lot of people.
Thanks Shay, you're a bloody legend.
Aw, this is really nice, thank you. I shouldn't assume the non-vocal portion of my viewers are dissatisfied!!
I've just reached 3:21:51, and your explanation of the strengths of ORAS' Gym Theme makes for perfect juxtaposition to why I enjoy DPPt's theme as much as I do. To put it simply; in ORAS, the emphasis is on your struggle against the gym leader, here the focus is on the synchronicity between you and your Pokémon. The brass isn't challenging the strings in DPPt because they're working in harmony to crash into the Gym Leader with the full force of the orchestra. That's the justification for Sinnoh's heavier emphasis on the rhythm section. You, as the player, are barreling into these gyms with everything you have, and you're putting on a show doing it.
Meanwhile, the Gym Leader has been built up as an obstacle by everyone you meet in their section of the game. Whether it's 10,000 light-years Brock or Volkner's overwhelming apathy, every Gym Leader in these games has people telling you how tough they are. Wake being on screen is perfect for this. Your rival, of all people is outside of his gym bragging to you about becoming his apprentice. For the time they're on screen and you're in their building, they are the singular focus of your attention. It's up to them to weather the storm of you and your Pokémon giving your all. Fighting them with this music in the background always peaks my emotional investment, regardless of the outcome. If I win, the game was cheering me on the entire time, and riding the (emotional) high feels fantastic. If I lose, my defeat is that much more jarring. "My Pokémon and I tried our hardest out there. What happened? What did I not consider?" Giving the player more wind in their sails by almost assuring their victory with this theme elevates the tension no matter how the battle actually goes.
That, and uh, it's a banger. 🔥
Let's go with that.
It’s amazing what can be accomplished when you give yourself the room to address topics concisely in its own time. Algorithm aside, having these exhaustive looks allows for you to cover these topics with as much detail and attention as they deserve without being pressured to cut your thoughts short and I love it. I hope you’re able to continue to do these so long as you’re not exhausted yourself!
I grew up with Diamond and as much as I had my issues with this remake, seeing this video helped me remember what captivated me back in 2007 and why these games still hold a special place for me. I’m still barely through this video but would love to hear your thoughts on Legends Arceus sometime too in relation to Sinnoh’s themes/concepts as a whole
As someone who really isn’t a fan of Sinnoh this gives me a much better appreciation for it, even if I might not always agree. The effort you put in really shows and pays off.
No matter who is or isn't to blame, the point still stands that bad localization is distracting and takes you out of the game. Bad games also still cost full price, and it's clear somebody on the chain messed up royally when a mechanic or part of the game doesn't hold up. Arguably, everyone in the chain messed up, but I'd place more blame on the higher ups. It's their job to catch that sort of thing, bad gameplay or bad depictions.
I think blaming NOBODY is absurd, but I respect that you argue the logical point that blaming is itself a distraction. Although, sometimes there legitimately is a person in a position that they should not be in and is bad at it/causes problems for everyone else, anyone who's worked a corporate job knows this.
I absolutely agree with your sentiment. Though from what I can tell, his point isn’t that nobody is to blame - it’s that he (or we as fans) don’t know who exactly to place the blame upon. Thus placing blame on a person or everyone isn’t fair.
I actually don’t really care to have this discussion but I’m pretty sure it’s good for his engagement.
one thing I find kinda sad the remakes don't include/replace in the Old Chateau is the guaranteed Gengar encounter in the room with the painting with red eyes if you had a Gen 3 cartridge inserted in your DS/DS lite
Shay I just want to say that the love and effort you put into this project cannot be understated! This is such a lovingly-crafted video and I hope that you are as proud of yourself as we are of you! Much love and respect for finishing such a huge passion project! Congrats man!
Thanks so much Zen!!
thank you so much for including such well crafted subtitles. i appreciated your omega ruby video years ago and im sure ill enjoy this!
In order to find what's done wrong, you have to find what's done right. Quality isn't zero sum, but many design decisions are made at the deliberate expense of certain mechanics due to an attribution of focus. Understanding this helps us not only attribute faults and why they exist, it helps us understand how we can perfect those flaws as best we can under the intent presented. If we aren't doing that, we might as well be making a different game. Glad you understood something many nowadays unfortunately refuse to, even your past self.
I just finished watching through this, all the way, just wanted to say thank you so much for putting this out there it was such a delight. It’s a shame to hear you won’t be making any more of these but totally understandable. Regardless, you’ve earned my subscription and respect.
This video has helped me sleep more times than I can remember. Thank you so much for making it!
Very excited for this one! Great work on completing such a huge undertaking Shay!
I really appreciate your decision to focus on the shortcomings of the game on its own terms, rather than attempting to attribute blame (outlined from around 12:00 - 16:00). Pointing fingers is generally unhelpful at best and oftentimes downright harmful. This willingness to reflect on your past work and change, I think, is a great demonstration of your growth as a critic
I really appreciate your thorough analysis on Sinnoh culture's abd themes. I skipped these remakes, but Gen 4 is a favorite of mine and I enjoyed learning about inspirations and connections I wasn't aware of before.
I remember as a kid I decided to just keep running to see how far the game would let me go and I ended up beating Crasher Wake first. I always felt so cool for doing this, and it kind of upset me when Platinum removed the option to do so.
Never realized that was possible in DP lol, but it's interesting to hear about something lost in the transition to Platinum (which largely polished up many of DP's earlier issues like the slow surfing speed, the fact a lot of newly introduced Pokemon weren't even available until post-game, the low Fire-type count etc.)
@@ArbitraryOutcome Platinum really does clean up so much stuff, but there are a lot of little interesting things that kind of just got lost to the wayside. I remember wanting to use a Misdreavus in Platinum but I couldn't get on in the forest like you could in Pearl.
@@uraaliceThat's my biggest gripe with Platinum too. Mismagius is my favourite Sinnoh Pokemon but I can't even use it! Luckily I have an old copy of Pearl but, still, why lock it away like that?
@@evaneverHonestly, my biggest gripe with Platinum has always been the opening. In DP, we have the opening where we get attacked on the overworld, but in Plat we don't and instead get given the pokemon by Rowan before we jump in. Plus the video at the opening is weaker going from the Red Gyarados to some documentary.
@@NotSpecialDudeI've felt the same too! The intro with the Starly always left such a strong mental image. I wish these remakes could have just lifted some stuff from platinum (like the more complex gym designs and new looks for the routes) if nothing else
Even if you don't do another "Exhaustive look" I'm really happy with the final result, I know these kind of videos are really hard to make and take a lot of time hence why I really appreciate that you took the time and effort to make it, listening to your thoughts while I played pokémon myself was an oddly satisfactory experience and it was fun to see where we did and did not agreed, you raised a lot of very good points that got me thinking for some time and the way you phrased everything made the experience very easy to listen and process tbh i got surprised one day when i realized I listened to it for four hours straight without knowing, I can already see myself revisiting this video lated on multiple times just like i have done with the Omega Ruby one
You are seriously amazing and I wish nothing but success and happiness in the future 💖💖
While I fully understand why you may not be compelled to make future "exauhstive looks", I can't help but hope you change your mind.
I can't even begin to imagine the amount of work that goes into making these, but I can say the amount of satisfaction I have gotten from this, along with your Ruby video, is monumental.
Thank you for putting the time, effort, and energy into this. I enjoyed the day's worth of entertainment, and thorough perspective, it provided.
I mean I feel like this goes without saying but, this shit is absolutely incredible. You are a fantastic writer who leaves absolutely no stone unturned and somehow manages to maintain interest for 11 hours straight.
I’m working from home and my deadline got me sat down for the majority of the day this month. I just finished the entire video; leaving it as a podcast while I worked/cooked/did house chores helped me keep my mind away from the stress during the last 2 days. I enjoy your voice and the calm tone you used throughout the entire video. I’m absolutely awed by this project - congratulations on it and best of lucks for your future endeavours!!
I think the biggest problem with the "you can simply trade with your friends to get Pokemon that you need for your competitive team" is that the Pokemon Company literally discourages this; during the last World Championship they "improved" the system they use to identify hacked 'mons and told people that if they wanna be 100% sure that they won't get caught with hacked Pokemon, they should NOT use any Pokemon that they've received through a trade.
Also locks off parts of the available monsters from people without internet access.
I hear you, but I don't think that's a fair interpretation of the Company's message. Reminding/cautioning players of the risk in using pokemon obtained over the internet or from a stranger is not the same as discouraging social-play.
If they had banned all traded pokemon outright, or if genuine pokemon could be mistaken for hacked ones _because_ they were traded-then you'd have a point. But there's nothing to dissuade collaborating with trustworthy friends when you can all verify the pokemon are genuine.
I'm pretty sure that just means "you can't guarantee any Mon you get from a trade isn't hacked," not that legit mons will get flagged by the system just because they are traded
@@ianknielAnd that’s only applied to official tournaments, too. You aren’t going to get banned for using a hacked Pokemon ingame, so there wouldn’t be any issue with using them unless you’re taking them to actual tournaments and trying to compete with them. It’s incredibly disingenuous to take a statement about tournament conduct and acting like it’s supposed to discourage people from TRADING completely.
@@RokkTheRock Mythicals are banned in VGC, outside of a single celebratory season of Sw/Sh.
It's interesting how a lot of the issues you pointed out with these games (the story's intent, hidden mechanics/stats, evolution methods) all seem to stem from a lack of effective communication. It makes sense: how can you possibly manage your resources effectively when you don't even know what your options are? Anyways, don't really have much else to add that hasn't already been said, thanks for making another another fantastic video!
As a parent of small children, i appreciate the parental callout in the beginning.
2:55:00 It's actually surprising to hear most people skip as many trainers as they can. Throughout every pokemon game, I purposefully fight every single trainer on every route to stay properly levelled the whole game. Strange to hear how many people just... Don't, lol
I used to do that, but the newer games are easy enough that I find myself skipping trainers just to prevent overleveling.
Yeah, same. I would’ve never guessed people would get their levels out of Wild Pokémon when some of the games even explain you get more exp from trainer battles.
I always thought skipping trainers was pretty bizarre. Like, the primary mechanic of the game is Pokemon battles. You probably bought the game to engage in Pokemon battles. So when the game gives you battles to do, why would you simply…not do them?
Trainers tend not to be very interesting fights, though sometimes it's fun just to take on these mindless battles with your Pokemon.
@@MisterZebra42I do make sure to fight all the trainers because completing everything gives me serotonin but I definitely don’t buy the games for battling which is why PLA is my fav. Even though I do like to complete things I never bother with the battle tower stuff because even the idea of doing so bores me to death
I always got the implication from TMs that they were meant to be demonstrational videos that are shown to the Pokémon-like a fitness instructional video.
In that case, even if single use, you should be able to show it to multiple pokemon at a time.
No, TMs, combined with storing items/pokemon in a pc, and the existence of Porygon, leads me to believe it is a file that you somehow use on your pokemon.
@@isetmfriendsofirebut your focus is the pokemon you’re teaching it too so they learn it properly
havent finished yet but i love how much detail and love you pour into the music analysis! ive played bdsp but i never realized just how good the music was. the route 216 theme is very quickly one of my new favorite pokemon themes ever
8:49:36 My introduction to Cynthia was from the Pokémon anime. Her introduction episode had her literally body Paul's entire team with only her Garchomp. For context Paul had been curb-stomping Ash right from the beginning of the Diamond and Pearl saga and here he is getting destroyed harder by this new character (new to me anyway). Not only that but after the battle, Cynthia goes out of her way to assist the Pokémon centre to heal Paul's team and during this she talks about him and his Pokémon in high regard, showing that despite the brutality of the fight, at the end of the day she was rather kind. To put it simply, having an introduction like that definitely intrigued me as a kid and it's also why I point to Cynthia as being one of my favourite champions. Also the running bit of her taking a long time to order at Team Rocket's various food stalls was priceless.
Then when I got into the games and had a similar experience that Paul had. Getting swept by her Spiritomb in Undella Town. I learned the hard way that the anime depicted her accurately.
This was a great series to watch over the course of a couple weeks! :) Really enjoyed your look at this game, from an autistic, hardcore Pokemon fan... who didn't finish Brilliant Diamond. Sadness for lost potential and all. I'm really glad to see you were able to enjoy it in the moments that it was able to matter.
The Honeytree section of the video really made something clear that I dislike about these games, despite loving Sinnoh as a whole.
I'm always intrigued by how the devs characterize trainers by their choice of Pokemon. And having Barry of this game - the notoriously impatient, headstrong and rash rival - have two Pokemon on his team that require the use of a mechanic involving patience and waiting around for hours is the most baffling mischaracterization of a trainer in the series thus far. Especially given that both Pokemon are exceptionally rare even within the mechanic, requiring an ungodly amount of patience if you want to catch a Munchlax that Barry just does not have.
Barry is just that good
On the contrary, I'd say the way the mechanic works would make it perfect for someone like Barry, especially given the time frame in which he gets those two Pokémon - as the last members of his team. Slathering honey on a tree is so low-commitment it's easy to imagine him doing so quickly before rushing off to the next thing, and by the time he's backtracked to the tree again because of the layout of the region, bam! Something's waiting for him, and a couple of times he was lucky enough to find Heracross and Munchlax.
"-- I know it's a bird --", as always, top tier, no other dry analysis gets these reactions out of me 😂 Not even 10 minutes and you've got my attention for 11 hours
Sorry, I respect your opinions, but I think the Dexit explanation doesn't really hold water. While it is true that the models had to be ported to an HD system, the models were already available in HD. That's why pokemon like moltres always caused the 3ds to lag. It was a much high quality model that was downscaled for the 3ds.
Since launch people have compared the models of Sword and Shield to those of XY, and they are wired the exact same. They are the exact same models, ported over. Hell, a fan was able to port Omastar over to Sword and Shield with the exact same animations it had on the 3ds. compared to creating the models, porting the models over was really not that big a project. They didn't need to fully re-animate every model that was available in HD, they already had a future-proofed base of models. That is what frustrated people. If, say, the models had all been adapted to a new style, I don't think people would have complained as much.
The quote you used from USGamer is also incomplete. In the next sentence, that isn't highlighted, they continue to explain that the biggest reason for slimming the dex was balance, which is a just not true. At the first opportunity, they chose to reintroduce almost every legendary the series has had. So balance from a competitive sense was completely off the table. If they meant balance from a "catch-'em'-all" perspective, other games in the series handled that way more elegantly by using the regional dex to highlight the pokemon in the region. Only after the game was finished, did they allow you to bring over your old favorites that were not present. That was not a system that needed revision.
I don't want to come across as a butthurt pokemon fan, but in the end, their explanations are just not solid enough for me to let it go. Combine that with the fact that Japanese fans were never even informed dexit was happening, and it is easy to become cynical. The only way you can see all your pokemon from the past, is by paying for a subscription service that keeps them in a cloud where they can't be interacted with in any meaningful way. It is, for all intents and purposes, a hostage situation.
i was thinking back to your 7 hour long exhaustive look at omega ruby and how much i loved listening to it. so i listened to the whole thing again.
imagine how happy i was to find out that you made an 11 hour exhaustive look at brilliant diamond. made my day
I know you say this is likely the last exhaustive look you make, but I cannot stress enough how much I wish there was a video like this for every pokemon game. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have been on youtube for most of my 23 year long (and counting) life, and this is perhaps my favorite video in that entire span. The amount of care you put into this is incredibly evident, and it was an absolute joy to watch and hear your thoughts on a game and series you are clearly so passionate about. Thank you.
Rest assured, I *will* find an 11 hour opening to watch this in one sitting.
I wasn’t sure if I’d ever have a viewing experience like the Omega Ruby review again. This is truly a gift.
Thank you very much for this! I’m excited to watch it multiple times. Your Ruby video reinvigorated my love for story telling, your passion is infectious and it’s a treat to hear someone talk at length so thoughtfully about something they love.
i think one of the things people ought to talk about for the animation argument is that the battles feeling lifeless is kinda compounded by how static the poses are? if you look at a different monster collector, smt v, you'll see that they idle in a more striking, dynamic pose, and the 2d pokemon games did something similar with their 2d sprites. i think maybe making those idle poses more dynamic and expressive would alleviate some people's issues with the animations?
Yep, I think this would be a practical solution. iirc 3D Gardevoir strikes a more dynamic pose in Pokémon Showdown, based on one of its sprites, and it's remarkable how big a difference it makes. It's so much easier and more interesting to look at.
Interesting posing in Pokemon died with the release of X/Y. It’s such a shame. Boring idles can kinda be fine in the overworld, but in combat? It just doesn’t sell the action well enough. I do hope this gets better sooner rather than later, but I doubt it’ll ever change. Would love to be proven wrong though.
Can't wait for "An Exhaustive look at Pokémon Blaze Black" to give us all the answer to "what is the best use of 15 hours and 32 minutes?"
Also these must be a nightmare to edit, good luck!
Actually, when Black & White get remade which do you think you'll play?
Thank you for releasing this on literally the day I need to deep clean my apartment, king. You have saved me.
Here is my internal monologue as my eyes moved down the thumbnail for the video notification:
"Oh hell yes, Shay uploaded! And it's the exhaustive review too! The Omega Ruby video was, what, 6 hours? How long could he talk about Brilliant Diamond for? 3 hours? 4? OH"
Your look at Omega Ruby brought me so much joy that I thought it had to be a one-off video. But this couldn’t have dropped at a better time. I have been incredibly ill-more ill than I ever have been in my adult life-and I couldn’t imagine a better video to keep my comfort while I was forced to sleep on my bathroom floor. It’s silly, and at risk of sounding like I have a parasocial relationship, but instead of feeling isolated and alone, this video made me feel like a friend was distracting me while my body tried to violently eject everything in my digestive tract (I’m okay for the record!). I don’t think anybody who hasn’t made a video essay of this length can fully grasp the amount of hard work, the sleepless nights and stress, that went into this masterpiece. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Also, tfw when ur a fucking pupy
I wanted to say thank you for pouring so much time and effort into an incredible video. I've watched it a few times over now- it's become my kind of go-to background noise if I'm not invested in something else. 'An Exhaustive Look' has joined me in the mornings while I wash my face, in the kitchen, and just generally tidying up.
It's also been with me even while I'm not actively listening to it! I think often about which games I would want to talk about in this much depth, and brainstorming what kind of team I would want to build to show off as many of that game's systems as possible.
These newer Pokemon games are very odd, aren't they? As much as we can pick them apart and point out flaws we didn't see in the series 10 years ago, it's hard not to still have fun.
I completely agree! At worst they've been a fun way to spend a weekend.
Thanks so much!
Finally finished.. gotta say really well made, hearing your perspective was interesting and changed some of my own thoughts about the game. It's almost a shame this is the last video of this style you'll do. It's well written