▲, ●, ■, ✖

 Ever since holidays started this month for me, I have spent a lot of my time reading. And playing video games. Well, one video game, a ROM hack of a Pokemon classic, Pokemon FireRed. The hack is called Pokemon RadicalRed, and I have been lurking the subreddit for this game, finding cheats, figuring out ways; of all the games I have in my backlog, both PlayStation and Switch, it’s this hack that has occupied a lot of my time and thinking. It’s amped up difficulty, the byproduct of a volatile cocktail of amped up difficulty and the randomizer mode, means that this hack is unlike most modern Pokemon games. The most difficult battle I encountered in a recent Pokemon game was the one against Volo in Legends: Arceus. In RadicalRed, there are random NPC trainers against whom you will battle more than once, maybe even twice, before prevailing. RadicalRed forces to you to change your team constantly; there are very few battles, if any, where you will have the same team. The game makes you think and ponder each and every move; it makes you use your items wisely, build your team cleverly and apply move sets sensibly. It makes you take into account the nature and ability of Pokemons (something I have never felt the need to do in any Pokemon game before). I am halfway through the game, a game I started more than a month ago. The Giovanni fight in Celadon took me two weeks; I must have employed maybe 50 different teams and countless strategies, only to fail every time. The Lt. Surge fight in Vermilion was painful as well; using a randomizer means you don’t always get good options to work with, at least that early in the game, and you have to make do with the options you do have. I am dreading, as I type this, the re-battle with Misty in Cerulean. I have enjoyed using mons I have never used before though; Pawmot and Emboar come to mind. RadicalRed is designed to be challenging though, and I tip my hat to the code writers of this hack. It has made me want to explore other hack options out there, and I have my eye on Lazarus and Unbound. It also says something, I think, about Pokemon’s video game franchise, that I have found a ROM hack created by fans of the franchise to be more interesting and complicated than some of Pokemon’s recent offerings, which, while I have grudgingly invested multiple hours into them, have been more about button mashing than anything else. I guess the problem is me though; these issues with the franchise have existed for a long time. Legends Arceus was supposed to be a glorious first step towards a new dawn, with possibilities galore. Instead, it’s been a classic tale of one step forwards, two steps back. These ROM hacks are exactly what the doctor ordered.

It's been a productive break when it comes to gaming, me thinks. I have made solid progress on Alan Wake 2, a game which I would describe as mind swirlingly good, unlike anything I have ever played before. I have played a bit of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which, frankly speaking, I found a bit overrated. Not to say it’s not a good game, but Game of the Year good? Not for me. I have half a mind to try Death Stranding next; I suspect that will be a game more up my alley. Oh yeah, I did finish Ghost of Yotei as well. Ghost of Tsushima holds a special place in my heart, and I can’t say Yotei replaced it. It is a fun game, with the Tsushima formula expanded and experimented with, but the story is meh and I wasn’t a big fan of the climax and conclusion.

This post is my pseudo-games diary I guess. I will probably provide more fleshed out analyses of games next year, but it’s nice to summarise my gaming experience this year. There are some big titles coming out next year as well; and then there is GTA as well. We’ll see how it goes.