This is not the review that I was hoping to sit down to write next, but seeing as how it is the game that I’ve finished most recently, it must be done! Which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy my time with this game, of course. I’m just really trying to finish the Link’s Awakening remake after all these years and I’m disappointed that I let myself get distracted! But playing along with Experience Share makes it too easy to pick up and play Pokémon games and feel like I’ve hit a good stopping point, ya know? Zelda is different. Once I get into Zelda, I don’t want to put it down. But I digress.
Truthfully, I don’t have a ton of thoughts on this game. Again, it’s a Pokémon game, so I knew I was going to have a good time. But I didn’t get quite as sucked into this one as I did Pokémon Y, and I guess I kind of expected to. But I think the truth of the matter is that I just don’t resonate with Gen III the way that a lot of people do. I have my fond memories since if I remember correctly, my brother’s copy of the original Sapphire is what got me back into Pokémon in my teens, but I don’t necessarily think that the franchise peaked there as a lot of my friends do.
This is actually my first time through this game as well, despite owning it for literally ten years at this point. I was a little burnt out following all the time I’d sunk into Pokémon X, so I think that contributed to me falling off the wagon a bit. That said, I think this is my favorite way to play Sapphire now! This game was a ton of fun.
When it was all said and done, my team looked like this (all named after streets in my lifelong city of residence):
- Maple (Blaziken)
- Sare (Electrode)
- Kirkwood (Vileplume)
- College (Gyarados)
- Lincoln (Slaking)
- Walnut (Flygon)
I ran a couple of new mon this time around! Slaking and Electrode were both Pokémon I’ve never used, despite Electrode being around forever. Its moveset is just cheeks so I’ve never wanted it. But it get Electro Ball in Gen VI so I was all about it. And I thought Truant was going to be a major downside for Slaking, but honestly when you’re one-shotting basically every opponent you run across, it basically doesn’t matter even if you don’t try to mitigate it in the slightest.
Speaking of one-shotting your opponents, my only real issue with this game was how freaking easy it felt. And I know, I know, Pokémon has been getting easier and easier the longer its been around, but this really felt like the turning point in the series for me. X and Y weren’t difficult by any stretch, but this truly felt like it was on another level after a certain point pretty early in the game. I don’t know if there was any battle that I actually felt in danger of losing aside from maybe one in the Elite Four. The lack of difficulty makes it an easy breezy game to coast through which I certainly enjoy, but I’d be remiss to not call it out as a lifelong fan, I think. But it’s also something that has probably been covered in literally every other review of this game, so was it actually necessary to point out? Dunno.
At the end of the day, it was a Pokémon game, and I had a great time playing it. Seeing Sapphire reimagined in what was the best engine available at the time was a nice treat, even if I don’t love navigating Hoenn some of the time. Some of the quality of life things were nice, and the Aeon Flute was a super cool addition to the game. Not a lot of reason to bring it back in the age of open-world Pokémon, but cool all the same. And honestly? It’s worth playing just to get a Slaking and nuke your opponents into oblivion. At least once.
Bonus review!
This isn’t really something I want to make a habit of, but I recently finished another game that I don’t have a ton of complex thoughts about but I want to cover anyway. And that game is Resident Evil: Requiem!
I’d always thought of myself as too much of a weenie to enjoy a Resident Evil game, so I always just wrote them off as something I wasn’t interested in. But my girlfriend had played VII and Village with her sister and they wanted to play Requiem as a group when it came out, and as luck would have it I was the only one with a new enough console.
And after all the scares and the gore were said and done, I loved it.
My only regret is that the ninth mainline Resident Evil game is the first one that I’d ever played. Sure, I got the remaster of the first game on sale on Steam 10 years ago, but I’d never spent any real time with it, as is customary for Steam games bought during sales. The story of Requiem was definitely contained enough that I wasn’t totally lost, but I feel like there were almost definitely some references to things from older games that I missed, which I don’t love. But that’s a Me Problem. This game rocks.
I knew Leon was a badass, but I didn’t expect to love him quite as much as I did. At first, playing as him felt like a relief because I was really able to fight back against enemies in a way that Grace can’t, but late in the game Leon felt almost like a curse because of how many enemies they started throwing at you and how limited your resources felt. But I guess that’s the “survival” element of this survival horror game, so no actual complaints from me. There were only a few times where I felt like the game was being just a tad unfair, but I made it through like an adult. Oh, and I could’ve done without the incredibly long sequence in the middle where Leon has to run around and grab parts for the detonator to proceed further into Raccoon City. That drug on.
Speaking of Grace, I ended up really liking her by the end of the game. The mystery surrounding her was compelling, and she really comes into her own by the time the story wraps up. Her sections were such a stark contrast to Leon’s as well, making this almost feel like two games in one. I do hate how slow she runs even when she’s literally about to die, but again, “survival.” I mean, come on. She’s an FBI agent. That should imply some baseline level of fitness, but I guess the real world would show me plenty of examples to the contrary.
I thought most of the puzzles were pretty fun, too. Lots of little things to discover around the various areas of the game as well. Just a blast through and through. It feels good to have finally gotten into one of the most storied franchises in gaming; like I’m finally with the In Crowd!
To my shame, Xbox recently had a sale and all of the RE remakes and VII and Village were on sale, so I added them to the backlog. I’m not perfect, but I’m trying. At any rate, I’m looking forward to jumping in!