Pokémon Platinum Version (2008)

Game #67/225

I played Pokemon Platinum on a whim during my paternity leave and, despite having quite fond memories of it during my childhood, was surprised by how enjoyable it was. I really shouldn't have been; I played LeafGreen and Emerald not too long ago and loved those too. Pokemon (at least some of these earlier generations; I haven't gotten around to playing or replaying Gen V+) just has some special kind of magic (nostalgia?) in addition to an absolutely winning gameplay formula. I found the sprite graphics impeccable in Platinum. Extremely vibrant and colorful. The Pokemon models look fantastic and its a visual treat to see various 'mons (especially those from Gen I!). The tunes are spectacular, if perhaps not as iconic this time around, with a medley of chill and upbeat songs fitting for each location. I did something very different than I normally do during this playthrough, which is not lying to myself about "catching them all." In fact, I caught fewer than 10 Pokemon, and just focused on beating the game. Naturally, this involves battling every trainer in one's path, so the game did not feel too truncated despite my reduced focus on catching. With that being said, training your team is essential in this entry because there are quite a few tough battles. The AI is smart and will switch out their Pokemon as it benefits them and use diverse teams that will target your Pokemon's weaknesses. There were many tense moments, at least 5 or more, where I had just barely won a critical battle with only one of my remaining Pokemon. I had no recollection of this game's perfectly balanced difficulty as the recent entries like Sword/Shield had made me biased toward Pokemon's perceived "easiness." I was most impressed by the game's balanced pacing. I felt like each "chunk" of the game in between gyms was padded with a perfect amount of content: battles, routes, town exploration and NPC chating, and little side activities were plentiful but never excessive. There is not much backtracking, and when the game requires it, you will already have fly. This generation also introduced many sick Pokemon designs. Empoleon, Luxray, Lucario, Leafeon/Glaceon, Froslass and almost all of the legendaries stand out.

Anyway, it's Pokemon. There's not much more for me to add other than I will probably be jumping immediately into Black/White. I'm so glad I picked this up at this time in my life, where parenting-related stress is abundant this has been the ultimate chill pill.

It really is just the best mainseries pokemon game... solid battle mechanics, great array of pokemon to choose from, wonderful story progression with a fairly challenging AI (assuming you are playing with my special rules: no planned teams or strategy just vibes).

If anyone who isn't a hopelessly trapped fan such as myself wanted to dip back into pokemon even if only for the nostalgia I would point them to platinum. It is almost certainly because I played pearl as a child that this game ends up feeling like sitting in someones lap while they read you a book. Highlights all the ways in which pokemon is cute, and also all the ways it was, and could still be, a video game for anyone to enjoy, including adults.

After 40 hours, i threw a masterball in Giratina's face and quit. This is the second pokemon game i've played, the first one being sapphire many years ago (which i loved and played about 5 full playthroughs). I have two issues with this game: it's too grindy (likely just my fault for compensating lack of strategy by over-leveling before entering a gym) and it being too similar to the previous generation. There are some cool and creative innovations that set platinum apart, specially in the visuals it's a lot more flashy, but the core structure is the exact same which was fine... until i finished the distortion world and realized all there's in front of me is grinding and/or completing the pokedex.

I'm sure that if this was the first pokemon game that i played i would've nearly 100% it, but honestly i just don't feel like i can enjoy the endgame of pokemon games anymore, not if they're like sapphire's bc i think i overdid it with that one xD.

Since there are other newer pokemon games that i haven't played, i won't say that "if you've played one, you've played them all", but given my experience with platinum, it'll be a looong time before i try out a newer entry from the franchise.

btw yes, i'm aware that Cynthia is the champion of the pokemon league