u/Mightyoritus

I know this post might probably annoy people, but I felt like I had to say this for a long time.

I’m going to be completely honest: Pokémon S/V, despite their obvious flaws, have become for me the best modern Pokémon games and one of the top three games in the entire franchise. And saying that isn't easy for me, because it means a whole lot.

I bought the game as a Christmas present in December, and I remember going in with quite a bit of fear. I had seen YouTubers, Reddit, and Twitter turn completely against these games, just like what happened with Sw/Sh. It felt like it was already decided that it would be just another disappointment. I myself expected to find a disaster full of bugs and glitches… but my experience was the complete opposite.

Violet ended up becoming the second Switch game where I surpassed 1,000 registered hours on the console, second only to Sword. Honestly, that says more than any critique or review about what this game meant to me.

Is it perfect? No, not at all. Its biggest problem—aside from the rough start it had, which I didn't experience since I bought it in mid-December—is the rather inconsistent graphics. There are moments where everything looks beautiful: the Pokémon, the characters, some locations… but there are also areas that don't look as good, especially compared to Sw/Sh, which in my opinion had a nicer artistic direction. Even so, outside of that, I find it hard to find something I truly didn't like.

Because everything else… I adore it. I found the characters unforgettable, the music is wonderful, the Paldean Pokémon left a huge mark on me, the sense of adventure and discovery is incredible, the region's mythology fascinated me, the quality-of-life improvements make everything feel much smoother, I liked the DLC even more than the one for Sw/Sh, shiny hunting is more accessible, the legendary duo are absolutely adorable, I loved the Ed Sheeran song in the credits, and the ending of the story made me cry. And I mean it: I cried.

Pokémon S/V represents everything I love about Pokémon. During my adventure and also in the DLCs, I was smiling almost the entire time. There was something special about these games that touched me in a way I hadn't felt in a long time. If it weren't for the nostalgia I have for White 2 and Emerald, I would probably put them in my personal #1 spot.

I don't understand why the internet seems to have such a grudge against Pokémon. Yes, it's not on the level of a game like Mario Odyssey, but that doesn't mean S/V aren't great games in their own right. Sometimes I feel like many people forget that a game doesn't need to be perfect to be unforgettable, and these games are unforgettable to me.

It saddens me to think that S/V are already reaching their final updates. That’s why I wanted to write this: as a small love letter and a "thank you" to the games that made me feel much more than I expected. And I’ll stick with that phrase that fits so well here: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

What has been showed of Winds and Waves looks like everything I loved about S/V but better, so yeah, It looks promising.

I was an avid user of YouTube back when I was around 10 (I don't recommend kids that young to use YouTube without supervision by the way) and also a big videogame fan. I was not born in the 90s but my introduction and later love for videogames was with the Wii and DS, however, I always liked to learn about old videogames, maybe because I'm a huge fan of AVGN but that is another tale.

When Petscop came out I was finishing middleschool and I was unaware of it's existence until some YouTube channels talked about the series, then I watched the first Game Theory video about it and I was completely disturbed (GT's theories were not that good looking back, I mean, the first theory only focused on the Candace Newmaker tragedy instead of the series own events and clues). I used to believe that Petscop was actually a real game, I mean, it had to be since it looks so legit... And I had to admit I did not want to watch the episodes by myself because I was genuienly really scared by them.

Petscop for me is one of the best horror series YouTube has ever had. It executes the creepypasta trope of the "cursed game" flawlessly while adding a lot more depth, the visuals are amazing and really accurate for the time the game was developed in, the music and sound design goes from jolly and cozy to unnerving really well, the story is dark and ambiguous but can be understood by paying attention while being able to have things left to personal interpretation and I really love the sprite work.

Petscop is not like other horror media that relies on jumpscares, monster or even ghost, Petscop scares you due to the themes, the atmosphere and the narrative. In recent times internet horror seem to forget that having distorted face does not automatically makes it scary.

Even if Petscop is over, I like to revisite it from time to time. It has a really special in my heart since it is a great story delivered in an excellent way, and I have to mention, It gives me a lot of nostalgia.

I grew pretty fond of her design. She reminds me of characters in 90s cartoons like Powerpuff girls, one of my favorite CN shows, and I love her color pallet since I am a big sucker for purple and black.

The voice acting that she has is top notch. She acts like a happy go lucky girlie but deep inside she is an obssesed madwoman and her voice actor absolutely delivered with that derangendly happy tone.

I thought Lily would get annoying for me due to the way she speakes and her segment on Sweet Street filling like filler to me at the start, but I realised very quickly that I was wrong. In practice Lily is such a fun character and I giggled a lot of the time she was on screen.

She may not be menacing like the Prototype or Huggy, but she is really memorable, heck, I was smiling the whole time watching that video of Giblet and Lily answering questions.

(Wanted to correct a spelling error in the title)