The thing that gets me is that the storytelling isn't universally bad. I love Hop's character arc - of the games I've played, he has the most development of any Main Rival character and the postgame conclusion for him is solid. Marnie and Bede are less developed, admittedly - but in a way Hop is the 'main' rival and I honestly think they did him right.
And as much as it felt a little frustrating, it was kind of nice to have acknowledgement of 'look, we're not putting the world's problems on a kid's shoulders, the adults should take care of this'. Main Character and Hop going legend-chasing comes across as feeling like they should do something - it just happens to be that their idea was better than Leon's.
(Actually, one minor tweak I'd have made is to have Eternatus show up at less-than-full HP - implying that while you might need Zacian and Zamazenta helping to take it on properly, Leon's efforts had some impact.)
There's parts of the story that work well, but it's...scattered. It's the player's agency, honestly, that stands out - you never really stop anything Team Yell is doing, they just kind of serve as a Gym Challenge in Spikemuth then get chewed out. Effectively, the only main-story actions you take are the gym challenge, the tournament, then oops time to save the world all of a sudden. It's pacing as much as content.
(Maybe part of the answer is to move the Macro Cosmos bit earlier in the game. Same setup - you want to have dinner with Leon, he's late, Impatient Hop suggests chasing him, challenge Rose Tower, get the implications of plot - but Rose agrees to put things off for now and the whole episode gets semi-forgotten.)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2021-06-10 01:09 pm (UTC)And as much as it felt a little frustrating, it was kind of nice to have acknowledgement of 'look, we're not putting the world's problems on a kid's shoulders, the adults should take care of this'. Main Character and Hop going legend-chasing comes across as feeling like they should do something - it just happens to be that their idea was better than Leon's.
(Actually, one minor tweak I'd have made is to have Eternatus show up at less-than-full HP - implying that while you might need Zacian and Zamazenta helping to take it on properly, Leon's efforts had some impact.)
There's parts of the story that work well, but it's...scattered. It's the player's agency, honestly, that stands out - you never really stop anything Team Yell is doing, they just kind of serve as a Gym Challenge in Spikemuth then get chewed out. Effectively, the only main-story actions you take are the gym challenge, the tournament, then oops time to save the world all of a sudden. It's pacing as much as content.
(Maybe part of the answer is to move the Macro Cosmos bit earlier in the game. Same setup - you want to have dinner with Leon, he's late, Impatient Hop suggests chasing him, challenge Rose Tower, get the implications of plot - but Rose agrees to put things off for now and the whole episode gets semi-forgotten.)
Ah, for a Sword/Shield Rewrite...