Pokemon: Poland Edition

Boy howdy. There's a lot I could say about this game, and I feel like even after playing for a few hours I've barely scratched the surface. It's interesting. Which I think the one of the better things a game can be is interesting. The mood is kind of Off Beat and quirky at times which I feel is kind of necessary for this heavy period of history during which the game is set and contributes to this overall feeling of Alternate History.

I am not the biggest on isometric turn based combat games, they've never really been my thing, but this hits so many other notes for me that I do like (Time period, locations, the folklore, the CRPG elements--) that I decided I could give it a chance. Especially after sinking 560 hours into BG3, clearly if the story is good enough and the characters compelling enough I can play just about anything. So please take my opinion on the actual gameplay with a grain of salt.

I find the combat a little stressful yet repetitive at times. It moves a bit slow. Granted I'm not very far into the actual game, so it might get better, but it's not exactly the most exciting for me, and while not super complicated, I do find it a little bit unintuitive whenever a new mechanic is introduced, getting used to how it works. And I am also finding myself a little annoyed that early in the game, the trait system is introduced but I don't have a compatible salutor for that trait system yet which I imagine turns up somewhere deeper in the story so some enemies are especially grindy to try and get through because of the alternative method that's available to take them out just does not seem... Balanced. For where I'm at just yet.

All that being said, I'm starting to get a better feel for the systems and there is something of a rhythm to them that I'm enjoying.

Now. The sound design in this game is pretty interesting. I love the music. But man we gotta talk about some of this voice acting lol. Sometimes, a character just has the Most American Accent ever and it's a little jarring. The first time this happens, the character introduced is supposed to be intriguing but I found her accent super distracting. I don't know why this choice was made, and while it's not the worst thing in the world, it can be a touch immersion breaking. There's no real consistency. The first time we hear an American accent, it's from, presumably, an actual American, asking about Albuquerque. So it... It just makes for a really bizarre kind of confusion about where people are from when you meet them because there's an expectation previously set that there might be Americans around. I dunno. Given this game has sort of a Smaller Studio kind of charm to it overall, I can forgive it. But the voice acting is probably the biggest gripe I have with this game overall.

The look and feel of the environments is nice. Immersive. It feels relatively lively. I'm glad they skipped doing a bunch of audible idle chatter in the crowds (see above paragraph) and instead it's little tidbits you can read. There's a lot of really great art direction choices that were made in the character designs and effects. There's a definitely feeling of mystery and a little bit of dread with every choice you make as it's not entirely clear just what kind of impact some of these might have. Overall, I have enjoyed the hours I've spent in this game so far and intend to spend many more, getting to understand Wiktor and all his many daddy issues. And also Rasputin is here. So that's cool. Real bummer to hear about his hopes for Franz Ferdinand.

Anyone who knows anything about history and plays this game is gonna have some real gut drop "Oh no" moments lol. In a fun way.

Good game and I really recommend it. Not for everyone because sometimes there is no good idea to stimulate the action and the game becomes a bit boring after about 20 hours. But the idea of ​​placing the action in Warsaw, which is part of the Russian partition, is great. I regret that the game does not include action taking place in the Prussian partition (the worst in terms of the destruction of Polishness and denationalization of the Polish nation) and the Austrian partition. P.S. Maybe the next part would start in 1918? Great War is over but not for Poles. In the background, Roman Dmowski's fight for Poland's return to the world map in the world's salons and in the east, the bloody fight with the Ukrainians and Bolsheviks for the eastern borders. The Polish city of Lviv was an architectural gem. Is'n it ? Szulski's help in unmasking the intrigues of England and Prussia and ...... against the rebirth of Poland. Certainty at the top of my wishlist... ;-)