PLAYER'S LOG: POKEMON HUNTER 4

Player's Log: Bill Williams
For Pokemon Hunter 4 by Halibabica

http://rpgmaker.net/games/725/

Hi everybody I don't have all the crap I need to do a Let's Try but I actually wanted to try to give some quality feedback so I'm going to try something I'll call a Player's Log starting with the game Pokemon Hunter 4 by Halibabica. I'm not a pokemon fan in fact I'm struggling to remember the last time I played a Pokemon game but hopefully that won't be that big a deal with this game. In fact it'll probably be a better test of the game if I'm a little slow getting some of the concepts.


------Spoiler Warning Begins Now------------


Session 1:

Start Oct 2nd 8:20PM
Player Status: Tired

Notes: In order I took them.

-Intro seems okay. Fishing scene was nice
-Took Http, De Roi Le and Rezbit
-Snow map seems bland but footprints are nice.
-Jiggypuffs running away WTF?
-Level Up!!!
-Battles seem interesting
-Snow map gets more interesting as you follow the path.
-No treasure chests?
-Level 3!!! No new skills?
-What so we're not going in the ice cave right away?
-Look kids Tom made an enemy. This couldn't possibly bite him in the ass later.
-Scientist? Climate change? Do I get to fight Al Gore?
-Second Party: Took Dig Dug, Zinger and Mr. T.
-What is that timer for? And it moved from the top of the screen to the bottom after party selection.
-Kind of hard to retrace your steps without the footprints.
-Enemy Meowth Evolves!!! I panic use my best skillz and it goes down in one hit.
-Level UP!!! Tom at 4. Current Beasties at 2
-Okay I'm lost in the trees.
-Getting tired of random encounters.
-Find the path!!! Make to the Ice cave.

Play session ends. 9:00 PM Time for Football.

Thoughts from first play session: A large part of me was honestly expecting to hate this game but so far I've been quite pleasantly surprised. Graphics and music seem to fit quite well. The music didn't annoy me at all. Some of the maps seemed a little too large. I wasn't paying to much attention to elements and status effects but it's still early in the game.

Thoughts before session 2: Well I'm getting ready to go in the ice cave. Why does every RPG have to have an ice cave? I'm trying hard to think of a game that doesn't have one? I guess every game maker secretly wants to be a psychotic Eskimo with a mansion of death. Cliché? Sure but I'd rather deal with a well done cliché then something original but done in an incoherent manner. At least with a cliché not the least bit surprising Ice Cave I know what I'm getting into and ‘knowing is half the battle.'

Session 2:

Start Oct 3rd 10:10 PM
Player Status: Caffeinated

-OK let's go
-Try switching members for the first time thinking I'll need some more fire element skills. There's no way to check the stats of the Pokemon already in the party.
-I switch Rezbit in place of Digdug
-Queen sleeping on top of the icecave? Nice touch
-Icecave music is weird trippy but could get on your nerves pretty quickly. Map itself is bland but at least I can I find the path.
-Level up! Tom is at 6. Pokemon are at 5, 5 and 4.
-Level up! Tom is at 7. How do you gain more skills in this game? A scan ability would be nice.
-Saving now. Probably just being paranoid or maybe that music is getting to me.
-Mirror move was a nice touch and a complete surprise.
-I see something…Memory of Per??? WTF
-Okay that's a skill scroll but who can use it? Maybe I should have played a couple of Pokemon games before trying this one.
-Doubling back. I think that's what I'm supposed to do.
-Nope Wrong.
-Switching Parties: New Party is Digdug, Rezbit and De Rol Le. No real reason mostly to see what happens. Being careful with my MP.
-Found Kingpin. Bugger ran away! Saving now.
-Heading underground. Map looks better but I can't pick out the reason why.
-Persians are weak to Earth. Good to know but man would a scan skill be nice. A monster trainer would know this sort of thing.
-Rock puzzle! Wow do I suck at these.
-Found another Memory of Per.
-See the ladder. Almost there. (expletive deleted) random battle.
-Having enemies drop equipment seems a little chancy. Working for now but if a player gets unlucky they might find themselves underequipped.
-Bugger ran away again. I smell a trap.
-Wtf? Blocked the waterfall. Yep Queen's a bitch but we'll deal with her later.
-New enemies! Damn it do I need a scan skill.
-Blocking snowdrifts? Is there a way to make them go away?
-Pile of ice shards?
-Found Memory of Mem. Climbed the cliff but it was not obvious that I could.
-Okay so you can go over the snow drifts but only in one direction.
-Kingpin runs away again. Is this fricking monster worth all this effort?
-Wait you can pick up the ice shards?
-Running from most of the random battles now.
-Found all four ice shards. Here we go.
-Bird thing, Temple… I'm guessing a boss fight.
-Yep. I win in three rounds but I'm running low on healing items.
-No idea what happened…then I walk into a warp without seeing it. At least I don't have to walk all the way back to town.

Saving now. Going to take a break.

Break 11:02 PM

Thoughts after break: I estimate that I'm about an hour into the game. Remember that I'm stopping every now and then to write a note and this slows my game progress quite a bit. I've always held that the key to a game is about an hour into it. If I'm not interested in you game after an hour I'll probably move on to the next game. An hour into PH4 I'm actually quite curious as to how things progress from here. So far there has been no real difficulty yet there's just enough of a game to keep you on your toes. My concern about not having a scan skill probably wouldn't matter to someone a few years younger than myself and who was actually familiar with pokemon and what element or type each one is.
I was quite happy with the ice cave. The music was starting to drive me nuts near end though. Maybe it should change as you move through different parts of the dungeon?

Also Tom seems like a bit of a tool but that's okay Vance from Three the Hard Way was a complete asshole and he's easily my favorite RM character of all time.

Took a longer break than I was planning to.

Play Resumes 12:10 AM
Player Status: Normal (for me anyway)

-Back to town. Hey the shops are open.
-Library first. See what the f… I'm already supposed to know.
-Okay that didn't make a great of sense. There's a list of memories but that doesn't really help me out that much. Off to the potion shop.
-Item shop looked nice. The blacksmith and the armor shop seemed wrong and cluttered. All the items made sense bought a nice spread.
-Heading back home.
-Switched Pokemon, Should I rest or explore? I'll explore for a bit.
-What is this a ghost town?
-Okay I'll talk to Scientist.
-Huh what's this? He's joining me?
-Ok Icefield. Is this the same area as before? Don't remember that trees being green though. Look a memory.
-Wait that's not memory. Was I supposed to talk to professor before going to ice cave?
-I guess I was. All this information would have been useful before. Not that I'd be able to memorize it.
-Data disk. Okay that's workable solution and it answers my question about what the library was for.
-Going to have to call it a night.

Play Session Ends 12:42 AM

Thoughts from second session: I'm a little confused by the part with the Professor. Was I supposed to talk to him before? This certainly answers all my earlier concerns about not having a scan system. I've also finally figured out that the on screen timer is part of a day-night system. Anyway I will keep playing this game and things should become clearer once I move on to the next part.