Last month, the legendary co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog was arrested for allegedly purchasing shares in a development studio before its involvement in a Dragon Quest game was announced. A month later, he was arrested a second time for reportedly buying stock in a company that was set to work on a Final Fantasy spinoff. Yesterday, Tokyo prosecutors formally charged Yuji Naka for inside trading roughly $1,080,000 in Final Fantasy stock.
According to NHK, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office determined that Naka had been making a profit on insider trading (Thanks, VGC). For the uninitiated, insider trading is when someone with non-public knowledge of a company is able to use that information to trade stock at an advantage. Doing so is illegal in Japan. So Naka ran afoul of the law when he purchased shares in ATeam before the studio had announced that it would be developing the mobile game Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier, a battle royale that was exclusively released for mobile devices. Though the game was announced in 2021, Naka was arrested on December 7 of this year.
This was a month after he had been arrested the first time for buying shares in Aiming, the studio that created Dragon Quest Tact. In both of these incidents, he was arrested alongside Square Enix employee Taisuke Sasaki. Sasaki was indicted for trading roughly $782,000 in stock.
If the two made a profit off the ATeam stock, it was presumably before The First Soldier was canceled less than a year after its launch. Square Enix had clearly been hoping to capitalize on the popularity of Fortnite and other battle royales. Instead, First Soldier suffered severe performance issues and was exclusively available on mobile.
Naka had joined Square Enix in 2018 to direct Balan Wonderworld, a strange action-platformer that was near-universally panned as a flop. The game was unfocused and confusing to many reviewers, and Kotaku included it on a list of the year’s biggest gaming disappointments. The director departed Square Enix in June 2021. Maybe Naka would have been better off if he had been focused on directing a good game instead of manipulating the stock market.
2022 was truly the year of Elden Ring, with FromSoftware’s latest game exploding into the mainstream unlike anything it had previously created. As such, a lot of people played and finished Elden Ring. In fact, according to one set of data, Elden Ring was the most completed game of 2022. But funnily enough, the same source also pegs it as the game players were most likely to abandon before reaching the end.
If you’ve read Kotaku (or any other gaming website) in 2022, you are likely already familiar with Elden Ring, the latest game from Dark Souls creators FromSoftware. And like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, Elden Ring is a tough-as-nails action-RPG with a heavy focus on mystery, world-building, and boss fights. However, this time around FromSoftware added a true open world to its popular “Soulslike” formula. The end result? One of 2022’s most acclaimed, best-selling games. The open world in particular helped sway many to try Elden Ring for the first time, letting players avoid harder areas until later and ostensibly making it easier to finish than past FromSoftware adventures. And it seems that design choice paid off.
According to data on HowLongToBeat.com, Elden Ring is 2022’s most completed game, with nearly 6,000 users of the site reporting they have played and finished the massive open-world RPG. That’s an impressive number when you look at the runner-up games on the list. Stray, that adorable futuristic cat game, was completed by nearly 4,000 users. Meanwhile, in third with 2,500 completions, was Game Freak and Nintendo’s Switch hit, Pokemon Legends: Arceus. To see such a big and difficult game top the list is both a sign that Elden Ring is very good and also a hint at the kind of audience that is primarily using HowLongToBeat.com.
Screenshot: Howlongtobeat.com / Kotaku
But perhaps more interesting is that Elden Ring is also the most “retired” game. When users “retire” from a game on Howlongtobeat.com it means they have given up on it, either permanently or temporarily. Now, even though only 261 players officially retired from Elden Ring on the site, that’s still more than double any other game in 2022. Even if the dataset is a bit small and weird (how many people are logging into this site to admit defeat?) it’s still an interesting data point.
This all makes sense to me. Elden Ring was the most talked-about game of 2022, and with that many people playing, it makes sense that a good chunk of them might give up on it. Other data seems to suggest around half the people playing Elden Ring never reached the end. So I buy that Elden Ring could be the most completed game of 2022 while also being the game more people gave up on than anything else.
Some other interesting 2022 data from the site: Turns out Elden Ring is also on the most backlogs, has the most reviews, and is the longest game of 2022. However, Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us Part 1 is the most positively reviewed game, and Diablo Immortal is the worst-reviewed.
After over a decade of FromSoftware games holding court as the quintessential ‘git gud’ franchise, locking those of us without a masochist bent out of the discourse, Elden Ring’s open world opened up the gates for an entirely new player base. As such, it catapulted the work of Hidetaka Miyezaki to entirely new heights: Elden Ring is by far the best-selling FromSoftware title, it’s snatching up GOTY awards like Rowa Fruit, and it’s still generating passionate conversations 10 months after its release.
By subtly divesting from the tried and true FromSoftware formula and giving us a game unshackled by a single, punishing, linear path, EldenRing offered up the Lands Between on a beautifully ornate (but slightly Tarnished) silver platter. And we gobbled that shit up.
Feeding The Difficulty Discourse Machine
These guys are called Abductor Virgins, and they suck. Image: FromSoftware
The Souls game discourse has almost solely revolved around difficulty. Before Elden Ring was released, FromSoftware’s Yasuhiro Kitao told Eurogamer that the game was “made for all sorts of players,” not just “hardened veterans.” This sent the fanboys into a tailspin, but it piqued the interest of those who have never been able to enjoy the punishing gameplay of FromSoft’s oeuvre.
I wrote about Kitao’s quotes back when I was at GamesRadar, suggesting that what would make Elden Ring great would be its approachability, and that that approachability was made possible by its open world. It’s a helluva lot easier to avoid difficult areas if you can run around them on horseback, but previous Souls games forced you to choose between the difficult path and the bang-your-head-against-the-wall-because-it’s-impossible path. The promise of ample choice made me think that maybe, just maybe, Elden Ring could be a game I’d enjoy.
Image: FromSoftware / Kotaku
Conversely, Forbes published a response to my piece, one that hoped Elden Ring’s open world wouldn’t ruin the FromSoftware vibes by focusing too much on “making these games approachable rather than tough and gritty.” This was months before the release date, but the discourse machine turned and turned and turned, smoke spewing from every inch, its cogs grinding and grating with each new take chucked into its gaping maw.
Until February came, and brought with it the Lands Between, wide open for exploration like a darker, deadlier Breath of the Wild. Players quickly learned that most of them were accidentally skipping the combat tutorial, and a bit more slowly learned that the first boss (that fucking Tree Sentinel) was avoidable. Many of us who could never latch onto a FromSoft game willingly clung to Elden Ring’s teat, as we learned we could, in fact, get on a horse and fuck off away from some horrifying eldritch beast.
As we collectively made our way through Elden Ring, we were given the gift that comes only with truly open-world games: seemingly endless discoveries by ourselves, our friends, and other players on the internet.
Braving Brutal Battles For A Glimpse Of Beauty
Need a hand?Image: FromSoftware
The beauty of Elden Ring lies in its world that teems, bubbles, and spews with both friendly and deadly life, that tantalizes and terrifies with its landscapes, that beckons and shuns you in a single breath. I find this beauty in so many moments during my time with the game, like when I accidentally descend down to the Siofra River, not too long into my playthrough.
In Limgrave, I step on a platform and am whisked down, down, down, until I emerge into an astounding space: a fully realized night sky in a variety of bruise colors, littered with pinholes of light. Crumbling classical architecture obfuscates my view of this impossible galaxy and tombstones line the path leading away from the platform, which glowed a bizarre green during my descent but now lies dormant.
I am, as the kids say, gagged, and stumble aimlessly away from the platform, paying little attention to what enemies may lie in my path for the first time since booting up Elden Ring. This is a mistake I quickly pay for, as I walk directly into a horde of Claymen. They move slowly, but they hurt, and I am severely underleveled for this area. One of the weaponless magic conjurers takes me out in seconds with his weird bubbles, sending me back to the Site of Grace right next to the platform that brought me here. When I go back to fetch my several hundred runes, the same guy takes me out again.
“Fuck that,” I mumble before stepping on the stone circle at the center of the lift. “I’ll come back later.”
And I do, just much, much later. After I’ve discovered I’m a battle mage with an affinity for gravity magic and summons, and long after I fell the Tree Sentinel with a single Rock Sling, I return to the Siofra River from a completely different direction, and lay waste to its inhabitants. Then, after I’ve collected every last item dropped by a fallen NPC and picked all the Ghost Glovewort my eyes can see, I allow myself a second to breathe. I glance up at that still-impossible night sky, and exhale. I earned this. Elden Ring, unlike other FromSoftware games, gave me ample chances to amass the tools and experience I’d need to earn a brief respite.
Elden Ring Eternal
I’m an Aries.Screenshot: FromSoftware / Kotaku
But Elden Ring isn’t just somber and serious, it’s not just hours of grueling gameplay with brief, meditative breaks. It’s goofy as hell, like all FromSoftware games inherently are. There are stupid, dirty messages littered all over the ground, dozens upon dozens of ways to die that will make you chuckle in disbelief, and the ever-popular but always somewhat broken online play that encourages players to fuck with one another.
It’s this combination of punishing play, engaging story (thanks, George R.R. Martin), and asinine antics that make FromSoftware games, especially this one, so special. Elden Ring gives you enemies like Starscourge Radahn, who will in one moment beat the brakes off of you with gigantic meteors flung from a blood-red sky and in another send you into a fit of hysterics when you realize that he is, in fact, sitting on top of a very tiny horse. Elden Ring plays with you, offering up prophecies and moral quandaries that will have you scratching your head, but undercutting it with both accidental and purposeful absurdism.
Screenshot: FromSoftware
Elden Ring gives you a gigantic turtle wearing a pope hat. It gives you strange, unsettling storylines about grapes that are actually eyeballs. It tucks a giant bat grandma away amongst a rocky outcropping and gives her a haunting song to sing ad infinitum—or until you slash at her leathery, gray skin. It deflates your hope in humankind at one juncture just to build it back up again at the next.
It lets you explore this incredibly fucked-up world for hours upon hours, fall in love with some of its characters and revile the rest, taxing you physically and mentally with enemies plucked from the deepest depths of game design hell, and at the end, it presents you with a few options that don’t really fucking matter. It does all of this while making itself playable for us FromSoft plebeians, which therefore (brilliantly) means more of us will be talking about it than any game that came before.
When we inevitably look back at Elden Ring a decade from now, it will be difficult for us to remember exactly how much it defined the zeitgeist, just how far it permeated popular culture outside of gaming, and just how much we couldn’t stop talking about it. But now, ten months after its release, it’s hard to imagine we ever existed in a world without it.
The line between an amazing video game name and a terrible one is nebulous. Some game names try so hard that they loop back around and become good, despite being objectively bad. Some game names are good only in that they use cool words, but the vibe screams, “I was created in a vat overseen by a focus group.” And some game names, who the hell knows what was going on there, but god bless the mind who came up with it.
Occasionally, there’s a video game name that is exactly right, managing to perfectly capture the essence of the game in question. More often than not, though, game names leave us scratching our heads. This year, we’ve decided to put together a list of some of our favorite game names of 2022, in no particular order.
They are a mix of good and bad and everything in between. Some of them will speak for themselves, but we’ll have the occasional commentary for some of the titles accompanying the list as well. Preemptive shoutout to Square Enix, the GOAT at bewildering game names such as this year’s Various Daylife. Never change, Square Enix. Speaking of which…
CRISIS CORE –FINAL FANTASY VII– REUNION – Claire tells me that it’s an admittedly annoying name to type out, but to its credit, it does incorporate the themes of the game in there.
You Suck At Parking: I’m queer so they’re probably right, but still, lol.
Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories: Tell me you don’t immediately want to find out what this game is about? Spoilers, it’s as cute as it sounds:
[Search for your friends] in a town full of adorable animals with eccentric personalities. Yet under this sweet surface lies a tale of crime and corruption… Where did Cantaloupe disappear to? Is the Cavity Crew as dangerous as Captain Hamley believes? How does the Kitten King fit into Hog Town’s struggles?
Warhammer 40K: Chaosgate: Daemonhunters – Luke says: Warhammer 40K? There are too many of them! Chaosgate? Which one? It’s been over six months since this game came out and we still have to call it “that XCOM game with Space Marines in it.”
Super Kiwi 64
Unsouled: This is the most video games title I’ve heard all year.
If you want to become the very best, you’ve gotta beat the very best.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Defeating the Elite Four and the regional champion in battle is a rite of passage in most Pokémon games, and that includes Scarlet and Violet. These are supposed the most-powerful Pokémon trainers in the Paldea region, and overcoming them and their teams is the only way to become the regional champion yourself.
But what should your team look like if you’re going to take on these trainers? Before we go trainer by trainer and talk about what weaknesses you’ll need to exploit to become Paldea’s champion, let’s touch on some general tips.
Level up before you go-go
Between all the trainers you’ll fight in the Paldea Pokémon League, you’ll face Pokémon whose levels range from 57 to 62. Since you’ll have already beaten all eight regional gym leaders, you’ll notice Scarlet and Violet have a sizable gap between the most powerful gym leader and the first of the Elite Four. Grusha, the Glaseado gym leader, had his Pokémon in the late 40s, and the Elite Four starts out 10 levels higher. So definitely do some training beforehand to get your team leveled up to at least the mid-50s.
“You need healing!”
Pokémon veterans will tell you that before you challenge the Elite Four, you need to stock up on healing items. These fights all happen in sequence, and you won’t be able to leave to heal your team and come back between them. However, you will have a chance to use healing items before each fight to your heart’s content. The PokéMart right outside the Pokémon League building will have plenty of Hyper Potions and Revives for you to buy. These will be helpful both between battles and during them, as it’s likely you’ll need to heal up if one of the Elite Four manages to take out some of your team.
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Jack of all trades is better than a master of one
Over the years, I’ve seen a handful of Pokémon players who like to play with teams that double up on moves of the same type, rather than having a nice spread of attacks that lend themselves to more diverse situation. I prefer greater versatility. For example, during the main game, my Raichu had Thunderbolt (Electric), Play Rough (Fairy), Iron Tail (Steel), and Focus Blast (Fighting). Between these four moves, he could reasonably deal damage to nine out of Pokémon’s18 creature types by himself. This is the kind of moveset I try to have with my entire team, which gives me more options for whatever situation the game throws at me.
If Raichu could use a super-effective Iron Tail on a rock/ground-type Pokémon, but would still be in danger of being one-shot by a devastating Earthquake, I could switch to my Quaquaval and use a water or fighting move without having to worry about him succumbing to the same weaknesses Raichu would. Versatility is a good rule of thumb to keep in mind when you’re building a team, because a team of six Pokémon can’t cover this many weaknesses without learning moves outside its base typing. While it’s important to keep in mind what moves your Pokémon will get a bonus for thanks to their base typing or tera typing, don’t put all your Poké eggs in one Poké basket: You’ll just limit yourself and make fights harder than they need to be.
Save between fights
It can feel cheesy, but you should always be saving between fights at the Elite Four. If you lose a battle, all you’ve gotta do is close the game and reopen it to start where you left off. Do this before you’re transported back to the Pokémon Center in order to circumvent the autosave (or turn it off in the options menu), and you’ll be able to just try each fight again with new knowledge. You can also use this time to change your team’s movesets around if you find yourself lacking a super-effective response to one of your opponents’ Pokémon.
Without further ado, let’s talk about the Elite Four and the champion of Paldea.
Rika specializes in ground-type Pokémon and will stomp you into the ground if you’re not prepared.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Rika, the ground-type master
She is beauty, she is grace, but Rika’s team of ground-type Pokémon is full of a bunch of doofuses. Between Whiscash, Dugtrio, and Clodsire, half her team has big “not a thought behind those eyes” energy. But they’ve still got some hard-hitting moves and effective defenses that can take you by surprise if you’re not prepared.
Dugtrio and Donphan are the most straightforward of Rika’s team, as they’re standard ground-type Pokémon weak to all of ground’s weaknesses: grass, ice, and water. Having a mix of these types of attacks will be important, however, as the other three Pokémon she uses have inherent counters to each of these types.
Rika’s Whiscash sets a precedent for how you should approach her party: You can’t just stick to one of ground’s typical weaknesses for the entire fight. As a water/ground-type Pokémon, Whiscash is only weak to grass-type moves, but it is double weakened by them, as they overpower water and ground-type Pokémon. So a grass-type move is best to start with, but be mindful of its Blizzard attack, as that will knock most grass-type Pokémon out real quick. Luckily, Whiscash is fairly slow, so if you can get a reasonably strong, risk-free attack like Energy Ball—or Meowscarada’s signature attack Flower Trick for those who chose Sprigatito as their starter—Whiscash’s double weakness to grass should do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.
Camerupt also requires a bit of forethought, as its fire/ground typing makes it more resistant to grass and ice attacks. However, water attacks will do four times as much damage against it, as both fire and ground are weakened by it. Unlike Whiscash, who could severely damage a grass-type Pokémon who weakened it, Camerupt doesn’t have a strong offensive option for the average water-type Pokémon. Its moves lean hard into its fire and ground typing, but it does have a steel-type move in Flash Cannon, which could be rough on any rock Pokémon in your roster if you decide to target its ground weakness rather than water. So the safest course of action is to use a water move like Aqua Tail or Quaquavel’s signature Aqua Step to take advantage of its lower physical defense stat.
Clodsire is Rika’s final Pokémon, and one of her trickiest. She will use her tera orb on it to overwrite its poison/ground typing and make it simply ground, so if you were planning on using a psychic attack to exploit its poison base typing, you’ll have to adjust. On top of this, Clodsire also has Water Absorb as its ability, which negates water attacks and also heals its HP by a quarter of its health. So it’s not just a wasted turn to try and use a water attack, it’s actively beneficial to Rika’s big oaf. Clodsire’s weaknesses in this scenario are grass, water, and ice.
Normally, I would advise against using a grass-type Pokémon against it because of its base poison typing, but Clodsire doesn’t have any damaging poison moves that could weaken a grass-type Pokémon. It does have Toxic, but that will only inflict the poison status, rather than do poison damage. The biggest struggle with Rika’s Clodsire is that, if you go in expecting to use certain moves, its tera typing or ability can trip you up. But once you know its actual spread of weaknesses, it’s a bit more straightforward.
Clodsire has a bulky special defense, but its physical defense is much lower. So if you can hit it with a physical ice or water move (such as Ice Spinner, Ice Hammer, or Aqua Tail), or fall back on the Aqua Step (if you’ve got it), Clodsire should go down pretty quickly.
Poppy’s cutesy personality is a façade hiding a powerhouse party of steel-type Pokémon.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Poppy, the steel-using child labor law violation
The second of the Elite Four is a case study in juxtaposition between trainer and Pokémon, as Poppy is probably the youngest trainer in the Paldea region, but has some hefty steel-type brawlers on her team. All that being said, fighting her team requires the same flexibility as Rika’s, as her Pokémon ebb and flow between the steel type’s strengths and weaknesses. As nice as it would be to pick your strongest fire type and set them all ablaze, Poppy’s team has a few notable counters for the types that weaken steel.
Poppy leads with her Copperajah, and it’s an immediate counter to fire types. It just has a simple steel typing, but with moves like High Horsepower, it can go toe-to-toe with a fire-type Pokémon with little issue. It also acts as a setup Pokémon because it has Stealth Rock, which will scatter stones around your team, dealing rock damage to any Pokémon you send out throughout the battle. This is especially bad for fire-type Pokémon, as they’re weakened by rock attacks.
You have a few options to counter this. One is to just knock Copperajah out so quickly it doesn’t have the chance to use Stealth Rock, which is best accomplished by using a powerful fire, fighting, or ground attack. Copperajah has a lot of HP and can pack a punch, but its defenses are pretty middle of the road, and it’s exceptionally slow. So if you can manage to outspeed it (fairly easy) and knock it out in one hit (challenging, but doable) you can circumvent the danger of Stealth Rock altogether.
I generally avoid teaching my Pokémon the most powerful moves in their respective typings because they often come with drawbacks to accuracy or recharge time, but if you want to be thorough here, a Fire Blast or High Jump Kick can wipe Copperajah out before it has a chance to set up. These are often overkill in typical play, but when you’re facing a match-long threat like Stealth Rock, better safe than sorry.
If you’re not so lucky to take Copperajah out quickly, having a Pokémon who can clear enemy hazards is always smart. Pokémon like Donphan, Forretress, or Coalossal can learn Rapid Spin, which will clear out the Stealth Rock without being in too much danger from Poppy’s steel Pokémon.
Magnezone is fairly straightforward, as its double weakness to ground-type moves makes it an easy one-hit knockout. Corviknight is also pretty simple, as it doesn’t have much to counter its fire and electric weaknesses.
Bronzong is a bit trickier, as it has plenty of counters for fire-type Pokémon with Rock Blast and Earthquake. It also has the Levitate ability, which makes it immune to ground-type moves most steel Pokémon would be susceptible to. As such, it’s better to focus on its psychic typing, rather than steel. A good dark-type Pokémon would be an ideal counter thanks to its immunity to Bronzong’s psychic attacks, and one that has high physical defense would be able to withstand all of its moves. Umbreon would be a good fit, as it has strong physical defense, and its base dark typing would give it immunity to Bronzong’s psychic moves, as well as strengthen its dark-type attacks like Dark Pulse or Crunch.
Poppy’s last Pokémon is its Tinkaton, which she will terastalize into a full steel-type. Even without the tera type, Tinkaton’s physical moveset packs a punch, so it’s a force to be reckoned with if you’re not careful. Luckily, its weaknesses don’t really change too much with this typing beyond adding fighting. So, if you have fire-, fighting-, or ground-type moves (which you will probably have needed to get this far in the fight), you should be good to take out Tinkaton.
I’d recommend opting for ground, as Poppy will likely exploit either of the other two with Play Rough and Stone Edge, which weaken fighting and fire, respectively. Tinkaton has a hefty special defense, so using a physical-based ground move like Earthquake is your best bet.
Larry, the star of the show, can’t show up only once in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Larry returns to fly to new heights
I can’t lie, he made such a positive impression on me as a gym leader earlier in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet that I lost my mind when Larry, Pokémon’s embodiment of the Dolly Parton song “9 to 5,” showed up as a member of the Elite Four. But while his normal-type team required one strategy, his flying-type party in the Pokémon League requires another.
Unlike Rika and Poppy, most of Larry’s trickiest Pokémon lead his team. While most flying-type trainers in this series can be easily handled with a good electric-type Pokémon like Raichu or Jolteon, Larry’s Tropius, Oricorio, and Altaria all require you to look for alternate weaknesses.
Tropius is a grass/flying type, which means it’s double weak to ice. Historically, I don’t typically make space for an ice-type Pokémon on my team because most water-type Pokémon can reliably learn ice moves, but Tropius is kitted out with Sunny Day and Solar Beam, which is a combo that can make short work of any water-type that dares to enter the field. So if you don’t have an ice-type Pokémon to throw out a quick Ice Beam or a water-type that’s both fast and strong enough to interrupt this setup, it might be best to opt to target one of its other weaknesses.
Luckily Tropius has many with its grass/flying typing, so we can pick from fire, flying, rock, or poison, as well. Presumably, you have a fire-type Pokémon from your fight with Poppy, so that’s a good Pokémon to lead with and get a good Flamethrower out before Tropius has a chance to set up its Solar Beam.
Oricorio’s electric/flying typing is interesting, because separately, those two elements have straightforward weaknesses to exploit. But together they limit your options because it will be immune to ground moves and relatively resistant to electric ones. Its remaining weaknesses are rock and ice, Either option is as effective, but be mindful that it also knows Icy Wind, which can be super effective on some rock-type Pokémon if they have a secondary ground affinity.
Larry’s Altaria is one of the Pokémon you’ll face that feels directly spec’d to counter its usual weaknesses. The dragon/flying Pokémon knows Moonblast (Fairy), Flamethrower (Fire), Ice Beam (Ice), and Dragon Pulse (Dragon), which is a hard counter for almost anything you can throw at it…almost.
Altaria can counter dragon and ice pretty handily, but it doesn’t have much to take out fairy Pokémon, or defend against fairy-type moves. It has pretty respectable physical and special defense, but its physical defense is a tad lower. So if you’ve got someone on your team that knows Play Rough, it’s a solid counter that exists in the gaps of Altaria’s moveset.
Then all that’s left is Starapator and a terastalized flying-type Flamigo. You can take out both of these handily with strong electric attacks. It’s best to avoid ice-type Pokémon for these last two, as both of them have fighting attacks that could do significant damage.
Hassel teaches art at the academy in Paldea, but he also teaches the art of Pokémon battling as a member of the Elite Four.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Hassel teaches one final lesson
The final fight before the champion is against Hassel, the art teacher in Paldea’s academy. He specializes in dragon-type Pokémon, and his team includes a few ‘mons you likely won’t have seen by this point in your playthrough. So it’s good to be prepared for the twists and turns of this battle.
Noivern leads Hassel’s team, and it’s one of the simplest in the group. It’s weak to all of dragon-type’s usual weaknesses, but its flying/dragon typing makes it twice as weak to ice-type moves. So blow a gentle, cold breeze in its direction (Ice Beam) and it should fall pretty quickly. Flapple is also pretty straightforward, as its grass/dragon typing makes it extremely susceptible to ice attacks, which it doesn’t have any real counters for.
Haxorus is also just a dragon-type, but it has a wider type coverage with its attacks. With Dragon Claw, Crunch, Iron Head, and Rock Tomb, it can reliably counter both ice and dragon Pokémon, so your best bet is to exploit the fairy-sized gap in its offensive capabilities as you did with Larry’s Altaria. Its physical defense is notably stronger than its special defense, so if you have Pokémon like Sylveon with an attack like Moonblast in your bag, you can make short work of Haxorus.
Dragalge is complicated because it can easily take down dragon and fairy Pokémon with its poison-type Sludge Bomb and dragon-type Dragon Pulse. So the safest weakness to exploit is likely psychic. You could also try ground, but do keep in mind Hassel’s Dragalge knows Hydro Pump, which can drop ground-type Pokémon in a single turn. Meanwhile, it doesn’t have any real counters for a psychic Pokémon, making it the poison/dragon-type’s biggest vulnerability.
Finally, we have Baxcalibur, Hassel’s ace and Scarlet and Violet’spseudo-legendary. Hassel’s strategy with this Pokémon is pretty simple: Terastalize into a full dragon-type, and then use its signature move Glaive Rush until it wipes your team. If you have a fairy-type Pokémon you’ll be immune to this attack, so that will take the greatest threat off the table. But, oddly enough, Hassel’s Baxcalibur only knows two other moves, the ice-type Icicle Crash and fighting-type Brick Break. Fairy Pokémon are resistant to fighting attacks, and damaged normally by ice. So if you’ve got a fairy with decent special attack like the aforementioned Sylveon, you can carve your way through this Pokémon.
Geeta charges her tera orb as if it will make any meaningful impact on this battle. Go, girl. Give us nothing.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Here comes the final challenger, Geeta
After you defeat all the members of the Elite Four, you’ll be given a complementary party heal before you face Geeta, the champion of the Paldea region.
As fans have noted since Scarlet and Violet launched, Geeta’s team is a bit underwhelming for a champion, even compared to the Elite Four who are supposedly under her. She doesn’t specialize in any one typing, so there’s not the same subversion and adaptation you see in the other trainer fights. No one on her team is particularly powerful like Hassel’s Baxcalibur or Poppy’s Tinkaton. The weirdest part of all of it is that Glimmora, which is treated as her signature Pokémon, is a setup Pokémon by design, but she uses it last and wastes its Toxic Debris ability. As such, the only real strategy with her is simply having Pokémon who know attacks that weaken hers.
More than half of her team has a one-type elemental affinity, with psychic-type Espathra, grass-type Gogoat, and ice-type Avalugg all starting out as such, and Glimmora becoming one by terastalizing into a rock-type.
Espathra and Gogoat are mostly lacking in hard counters to their weaknesses. A ghost, dark, or bug attack will take Espathra out, though be wary of its Dazzling Gleam if you choose to go the dark route. Gogoat has basically nothing to combat a fire, bug, or flying Pokémon. Avalugg fares a bit better—Earthquake gives it something to fight off any fire or rock Pokémon—but its remaining moves feel like they’re there to fill spaces rather than help it overcome anything you throw at it. So feel free to safely use a steel or fighting attack.
Veluza and Kingambit have dual typings, which makes them a little more complicated, but their movesets are still pretty straightforward. Veluza is a water/psychic type, but those types together don’t create any sort of interesting resistances or immunities to be aware of. It’s weak to everything those types are weak to, so a bug, ghost, grass, electric, or dark move will be super effective. Geeta also hasn’t taught it any moves that weaken its usual vulnerabilities, with the closest thing to a subversion in its kit being Ice Fang, and ice moves are fairly predictable for a water-type Pokémon to have. As such, there’s not much to worry about here.
Kingambit has one saving grace, in that the dark/steel Pokémon knows Zen Headbutt, a psychic move that would make short work of a fighting-type Pokémon who would otherwise be able to exploit its double weakness to fighting. But the Pokémon is also terribly slow, so if you can outspeed it, you have a chance to avoid the attack altogether.
Then there’s Glimmora, whose puzzling placement just really underlines how suboptimal Geeta’s team is. The rock/poison Pokémon will terastalize into a rock type, which does halve its normal double weakness to ground into just a standard one, but it is still very much weak to fighting, steel, and water. This change also opens itself up into a grass weakness it didn’t have before.
When it comes to attacking those weaknesses it has Dazzling Gleam to handle fighting-type Pokémon and Sludge Wave to handle any grass-type Pokémon without a secondary type to resist it. So the safest type to use is water, but Glimmora is also slow enough that you can probably get those attacks out fast enough to defeat it anyway.
There are hints in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’sendgame that Geeta and Glimmora are tied into story elements that have yet to be explored. As such, it makes some sense that narratively Geeta would use Glimmora as her partner Pokémon and ace in battle. But the way the Pokémon is built as a setup Pokémon through its Toxic Debris ability, which lays out Toxic Spikes on the battlefield after it’s hit with a physical attack, means it doesn’t make sense for it to be utilized this way in battle. All of Geeta’s team just feels like it lacks the same forethought of the rest of the Elite Four. What an odd fight.
After you defeat Geeta, that’s the last time you can face the Elite Four in this sequential structure. This is a departure from previous games, which let you challenge the Pokémon League multiple times. However, you can still face all of these trainers in the postgame Academy Ace Tournament, where their teams will be slightly stronger and have different movesets. Geeta’s team still sucks, though!
Terastallizing isn’t the only way to power up a Pokémon.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
For most players, Pokémon games are a pretty straightforward affair of attacking enemies’ weaknesses and scoring that sweet one-shot. But Pokémon can become incredibly overwhelming once you start playing competitively. What’s an IV? What’s an EV, if not the cute brown fox who can evolve into a bunch of other, more colorful and elaborate foxes?
In fact, they refer to hidden numbers and background math that competitive players like to tweak and manipulate to create the strongest versions of their favorite ‘mons. EV and IVs stand for Effort Values and Individual Values. These hidden numbers determine the final state of a Pokémon’s six stats, and understanding how they work and how to influence them can give you an upper hand in competitive battling. Let’s take a closer look.
Listen up, students! It’s time to learn how to make your Pokémon the very best.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Not Eevee…EV!
Manipulating Effort Values is quite a time investment, as they’re entirely based on what you expose a Pokémon to as you raise them. Each Pokémon has up to 510 total EV points to distribute among all six stats, but each stat can only have 252 EVs individually.
You raise EVs by using items like vitamins and feathers, which each boost specific stats. Vitamins are the most immediately effective, as each will raise an individual stat by 10 EVs. Before Pokémon Sword and Shield, Vitamins were only effective up to a Pokémon’s first 100 EVs, but now, these items will work to max out an individual stat to the ceiling of 252. Feathers aren’t as powerful, raising an EV by only one point. Pretty straightforward so far, but influencing a Pokémon’s EVs while you train them in battle requires a little more planning.
Every Pokémon you battle grants specific EV boosts when defeated, often reflective of its own base stats. The amount of EVs you’ll get per stat depends on how powerful the Pokémon you’re fighting is. For example, if your Pokémon beats a Pichu, it will add one EV point added to your creature’s Speed stat. However, if you’re fighting its fully-evolved form Raichu, that will net you three Speed EV points. If you felt so compelled, you could go beat up a bunch of unsuspecting Pichu to raise a Pokémon’s Speed EVs, but you’ll hit the stat-specific 252 limit much faster if you’re battling more powerful Pokémon.
Some Pokémon don’t dump all their EVs into a single stat like Raichu does, however. Take Butterfree, for example. It divides its three EVs into Special Attack and Special Defense. So while there are better Pokémon to fight for either individual stat, defeating Pokémon who earn you a spread of EVs is a way to raise multiple EVs at once. It’s just a matter of your goals for stat raising and how you want to spend your time.
One thing worth noting about EVs is that, because modern Pokémon games allow an entire party to gain experience after battles, EVs gained are shared through your party as they gain experience, even if they’re not on the field. So be mindful of what you’re training against and what Pokémon you have waiting in the wings to join the fight, as their EVs will be influenced by these battles even if you’re not using them directly.
Grinding EV can take some time, but you can speed up the process of raising specific EV stats by equipping Pokémon with power items that correlate with a specific stat, such as the Power Anklet that increases Speed EVs, or the Power Belt that increases Defense EVs. All of these are purchasable at Delibird Presents stores for $10,000 each.
This man will help your Pokémon overcome their natural stat deficiencies.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
“The circumstances of one’s birth are irrelevant”
Individual Values, known as IV, are a bit more complicated. IVs are essentially Pokémon genetics, in that these are stat boosts inherent to the specific Pokémon you have, which range from zero points to 31 points. Once unchangeable, the Pokémon series has implemented various ways to influence them over the years.
Imagine you had two level 100 Raichus and one had 31 Speed IVs and the other had zero. Even if you trained these two Raichus exactly the same way and curated the same EV build, the one that was born with 31 Speed IVs would have a Speed stat 31 points higher than the other. A lot of competitive players will breed Pokémon to try and attain optimal IVs, as parent Pokémon pass on higher IVs based on their own to their offspring.
In more recent games, Pokémon has given players the ability to “Hyper Train” their ‘mons to increase their IVs in exchange for Bottle Caps. This can be done in locations like Montenevera in Scarlet and Violet by talking to a trainer standing close to the town’s Pokémon Center. Bottle Caps can be hard to come by. You can buy them at the Delibird Presents stores around Paldea, but they’re pretty pricey at $20,000 per cap. You can also win them in high-level tera raids, but often just as a random drop. So while it might seem more immediate to be able to use Hyper Training, acquiring those Bottle Caps can take time, which is why some players opt to max out a Ditto’s IVs and use it to breed better versions of whatever Pokémon they’re trying to raise.
My Raichu is not EV/IV optimized, I’m simply showing you the menu where you look at them. Do not yell at me. He is a good boy.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
“Just tell them that it’s Pokémon nature”
But no matter what a Pokémon’s EVs and IVs are, a few additional factors will determine whether or not it’s is inherently effective in certain builds compared to others.
Each Pokémon has a set of base stats inherent to its species that grow as you raise your critter, and the direction those numbers go will be determined by how its EVs and IVs pan out. Raichu’s base stats position it as a fast, special attack-driven Pokémon. It has a base speed stat of 110, and its special attack stat of 95 outshines its base physical attack, which is 85.
This helps you determine what attacks are probably most effective for it to learn. Its physical attack stat is still respectable, but at a glance, Raichu is meant to primarily be a special attacker. Understanding EVs and IVs can help you shift those scales, or at the very least make up for certain deficiencies. Raichu’s base physical defense stat is much lower than the rest, coming in at just 50, so if you wanted to help make up for that, raising its IVs through Hyper Training or fighting Pokémon that naturally raise physical defense EVs can help it bulk up a little. But those base stats can be influenced by another factor that can play into how you divvy up your EVs and IVs: Natures.
Alongside its universal base stats as a species, every individual Pokémon you come across will also come with a Nature. These appear in the status summary screens as a means to give you a sense of your Pokémon’s personality, but they also determine one increased stat and one decreased stat. As such, some players will breed multiple versions of a Pokémon in an effort to get one with the most desirable Nature and stat distribution for the build they want.
There are 25 total Natures in Pokémon games right now, and the stats they increase and decrease are as follows, courtesy of Serebii:
Hardy: No change Lonely: Attack/Defense Brave: Attack/Speed Adamant: Attack/Special Attack Naughty: Attack/Special Defense Bold: Defense/Attack Docile: No change Relaxed: Defense/Speed Impish: Defense/Speed Lax: Defense/Special Defense Timid: Speed/Attack Hasty: Speed/Defense Serious: No change Jolly: Speed/Special Attack Naive: Speed/Special Defense Modest: Special Attack/Attack Mild: Special Attack/Defense Quiet: Special Attack/Speed Bashful: No Change Rash: Special Attack/Special Defense Calm: Special Defense/Attack Gentle: Special Defense/Defense Sassy: Special Defense/Speed Careful: Special Defense/Special Attack Quirky: No Change
While Natures themselves are fixed, Sword and Shield introduced Mints, a new set of items that can change the stat distribution associated with them. For example, a Modest Mint will increase a Pokémon’s Special Attack, but reduce the Attack stat as if the Pokémon’s Nature had changed. This won’t change the actual personality it talks about in their summary (that would be brainwashing), but it will allow you to tweak their stats for any competitive schemes you might have in mind.
He’s happy because I just told him we’re going to go change up his EV/IVs so the Kotaku comments won’t roast him for his unoptimized build.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Different pokés for different folks
All of these moving parts can be a lot to keep track of, and these mechanics are really there for the sickest of competitive sickos. It can be rewarding to get a Pokémon to the competitive state you want and see them excel in battles, but it’s also a huge time investment to get your team’s numbers precisely dialed in. But if you’re curious about the world of competitive Pokémon, understanding EVs and IVs is a good metric for whether or not this side of the scene is for you. And if it’s not, you can still do cool tera raids with your friends, like the ongoing Charizard one happening in Scarlet and Violet right now.
Mario Kart 7 may be only one numerical entry behind the most recent game in the series, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t old as shit. In fact, it was first released on the Nintendo 3DS eleven years ago, in December 2011.
With both the game and the system it was made for dead in the water for most people, it’s a surprise we’re talking about it at all outside the confines of some kind of retro or series ranking post. It’s even weirder that we’re talking about it because it just got an update.
The game’s most recent patch—which was also its first—dropped in May 2012, and did the following:
Ver. 1.1 (Released May 15, 2012)
– An update has been made available to eliminate shortcut exploits in the Wuhu Loop, Maka Wuhu, and Bowser Castle 1 tracks when they are played in the Online Multiplayer Mode.
– The update is required to play the game’s Online Multiplayer Modes. However, the tracks in Single-Player and Local Multiplayer Modes will not be affected by this update. Players can continue to play in these modes without installing the update.
The game’s second patch was released on December 13, 2022, and did…well, Nintendo won’t specify, only saying in general terms:
Several issues have been addressed to improve the gameplay experience.
That’s nice! For anyone still playing a game that was released over a decade ago. And which went 10 years, 6 months and 28 days between patches. That is 3864 days.
I wonder if any of those “issues” were related to glitches that have been exploited by speedrunners for all those years, especially since the last patch targeted some “shortcut expl? If you’re still playing the game and run into anything you notice has been changed in the update, let us know!
Mario Kart 7 Glitches – Son of a Glitch – Episode 67
You may have already seen, but Street Fighter 6‘s June 2, 2023 release date leaked late in the day on December 8. Apparently Sony, whether accidentally or intentionally, published the date on the PlayStation Store, alongside three different editions that will be available come launch. Now, during Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards, Capcom confirmed the date is in fact real. Mark your calendars, folks: Street Fighter is coming back next year.
Street Fighter 6 – Pre-Order Trailer
The Game Awards dropped a new trailer for Street Fighter 6 during the pre-show, where we saw fighters travel around the (digital) world: France, Italy, the United States, and the like. There were also some minigames, including bottle chopping, board breaking, and basketball blocking. Weird stuff. We also saw some new characters, such as the capoeira fighter Dee Jay and the gladiator brawler Marisa, alongside a cool-looking 2v2 mode where a player-created fighter and Ryu battled against two other fighters on the same screen at the same time.
Street Fighter 6 is looking wild.
The June 2023 release date slip-up was spotted on the PlayStation Store by Twitter users bestprosplay3 and SurpriseBum. It then proliferated on gaming forum website ResetEra, with preorder pages allegedly corroborating the date. There appear to be three editions of the game: Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate. The Standard Edition will apparently come with the base game, one outfit color for six unspecified characters, and “special titles and stickers.” The Deluxe and Ultimate versions feature the same stuff, with the only difference being the Deluxe packages the Year 1 Character Pass, whereas the Ultimate houses the Year 1 Ultimate Pass. Prices for these editions weren’t disclosed at the time.
More than seven years after Street Fighter V came out in February 2016, Street Fighter 6 is Capcom’s latest entry in the long-running fighting game series. It’ll feature all the usual characters—Chun-Li, Guile, Ken, Ryu, etc.—as well as some new faces, such as the fire-fisted Luke and (my personal fave) the kunoichi Kimberly. There are some new elements introduced in the upcoming entry, too, including the combo-breaking Drive Impact move, a robust character creator you can use in the single-player open world, and the incredible training mode that actually teaches you fighting game lingo. It’s an exciting release I’m stoked to get whooped in.
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You don’t have to wait long to get your hands on the game. Yes, it does drop in June 2023, which is about six months away. But if you were part of Street Fighter 6‘s first closed beta, you can check out the second one that runs from December 16 to 19. Even if you didn’t get an invitation to play the first beta, you can still submit an application to get in on the second one through the game’s website. Two caveats here, though. The first is you must have a registered Capcom ID account. The second is that account must then be linked to whatever platform you’re applying to play on. Once you meet that criteria, and should you be selected, you will gain access to Street Fighter 6.
If you weren’t lucky enough to be picked for access to the game’s second closed beta, however, you will just have to wait until Street Fighter 6 launches in full on June 2, 2023. The game will land on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam.
It was only three weeks ago that we reported the astonishing news that Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic The Hedgehog, had been arrested over allegations of insider training in relation to Dragon Quest. Now, it’s being reported that he’s been arrested again for similar charges, this time allegedly regarding shares bought before the 2021 announcement of mobile battle royale Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier.
Yuji Naka, a name behind some of the most iconic Japanese game franchises of the last 30 years, could be in a whole heap of trouble. The man who took Sonic from a high school notebook doodle to one of the most famous gaming characters in existence was arrested in November, along with others, allegedly accused of buying shares in developer Aiming, shortly before it was announced in 2020 that the studio would be making Dragon Quest Tact.
Less than a month later, it’s being reported by Asahi that it’s happening all over again, but this time in regards to his allegedly purchasing shares in ATeam Entertainment, just before it was made public in 2021 that they’d be creating Square Enix’s ill-fated mobile game, Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier. According to Asahi, he’s alleged to have paid 144.7 million yen ($1,051,000) for 120,000 shares in ATeam. It’s claimed he was arrested alongside another former Square Enix employee, Taisuke Sasaki, who was also said to have been arrested over Aiming shares last month.
Were this to be a thing someone had done, it would of course be an attempt to profit from the increased share value such an announcement would cause, but given it would be based on non-public confidential information, that counts as insider trading.
Most recently, Naka had been working on Square Enix’s dreadfulBalan Wonderworld, before being let go by the studio six months before its release. He says he later sued Square Enix over this, but has never disclosed the resolution.
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In February last year, Squenix announced Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier would be jointly developed with ATeam, before releasing it for mobile in November last year. Then, less than a year later, announced they were killing it dead. ATeam shares are now worth about half their value in 2021, and a fraction of their peak in 2013.
There’s a corruption controversy rocking The Game Awards, and it’s about…Genshin Impact? Apparently, there are a lot of Sonic Frontiers fans and TGA fans who think the gacha game’s ascent in the Players’ Voice award category has been suspicious, and they’re loud about their displeasure. Things got so heated that TGA host Geoff Keighley addressed bribery and botting accusations in today’s Reddit AMA.
Genshin Impact has a premium currency called primogems, which is used to roll for limited time gacha characters. Primogems are distributed sparingly compared to other gacha games, so the community likes to joke that Genshin players will do anything for them.
You probably see where I’m going with this. Rather than organic popularity and interest, there’s been speculation that Genshin players are instead motivated by primogems. Last year, Genshin Impact won the “Best Mobile Game” award at TGA. After the show, HoYoverse gave 10 gacha rolls to all of its players. Kotaku reached out to HoYoverse to ask whether or not it plans to distribute free primogems after TGA this year but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
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One redditor went on Keighley’s Reddit AMA to ask what he was going to do about “bribery” and “botting” in the player’s choice awards.
“I think it’s fan bases activating to support a game, or a game promoting its nomination to its fan base,” Keighley wrote. “This is part of the reason we don’t have 100 percent fan voting in the main categories.” However, he promised that TGA would be “looking into this now.”
It’s been interesting to see which games players believe should win over Genshin. Some were upset that it might win over God of War Ragnarök or Sonic Frontiers. God of War, I understand. The blockbuster action-adventure game was beloved by critics across the board. On the other hand, critics panned Sonic for being tedious. Maybe it’s more accurate to say that both Sonic and Genshin are benefitting from having a high profile IP. Except one series is considered more institutionally legitimate than the other.
To those who are genuinely upset about the possibility of HoYoverse utilizing its fanbase to push Genshin to the top: You know that The Game Awards is a marketing engine, right? I promise you that this is not a corruption scandal on par with the Panama Papers or Watergate. Personally, I prefer to rely on friends or certain video game bloggers to tell me what games are good.
As of writing, Sonic Frontiers is at the top of the Players’ Voice category with 17 percent of the vote.
Maybe you’re the type of person who would like to avoid that at all costs, and leave as much of the movie for your actual viewing of the movie as possible. If that’s you, go away, you should have never have clicked/tapped this far into the post, what could you have possibly have been expecting.
If, however, you do not care, and realise that there will be 90-120 minutes of Mario movie and what difference does seeing another few seconds make, then welcome.
As spotted by Go Nintendo, this Dutch TV commercial—it’s subtitled, all the dialogue is in English—that runs for 31 seconds is pretty much all new footage, showing Mario getting introduced to life in the Mushroom Kingdom, particularly their public transport system, which seems incredibly efficient:
The Super Mario Bros. Movie Trailer (NEW FOOTAGE!)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie – TV Spot (Spanish, NEW footage as of Nov. 30)
I don’t know how many more of these are going to come out between now and the film’s release in 2023, but there can’t be too many, otherwise like I alluded to above, we’ll be getting close to actually having seen large parts of the movie by then.
Donkey Kong’s bootay don’t jiggle jiggle. It folds. Image: Nintendo / Illumination Studios / Kotaku
When Nintendo uploaded the first promotional image for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, fans were quick to clown on the plumber for his concave ass. The looming question on everyone’s mind was whether or not Mario’s one-time nemesis Donkey Kong would have his ass nerfed too. Thankfully, DK has enough junk in the trunk to make up for Mario’s shortcomings. Yes, it’s going to be that kind of blog.
Yesterday, Nintendo premiered the second Super Mario Bros.Movie trailer. Outside of being a better trailer than the first one by virtue of it featuring a girlboss Princess Peach and a cavalcade of easter egg references for fans to comb over, it also came with the added bonus of Donkey Kong doing to Mario what a majority of viewers want to do to Chris Pratt’s voice: beating the daylights out of it. But we’re not here to talk about Chris Pratt’s voice, I already did that. We’re here to talk about Donkey Kong’s badonkadonk.
If you weren’t too busy cheering for Donkey Kong straight jobbing Mario in a bout of fisticuffs, chances are your curious eyes wandered toward the derrière of the caked-up barrel-throwing ape. Truly, any and all crimes Illumination Studios committed by unleashing the Minions upon humanity hath been redeemed thanks to the authenticity it brought to Kong’s glorious ass. Illumination even gave Kong a snatched waist to boot, so you know old boy can throw that thang back around in a circle like the best of them. But don’t just take my word for it. Here’s what fans had to say about DK’s ass online.
The jury is still out on there being a twerking scene in TheSuper Mario Bros. Movie but if the Minions presenting their TicTac asses for their promotional material is anything to go by, chances are we’re at least gonna get more than a cheeky side angle of Kong’s booty meat when the movie finally hits theaters on April 7.
Unlike previous games in the Pokémon mainline series, Scarlet and Violet have made fan-favorite Eevee pretty tricky to catch. Only popping up in a scant few tiny areas, and with very low spawn rates, trying to evolve the octet of Eeveelutions has never been harder. But this weekend, the games’ first Tera Raid Battle Event should make catching the blighter a lot easier.
At any other time, if you want an Eevee you’ll need to head to Area 3 of the West Province, Area 2 of the South Province, or the path on the way to the Pokémon league. But this post-Thanksgiving weekend, it’s been announced that the Tera Raid Battle Event will feature an Eevee Spotlight.
Taking place from today, Friday 25th from 11 a.m. through Monday 28th at 10.59 a.m., Eevee will be much more likely to show up in Tera Raid Battles—those ones triggered by approaching the large glowing crystals that shoot vast beams of light up into the sky. Which means not only will Eevee be easier to find, but you’ll have the chance to collect a bunch of them with various Tera Types—meaning they’ll shift from Normal-type to any of 19 others.
There’s one tiny caveat, but not a significant one. In order for the Raid Battle Event to trigger in your game, you’ll need to have your Switch be connected to the internet long enough to download the latest “Poké Portal News,” which should download automagically if you’re already online. And no, that has nothing to do with the paid online Switch subscription, so don’t worry about that. All free.
With a clutch of Eevee under your belt, you’ll likely want to start thinking about evolving them into their eight different forms. (All my hopes of a ninth Paldean Eevee appear to have been dashed.) Here are some handy hints for getting all eight eeveelutions:
Flareon: Give your Eevee a Fire Stone.
Glaceon: Give your Eevee an Ice Stone.
Jolteon: Give your Eevee a Thunder Stone.
Leafeon: Give your Eevee a Leaf Stone.
Vaporeon: Give your Eevee a Water Stone.
Espeon: You need your Eevee at a high friendship level, make sure it doesn’t know any Fairy moves, and then have it evolve during the day.
Umbreon: High friendship again, don’t let it learn any Fairy moves, and then have it evolve at night.
Sylveon: Once more, a high friendship level, but this time make sure it does know a Fairy move, then evolve it day or night.
Combined with Tera Types from the Tera Battles, this is going to get incredibly complicated! Good luck!
Scarlet and Violet has had one janky-ass launch. Among the shortcomings are framerates that slow to a crawl, horrendous graphics pop-in, and characters and monsters clipping through each other. Even Pokéballs create some peculiar issues, such as causing the scenery to disappear or making the camera go haywire. The flaws are seemingly endless, impacting gameplay so much that Scarlet and Violet have become the worst-reviewed games in the series. Over on Reddit, buyers have been demanding refunds for their digital purchases since the games’ official launch last Friday, November 18. What’s more, many are claiming success.
“I got a refund from the eshop last night of Violet after feeling the game is not in a state I feel acceptable for a AAA release,” Redditor Hotdog_Daddy posted to r/Pokémon on November 20. “The rep actually told me that given the situation regarding the state of Pokémon S/V she would elevate my case to ensure the refund was approved. It was approved an hour later.”
“Welcome to the refund team,” came one reply. “Honestly, it sucks to have to even do this. But we are actually potentially making some decent backlash. Maybe we will get a decent patch and updates, in which case I’ll buy the game used. Until then, never will [I] buy a new Pokémon game unless it’s actually AAA tier.”
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In another post, user Jaded_Goth garnered thousands of upvotes saying, “Refunded. I will no longer be part of the problem. […] There will be a lot of people that will defend this franchise till the day they die. But could you honestly look at this game and tell me this was their best effort? The FPS and the graphics made me double check if I was accidentally playing this on a toaster. They somehow got away with removing so many great features and quality of life things like showings status animations, decisions with exp share, turning off battle animations I could go on.”
They concluded: “Since I complained about the state of this game I can no longer be part of this problem. Got my money back and am feeling much better.”
In these and a fairfewotherthreads, various Redditors are sharing their own experiences attempting to get refunds from Nintendo. Many claim success, but some say that Nintendo customer support requires some finessing before acquiescing to a refund.
Kotaku reached out to Nintendo for comment but couldn’t independently confirm details of refunds being issued.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is the latest entry in the series, and though it is buggy as hell, the games at least introduce some new monsters to collect. This includes a cute murderous ghost dog, an Apple Jacks-looking mascot, and a yassified peacock. Maybe future patches will make the game around them easier to enjoy. One can hope, right?
One of Europe’s biggest fighting game tournaments, the Ultimate Fighting Arena (UFA), wrapped up on November 13. The three-day event in France was populated by big-name competitors like Goichi “GO1″ Kishida and Victor “Punk” Woodley, but it was teenage mad lad EndingWalker who ended up making waves by not just taking first in Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, but rushing offstage immediately after. It looked hilariously disrespectful, but EndingWalker said he was just “overwhelmed” by it all.
EndingWalker is a fresh face to the competitive fighting game scene, having only been competing since around January 2021. In the nearly two years since he hit the circuit, EndingWalker has participated in copious online Street Fighter V tournaments, typically placing in the top 10—if not outright winningas the relatively unpopular character Ed, a B-to-C-tier fighter known for his hit-and-run combat style. The UFA Street Fighter V tourney, only his second “offline” event, is his latest and most prominent win to date. Having pummeled folks like Punk and five-time Capcom Cup qualifier Amjad “AngryBird” Alshalabi, he’s clearly a dangerous new competitor.
Fighting game news site EventHubs reported EndingWalker won every single match set he played in, losing only one round to Dhalsim main Nathan “Mister Crimson” Massol. After tearing through the competition, Walker found himself facing Chun-Li player and Street Fighter coach Valentin “Valmaster” Petit.
Major footsies ensued, with each competitor gauging the other’s combat style before going in. EndingWalker gave Valmaster very little room to breathe, constantly stunning him and punishing his whiffed moves. It was brutal to watch. But what was most devastating about the match-up was the way he exited after winning the tourney.
Capcom
My dude straight-up said, “I’m out,” and just…Walker-ed off the stage, casually bypassing his first-place trophy. The crowd went wild for the victory, sure, but what sent me were the commentators, who couldn’t believe what they just saw.
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“Stay on the stage, young man,” one of the commentators yelled. “He just walked off,” the other said before concluding that the mad lad was “amazing.”
Walker eventually did return to the UFA stage to claim his trophy, later tweeting that he was “a bit overwhelmed in the end, which is why I left kinda quickly after winning.” He thanked everyone for the congratulations, said he had “a great time,” and mentioned this tournament was his second-ever offline event. The kid’s got a bright future in the FGC if he keeps this up.
Ever since Arceus made the world in its image, Pokémon fans have had to grapple with a huge choice for every mainline game: which version to get. That quandary will remain in place for the latest games, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, with many more unique features than usual, some even pertaining to the distant past or the far-flung future. We’re breaking down every difference between the two, to help you know which version to pick up.
Every generation of Nintendo’s monster-hunting RPGs splits up some of its roster of Pokémon, with a handful showing up in one game while remaining absent from the counterpart (and vice versa). This strategy makes a certain degree of sense, if somewhat cynically. Making some Pokémon available in one version but not the other certainly drives some to buy two copies of essentially the same game. Or, less cynically, it forces players to actually engage with each other and trade. But in Scarlet & Violet, there are many other core differences that might influence your decision, including whether you want things prehistorically themed, or perhaps decorated by the distant future.
The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Screenshot: Game Freak
Pokémon Scarlet Legendary Exclusive
Koraidon (“ride-on,” geddit?) will be the motorcycle-inspired dragon beast that comes with Scarlet. Like it’s partner Poké Miraidon, it’s described as having “powers that far surpass those of other Pokémon,” but Nintendo has deliberately kept much about them both a mystery.
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Koraidon is, as you might imagine, a mostly red monster, sporting what unquestionably look like a pair of wheels. Wheels it…doesn’t use. Instead, Koraidon gallops on its legs, which raises so many evolutionary questions. It has a feathery appearance, a bit like a prehistoric bird. Rideable, this Legendary can also fly and swim, making it quite the means of transport as you explore Scarlet’s open world.
Screenshot: Game Freak
Pokémon Violet Legendary Exclusive
Miraidon is Violet’s far more futuristic Legendary, and as you’d expect, it’s predominantly purple. Like Koraidon, it can take three different forms (formes?), using Drive Mode, Aquatic Mode, and Glide Mode. It too has a vehicular style, also sporting (albeit more subtle) vestigial wheels. Seeming like the lovechild of Pokémon and a Transformer, it has a metallic sheen, and a pixel display for eyes.
Quite where either Legendary will appear in the game is unclear, given we’ll now be able to tackle the game’s gyms in any order—perhaps they’ll simply trigger once you’ve done whichever proves to be your eighth. Or maybe we’ll get lucky, and they’ll be introduced earlier to make movement around the large game easier.
Image: Game Freak
Pokémon Scarlet Pokémon Exclusives
Larvitar, a rock-ground-type lizard creature who first debuted in Pokémon Gold and Silver.
Pupitar, the second-stage evolution of Larvitar. It floats for some reason. Though Pupitar hasn’t been officially confirmed, we’re including it since it evolves from a confirmed Pokémon. (One caveat though: In Pokémon Sword and Shield, Slowpoke, who has been part of the series since the days of Red and Blue, could not evolve unless you picked up the expansions.)
Tyrannitar, the final stage of Larvitar’s evolution chain. Unlike the prior two evolutions, Tyrannitar drops the ground-type affiliation and is rock-dark-type.
Stonjourner, a rock-type from Pokémon Sword and Shield who, I guess, is supposed to be a play on the famous Stonehenge monument in England.
Armarouge, a fire/psychic-type, brand new for Gen 9, with the appearance of a knight.
Koraidon, Scarlet’s legendary Pokémon and cover model.
Screenshot: Game Freak
Pokémon Violet Pokémon Exclusives
Bagon, a dragon-type Pokémon who debuted in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
Shelgon, the second-stage evolution of Bagon. The same logic that applies to Larvitar’s evolution chain applies to Bagon’s, too.
Salamence, a dragon-flying type Pokémon and the final stage of Bagon’s evolution chain. Some people (guilty as charged) are convinced Salamence is the coolest Pokémon of all time, ever.
Eiscue, an ice-type penguin Pokémon with a giant ice cube for a face.
Ceruledge, not a relation of Honege, but a brand-new bipedal Pokémon with dual types, fire and ghost. With blades for arms, it’s a terrifying futuristic counterpart to Scarlet’s more Medieval Armarouge.
Miraidon, Violet’s legendary Pokémon and cover model.
For Scarlet players, you’ll be guided through your times in Paldea by Professor Sada. Given the Spanish influences on Paldea, it’s no coincidence that the Spanish for “past” is “pasada”—in other translations, her name varies between other words for “past” and “ancient,” while the Japanese original is Olim, the Latin for “once upon a time.”
Sada, like her partner Professor, Turo, is involved in researching Terastal Pokémon, and the phenomena of Terastallisation. She also appears to be dressed like a scientist from The Flintstones.
Pokémon Violet Professor Exclusive
Meanwhile, Violet players will be accompanied by ol’ smoothy-chops, Professor Turo. Again, the Spanish for “future” is “futuro,” and his name in the Japanese version is Futu, seemingly derived from the Latin for “future”, “futūrum.”
While Sada is dressed in cavewoman clothing, Turo is garbed in a space-age bodysuit beneath his lab coat. He too is studying the crystalline nature of Terastal Pokémon. Hmmmm, might time travel also come into this story in some way?
Image: Game Freak
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Outfit Exclusives
As you set out in the world of Pokémon Scarlet or Violet, you’ll discover that your own character’s clothing is determined by the version you bought. If you get Scarlet, you’ll be dressed in orange, but if you picked up Violet you’ll be decked out in purple. Both are uniforms for the school you’ll attend.
You can change your outfits in the game, however, once you find a shop to buy new clothes from.
Image: Game Freak
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet School Exclusives
Even the school you’ll attend is determined by the version you buy. Your school, where you’re taught about Pokémon, is in the largest town of Paldea, Mesagoza. However, if you get Scarlet it will have a different name, emblem and color-scheme than if you got Violet.
In Scarlet,the school is called the Naranja Academy, with an orange emblem featuring a spoked orange shape on its shield. (Naranja is, of course, Spanish for Orange.)
In Violet, you’ll instead go to the Uva Academy, where the emblem is purple, featuring some grandly displayed grapes. (And yes, Uva is Grape in Spanish.)
Funnily enough, both academies are run by the same person—Clavell—but he’ll be in orange or purple depending on the version.
And why orange and not red? Well, it’s Nintendo.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are set to reimagine other long-standing aspects of the series. Set in a region called Paldea, inspired by the IRL Iberian Peninsula, these games are fully open-world for the first time in series history. There’s four-player co-op. Gyms are back, with one leader in particular leaving many fans sexually confused. And in lieu of debatably silly features like “Mega Evolution,” some Pokémon are capable of a thing called—this is a very real word, by the way—“terastallizing,” which means they cover themselves in crystals and can change their type on the fly.
Updated: 11/18/2022, 11:15 a.m. ET: Well, Scarlet and Violet are now upon us. If you’re venturing out into the Paldea region, we wish you happy hunting. If you’re still on the fence about which version to buy or whether you even want to take the plunge into the latest Pokémon adventure, you should know that, although the gameplay fundamentals seem more than sound, Nintendo’s five-year-old hybrid console sure seems to be struggling with the game on a technical level.
Over the past 24 hours a number of people in Japan—including a Square Enix employee—have been arrested on insider trading charges related to a Dragon Quest game announcement. Legendary Sega designer Yuji Naka is reportedly among them.
The scandal centers around a studio called Aiming, which in 2020 was announced as the developer of a new Dragon Quest game, called Tact. Last night, it was first alleged that 38-year-old Square Enix employee Taisuke Sazaki, who has worked on Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts games, knew of the deal before it was publicly announced, and along with a friend purchased a ton of shares in Aiming, hoping to profit when their share price (presumably) went up.
Naka, 57, who is credited as one of the main creators of Sonic the Hedgehog and who has also worked on everything from NiGHTS Into Dreams to Phantasy Star, has since been arrested on similar charges. According to this FNN report, Naka is accused of also knowing about the Aiming deal before it was public news, and taking the opportunity to purchase 10,000 shares in the company.
While most famous for his work with Sega, Naka had most recently teamed up with Square Enix on the ill-fated 3D platformer Balan Wonderland. He parted ways with the company in April 2021; these allegations stem from 2020, when he was still working with the publisher.
Naka was arrested by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, which is continuing its investigation. Naka is alleged to have purchased 10,000 shares, worth ¥2.8 million, or around USD$20,000. (Sazaki, meanwhile, is accused of buying ¥26.4 million worth, or around USD$188,000.) Authorities have yet to disclose whether any of the three men arrested so far still owned those shares, or whether they had been sold off for profit prior to the investigation.
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Ease your holiday stress Vida Optima’s Delta 8 line includes gummies, caramels, and fruit chews, to kick back and chill out. The gummies and fruit chews in particular are a higher strength—25mg of hemp-derived THC in each vegan bite.
The original Tactics Ogre proved that RPG chess was not only fun, it could also be morally ambiguous, beautifully written, and deeply compelling. Nearly 30 years later, Tactics Ogre: Reborn has managed to safely transport a masterpiece into the modern era while sprucing it up enough so that it’s still a joy to play. I was worried the remaster, with its smoothed-over pixel art and other tweaks, would tarnish what I love about the classic tactics game. Instead, I’m hooked all over again.
Tactics Ogre: Reborn, out Friday on PlayStation, PC, and Switch, is the grittier, more granular predecessor to Final Fantasy Tactics(both were directed by Yasumi Matsuno of Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII acclaim). Where Final Fantasy Tactics—released in the U.S. in January 1998—focused on manipulating an over-powered job system to break the game with dual-wielding ninjas and massive summons, Tactics Ogre (which hit U.S. shores soon after despite first releasing in Japan a few years earlier) reveled in slower-moving battles of attrition where positioning and terrain matter as much as character classes. And while both offer surprisingly mature tales of class politics and the corruption of power, Tactics Ogre lets players make a handful of choices along the way and then sit with the consequences at the end of the game. It’s not as approachable as Final Fantasy Tactics, but its Realpolitik approach to war and revolution resonate as strongly as ever.
If you’re completely unfamiliar with the game and the tactical RPG subseries it hails from, Tactics Ogre spends most of its time on isometric battlefields divided into squares. Units on one side, consisting of knights, archers, wizards, dragons and other classes, fight against enemies on the other. You play as a trio of downtrodden youths trying to take back their land from neighboring occupiers, tinkering with your roster of troops and feasting on wonderfully written scenes in-between battles as dukes, kings, and other leaders decide your fate like pawns on a chessboard.
The writing in Tactics Ogre remains full of great lines and no nonsense. Screenshot: Square Enix / Kotaku
You would have gotten most of this from the original game as well, but Reborn is a remaster of a remaster, building on the improvements that were already made in the PlayStation Portable version released in 2010. Each scene is fully voiced now, and with minimal cringe as well. While I ultimately preferred to stick with the Japanese voice acting, the English cast is surprisingly excellent and a worthwhile addition that helps add a whole new dimension and emotional subtext to the story.
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Reborn also introduces orchestral arrangements of all the original music. On paper that seemed like a neat addition, but in practice it’s transformative. As with the voice acting, it brings out a whole new level of depth in Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata’s fantastic score. Each battle feels heightened, each betrayal more sinister. The returning Wheel of Fortune system, meanwhile, let’s you revisit earlier points in the branching story.
The remaster makes a number of other changes and additions as well. Unlike in the PSP version, characters level up rather than their classes, freeing you to play around more with different party compositions and loadouts. Random encounters on the map while traveling from one story beat to another are gone. Instead, the training mode has returned where you can set your troops to spar on auto-pilot. But don’t think you can grind your way to success. A “party level” limits how far any one unit can level up until you progress further in the game.
The new Tarot cards quickly start to litter the battlefield. Screenshot: Square Enix / Kotaku
Another big departure is the tarot card system. In addition to vanquished enemies dropping green cards that permanently boost a unit’s stats, blue and red cards also randomly spawn throughout a battle. The blue ones bestow buffs like higher critical hit rates, stronger magic, or higher defense, while the red cards remove them. The card bonuses only last as long as each battle, and can swiftly turn the tide depending on who gets them first.
It’s a way to help make Tactics Ogre’s combat hit heavier and resolve more quickly, helping you dispatch an enemy in three hits rather than six (unlike, say, Fire Emblem where it almost never takes more than two). On the whole, it can help cut down on some of the game’s more tedious moments as you try to break an enemy’s hold on the high ground or take down an especially powerful boss unit (a turn do-over system and fast-forward option also help). At the same time, as a purist with a soft spot for Tactics Ogre’s slower pace and longer battles, I wish there was a way to turn it off, as you have the choice of doing with the voiceovers.
My lowkey favorite improvement in Reborn is the addition of sight lines for long range attacks. No more shooting magic into bushes!Screenshot: Square Enix / Kotaku
Most of the changes are clear improvements though. You can now scout battles ahead of time to see what units and terrain you’ll be facing and how best to counter them. You can also customize up to five battle rosters, letting you easily swap from one team to another depending on the situation. Character customization has also been streamlined, with each unit allowed to equip four items, four skills, and four magic abilities depending on their class and repertoire (character stats have also been rebalanced to scale more rewardingly). The equipped items even automatically restock from your reserves after each battle. It sounds small, but it’s a huge time saver that lets you spend more time focusing on the cool stuff rather than constantly fiddling with healing herbs and resurrection stones.
The only part of Reborn that doesn’t feel like a coup is the pixel art, which was notoriously lampooned when it first leaked online. This is the first version of the game in HD, and the sprites and environments have been blown-up to compensate. The result is a “smoothed over” look that can make things look slightly muddy or washed out. The effect is especially noticeable at close range. Zoom in and things will occasionally look, at the very least, not great. I don’t know how feasible it would have been to try and give Reborn the Octopath Traveler or Triangle StrategyHD-2D pixel art look, but I wish the game felt as beautiful to look at as it is to play and listen to (or at least included the option to revert to the old look).
Fortunately, I spent most of my five hours with the Switch version so far easily overlooking it. In motion, it’s hardly noticeable, especially when you’re busy calculating hit percentages and damage tradeoffs. As with everything else on the OLED screen, the colors really pop, and the package as a whole feels meaningfully improved from the PSP version in every other way. Some old games take you back to the past, but Reborn feels like it’s transporting Tactics Ogre into the present, where it belongs.
