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October 2025 Retrospective

I know I said that I was going to stop writing these monthly retrospectives but then I played Pokémon Legends: Z-A and just had to warn ya'll about it.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A

Before we go any further I want to make sure that everyone who reads this is aware that Pokémon is the highest-grossing media franchise in history. It is literally double its nearest competitor and only started in 1996 with the release of Pokémon Red and Blue for the Game Boy.

That is what makes Pokémon Legends: Z-A so disappointing. This is a game franchise that was a driving force of the nascent handheld market and is now so behind the times that it has worse graphics and gameplay than most mobile games. If it didn't have the name Pokémon in the title you'd be forgiven for thinking this was some indie Xbox 360 game that was just rereleased on the Nintendo Switch. Everything about it is so shallow and technologically inept that selling it for $100 CAD is inexcusable. It has been three years since the last mainline Pokémon game and this is the apparently the best Game Freak can do which is hilarious because they are currently suing Palword for effectively making the Pokémon game that millions of people actually wanted.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is one of those games that I wish I had never played. It does nothing new or interesting and actively ignores game design advancements that have happened over the last decade. It took 32 hours to beat and somehow actually got worse over that span. I was hoping that the city would expand and change in a way that would significantly affect the gameplay but everything is nearly identical from the first hour until the last. The only difference was that for the final area you stopped having "normal" Pokémon battles and instead fought Dark Souls style bosses because why the fuck not?

It's so crazy to see Nintendo releasing games like Donkey Kong Bananza and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom alongside Pokémon Legends: Z-A. I wonder how many more sub-par games Nintendo will allow Game Freak to put out before the damage to the brand is noticeable.

Battlefield 6

Battlefield 6 is a fine game. It is technically sound and rehashes a lot of the "old school" Battlefield mechanics such that it feels like a blast of fresh air when compared to Call of Duty. But I don't believe its going to have long legs because it is still trying to cater to the Call of Duty crowd. A lot of the maps are small and the majority of the modes push for tight, frenetic combat. I don't believe that is inherently bad but I still think that the majority of gamers who want that will play Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 when it is released in November. The "traditional" Battlefield players are going to fall off fast because there aren't as many large maps with the tactical Battlefield combat they crave.

All of this does not mean Battlefield 6 is a bad game but EA is expecting it to go up against the behemoths like Call of Duty, Fortnite, Counter-Strike, Valorent, etc. They are not going to be happy having the fifth most popular shooter on the market.

One aspect of Battlefield 6 that is complete shit is its campaign. It honestly feels like it is only 30% of what they wanted to ship. It is an absolute waste of time, both for the people who play it and those who developed it.

Hades 2

Last month I wrote that if I put 18 more hours into Hades 2 I didn't think I'd be able to see the end. I can now confirm that is true and I am nowhere near it. I actually got the point where I couldn't even see a reason to continue playing because I was just grinding for the same resources run after run. So I just put the game down one day and never picked it up again.

I still highly recommend the original Hades over this sequel.

Blue Jays returned to the World Series

Game 7 of the 2025 World Series happens tomorrow night and regardless of the outcome you gotta be happy with how the Toronto Blue Jays played this seasons. They were suppose to finish bottom of the AL East and somehow managed to win the ALCS, defeating the Yankees along the way.

Review October Goals

November Goals

#MonthlyRetrospective