Ramblings of an Englishman

Pokémon day has come and gone with the announcement for legends Z-A coming in late 2025 (likely October/November you’d have to imagine). I imagine we will get more reveals in that time but I wanted to take some time over my initial thoughts. I’ve left this a few days to wipe out immediate reaction which was one of disappointment. This was mainly due to me expecting more from the announcement but I understand that is my issue so didn’t want it to determine the course of the thoughts. However, as someone who only uses new Pokémon or new regional forms for their teams on each generation I hope we get some reveal geared towards some of those in the near future. Let’s start with the starter line up. For me having 2 for Johto meaning all three Johto starters (and 2 Unova) starters in 2 legends games I odd. I would’ve loved to see more variety to the generations chosen from and one from each I thought would be the way they would go. I do find the starters of generation 2 & 5 the weakest a...

As mentioned in my previous post I think the next Pokémon legends game will be one that celebrates 30+ years of the franchise and as such it is my belief it will take place in Kanto. With there already being multiple remakes of the original Red & Blue/Green I don’t see a full remake being done. If there was a let’s go Johto then it’s possible to see Kanto but that remains to be seen. I think a legends game in the region gives us a fresh look at a place we have been to multiple times. I wanted to just describe some of the ideas I’d have personally going into that game to make it a fun visit back to this region and also what they could do to have some fun and celebrate 30+ years of Pokémon. My main points come around the Pokédex. While we are still a month away from Legends Z-A news I don’t expect the Kalos starters to be your choices at the start of the game (I’m thinking Snivy, Torchic & Sobble) I think this trend should be bucked for a Kanto game with the original three. After...

We are roughly a month away from Pokémon day 2025 and with that the next news on Pokémon Legends Z-A and with that games release this year we will close the book on generation 9. What that means is that generation 10 in 2026 which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the release of Pokémon Red & Green in Japan. I expect this to lead to a big celebration year with the release of games and possible special show but I wanted to focus on the games that will come. I think it will be interesting to see what route is taken with the core game following Scarlet and Violet. Previously I thought they would go back to a Japanese region but now I’m not so sure. Looking at what Generation 5 did with the Pokédex having a lot of Pokémon that served the same purposes as Generation 1 Pokémon. I think we may see similar with those who didn’t get a Gen 5 counterpart. The likes of Gyarados springs to mind as one that didn’t get a counterpart and it’d be nice to see another sea leviathan to g...

With the dust settling and fists meeting fate the story mode for Tekken 8 has given us the conclusion to the feud between the two main protagonists (and sometime antagonists) of the series in Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima and it feels like Tekken 9 will usher in a new era for the story of these games. I wanted to take some time like with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth to go over my thoughts on this instalment and my hopes for the ninth entry in the series. I will say this however, I would be perfectly fine with another Tekken Tag Tournament next instead of Tekken 9. I feel that 9 will have such a shift when it comes to story and characters it may be best for the team and series director Katsuhiro Harada to give themselves some breathing room and thinking time to work over the plot and where to take their world. Plus it would be a nice time to test some things. I’d bring everyone from 7 onwards back including DLC characters. See who people like, who they team with each other and use it ...

 Spoilers from throughout the Like a Dragon/Yakuza franchise Man 25th January 2024 was a fun one. Both Like a Dragon 8 & Tekken 8 both releasing on the same date I had to make a decision on what one to play first. Deciding narrative over fighting I started Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and now just making the final preperations for the final bosses of the game I feel I made a good choice in what game to start (full disclosure I think Tekken 8 is good and the small amount I played I really enjoyed). Being at the end of the game and unfortunately the ending spoilt in some capacity I end up looking to the future. Becomming the series fastest-selling game to date with over 1 million units in the first week we can expect Like a Dragon 9 at some point in the future. So I wanted to go over Like a Dragon 8, what I felt and what I hope for in the future.  With an expanded map and roster of party members I expect us to be visting both Hawaii and Isezaki Ijincho again for ...

As mentioned previously we are close to the announcement for Pokémon Generation ten and as such my main interest is the new Pokémon we get. When you look at what has come before we have a lot of real animals that haven't become Pokémon (I mean it took nine generations to get a dolphin) so I wanted to break down a few that I would love to see become the inspiration to some new Pokémon. Obviously we have inanimate objects, fictional creatues inspired by both films and muthology but today I just wanted to look at those animals I feel could make interesting Pokémon. Racoon Starting off with a choice for what could be a Route One rodent Pokémon or maybe even something bigger. Racoon's would make sense to be in the Rattata position as an early route Pokémon with one evolution. While this would be fine I woud love to see a Racoon Pokémon get a bit more of a spotlight. I think for me it is how Racoon's are sometimes referred to as 'Trash Pandas' so I can't look past a R...

We are just over a month away from Like a Dragon 8 my most anticipated game of the year and it looks like it will be an emotional rollercoaster. One of the biggest parts of the game looks to be around Kazuma Kiryu and his cancer diagnosis leading to a lot of speculation for if he will die or not. With this post I wanted to have a look at why this could be the game where the story of Kazuma Kiryu ends but at the same time look at how this story may not end here for the Dragon of Dojima.  Yes It’s certainly being built by what we’ve seen as the last hurrah of Kazama Kiryu. Receiving a cancer diagnosis and seemingly wanting to go out with one last major quest this feels like the real passing of the torch game. It feels odd but most of the major games I’ve played seemingly are doing some sort of passing of the torch story for a new protagonist in the series. God of War has this with Kratos (another protagonist that may die or retire in their next game possibly) and his son Atreus/Loki ...

Spoilers for Like a Dragon Gaiden Having just finished Like a Dragon Giaden I am now ready for Like a Dragon 8, a big story and conclusion and new beginning for the series. However, before then we needed to be filled in with the story of Kiryu up to the point where he will meet Ichiban in Hawaii. Like a Dragon Gaiden is a smaller story in hours but is still a real fun story. One character I found myself really enjoying was Kosei Shishido. He is crazy like Majima and strong like Saejima and I was very glad how his story played out. While he starts as just a strong brute we see his plan play out over time and combining him with Homare Nishitani III you get two very interesting villains. In the end of the game Shishido isn't killed much to my delight as Yoshimura captures him and forces him to become a Daidoji agent alongside Nishitani. It got me thinking, they created all these new moves and gadgets for Kiryu in this game and will likely not be used in Like a Dragon 8 so will we see ...

The timing is good for me working on this as we have just have the announcement that the second half of the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet being announced for December it leaves February 27, 2024 otherwise known as Pokémon day without a big announcement. I think this is where we will get the first confirmation of Generation Ten. While I don't know what form this will take be it the next mainline game or a new legends spin off (which if it is Unova and the original dragon please) so I wanted to cover some hopes and expectations for the next mainline game.  Hopes: A Smooth Running Game Should be an expectation but you never know. While I did enjoy Scarlet you cannot lie it was full of performance issues and could do with a graphical upgrade. Gamefreak seem to rush these games out and if they want to keep the same release schedule they should hire more staff to work on the game but a stort for another time. I do hope they have learned from the reception of Scarlet & Violet...

I saw a tweet talking about what Pokémon from each generation you would give an evolution to and I thought might as well do it myself. It is just as simple as that but with a few restrictions for myself. I wanted to not have branching evolutions so no new evolution for the likes of Poliwhirl or Slowpoke for example and no legendary or mythical Pokémon. With that being said here is my top pick from each generation which considering that generation 9 gave us an evolution for Primeape it feels like it could be any Pokémon. Generation One: Dewgong I had a few options with Arbok, Dodrio, Seaking or finally getting that Jynx finally getting its eveolution to match up with Magmar or Electabuzz but I went with Dewgong. I have to be honest, I don't really care for Dewgong it's not on my list of favourite Pokémon and I feel the design is very plain at least for me. While I would love Jynx to get its evolution to match up to its original trio I think the controversy in its design hi...

Bryan Intihar the Senior Creative Director at Insomniac Games has seemingly set a lot of minds racing with the below comments regarding the easter egg of the eviction notice for Nelson & Murdock law firm. With this I starting to think could we see Daredevil in the DLC for Spider-Man 2. With a lack of real announcements it makes me think something big is coming and a big hook to get people to buy. What if instead of a big villain we start to introduce Daredevil and characters around him as a backdoor pilot. I believe there's an unannounced Insomniac Marvel game which might be a Defenders game but would rather it just be Daredevil. I wanted to break down how I think this could be done as I think it has great potential to be told over a three part DLC which could raise hype and get a Daredevil solo game into development. The first part would be to find a common link between Miles & Daredevil and to me the best bet would be Kingpin. In the Miles game Kingpin promised to hurt th...

Spider-Man 2's release date has come and gone with many people beating the game getting the Platinum Trophy (much like myself) and now just unsure of the next move while I wait for any DLC announcement. What it leads to is my mind thinking on what could be next in this game series, the back of my mind I think that Spider-Man 3 could be the end (which would be dumb if it's making a lot of money) and with Wolverine and the potential for a Venom game before hand I did wonder who we could see in this universe. I think Spider-Man 3 has a lot of potential so wanted to run down some the Spider-Man adjacent characters we are likely to see in a Spider-Man 3 down the line and others who I think have a good shout. Green Goblin Starting with the most obvious three I think we can all see that the main villain of Spider-Man 3 will be Norman Osborn as The Green Goblin. Teased at the end asking his scientists in the phone to prepare the ‘G-Serum’ I expect he is looking for revenge on the Spide...

Spoilers for All Insomnaic Spider-Man games With the release of the thrid game in Insomnaic's Spider-Man series in 2023s Spider-Man 2 I found myself loving the universe created even more. Everything with this iteration of Spider-Man feels fresh and interesting and I couldn't quite figure out why. That was until it really hit me, has any Spider-Man iteration had Miles Morales become and then be established as Spider-Man before we even get the Green Goblin? It don't think so, even in Spider-Verse we saw that universe had a Green Goblin already established. It was thinking on this and other actions taken by Insomnaic and how I think it benefits them.  Obviously, a lot of established parts do remain. Peter Parker & Mary-Jane Watson end together, Uncle Ben has died, Peter is stuggling for money and to keep a job. However, a lot of other things have been changed, for one Insomniac let Aunt May die (and Peter didn't sell his marriage to the devil to bring her back take not...

Spoilers for Mortal Kombat 1 I’ve always had a respect for some of the ways Mortal Kombat (MK) has gone about its work. Not many other studios could have a roster where half the characters are pallet swapped versions of each other and it ending up being one of the top fighting game franchises in history. With an interesting group of characters they have now had to reboot their universe twice first with MK9 and now again with the new MK1. Comparing MK1 to the storyline of MK9 through to the previous game in 11 I found myself loving this one so much more and wanted to go over some of the reasons why I felt this story has me interested in the future. Liu Kang Isn’t a Dumbass Let’s start with an easy one. You could argue the main character of the past few games has been Raiden. The plot is focused around him in large parts and he seems to be the driving force in a lot do conflict and resolution. However, the key part is conflict as he always seemed to be the one who causes it. MK9 he sends...

At long last All Elite Wrestling released its first console video game entitled Fight Forever. Developed by Yukes the previous developers of the WWE games it was the first time a different wrestling company outside of WWE had released a game since Impact Wrestling (TNA at the time) in 2008. I had high hopes for this game and was interested to see how it went. The below should give a breakdown on my thoughts on all different parts of the game. Roster and Match Types With this game being in development for a good while as expected a lot of the attires are outdated and the roster is lacking a lot of the top stars who have had an impact since the initial announcement window. Now this isn’t like the WWE 2K series with yearly releases so this is something that with enough support can be fixed with the likes of Jamie Hayter, Toni Storm, Swerve and The Acclaimed not announced for any DLC yet it may be that we get multiple season passes with popular superstars to add to the game. I don’t mind t...

With Spider-Man two now set for an October 2023 release for Playstation 5 it will get people myself thinking about what characters will be added to the mythos of past games. While I looked at this years ago here I wanted to have another look now we have an idea of the story and we know that we will see Venom, Lizard & Kraven the Hunter as well as Yuri becomming Wraith but beyond the identity of Venom (my money is still on Harry Osborn) I do think some big reveals and surprises will be saved for launch. I want to go over a few character we could see introduced or at least teased for future released.  Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen/Ghost-Spider Starting off wit ha character I feel is very likely to be introduced. Spider-Gwen is a very popular character and one I feel has ton of spinoff potential. Considering the success of the Spiderverse films which the character is the secondary main character and Insomniac's tweet saying they never confirmed Gwen Stacy was dead in their universe ( htt...