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The basis of the Shadows of Almia is to become the best Pokemon Ranger you can manage by completing missions and quests given to you by random characters throughout the game. I just had to continue and get as far as I could in one sitting before finally tearing myself away long enough to get some sleep. The show was awesome and the Pokemon Red and Blue versions were so innovative and fun to play. Also I feel the game is relatively short and pretty easy to get through.(Which I guess could be a positive or negative feeling depending on how much you enjoy the game). *Just a side comment, I havent ever played the first Pokemon Ranger game, so this review is going to be strictly about my feelings of Shadows of Almia* Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia was one of the first games I bought for my DS.
It only ended up taking me around 36 hours to beat as opposed to 100+ hours on the other pokemon games. Instead of becoming a pokemon trainer who's ultimate goal is to collect every pokemon in the known universe as well as becoming a Pokemon Master, the player is allowed to choose between a boy or girl character who instead chooses to become a Pokemon Ranger. Regardless, when I picked up this game it was hard for me to put down. Overall I feel this is a great game for anyone who enjoys a little bit of Pokemon in their lives. The game is a lot of fun and very addicting. Especially if for some reason you make a mistake somewhere and have to back track to capture a pokemon you need with a specific poke assist so that you can advance to the next area.
I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by it. Pokemon Rangers are different from Pokemon Trainers in the fact that instead of capturing pokemon with a pokeball to use to advance your team and work with to make stronger, a Ranger captures pokemon with a poke disc, befriends them, uses their abilities to help them take care of certain situations, then releases them to go back to wherever it was they came from. And the constant circling with the stylus to capture pokemon can make your wrist hurt after a while, so if you notice your arm getting tired make sure to take a break. First off I'd like to say that I originally got into Pokemon when it first came out about 10 years ago. However the only negative things I can think of about this game are that it does end up becoming very repetative after a while. There are many partner pokemon a ranger can use throughout the game, but a ranger can only keep one partner pokemon with them at a time.
So it is pleasantly surprising for me to tell you how much I enjoy the spin off this game takes from the "regular" pokemon games such as red, blue, gold, silver, sapphire, etc. However Rangers still have a special "partner pokemon" that travels around with them constantly.
That is the only downside of this I see. If you don't have something protecting your touch screen, you really should get it, because doing all the "capturing" will seriously wear out your screen faster.I've been playing the game for a few days now, and my protection seal already has a lot of circular scratches on it hahah. Compared to basically most of all the other pokemon games, this is definitely something out of the routine. And I really like that.With the missions and quests that you get, it's just sort of something new every time~ and it's great being able to see the pokemon before you have to battle it, that way you can avoid them (the slower ones anyway) and not have to spend time fighting or running away when you don't want to do that in the first place.I just really enjoy this game, but I warn.
If you like pokemon, and need a break from the normal catch and trade system, this is perfect. It is simple enough for most 7 years olds to play, but has enough hidden goodies to keep even veteran players like me satisfied. That is why the pokemon franchise has to branch out in order to keep the series fresh. Some of these work out, some are failures.
The story is grand, with just the right amount of danger mixed in. Lets just get this over with. However, one should not just look at this game as a quick break between the more traditional titles, with any luck it will grow side by side with the original series into a game of it's own. First of all, the graphics are spectacular. None seem as though they were cut and pasted out of the previous title. You can now lift your stylis of the screen.
However, this game blew whatever thoughts and doubts about the series worth out of the water. I am a Poke-maniac. The game play is stellar, with many boss battles and special conditions. The new menus work well, and are completely new. this may not sound like a big difference, but it adds new layers of challenge and fun to the experience, not to mention streamlining the entire experience. Speaking of the previous title, the battle system has been completely reworked. My opinion: Buy this game. I hungrily await a sequel.
Over the years I have played or purchased pretty much every Pokemon video game in existence. They are crisp, clean, and glitch free. This game is good for all ages. The traditional pokemon formula is great, but wears thin after so many versions of the games. They no longer resemble the menus of Ruby and Sapphire. Every pokemon is easily identifiable and they all seem well thought out. After playing the first Pokemon Ranger, I pretty much wrote this spin off as a dead end. I only wish Diamond and Pearl looked this good.
This video game provides fun without the violence in so many of the games now.
And the fact that there is no Pokemon-vs-Pokemon fighting is good news for parents who may see the traditional Pokemon game pattern as (in the words of a friend of mine, a single father) "the equivalent of cockfighting".However, before I would buy another title in this series, I would need to know that significant game play has been added (either in a longer story mode or through post-story mode explorations). And there is a lot of extraneous stuff (power-ups, type statistics, etc). that don't really make a significant difference in game play.There's something very satisfying in the kinetic action of catching Pokemon by circling them. I recognize that the Pokemon Ranger series is intended for a younger audience than some other Pokemon titles. There are really only a few smallish areas to explore, and after completing the story mode in about 20 hours, I didn't feel inclined either to replay or to focus on the simple quests.This game will satisfy Pokemon fans up to about age 10 (but it is surprisingly verbose and uses complex language which may be too much for younger children), but it's not worth the money for adults, teens, or tweens. I found the story mode in this game to be too short and not very interesting. As a 47-year-old woman, I probably have the same gaming skills as the average 8-year-old. The post-story "quests" aren't that exciting either.
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