Pokkén Tournament DX (Demo) -- Gameplay
3What?! This is unprecedented! ...okay, mostly I'm just not totally heartless, and I want to upload at least SOME video content for the day... night... morning? (At least in my time zone!) Extra description-writing be damned! (Oh no, more writing for me!)
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I promised that I'd take a bit closer look into how the demo for the Wii U version and this one differed... from the very start, we can see that there's... ugh... a usage limit. Not even just "you can only run this software X number of times"... even in the game itself, you're allowed 15 matches, and then... actually, I don't know what it does, besides maybe redirect you straight to the "Would you like to visit the Nintendo eShop?" prompt... but it's disheartening to say the least. (I could go on a huge intellectual tirade about the art of democraft here, but that's not what we're here to look at... and the description limits wouldn't tolerate such anyway...)
...in fairness, this limit also threatened to make it more difficult for me to capture all the various matches I wanted to in order to do proper justice to what's on offer that simply wasn't in the old game. That doesn't mean I'm just complaining out of inconvenience or spite! (Probably!)
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There are also... fewer available player characters unlocked on the select screen? That's weird... it also kinda doesn't make available or apparent the true range of play styles the game allows for, which is a bit disappointing, though what demo realistically COULD? Regardless, the original did better in both regards.
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This video will obviously revolve around the ONE new thing we can see here... Empoleon. Honestly, wouldn't have been my preference, as I'm actually more interested in just about every other new character, but I'll deal with it. My preferred character is Random, after all!
The best way to start is with characters you're familiar with against the new... then getting your beak wet with a little payback, eh wot?
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Match #01
Pikachu vs. Empoleon
Let's be honest here, even before starting the demo, I had grown rusty from NOT having played the original game for awhile, so it took some warming up and pokes at the moves lists to remind me what some of my options were... and all that flew right out the window when I had to actually try to remember much of it in battle.
Fortunately, Pikachu is pretty beginner-friendly in that he (notice the tail!) has quite the absurd range of moves that let a player be fairly comfortable at any range and any of the game's transitions and any opponent's particular strengths.
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Match #02
Charizard vs. Empoleon
Charizard, on the other hand, is a real bruiser, and if you can keep the momentum going and don't let up on the pressure, you can probably rely rather heavily on his strengths and relative sturdiness to carry the day against such a rather low-end AI opponent as the demo provides...
My only complaint is that this match ended with the Burst Attack's trigger hits ending the match before the cinematic component could kick in. (Still neat!)
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Honestly, I rushed through menus after the first time, and it just happens that Nia's voice clips "contaminated" the next match intro... so... I backed up a bit to capture her as a bit of a fun extra insert to bookend the two "halves" of the video! (Gee, thanks, Nia!)
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Match #03
Empoleon vs. Pikachu
Honestly, when I first tried to come to grips with Empoleon, moves felt a little sluggish and telegraphed, making me question the viability of not only those, but also the moves that would serve as follow-ups requiring these startup-heavy actions. After many, MANY matches of being repeatedly assigned Pikachu as my opponent, I slowly came to notice in actual application that a HUGE number of his moves transition back and forth from strong attacks and a swift, slicing "stance" shift that makes Empoleon into a devastatingly agile and aggressive adversary.
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Match #04
Empoleon vs. Charizard
Of course, my revelation and newfound respect for Empoleon's subtle and nuanced approach, something he shares with ALL the Pokkén fighters also carries the stern reminder that a more able opponent than the ones I'll find here will be necessary to violently poke holes in all the many openings and execution errors I leave, merely pecking away at the surface of this mighty glacier. (For a Water/Steel type, he sure uses a lot of Ice attacks... and why not? Ice is a fantastic type... for offense! ... ... ...it's no wonder that many of the most popular Pokémon use them! ...but... ... ...tend to not actually BE them. :3)
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There actually ARE ways to extend your use of the demo beyond the limited number of matches it grants you, apparently restoring them when you delete and redownload the demo entirely, but... it's just NOT compelling enough to make me want to abuse it, because they're clearly afraid of their own game's gameplay if they think the demo version is a realistic and credible threat to actual sales... oh well...