@eightbitsamurai@elekk.xyz honestly i think a lot of the appeal for it is that it's a really nice game where i can kinda turn my brain off for a bit
like sometimes you just wanna get some mush stuffed into your face and it's fine.
i also think that pokemon hits that like... same root of sharing dog pictures or something. everyone has their own individual favourites and their own individual power players on their team.
@eightbitsamurai@elekk.xyz so it's kind of like how half the fun of playing skyrim as a cultural phenomenon was sitting around exchanging the ludicrous bugs you saw or tales of what you did, except you get to share the little story of not just the game but your specific team
and then the added features since x/y have made it have more virtual pet sort of features, like nintendogs or the like, so you get even more of that connection of like.. your team doesn't have a pikachu, it has YOUR pikachu
@eightbitsamurai@elekk.xyz also a lot of the quality of life features mean it's a game where i can play it okay when three sheets to the fucking wind on pain med lmao
sun/moon are great because once you fight a pokemon once, after you see it, it'll tell you straight-up "this will be super effective against it!" or whatever
also clothes
goddamn i'm a sucker for any game with dress-up
@eightbitsamurai@elekk.xyz but i also very much play it with an eye of like. "fuck breeding, fuck IVs, fuck trying to figure out which is THE BEST, i'm going to win with whatever i think is cute and interesting"
so for me it's a lot more about making the narrative become personal by choosing which pokemon are on your team and forming a connection there