How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World?

So... How to Train Your Dragon. A franchise with a very misleading name (the films, in fact, don't teach you How to Train Dragons), but definitely one of DreamWorks finest... works. So today we're talking about it because they announced the third film in the franchise and despite starring literal dragons, one of my favorite anything ever, I haven't really covered How to Train Your Dragon that much on this blog.



Before we get to the third film, let me explain just what it is, for the initiated. How to Train Your Dragon is a franchise of films and TV Shows created and owned by DreamWorks Animation, who are most well-known for their meme-tastic mascot, Shrek. DreamWorks as company was considered to be only capable of making enjoyable, but flawed comedy films. Imagine everyone's surprise when in 2010, they did a CGI film adaptation of the eponymous children's books (of which there are 12!) written by the British author Cressida Cowell. Granted, it was a very loose adaptation, but still. Both the books and the films star Hiccup, a teenage Viking (HUZZAH!!!) who repeatedly attempts to earn the respect of his peers through hare-brained schemes and various shenanigans, usually with the aide of his pet dragon, Toothless. And that's basically the only things the books and the movies have in common.The first film was generally lighthearted, but it was more serious in tone compared to DreamWorks other films.



But wait, there's more! the first movie met critical and commercial acclaim and thus spawned a direct sequel, titled How to Train Your Dragon 2. And to show off how much of a genius Hiccup is (compared to other Vikings), he built a lightsaber-er, flamethrower sword! So does that mean that the Vikings in this universe are secretly Jedi Knights? Anyway, the second movie is kind of like the Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back of How to Train Your Dragon (so many Star Wars references back-to-back!). This film actually has an actively malevolent villain in the form of Drago Bludfist. It also has SPOILER ALERT! The onscreen death of a major character. Whether the first movie or the second one was better depends on your personal tastes. For me personally, there were plenty of great things about both films, but I kind of like the second one better, simply because the redesigns of the returning characters look amazing.



Which brings us to the third film, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Which is (apparently?) the grand finale of the whole franchise. Part of me really doubts DreamWorks is going to stop making stuff for this franchise, though. I could totally see them making things like prequel movies, spin-off cartoons (in fact they already have), because How to Train Your Dragon is easily one of DreamWorks' most successful IP's. Anyway, let's address the elephant in the room. There is a white dragon with blue eyes. If only Toothless had red eyes, then we could make all sorts of Yu-Gi-Oh! jokes. In all seriousness though, the basic premise of this film, judging from the trailer (there is a trailer, you can go watch it on YouTube or something), Toothless meets a beautiful lady dragon that he falls in love with. But until the beautiful lady dragon gets an official name, I shall refer to her as Blue-Eyes White Dragon, for the sake of making Yu-Gi-Oh! jokes. Also...



Hiccup has a beard now. Or at least, at some point in the movie, he grows a beard. Which means Hiccup is now Captain America. Or Big Boss. Or King Graham. Or literally any hero in the last two decades that is both cool and has a beard. But anyway, given what we've seen in the trailer (where Hiccup only had the beard in one scene), my guess is this movie is using a much older Hiccup as some kind of framing device. Or, assuming the trailer has the audacity to show something from the epilogue, Hiccup only gets the beard towards the end of the movie. Why am I speculating about Hiccup's beard, you ask? Because there are three things to take away from the trailer. One, Hiccup's glorious beard. Two, the fact that Toothless now has a beautiful lady dragon friend, and of course, Three, this is (supposedly) the grand finale of the franchise.



But now let's talk about Blue-Eyes over here. According to some of the lovely folks that make the Hot to Train Your Dragon films, she's not a pure-blooded Night Fury (the kind of dragon Toothless is), but more akin to a subspecies, which means that if we're applying Monster Hunter logic, she would be the stronger of the two, since subspecies always have better stats and abilities than the main variant. Yay Feminism! Anyway, there's enough Night Fury in her for Toothless to act like a lovesick puppy trying too hard to be suave and charming, so there's that. Also, Blue-Eyes is super sparkly. Like, not even magically sparkly, but like, I don't know, Disney Princess sparkly. Kind of fitting, since Disney loves shoving romance into almost every Disney Princess movie they come out with and Toothless now has a beautiful lady dragon friend. In case you couldn't tell, "beautiful lady dragon friend" is something that's oddly satisfying to say. Or type. Yep. "Beautiful lady dragon friend". Listen to that rich vocabulary. Anyway, some folks don't like the overtly feminine design of Blue-Eyes, with some folks arguing that it borders on sexism, but let's be real, DreamWorks basically has no choice but to make the design quote-end-quote "girly" because lot's and lot's of people mistook Toothless for a girl back when the first movie came out. Heck, I mistook Toothless for a girl. So how do you make it obvious that Toothless's love interest is female without redesigning him to be more tough and manly, which would ruin his charm as a character? Simple! Sparkles, inverted color scheme, more sparkles, smoother scales, even more sparkles, and teleports. Did I forget to mention she can teleport? Well, I think it's a teleport. Maybe she can open portals or something, I'm still trying to process what that trick of her's actually is. But she does something, she disappears and then she reappears. Let's assume it's a teleport.



Oh, and there's also a new bad guy whose hunting the Night Furies, for... Some Reason. And apparently Hiccup and Friends are going "completely off the map". So maybe they'll find the Hidden World that way. Or maybe "Hidden World" is just a fancy subtitle to make the finale sound more grandiose. Or maybe it has a double meaning. I think I'll drive myself insane deciphering the possible meaning of "The Hidden World".



And that's basically it. Of course we have to wait until March 2019 to actually watch the movie, but until then, we can take a step back and speculate. Actually, before I forget...



Gobber's back! Yay! Everyone needs a bit of Gobber in their lives. Seriously, Gobber is like the Hagrid to Hiccup's Harry Potter. If, you know, Hagrid had a prosthetic hand. And was a Black Smith instead of a Game Keeper. And had a mustache instead of a beard. In all seriousness though, you kind of need Gobber for How to Train Your Dragon to work. That, and dragons, obviously.

And one more thing to note...



Am I the only one who died laughing at Toothless's mating dance? It's ridiculous. It's silly. And it's made a thousand times better because it's TOOTHLESS doing it. But anyway, thank you for reading this little news update type thing, and are you excited for this movie? Because I am. Even though the release date is ages away (March 1st, 2019). But the best things are worth a wait, aren't they?

P.S. Sorry for not posting anything for over a month. I've been busy with clearing out a rather extensive video game back log.

Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu! & Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee! are a thing, apparently!

Pokemon. One of, if not THE most successful video game franchise on the planet. Spawning dozens of feature-length films, having a long-running anime series, and serving as Nintendo's sacred cash cow for over 25 years. Last year, during a Nintendo Direct, one of the higher-ups at Game Freak (the in-house dev team tasked with handling all things Pokemon) announced that that a main-series Pokemon game would be in the works for the Nintendo Switch, which would mark the first time Pokemon would be playable on a home console (outside of spin-off games). However, that game won't be coming out until 2019. This year, we're getting something rather unusual to hold us off until then.



The somewhat bizarrely named Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu! & Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee!, which I will refer to as Pokemon Let's Go! for the remainder of this post. These two games, releasing alongside one another on November 16, is the second worst-kept secret in video game history. The first being the leaked list of all the monsters planned to be added post-launch in Monster Hunter: World. I say this because for literal months, the Internet, and by extension the Pokemon fan community has been hecticly analyzing just about every rumor and leak to determine just what the next big game in the franchise might be. Partially because of the name, and partially because of the rumors claiming to have some tie-in features with the mobile app Pokemon Go, I, naturally, assumed they were a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Turns out every single rumor and leak was correct.

 

The main purpose of Pokemon Let's Go! is mostly to get Pokemon Go fans into the main series. Think of it as a stepping stone to make the transition from mobile app to full-on RPG a little smoother. But these two games have a much more diabolical purpose in mind... They are also remakes of Pokemon Yellow, which is a pseudo-sequel to the very first Pokemon video game, Pokemon Red & Blue. How is this diabolical? The answer is simple! It's not a remake of Pokemon Diamond & Pearl. And I love those games with a passion, as they were the first games in the franchise I played as well as having a lot of my favorite Pokemon (as in, the eponymous creatures the games are named after).



Because it's a remake of Pokemon Yellow, Pokemon Let's Go! only has the original 151 Pokemon to catch and train. Alongside regional variants, a mechanic that wasn't introduced until Pokemon Sun & Moon, the newest game in the franchise. Presumably, the regional variants exist to balance out the original roster, which became infamous for Psychic-Type characters having almost no weaknesses whatsoever. But it's a real shame it's the original 151. You see, most of my favorite Pokemon didn't exist until much later in the franchise's history, and the only Gen 1 (as the original games have been nicknamed by the fanbase) Pokemon I actually like are Dragonite, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Marowak, Gyarados, Squirtle, Diglett (and it's evolved form, Dugtrio), and Eevee. All the others are okay, but not as memorable as the ones I listed, and there are actually some Gen 1 Pokemon that I dislike, such as Electrode, which has without a doubt the laziest design out of any Pokemon ever (it's literally a ball with a face).



Anyway, the game looks gorgeous. We were all wondering what a Pokemon game would look on a home console and now we know what it would look like. Apparently it's a part-chibi, part shonen-anime aesthetic with bright colors and a vibrant, feel-good vibe. The character designs so far seem pretty good, looking similar to the designs used in the Pokemon anime series, but, you know, three-dimensional. The Pokemon renders also look alright, even if they were obviously copy-pasted from Pokemon Go. As for the designs of the Pokemon themselves, it's the original 151 Pokemon, which means the designs are much more simplistic compared to newer Pokemon.



The biggest problem I see right now is the fact that in order to catch wild Pokemon, instead of sending your own out and weakening it beforehand, all you have to do is throw a Pokeball, and yes, there are indeed motion controls. I'm not sure how I feel about motion controls, since normally I despise them with a burning passion (so much so that if given the option, I immediately turn them off). However, the only time motion controls are used is when you're throwing Pokeballs, which I'll admit is clever and actually rather ingenious. It also means that catching Pokemon here is no longer a matter of dumb luck, as there is a fair amount of skill involved. But like I said, if the game gives me the option, I am turning them off, at least temporarily. Another gameplay gripe is they changed the way random encounters work, as instead of happening periodically in certain areas (caves, patches of tall grass, etc) you can actually see  wild Pokemon before you have to battle them, with battles commencing only if you run into them yourself. In other words, unless you actively want to fight Zubats all day, you no longer have to be pestered by random Pokemon while exploring. Some folks are already hating the change, but those same folks don't realize that being able to pick and choose your fights is a sure way of saving the player's sanity. At any rate it keeps the game from getting too repetitive.



Also, there's Two-Player Co-Op! Which means if you have a friend in real life they can be like the Brock/Misty to your Ash Ketchum. Frankly, if the 2019 Pokemon game had Co-Op I honestly wouldn't mind. Unfortunately, I don't have any friends that are gamers (except one), so chances are I'll be playing this solo. The lack of Online Co-Op also hurts, because just like the LEGO video games of old, you have no choice but to get a second controller and hand it to a friend in real life.



As previously mentioned, Pokemon Let's Go! also has some compatibility with Pokemon Go. It's nothing particularly exciting, aside from being able to transfer Pokemon you've caught/trained in Pokemon Go over to your Switch so you can use them in Pokemon Let's Go!. I would imagine they would place some kind of restraint on this feature though, because if they let you transfer, say, a level 100 Vaporeon or something you could steamroll the entire game. Or maybe they'll let you do so without any restraints at all.





There's also a special Pokeball-shaped controller you can use while playing the game, and, naturally, it's sold separately. You know, because Pokemon is Nintendo's sacred cash cow. Though you have to admit, a using a Pokeball as a controller is a really cool idea. I'm probably never going to get it myself, though, unless it's mandatory, but since the trailer they have up online shows that the Nintendo Switch's Joycons work just fine, it appears to be completely optional.



And finally, you can customize the Pokemon you get at the beginning of the game, and this is where I want to explain the difference between the two games. In Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu!, your first Pokemon is, obviously, Pikachu. But if you get Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee!, your first Pokemon will be Eevee. Which one is better is obvious (Eevee!). But considering you can catch the other Pokemon in the wild anyway, the version differences are miniscule. Ultimately, it comes down to one simple question. Would you rather have a Pikachu following you around in a baseball cap? Or an Eevee following you around in a baseball cap?



But aside from the things I mentioned above, the gameplay is standard fare for main series Pokemon games. You still build a team of Pokemon, train them up to be the very best (like no one ever was!), do battle with other Pokemon Trainers, thwart the nefarious schemes of Team Rocket (the resident bad guys of Pokemon), collect Gym Badges, challenge the Elite Four, become Champion of the region and proceed to do whatever you want after that. But the main thing about this game is it would be wise to treat it as a proof-of-concept, for how Pokemon would work on home consoles. Potentially drawing in fans introduced through Pokemon Go to the main series is merely the icing on the cake. But here's the question. Will Pokemon: Let's Go! be good? Will you, dear reader, be getting it when it releases? Let me know with a comment. Or not. It's a free Internet, after all. (haven't said that in a while, haven't I?)

P.S. I finally managed to cover video game news while it's still relevant! Yay!