Let's Play New Pokemon Snap, Part 1: Say Cheese

You know, sometimes you get really tired and exhausted and then you realized you bought a game released three years ago and never even touched it... and that's basically my experience with New Pokemon Snap.

It's really nice to actually just sit and go to a game with no real expectations and no real pressure. The past couple of months have been quite intense for me, and I haven't really had much time to do... a lot of anything that's just me sitting down and relaxing with no expectations.

I was rather burned out with Final Fantasy XII -- not because of anything of the game's fault, but I was just not really enjoying it. The story was okay, the gameplay design was okay... but it wasn't super intuitive to me. I felt like I wasn't enjoying the gameplay or the monster review experience thanks to both factors, and I didn't want to force myself into doing it. 

So I thought I would do some Metroid Prime and Elden Ring, which I did enjoy; or a series of TV show reviews... and then I got sick and hospitalized. And there was just zero energy to post anything. Which, by the way, explains the week-plus drought of posts. Not sharing too much details other than the fact that I'm okay now.

A some point I think I just needed to really relax, and Snap provides that very, very nice outlet. It's just a nice, chill game that I don't really have to think too much about, the gameplay is repetitive enough that I don't have to devote a huge chunk of my brainpower, but there's enough little changes and little things to do for me to keep coming back to it. This makes me a lot more eager to pick it up than engaging in a far more intensive experience like the Dishonoured and Persona 3 and Elden Ring games that just beg for much longer sessions to play. 

And I was wondering whether I should even do a writeup on this, because this is a three-year-old game at this point, but I also figured what the heck, why not? It makes me happy, it's what's occupying me spare time, why not? I do enough talking about Pokemon on this blog as it is, another short playthrough won't hurt. 

_______________________________

Anyway! New Pokemon Snap is a 2021 remake of the original Pokemon Snap on... the Nintendo 64, I think? I'm not too arsed to look up the specifics. But I am aware of the original Pokemon Snap, and while I've never played through it myself, I remembered it being advertised quite a bit on TV and on those old guidebooks and fan-magazines that people used to have before everything got turned into digital. 

And... well, the game doesn't really waste too much time in tossing you into things. After the requisite language, gender and appearance choices, I'm introduced immediately to the Laboratory of Ecology and Natural Sciences, or L.E.N.S. for short, ran by Professor Mirror and his very energetic sidekick Rita. There is actually some plot in this game, and while it's not quite as intensive as some of the other Pokemon spinoffs like Ranger or Mystery Dungeon, it's still at least some narrative. 

After the quick introduction to the Professor and Rita, we're thrown straight into a quick tutorial on how to use the camera, before most of the concept about the setting is given to us. We're in Florio Island, which is part of the Lental region, and we're going to go around with a camera to photograph Pokemon and put them into a 'Photodex'. 

The Professor has his own unique way of rating and giving grades to my photographs, which includes the pose of the Pokemon, the position of the Pokemon in the shot, other Pokemon in the shot, the behaviour, etc, etc. Oh, and I'm going to have to take the photos while sitting on a mechanical expedition pod called NEO-ONE that goes on a predefined route through these natural environments. And the original Snap predated Jurassic World by literal decades, but the comparison to the similar globes in that movie isn't unfair, I think.

Oh, there's also voice-acting in this game, in either English or Japanese. It's very simple dialogue, and for most of the game it's just Persona 5 non-main-story-quest "I see!" or "Hmm!" type of vocalizations, but we celebrate the little wins whenever we can get them. 

Anyway, with all the tutorial out of the way, I take my first route through the Florio Natural Park and... wow, the game gave Sword and Shield, and even Scarlet and Violet, a gigantic run for its money in terms of how good the surroundings look, huh? I know it's an unfair comparison considering how much you can do in the mainline games, but still, I was just blown away by how good the environment and the Pokemon character models look. 

And... I'm not going to describe the whole trail for you, but it's a short trek that is supposed to overwhelm you with how many Pokemon there are running around and doing their stuff. Vivillons are flying around and Dodrios are jumping around. In the background a herd of Bouffalant is grazing while a Pichu and a Grookey run around and chase each other and my character's pod throughout the track. Emolgas fly down the branches, Wurmples hang out in the tree trunks while Taillows hop in and out of the forest floor. 

Swannas are swimming in the lake, there is a bunch of Bidoof walking around trying to build a dam, a Magikarp is hop-hop-splish-splashing up and down the river, there's a random sleeping Hoothoot's ass hanging out from a hole in the tree... and ultimately the track ends in a majestic flower field with Comfeys, Vivillons and a Florges hanging around. 

It's so much fun, so much to see, there's a bit of a sensory overload but in a good way. And these tracks are part of the game's replayability, where I need to go back and try and get the best pose for each individual Pokemon species as you go through the tracks. And, of course, you'll get different items as you progress through the game, and the items interact with the Pokemon and cause them to behave differently. 

And in a nice little twist to the original formula where you just repeat the same tracks over and over again, in New Pokemon Snap you gain experience points for each type of track and as you level up, there are changes that happen in the actual environment. That's such a nice, interesting concept to emphasize the fact that the game's technically saving resources by having you repeat the course over and over again, but there's also an aspect of replayability due to the fact that there are small, minute changes over the time. 

Anyway, after my first trek, Professor Mirror goes through a rather exhaustingly long sequence of critiquing one photo per Pokemon, one at a time, and... obviously because I'm starting out, I didn't really get any really good points?

The Professor and Rita then teach me about the X-button, or 'Scan', which is like a Detective Mode way to see the Pokemon around me, as well as items of interest nearby. Pressing X will also attract the attention of some Pokemon, causing them to turn my way. That's the first of the various buttons that will change Pokemon behaviour, I'm still waiting for the apples that I can chuck at Pokemon. 

It is worth noting that the entirety of the tutorials are voice-acted, which I found to be weird. You'd think the story (as thin as it is) would be the priority of having voice-acting? I don't particularly care all that much, though. Neither do I care about the Professor going into a full-on talk about the Photodex, how I can keep certain photos, and how I can post them on the internet for other Snap players to look at. Cute features, I like that they exist, but I don't care about them. 

With my newfound 'Scan' and the Natural Park itself being upgraded to level two, the Professor tosses me back into Florio Park, and things actually have changed! Where the Bouffalant herd was far in the distance of the starting point in the first iteration of the Natural Park, I now spawn right in the middle of the herd. The Grookey and Pichu duo are also a lot easier to look at as they run around more vividly in the beginning of the trek.

There's notably a bunch of Ducklett hanging out with their Swanna parents; did their eggs hatch in-between the level-up? That's adorable. I'm not sure if I missed it in the first level, but there's also a Tangrowth just lurking next to a fruit tree, this giant mass of vines just sitting there, menacingly. Oh, and the Florges at the end of the trek also changes colours from red to orange. 

After I return from this one, the Professor gives me some backstory about the Illumina Phenomenon happening in this region, which was documented by the ancient photographer Captain Vince. Okay, ancient photographers have cameras too, I guess? Though in real life cameras were invented in the early 1800's, so I suppose it does count as 'ancient' technology by today's standards. 

Anyway, the Professor tells me that it's time for a night exploration... which is another ingenious usage of the exact same map for a completely different setting... nighttime! Which, by the way, looks gorgeous with the glowing plants and stuff, but it's also very reminiscent of actual night safaris and the population of the Pokemon, of course, changes at night.

And it's pretty fun to see how the Bouffalant herd is sleeping.  The role of the little starter in the beginning of the route is replaced by a Scorbunny that's leaving little flames all over the place. Stop that, you pyromaniac bunny, you're gonna burn down the whole forest and turn the Bouffalant herd into the world's biggest beef bourguignon dish!

We've got some nighttime creatures like Pidgeots flying around. There's a lot of Murkrow, a herd of Torterra that's wandered in from somewhere and filled up most of the road. There's a random lone Caterpie hanging out next to a tree. The Pichu and the Grookey is snuggling next to each other and taking a good nap on one of the Torterras, that's pretty dang adorable. The Comfey and Vivillon in the flower field have been replaced with a swarm of Combees, and it does make sense that they would collect nectar from the flowers at different times.

And there's a mound of dirt that I can scan, and it turns out to be an underground PINSIR! It never occurred to me that being a very grubby beetle monster that Pinsir would also exhibit some of the subterranean behaviours that beetle grubs do; I've always imagined them latching on to the sides of the trees like how Heracross is often depicted doing in the anime. 

Anyway, I've kind of resigned to not really caring about saving any of the photographs (I use the Switch's actual screenshot button to save any I deem cool enough to save), and just yolo-pick for completion's sake. 

It is interesting that each Pokemon has four different 'star' photos that's independent on the quality of the photograph as per the Professor's criterion; it's apparently based on the specific pose that the Pokemon itself is doing. But you can only submit a single photograph per Pokemon per treck, so I found out that I had multiple 1-star and 3-star photographs for the Pinsir but only a single one gets registered. Since I registered the 3-star pose Pinsir, I have to at some point repeat this track to get a 1-star, 2-star and 4-star photograph for Pinsir if I'm so inclined. I guess this is a way to make me feel like I'm doing something even when I'm re-encountering a Pokemon I've met before, but I'm not really playing for completion in this game.

Right after I return from this night trek, Professor Mirror tells me that some kind of Illumina energy spike has been detected, and apparently one of these elusive Illumina Pokemon has just appeared... and it seems that my main character syndrome is overpowering because it coincides with the moment that I entered the Florio Natural Park. Okay, sure. 

The Professor sends me to a unique map where I meet the titular Illumina Pokemon, and... it's a big and shiny Meganium, that glows with some kind of sparkly energy and I just kind of follow the Meganium around on a track that ran for just a bit too long while the Meganium stops to eat some of the Crystalbloom flower and glows even brighter. 

So this is the unique sub-species of Pokemon in this game, the game's version of things like, oh, Alpha Pokemon or Shadow Pokemon or Delta Pokemon or Terastral Pokemon or whatever fancy new variation of "it's basically the same thing, but different" that we've been getting a lot in the post-3DS era games... which... yeah, y'know what? Being glowing after eating some kind of magical flower isn't anywhere ridiculous as the Terastral nonsense from Paldea. It fits the photography theme, and I do admit that the first appearance of the giant Meganium was actually quite surprising. 

And... yeah, the Professor then gives me a bunch of stuff. I get a badge because I'm finally out of tutorial island, and the all-important APPLE! Or, well, "Fluff-Fruit", which look exactly like apples and is noted by Rita that they look like apples, but they are much lighter and much softer. The original Snap had a variation of the Kanto games' "throw rock" and "throw bait" to interact with Pokemon, but I guess they realized that an apple thrown to your face hurts like hell. I'm still going to call them apples, though. 

I also unlock a ton of random sidequests on the 'LensTalk' menu, and I think each Pokemon species is going to have its own sidequest. Some look straightforward, like trying to figure out certain area secrets or interactables. Some look positively irritating, which... is to be expected, honestly. I'm not going to 100% this game, so I'm not going to beat myself up over it. 

Then the batch of cutscenes ends with the appearance of Todd Snap, the protagonist of the first Pokemon Snap game (he also had a cameo in the anime, and a major supporting role in the Adventures manga), all grown up. He... he doesn't really have much of a personality beyond 'cool guy', but that's what you do when you bring in a previously entirely-silent protagonist for a photography game. But coming in with Todd is a little brat with bad Dragon Ball hair called Phil, who's your requisite little bratty kid friend. I dislike him already. 

But... this has been a very fun ride. I didn't expect this game to be anywhere as therapeutic and calming as it is. I don't really think that there's anything super special beyond the very pretty graphics and the Pokemon's interactions with each other, since even the Snap gameplay is recycled/remade, but... it's pretty fun. It really is. I'm not sure how often I'll be updating this, since I basically scribble down some notes and unlike the mainline Pokemon games I'll be doing a lot of quiet 'grinding', but do expect me to talk about at least the next two or three areas in the near future!

Random Notes:

• It took me a bit longer than I should to realize that Grookey, Scorbunny, Pichu and Meganium are all featured very prominently on the game cover. 
  
• One thing that I didn't mention is that the game really likes giving me random rewards for doing stuff, things like titles and frame borders and photo effects that's only ever going to be used to edit photos. I'm honestly not interested in ever engaging in any of these features, and I feel the 'titles' are kinda dumb, but they do act as a nice bit of mini-dopamine hits like Steam achievements or something. 
  
• Rita at least has a memorable colour scheme and has a personality of being an energetic young child... but boy, Professor Mirror has the personality of dried paint. 
• Another thing I also didn't like is the design of the actual Poke-Camera or whatever it's called. I know it's a small thing and we don't even see the camera, but it looks so over-the-top sci-fi. I would've much rather had a traditional camera like what Todd Snap has, or even a straight-up Nintendo Switch like Breath of the Wild's Sheikah Slate. 
• One thing that kind of bamboozles me is that the NEO-ONE teleports in and out of these locations, creating giant glowing sci-fi rings that creates a pillar that sucks it into sci-fi-transwarp-lightspeed-hyperspace and sends the NEO-ONE to and from the Professor's base. I really am not sure why I'm so bothered by this since Pokemon has been utilizing teleportation pads since Pokemon Red & Blue, but I did find the teleportation just a bit jarring. 
• I will neither confirm nor deny that one of the biggest motivators for me doing this playthrough is for the joy of inserting colourful Pokemon TCG artwork into articles again. 
• Way to make Meganium relevant again after kind of being forgotten by Nintendo for a while!