The Lore Research Lab

With the release of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl nearing in November of this year, as well as the 2022 release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus , new (non-finalized) footage is now available in this Pokémon Presents announcement video! The Lab's verbally incoherent founder discusses some new updates pertaining to Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl , along with an analysis of...

What does it mean when a game passively tells its story, and conversely, what does it mean when a game actively tells its story? How does this impact gameplay, and what are key differences between the two formats? How is world building affected in this process? Using The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity as case studies, these questions can be answered! This...

What does it mean when a game passively tells its story, and conversely, what does it mean when a game actively tells its story? How does this impact gameplay, and what are key differences between the two formats? How is world building affected in this process? Using The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity as case studies, these questions can be answered!...

What does it mean when a game passively tells its story, and conversely, what does it mean when a game actively tells its story? How does this impact gameplay, and what are key differences between the two formats? How is world building affected in this process? Using The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity as case studies, these questions can be answered! This...

What does it mean when a game passively tells its story, and conversely, what does it mean when a game actively tells its story? How does this impact gameplay, and what are key differences between the two formats? How is world building affected in this process? Using The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity as case studies, these questions can be answered! This...

What does it mean when a game passively tells its story, and conversely, what does it mean when a game actively tells its story? How does this impact gameplay, and what are key differences between the two formats? How is world building affected in this process? Using The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity as case studies, these questions can be answered! This...

What does it mean when a game passively tells its story, and conversely, what does it mean when a game actively tells its story? How does this impact gameplay, and what are key differences between the two formats? How is world building affected in this process? Using The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity as case studies, these questions can be answered! This...

Pokémon appear in a variety of shapes, sizes, and forms; one important determinant of these characteristics is what is known as a “Type”, giving Pokémon unique attributes based on the Type’s element, power, and so on. With 18 types in total, there are many to review; in the fourth installment of this miniseries known as “Pokémon Rants”, The Lab’s verbally struggling founder tackles “Fire Types”, t...

Just some quick housekeeping about upcoming episodes and a note about future episodes here at the Lab! 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a game that occurs following an apocalyptic event known as the Great Calamity, a disastrous phenomena that decimated populations, one caused by a powerful entity known as Calamity Ganon. A premise built from the failures of heroes 100 years prior, what if things had played out differently? How would things be different if that was the case? Was there a ch...

Pokémon appear in a variety of shapes, sizes, and forms; one important determinant of these characteristics is what is known as a “Type”, giving Pokémon unique attributes based on the Type’s element, power, and so on. With 18 types in total, there are many to review; in the third installment of this miniseries known as “Pokémon Rants”, The Lab’s verbally fumbling duo tackle “Grass Types”, the Poké...

Across the core series Pokémon games, there are a number of stories to play through, unique locations to discover, and all kinds of Pokémon to be caught in the wild. This episode focuses on Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver , released in 2009 (Japan) as remakes of Pokémon Gold and Silver , games that were released in 1999; how do remakes work in the Pokémon franchise, and what is there to know abou...

A repackaged version of previous information released by The Lab; in light of the recent mini-surge of Zelda content ( Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity , new trailer footage for the Breath of the Wild sequel), this episode will serve to re-introduce key information about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild , describing story details, characters, extensive gameplay explanations, other miscellan...

Pokémon appear in a variety of shapes, sizes, and forms; one important determinant of these characteristics is what is known as a “Type”, giving Pokémon unique attributes based on the Type’s element, power, and so on. With 18 types in total, there are many to review; in the second installment of this miniseries known as “Pokémon Rants”, The Lab’s verbally incoherent duo tackle “Water Types”, the P...

Nintendo Direct E3 has presented gamers with news that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 's Sequel is progressing nicely in development, revealing new trailer footage of the upcoming game set to release in 2022. The Lab's bumbling researcher discusses this news at length and analyzes the presented trailer footage in conjunction with ideas and theories argued by The Lab previously, inferring...

A sequel to a game originally released in 1999, New Pokémon Snap presents players with a different approach to learning about Pokémon; instead of catching them all, it is up to the player to photograph them all in a variety of locations to understand the creatures better. But what else is there to know about the game? What is the nature of gameplay? Is it a game worth getting? Find out here! Times...

Pokémon appear in a variety of shapes, sizes, and forms; one important determinant of these characteristics is what is known as a “Type”, giving Pokémon unique attributes based on the Type’s element, power, and so on. With 18 types in total, there are many to review; in the first installment of this miniseries known as “Pokémon Rants”, The Lab’s verbally incoherent duo tackle “Fighting Types”, the...

Nintendo video games tend to promote simplicity and relative innocence, making the games produced by the company easy to consume and highly marketable. However, it is worth noting that from the various entities faced across Nintendo games, there is a strange trend that shows a number of characters/monsters (usually enemies) having disembodied hands or actual, villainous, sentient hands. Why is tha...

Nintendo announced (within the last couple of months that) Super Mario 3D World , a title originally belonging to the Wii U, would be ported to the Nintendo Switch and become available to new and old players. Along with this port came a side story that changes everything we know about Mario; Bowser’s Fury . How does this game shake things up for the franchise, and what makes this game a masterpiec...

Nintendo announced (within the last couple of months that) Super Mario 3D World , a title originally belonging to the Wii U, would be ported to the Nintendo Switch and become available to new and old players. Along with this port came a side story that changes everything we know about Mario; Bowser’s Fury . How does this game shake things up for the franchise, and what makes this game a masterpiec...

The Mario Franchise is one of the most well known video game franchises of all time, the face of the Nintendo brand, and has been going strong for around 35 years. What are levels and worlds? Who are the characters appearing as the face of the franchise? What are enemies, and how has the Mario franchise diversified over time? Listen to part two of this episode to learn about these details and a wh...

Pokémon Sword and Shield , released in 2019, were the latest Pokémon code series games introduced until the recent announcement of remakes and a premake releasing in late 2021 and early 2022 respectively. A game already reviewed here at The Lab, there has been a thought which considers a ‘what if’ scenario that explores the possibility of these games having a more engaging storyline. Would it impr...

Pokémon Sword and Shield , released in 2019, were the latest Pokémon code series games introduced until the recent announcement of remakes and a premake releasing in late 2021 and early 2022 respectively. A game already reviewed here at The Lab, there has been a thought which considers a ‘what if’ scenario that explores the possibility of these games having a more engaging storyline. Does storytel...

Pokémon Sword and Shield , released in 2019, were the latest Pokémon core series games introduced until the recent announcement of remakes and a premake releasing in late 2021 and early 2022 respectively. A game already reviewed here at The Lab, there has been a thought which considers a ‘what if’ scenario that explores the possibility of these games having a more engaging storyline. Would it impr...

In this special episode, The Lore Research Lab celebrates a benchmark anniversary; one year since The Lore Research Lab began! The two researchers best known for their inability to string together a coherent sentence present this unfiltered episode of banter and conversations about video games while playing video games to honour this occasion. (Creator's Note: Thank you to everyone that has listen...