darkSpyro

So, I never bought Imaginators because of how disappointed I was with Superchargers. I haven't properly played a Skylanders game since Swap-Force (which was my favourite), but after watching season two of Academy I've been itching to!

It's been a year now since Imaginators was released, you guys have probably all completed it at least once and have had some time to reflect... So what do you think of it?

I'd be playing on a Switch, so it would be great to hear about your experiences playing on this console as well.

Thanks everyone!

Pretty solid game, but I’m not sure about the load times for the Switch. I think they improved?

Could you tell us why you were disappointed by Superchargers, just so I can get a better understanding of if you should get Imaginators? That'd be swell.

I can speak from experience that the Switch version runs just dandy. No loading problems as I recall! As for the gameplay itself, in my opinion it's just more Skylanders, and I was like you when I got it - last game I'd properly sat down and enjoyed was SWAP Force. A dandy adventure with a lot of content, however the padding can get a little annoying. I wasn't a fan of the Senseis at first but now I've been able to get them cheaper I like them a lot, and I've got a huge amount of old toys that're still compatible!

I've heard bad things about the Switch version, mostly that it takes forever to input and select your characters, especially if you have a near complete or a complete collection like a lot of us here do. Also that the load times were slow, but it's been patched so it's a little better. I have it on PS4 myself so I don't know.

As the the game, it's Skylanders that's all you need to know. If you can get it cheap, there is no reason not to get it. Buy a used disc cheap and you can probably find a collection of used figs on ebay for a reasonable price. People are generally rating it below or above SuperChargers but rarely better than the first four games, if that tells you anything.

To me it feels a bit like a "phoning it in" with the story and it fell flat as it was the weakest of them all in that aspect.

Gameplay is average for a Skylanders game and I didn't feel like it was much different than the rest. I don't remember anything inventive or makes me go WOW, although people do love the Crash level the best which I've yet to play.

The characters are OK enough (although I dislike the Sensei concept), it's what you come to expect every year but older characters are so nerfed that you cannot really use them on this game.

People were really into this create a character concept, but that done nothing for me really. I've yet to use a crystal to make a character, although I did use the app to buy me a $50 dollar one, which turned out to be a pretty big waste of money as they look daft and break easily.

You can totally beat it with a pair of Senseis as well as I've done. Of course you need one of each element and all the special box sets to unlock the other half of the game. I've have all that but never bothered to do so as I never felt like returning back to the game after the second week of owning it other than to test my $50 create a character.

I'm a bit burned out on the series so I'm a bit harsh on it but it's a good game. Certainly worth getting on the cheap.

Quote: Johnbonne

Could you tell us why you were disappointed by Superchargers, just so I can get a better understanding of if you should get Imaginators? That'd be swell.

I disliked the vehicle sections, mainly, and how they broke up the gameplay. It might be easier to talk about what I loved about SF though - the new Skylanders and the locations used in the levels. I'm more into 'natural' environments, so I was instantly put off by the first level of SC (I can't remember its name). How are the levels in Imaginators?

In the end, it all boils down to personal tastes: I liked the simplier and sillier plot, the goofy NPCs and the type of humour the whole game used, but that's certainly not where the game objectively shines.
Greately preferred SuperChargers' plot under many points of view.

What I can almost guarantee you is that you'll like this game if you didn't like SuperChargers for those reasons (I'd even go as far as saying you will like Imaginators simply because you disliked the previous game, but there are people who loved both so I won't).
Thechy stuff is where it belongs and is forced everywhere, magic and magitek is greatly preferred over it but isn't abused either and there are plenty of natural and more fantasy-themed levels; some felt very Giants or SA-esque to me.

Without spoilering anything, I can tell you the new Skylanders and reformed villains are pretty good both personality and gameplay-wise, the balance between combat and puzzle/exploration is probably one of the best in the series and the entire game feels like a love letter to the franchise.
There are many self-references and throwbacks to be enjoyed.
It doesn't feel like a proper ending, though, and probably because it wasn't intended to be one.

Characters' creation is amazing, even with all its flaws and limitations.

Anyway, here is a list of what you'll need to fully experience the game and a few advices, in case you didn't know already:
- at least one Sensei per Element (all Starter Packs contains Golden Queen for Earth and King Pen for Water , the Dark Edition also has Wolfgang for Undead);
- at least one Creation Crystal per Element (only if you want to try all the powers out).
Remember Crystals can NOT be legitimately reset, but you can find ways to get around the problem.
- all five Adventure Packs (Crash Bandicoot/Dr Neo Cortex, Wild Storm and Ro-Bow act as Adventure Pieces.
Two of them also contain Mystery Chests which unlock exclusive parts you won't find anywhere else;
- one vehicle per terrain type and the three Trophies (only if you care about Racing).

Should be all.
Heard the Switch version had long loading times, but it also received quite a few updates since its release.

Definitely suggests the game, it's fantastic for what it has to offer.

What's there is good, but compared to the other games it feels a little light on content beyond the character creation, but if you really like the creation aspect a lot then you'll have a ton of fun; it goes pretty deep. As long as it's discounted it's worth it.

Considering how cheap you can get imaginators right now, it's a safe bet to buy it.

Imaginators is a good game, you are not forced to do any diriving and the gameplay gets back to its traditional routes. So, you are gonna enjoy it.

As a personal note, I didn't get any senseis (sell those wich came with the starter pack). Not worth to me, as you can only play them in one game in the whole franchise and the stuff they unlock is not that much.

The crystal, on the other hand, I just had one, and it was more than enough to enjoy all the creation side of the game which is great imo.

Brief, get the game second hand really cheap and only crystal. For that price it is a good investment.

Thanks everyone for your advice! I think I'll probably buy the game if I can find it at a good price!

Quote: yelvy

Quote: Johnbonne

Could you tell us why you were disappointed by Superchargers, just so I can get a better understanding of if you should get Imaginators? That'd be swell.

I disliked the vehicle sections, mainly, and how they broke up the gameplay. It might be easier to talk about what I loved about SF though - the new Skylanders and the locations used in the levels. I'm more into 'natural' environments, so I was instantly put off by the first level of SC (I can't remember its name). How are the levels in Imaginators?

Like any Skylanders game I enjoy, I probably enjoy the levels because there's so few of them. There being 12 levels you can access in the starter pack, a large amount of them have both natural environments and metal facilities within them later down the line. If you liked SWAP Force, I'm certain you'd love this game's level design (but do expect to spend a lot of time in the HuB, which to be fair is very nicely themed).

Quote: yelvy

Thanks everyone for your advice! I think I'll probably buy the game if I can find it at a good price!

Whereabouts are you from? If you're in the UK there's some good prices. I intend on going to Smyths from now on for the Senseis, now £7.99 and Crystals are £4.99 a pop.

Yeah, I'm from the UK but most shops here have stopped selling Skylanders altogether or don't stock the Switch version! But I will check out Smyths if I want any extra figures (if I can find the starter pack first grrrrr) thanks Johnbonne!

Really bad, rushed game... and magical items don't do a thing anymore.

Quote: Kevin16

Really bad, rushed game... and magical items don't do a thing anymore.

Definitely rushed. I can't wrap around my head how people could say that it isn't even though it is

Can't argue that the game feels rushed, but it's still got a solid framework and is a lot of fun to play. It's just another iteration on mash buttons until things are dead and solve a couple puzzles, just like every other Skylanders game (except SuperChargers, which was badly implemented). The story has always been the equivalent of Saturday morning cartoon plot--outlandish bad guy gets MacGuffin, uses it to try to try to take over the world, and heroes stop him.

As far as whether or not you'll like Imaginators, that basically hinges on how you feel about the character creation gimmick and the rest of the Skylanders games. I love making custom characters, so I love Imaginators. (It's my favorite gimmick hands-down, but probably only my 3rd favorite game in the series.)

Imaginators is just as bad as Trap Team in regards to “Gimmick is more important then gameplay”. You can create your own Skylander, but the limited amount you can do with them is sad.

There’s also the elephant in the room: Will you be able to play your imaginator in future games. At some point, constantly refreshing the art of the depth of characters, and now character options, is gonna hurt future installments. Oh......huh......

Quote: SkyFan91

Quote: Kevin16

Really bad, rushed game... and magical items don't do a thing anymore.

Definitely rushed. I can't wrap around my head how people could say that it isn't even though it is

The last game that DIDNT feel rushed was Swap Force, but they had to cut corners and those things didn’t go unnoticed. BUT at least with them prioritizing overall content, most people had an enjoyable experience. These games need another year to really flesh them out. Swap Force also punishes every game after it because it has to deal with the whole swap thing in their games. In some ways this isn’t too difficult, but when it comes to glitches and polish, it’s time you HAVE to plan for that equals less playable content getting sacrificed. Animations find ways to have problem.

More backlogged characters as engines change and improve is more art time, even if just cleaning images. It means more time rebalancing, which I feel is more of the reason they abandoned “Series X” figures at this point. Don’t have to worry about balance if it’s old **** you don’t want players playing anyway.

Anyone who’s programmed anything or performed maintenance on something can tell you something somewhere doesn’t go as planned. You can say “There shouldn’t be any problems with old toys communicating with this game” but that ****e. The next thing you know one employee is tied up for a month figuring out why Series 1 Chop Chop and DD Triger Happy aren’t communicating properly. This is the why slowly but surely older toys are getting the axe with full functionality. If I’m project lead, I know the game is pretty easy anyway, old adventure pack items aren’t needed, and don’t want to have two of my guys tied up for possibly months in different divisions trouble shooting animations and glitches.

Point being, honoring Backwards Compatibility does have its costs. It increases production time. Something ends up getting sacrificed. And it’s the main reason why I’ve criticized the Trap gimmick (already offers nothing to newer games for the cash possibly dropped), the Swap Mechanic, and now this “build your own” silliness. (We’ll leave vehicles alone, as that, in the least, can possibly open up functionality later, with little expectation they’d have to be in every game). It’s not like it’s the Skylander most of us actually want anyway. Just a generic fighter with one of ten skills sets hardly unique. But now look at the hassle bringing that forward game to game might possibly cause........

This is why you need a body like Kevin Feige who runs the MCU in situations like this. Communication has to be there, and this thing could have gone stronger for longer, but not when 3 of the last 4 game gimmicks, and 2 of their stories, work against and limit all future installments, this is an obvious problem.

Best way forward: Space out releases or drop the TTL component. Since Trap Team, you don’t get much out of your old characters anyway.

I'm not disagreeing with the above in general about the complecity of software development and troubleshooting, but I do want to point out that some of the development time in Imaginators was spent building a "cloud server" (their words, it's not the correct verbiage) containing a standardized database of all current characters to easily import them into future releases.

Quote: McMurderpaws

I'm not disagreeing with the above in general about the complecity of software development and troubleshooting, but I do want to point out that some of the development time in Imaginators was spent building a "cloud server" (their words, it's not the correct verbiage) containing a standardized database of all current characters to easily import them into future releases.

It makes it easier, and then those animations have to interact with new hats, vehicle positions, and what have you. And when graphics are getting cleaned up, you have to clean up all the old characters.

Those of us who understand balance also know why PvP Arena disappeared: Trap Masters did too much damage. Half of them had move that would two shot almost all skylanders, and the senseis are worse. And then you have to take the debacle that is Eon’s Elite figures and approach that mess. Needless to say, if PvP ever came back, TT, SI, and Elite figures would need an overhaul (or everything else would).

It basically makes it to where you aren’t doing it from the ground up everytime. Don’t when you add “jumping” for instance, you still gotta make the older 48 toons jump.