It's...okay.

This is the pokemon game everyone puts on a pedestal nowadays, and so I had a lot of hype finally playing it, but that likely hurt the experience for me a lot. The narrative was really underwhelming to me after years of hearing it talked up- I find Sun/Moon's message to be more unique and emotionally poignant, which despite both games having similar narrative shortcomings gives it a huge leg up on BW in my personal opinion. The ending did hit the notes it was striving for however, and if I had grown up with this game instead of SM, I'd likely adore it narratively, because there is a lot to love- just not much for my adult brain to sink its teeth into that I haven't seen done better elsewhere.

Gameplay wise it's pretty messy too. The small pokedex makes me really feel limited in my teambuilding options, which is more forgivable for the first two generations where the actual number of pokemon was lower and they were still finding their footing, but I wish they had had the same epiphany that they did when they attempted the same "Only new pokemon" thing with RSE and filled out the pokedex with relevant pokemon from past gens after realizing the variety was too low, while still putting the new ones in the spotlight. The evolution levels are also just as strange as they appear, with many pokemon evolving at or after the elite four, which feels strange and unsatisfying to me.

This is likely a controversial stance that will bring me heat, but in my mind, this game is akin to XY: It is a functional pokemon game that exists. Not the peak of the franchise, but playably fun. I still have the postgame to play, but I'd be doing it out of obligation at this point, because I feel ready to move on.

Reviewed on Apr 16, 2023


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