I've had this game ever since I was a child, and I have beaten it on multiple occasions, but since I recently played a Mystery Dungeon game, I wanted to revisit Pokemon Ranger. And how the hell did i beat it.
Pokemon Ranger is definitely the groundwork of the ideas that its sequels would build upon. How the loops work while at times fine, eventually gets frustrating when you'll need to consecutively loop a pokemon 20 or so times, without error. Though I was emulating it this time around, so having to use a mouse for the bottom screen was a noticeable disadvantage. For the most part Pokemon seem to typically have around 5-8 loops needed which is managable, unless there are multiple pokemon on the screen, and at times it's hard to multitask. There are some fun environmental puzzles, and interesting abilities that Pokemon can do while in battle, but they feel generally underbaked. And in the case of the combat abilities, you so rarely need them, that when you do, you never think about it.
Ultimately what spoiled my experience with this game were the bosses. A majority of them were really fun, however a select few made a potential 4 star into a 3 star. Those bosses being Charizard, Steelix, and the Final Boss. All three of them have these weird gimmicks to them that no other fight does. And with how iffy the regular gameplay is, these 3 bosses turn from challenging, to just plain out frustrating.
I still can't say I hate this game, however. I hold a lot of love for it even now, and even though I have my frustrations with certain moments, they're still only one part of the whole game. I definitely at least want to try to play the other ranger games sometime soon, as I know they mechanically improve.
Pokemon Ranger is definitely the groundwork of the ideas that its sequels would build upon. How the loops work while at times fine, eventually gets frustrating when you'll need to consecutively loop a pokemon 20 or so times, without error. Though I was emulating it this time around, so having to use a mouse for the bottom screen was a noticeable disadvantage. For the most part Pokemon seem to typically have around 5-8 loops needed which is managable, unless there are multiple pokemon on the screen, and at times it's hard to multitask. There are some fun environmental puzzles, and interesting abilities that Pokemon can do while in battle, but they feel generally underbaked. And in the case of the combat abilities, you so rarely need them, that when you do, you never think about it.
Ultimately what spoiled my experience with this game were the bosses. A majority of them were really fun, however a select few made a potential 4 star into a 3 star. Those bosses being Charizard, Steelix, and the Final Boss. All three of them have these weird gimmicks to them that no other fight does. And with how iffy the regular gameplay is, these 3 bosses turn from challenging, to just plain out frustrating.
I still can't say I hate this game, however. I hold a lot of love for it even now, and even though I have my frustrations with certain moments, they're still only one part of the whole game. I definitely at least want to try to play the other ranger games sometime soon, as I know they mechanically improve.