Originally played on version 2.2.3, review copied from duplicate page. For what it's worth, I've warmed up more to the game since then, for reasons that are kind of vibes-based and hard to define. There are more notes on why at the bottom of the review.
This is... an interesting game. It's got a lot of good ideas, design decisions I'd usually criticise in other contexts are clearly thought through here, and I can respect them... even if there are still a lot of issues with execution. I dunno. It's a very messy game, I think, but that almost feels appropriate, given its story and major characters seem to be hugely about messy people.
It's hard to know where to start talking about the mechanics, because both good decisions and unfortunate consequences are all interlinked. So, the game has a hard level cap, which I usually really don't like. But, the move learn and evolution levels are designed around those thresholds, which is clever, the XP candy system makes sure your XP isn't wasted, which is nice, and the perfect fight mechanic encourages practicing skillful play without overlevelling.
However, you still don't gain anything from fights besides some candy you can't cash in until later. Because all of the fights are tuned to be difficult, and you're encouraged to perfect them, they feel like exhausting obstacles rather than potential reward. This is especially a problem with pacing in some long stretches between gyms with a ton of points of interest, you feel like you want to pass them all by to just get to your next cap increase ASAP. And then when you finally do, with all the candy you've saved up, you just immediately jump to your new cap. You never get that satisfying feeling of continuous, gradual progression.
The "No Pokemon Left Behind" concept is admirable in ideal, but it leads to some homogeneity, especially early-game, and it's another contributor to fights feeling dragged-out, because you're rarely going to have a distinctly better Pokemon than your opponent. I also can't actually verify how successful it was, since I tend to keep my teams small, but I liked all the Pokemon I used.
The style points system is a really really good system in concept, eliminating the randomness of IVs and the tedium of EVs - but psychologically, it feels bad to be taking points away from another stat, rather than just investing them into specialties. This isn't a massively rational reaction, but how you frame a mechanic is still an important design consideration, think about the old story of WoW's XP penalties for playing too long vs XP rewards for coming back from a break. It feels strange to say, but Style Points would feel a lot better if they all just started in a pool instead of being pre-invested.
The tone at the start of the game is eye-rollingly cynical, to the point of potentially being off-putting. Society sucks, and everyone, player character implicitly included, is kind of a piece of shit. ...Which makes it all the stranger that as the game goes on, there are plenty of compelling characters, solid arcs, and touching moments - from something as big as the main plot's motivation, to something as small as patting a scared Absol on the head. I like all of this latter stuff, but the contrast makes the first impression even more jarring.
A lot of this has been criticism because sticking points stick out, but it's worth noting the game convinced me to push through all of those issues. A lot of the new Pokemon designs are really fun, I like the unique niches given to the Pokemon I used on my team, I almost want to give the game some more playthroughs to try out other mechanics I missed like the new weathers, I'm just slightly worried about the pacing. The Avatar fights are a really fun change of pace for battles. Technically, the game is a lot more well put-together than other Pokemon Essentials games I've played, there's very little in the way of jank, lag, or any other frustration. I resent "Nintendo, hire this man", and I think there are very good reasons GF wouldn't want to implement many of the changes seen in this game, but there's enough here to say that I'd love to see the ideas iterated on in some form in the future. Worth a shot if you're looking for a good-faith shakeup, as it ultimately feels like it comes from a place of love for the series rather than spite.
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Having played this game a few times more since originally writing this review, I can also say a lot of these criticisms fade into the background. The pacing issues are a lot better when you already know where you're going, fights are easier now that I have more experience, and having used a wider variety of Pokemon I can confirm their designs are distinct and interesting.
This is... an interesting game. It's got a lot of good ideas, design decisions I'd usually criticise in other contexts are clearly thought through here, and I can respect them... even if there are still a lot of issues with execution. I dunno. It's a very messy game, I think, but that almost feels appropriate, given its story and major characters seem to be hugely about messy people.
It's hard to know where to start talking about the mechanics, because both good decisions and unfortunate consequences are all interlinked. So, the game has a hard level cap, which I usually really don't like. But, the move learn and evolution levels are designed around those thresholds, which is clever, the XP candy system makes sure your XP isn't wasted, which is nice, and the perfect fight mechanic encourages practicing skillful play without overlevelling.
However, you still don't gain anything from fights besides some candy you can't cash in until later. Because all of the fights are tuned to be difficult, and you're encouraged to perfect them, they feel like exhausting obstacles rather than potential reward. This is especially a problem with pacing in some long stretches between gyms with a ton of points of interest, you feel like you want to pass them all by to just get to your next cap increase ASAP. And then when you finally do, with all the candy you've saved up, you just immediately jump to your new cap. You never get that satisfying feeling of continuous, gradual progression.
The "No Pokemon Left Behind" concept is admirable in ideal, but it leads to some homogeneity, especially early-game, and it's another contributor to fights feeling dragged-out, because you're rarely going to have a distinctly better Pokemon than your opponent. I also can't actually verify how successful it was, since I tend to keep my teams small, but I liked all the Pokemon I used.
The style points system is a really really good system in concept, eliminating the randomness of IVs and the tedium of EVs - but psychologically, it feels bad to be taking points away from another stat, rather than just investing them into specialties. This isn't a massively rational reaction, but how you frame a mechanic is still an important design consideration, think about the old story of WoW's XP penalties for playing too long vs XP rewards for coming back from a break. It feels strange to say, but Style Points would feel a lot better if they all just started in a pool instead of being pre-invested.
The tone at the start of the game is eye-rollingly cynical, to the point of potentially being off-putting. Society sucks, and everyone, player character implicitly included, is kind of a piece of shit. ...Which makes it all the stranger that as the game goes on, there are plenty of compelling characters, solid arcs, and touching moments - from something as big as the main plot's motivation, to something as small as patting a scared Absol on the head. I like all of this latter stuff, but the contrast makes the first impression even more jarring.
A lot of this has been criticism because sticking points stick out, but it's worth noting the game convinced me to push through all of those issues. A lot of the new Pokemon designs are really fun, I like the unique niches given to the Pokemon I used on my team, I almost want to give the game some more playthroughs to try out other mechanics I missed like the new weathers, I'm just slightly worried about the pacing. The Avatar fights are a really fun change of pace for battles. Technically, the game is a lot more well put-together than other Pokemon Essentials games I've played, there's very little in the way of jank, lag, or any other frustration. I resent "Nintendo, hire this man", and I think there are very good reasons GF wouldn't want to implement many of the changes seen in this game, but there's enough here to say that I'd love to see the ideas iterated on in some form in the future. Worth a shot if you're looking for a good-faith shakeup, as it ultimately feels like it comes from a place of love for the series rather than spite.
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Having played this game a few times more since originally writing this review, I can also say a lot of these criticisms fade into the background. The pacing issues are a lot better when you already know where you're going, fights are easier now that I have more experience, and having used a wider variety of Pokemon I can confirm their designs are distinct and interesting.