I want to be so smug, to berate the game for the horrendous and borderline unforgivable performance issues that shipped in the most profitable franchise in the world's marquis game. The lack of voice acting is equally jarring, and I wish that the various routes weren't level-gated to be truly open.

But... Area Zero was surprisingly GREAT! Like... really, really great. And the new Pokemon and evolutions are pretty cool. It really is a fun game. Let's hope Gamefreak heard the backlash and gives their development cycle more time to really give these games a fair shake.