Okay buckle up, because there's a lot I can say about SV.
On one hand, it's well documented at this point that SV has a lot of technical issues, in no small part due to a combination of Game Freak's ineptitude at coding and their airtight schedules for the sake of merchandise sales.
Even so, there's still a ton of good things I can say about SV, so much so that it solidifies this game as one in the upper echelons of the franchise for me, and one of my favorite Pokemon games to date. From a gameplay standpoint, I really like the open world approach they took with this game. Even though it's a matter of personal taste, as I tend to enjoy open world games, I think they pulled this one off quite well, even if there's still room for improvement. Paldea is a really fun region to explore, much much more vast and diverse than Galar (which was a mix of either very bland or incredibly small in scope in many places), and the non-linearity gives a lot of freedom to explore the region however you want. Having a lot of big areas full of Pokemon was fun, and a great continuation and improvement from SwSh and PLA in that regard. I also greatly appreciate the carry-over of seamless transitions into battle from PLA, and in general a lot of things from a gameplay standpoint have become more streamlined than before, which is great.
The three storylines of the game are great, and in terms of gameplay you have the standard Gym Challenge (the Gym Tests here are much more fun than ever), Titan Pokemon bosses being reminiscent of Totems from SM and being just as fun to face, and Starfall Street which incorporates the auto-battle mechanic that is new to this game in a pretty fun manner, and the Team Star Bosses are all quite fun to face as well. But more importantly, the actual storylines themselves are really great, and the game does a great job at creating great characters who the game really succeeds in making you care about. Without delving much into their stories, Arven, Nemona, and Penny are all wonderful characters who have very good character arcs, especially as they come to intertwine towards the end of the game's story. The overall storyline of the game is quite good in my eyes, and one worth experiencing and very memorable. Even other characters associated with these respective storylines are memorable in their own ways.
This game also centers on academy life, and the academy is a pretty interesting aspect of the game. The classes all delve into concepts of Pokemon's gameplay even down to some technical stuff, so they'll put your knowledge of Pokemon gameplay mechanics to the test. Even if they aren't main characters, the teachers are all memorable in their own way, and you can also spend time to get to know them better which helps flesh them out as characters.
Terastal is probably my favorite "power-up" mechanic since Mega Evolution: it's on the far opposite end of the spectrum compared to Megas in that it's very generalized, and it's genuinely an interesting mechanic that can either be a super-STAB for your own Pokemon or allow your Pokemon to change type and get new boosted "STAB" coverage, and it doesn't feel boringly overpowered like Dynamax was, and while it's a strong mechanic it's actually a genuinely fun mechanic. Tera Raids are a pretty fun feature in their own right as well.
There are still some flaws with SV, especially with cities being rather underwhelming this time around and performance issues, but these games take many steps forward for the franchise and there's a lot of heart and ambition put into them. I hope Game Freak can improve upon and expand all the great things they did with SV, because this shows immense potential for future Pokemon games to be even better. I am already greatly looking forward to the potential DLC for this game and potential future mainline entries after this, because SV by itself has a lot of good things going for it and shows great promise for the future. SV does not top Gen 5 for me as my favorite Pokemon games of all time, but it's definitely up there because there's a lot of good I can say about it, and it's one of the most fun Pokemon games I've played yet.
On one hand, it's well documented at this point that SV has a lot of technical issues, in no small part due to a combination of Game Freak's ineptitude at coding and their airtight schedules for the sake of merchandise sales.
Even so, there's still a ton of good things I can say about SV, so much so that it solidifies this game as one in the upper echelons of the franchise for me, and one of my favorite Pokemon games to date. From a gameplay standpoint, I really like the open world approach they took with this game. Even though it's a matter of personal taste, as I tend to enjoy open world games, I think they pulled this one off quite well, even if there's still room for improvement. Paldea is a really fun region to explore, much much more vast and diverse than Galar (which was a mix of either very bland or incredibly small in scope in many places), and the non-linearity gives a lot of freedom to explore the region however you want. Having a lot of big areas full of Pokemon was fun, and a great continuation and improvement from SwSh and PLA in that regard. I also greatly appreciate the carry-over of seamless transitions into battle from PLA, and in general a lot of things from a gameplay standpoint have become more streamlined than before, which is great.
The three storylines of the game are great, and in terms of gameplay you have the standard Gym Challenge (the Gym Tests here are much more fun than ever), Titan Pokemon bosses being reminiscent of Totems from SM and being just as fun to face, and Starfall Street which incorporates the auto-battle mechanic that is new to this game in a pretty fun manner, and the Team Star Bosses are all quite fun to face as well. But more importantly, the actual storylines themselves are really great, and the game does a great job at creating great characters who the game really succeeds in making you care about. Without delving much into their stories, Arven, Nemona, and Penny are all wonderful characters who have very good character arcs, especially as they come to intertwine towards the end of the game's story. The overall storyline of the game is quite good in my eyes, and one worth experiencing and very memorable. Even other characters associated with these respective storylines are memorable in their own ways.
This game also centers on academy life, and the academy is a pretty interesting aspect of the game. The classes all delve into concepts of Pokemon's gameplay even down to some technical stuff, so they'll put your knowledge of Pokemon gameplay mechanics to the test. Even if they aren't main characters, the teachers are all memorable in their own way, and you can also spend time to get to know them better which helps flesh them out as characters.
Terastal is probably my favorite "power-up" mechanic since Mega Evolution: it's on the far opposite end of the spectrum compared to Megas in that it's very generalized, and it's genuinely an interesting mechanic that can either be a super-STAB for your own Pokemon or allow your Pokemon to change type and get new boosted "STAB" coverage, and it doesn't feel boringly overpowered like Dynamax was, and while it's a strong mechanic it's actually a genuinely fun mechanic. Tera Raids are a pretty fun feature in their own right as well.
There are still some flaws with SV, especially with cities being rather underwhelming this time around and performance issues, but these games take many steps forward for the franchise and there's a lot of heart and ambition put into them. I hope Game Freak can improve upon and expand all the great things they did with SV, because this shows immense potential for future Pokemon games to be even better. I am already greatly looking forward to the potential DLC for this game and potential future mainline entries after this, because SV by itself has a lot of good things going for it and shows great promise for the future. SV does not top Gen 5 for me as my favorite Pokemon games of all time, but it's definitely up there because there's a lot of good I can say about it, and it's one of the most fun Pokemon games I've played yet.