To be clear, I am a Pokémon fan and I’d go as far to say I pretty massively enjoyed playing this video game. I want to give it a much higher rating. Unfortunately there is no amount of fun that justifies the performance and visual quality in current year. It’s all been said a million times so I wont harp on it too long. I am part of the problem since game freak has my $60, but we will continue to see games like this until a mainline game manages to crash and burn for it (never).

If you like the series you will always like the new game, plain and simple. They know what has worked and that will not change. The changes that do exist are generally welcome but somehow there are still steps back from Legends.

I wouldn’t say the open world is good at all, but the structure of it helps the game a lot. The world level doesn’t scale or anything but the progression literally just goes bottom up so it’s hard to fuck up. I like that there are 3 separate quests that add up to the main story. I wish they felt more important before the straight up climax. I also wish gym leaders were actually challenging. Music ranges from mid to badass.

Defending this game’s faults makes you delusional, but it’s still an enjoyable game. Calling it garbage, while true in some capacity, is equally annoying. However, this game’s quality is indefensibly poor for the biggest franchise in human history. If you are on the fence, do not follow my example. do not support this game.