Yeah yeah here's another one in the million "game good but holy shit the performance" review on this site. I'm scoring lower on the average because the graphics and the performance really are just completely inexcusable. Outside of a true open world experience there's no reason for the performance to be this shoddy. Graphically it ain't doing much, and the game cuts every single corner to save on performance and still can't muster a decent framerate. Literally every NPC/Pokemon/blade of grass on the fucking ground in the game deloads if you walk 2 feet away from them and unless you're directly next to them their animations are running at a significantly lower frame rate it's fucking astounding.

But yeah outside of the game looking and running like doggy doo doo the openess and general structure should be the new standard for the franchise. The pokemon are good (Anihilape is easily a new top five fave for me) and the characters are great with Nemona being the best friendly rival character they've ever done. I will continue to hope for a future where Pokemon games can have time to be properly worked on and polished but every game sells 10 million in its first three days regardless of anything so that won't ever happen and I'll end up playing the games through Very Legal Means At A Very Fair Price.