I probably have more negative than positive things to say about this game, but I also had a really good time given the fact that I played nearly 24 hours since Thursday night/Friday morning.
First, the bad: It runs atrociously on Switch. Bad framerate, flickering textures, Pokemon clipping through terrain, outrageous pop-in, weird camera stuff constantly, etc. Arceus did not run great, but it ran like a dream compared to this.
Also compared to Arceus (my GOTY, for what it's worth), everything is just slower. Battles take longer, the story has even less going on (until near the end and then it briefly gets sick as hell???), there's no voice acting so the dialogue boxes hurt way more (not that there is in Arceus but the story moves so much slower here I was mashing through them during some chunks), and basic quality of life improvements from a semi-spinoff released in January aren't seen here. The traversal is also way slower compared to Arceus, which I'm only saying because the open world style is similar between the two games.
Lastly, it's bizarre how little post-game there is here because Arceus arguably had the best post-game in series history depending on how you feel about GSC.
And yet, I had a really good time? Game Freak is seriously onto something with their new open world format. The sense of exploration here is great, and I'm impressed that they made Paldea a fully connected open world. The presence of towns also gives the open world a bit more life and sense of place than Arceus had. The story is extremely undercooked, but the new characters are mostly really good, and many of them have a surprising deal of personality (we stan Larry!). The new gimmicks are fun, the new Pokemon are generally pretty fun (though all of my favorites are based on old mons so the jury is out...), and it feels like the exact opposite of Sword and Shield, which were dinky on-rails RPGs for babies until the DLC.
This is both one of the best Pokemon gens and one of the worst at the same time. It's really confusing. It's an enormous step down from Arceus in most ways, but progress in others. Still, if they add voice acting and put this kind of open world on stronger hardware in a few years (or get a better technical team IDK I don't make games), they got something here. There are bones in place for a really bright Pokemon future. I hope they get there.
First, the bad: It runs atrociously on Switch. Bad framerate, flickering textures, Pokemon clipping through terrain, outrageous pop-in, weird camera stuff constantly, etc. Arceus did not run great, but it ran like a dream compared to this.
Also compared to Arceus (my GOTY, for what it's worth), everything is just slower. Battles take longer, the story has even less going on (until near the end and then it briefly gets sick as hell???), there's no voice acting so the dialogue boxes hurt way more (not that there is in Arceus but the story moves so much slower here I was mashing through them during some chunks), and basic quality of life improvements from a semi-spinoff released in January aren't seen here. The traversal is also way slower compared to Arceus, which I'm only saying because the open world style is similar between the two games.
Lastly, it's bizarre how little post-game there is here because Arceus arguably had the best post-game in series history depending on how you feel about GSC.
And yet, I had a really good time? Game Freak is seriously onto something with their new open world format. The sense of exploration here is great, and I'm impressed that they made Paldea a fully connected open world. The presence of towns also gives the open world a bit more life and sense of place than Arceus had. The story is extremely undercooked, but the new characters are mostly really good, and many of them have a surprising deal of personality (we stan Larry!). The new gimmicks are fun, the new Pokemon are generally pretty fun (though all of my favorites are based on old mons so the jury is out...), and it feels like the exact opposite of Sword and Shield, which were dinky on-rails RPGs for babies until the DLC.
This is both one of the best Pokemon gens and one of the worst at the same time. It's really confusing. It's an enormous step down from Arceus in most ways, but progress in others. Still, if they add voice acting and put this kind of open world on stronger hardware in a few years (or get a better technical team IDK I don't make games), they got something here. There are bones in place for a really bright Pokemon future. I hope they get there.