It's been a long time since I've been as drawn into a Pokémon game as this, as this is a great jumping off board for something spectacular in Gen 9. The 'just one more thing oh no it's 2am' hits hard at times, and I found myself mopping everything up so that I could keep playing.
Let's start with the positives - wow is this fun! Taking plenty of cues from BotW, it fits perfectly with how Pokémon should be played going forward. Everything gameplay wise is so snappy - catching is quick and easy, sneaking around is surprisingly complex, crafting gear works really well and traversal is plenty of fun. The environments aren't too similar, even within the biomes, so there's a want to see the next area - and Pokémon - around the corner. I do wish we could actually go between biomes instead of having to use Jubilife as a go-between, but it's a good first step!
I came in blind to this so had no idea who was in the Pokédex, so there were some surprises. Not many, though - there's still the age-old problem of gen 1 bias, and some of the new Husuin forms are...rough (look how they murdered my boy Goodra!). It's still fun to see them roaming the environment, and having Alpha Pokémon is also a great new feature. The Pokédex having levels of research for each monster is great, though you'd be mad to think about getting them all, but it adds another interesting layer and almost forces you to switch your party about if you want a full Pokédex.
So now on to the not so good. This story - woof. Pokémon has a habit for people a slow starter and this one is no exception. It takes a good hour or so of walking and text to finally get into the meat of the game. After that, the story wanders a predictable path and then just sort of ends. I have to say though, some of the cutscenes were really well done, but it's a low bar to clear based on previous games.
The battling system has been absolutely gutted to the bare minimum - I found there's very little tactically left. They go so fast and levels don't make as much of a difference anymore, but there's no abilities, items and several moves have been altered to accommodate this new system. Trainer battles are almost non-existent and get to the point where you're just spamming your most powerful move - why wouldn't you, there's no time or reason to set up, debuff or apply weather or anything. There are also issues with the new turn order system - there were times where the order didn't match what was being shown to me, and this is without getting into the Agile/Strong attack system. I think something more in-between this and the older system would have worked well, because battling is easily the worst part of the game now. The new boss fight system, complete with dodge rolling - eeeehh, it would've been more fun if I could see what was happening. The Arceus/Dialga/Palkia fights and had so much going on and you're zoomed in so closely it starts to resemble a bad Dark Souls arena.
Let's not forget the elephant in the room - the graphics. They dip between acceptable to absolute dogshit - pop in is everywhere, I've had textures not even load at times and everything just has a very blocky quality. It's passable for now, but Game Freak aren't known for their technological prowess when it comes to games so I have no idea if this will improve. The Pokémon models themselves look great, but the grass and mud they're walking through is just flat and lifeless which is just sad.
Despite these faults, a few very small niggles that I had (the clothing variety, urgh), I walked away from this blown away by how good it was. I came in with low expectations after the DP remakes, but goddamn it's fun just to run around lobbing Pokéballs everywhere and walk around a living, breathing world. This is the Pokémon game we've needed the last 15 years.
Let's start with the positives - wow is this fun! Taking plenty of cues from BotW, it fits perfectly with how Pokémon should be played going forward. Everything gameplay wise is so snappy - catching is quick and easy, sneaking around is surprisingly complex, crafting gear works really well and traversal is plenty of fun. The environments aren't too similar, even within the biomes, so there's a want to see the next area - and Pokémon - around the corner. I do wish we could actually go between biomes instead of having to use Jubilife as a go-between, but it's a good first step!
I came in blind to this so had no idea who was in the Pokédex, so there were some surprises. Not many, though - there's still the age-old problem of gen 1 bias, and some of the new Husuin forms are...rough (look how they murdered my boy Goodra!). It's still fun to see them roaming the environment, and having Alpha Pokémon is also a great new feature. The Pokédex having levels of research for each monster is great, though you'd be mad to think about getting them all, but it adds another interesting layer and almost forces you to switch your party about if you want a full Pokédex.
So now on to the not so good. This story - woof. Pokémon has a habit for people a slow starter and this one is no exception. It takes a good hour or so of walking and text to finally get into the meat of the game. After that, the story wanders a predictable path and then just sort of ends. I have to say though, some of the cutscenes were really well done, but it's a low bar to clear based on previous games.
The battling system has been absolutely gutted to the bare minimum - I found there's very little tactically left. They go so fast and levels don't make as much of a difference anymore, but there's no abilities, items and several moves have been altered to accommodate this new system. Trainer battles are almost non-existent and get to the point where you're just spamming your most powerful move - why wouldn't you, there's no time or reason to set up, debuff or apply weather or anything. There are also issues with the new turn order system - there were times where the order didn't match what was being shown to me, and this is without getting into the Agile/Strong attack system. I think something more in-between this and the older system would have worked well, because battling is easily the worst part of the game now. The new boss fight system, complete with dodge rolling - eeeehh, it would've been more fun if I could see what was happening. The Arceus/Dialga/Palkia fights and had so much going on and you're zoomed in so closely it starts to resemble a bad Dark Souls arena.
Let's not forget the elephant in the room - the graphics. They dip between acceptable to absolute dogshit - pop in is everywhere, I've had textures not even load at times and everything just has a very blocky quality. It's passable for now, but Game Freak aren't known for their technological prowess when it comes to games so I have no idea if this will improve. The Pokémon models themselves look great, but the grass and mud they're walking through is just flat and lifeless which is just sad.
Despite these faults, a few very small niggles that I had (the clothing variety, urgh), I walked away from this blown away by how good it was. I came in with low expectations after the DP remakes, but goddamn it's fun just to run around lobbing Pokéballs everywhere and walk around a living, breathing world. This is the Pokémon game we've needed the last 15 years.