I think if I spent the same amount of time playing this game as I did Emerald when I was a child, this would likely be my favorite Pokemon game.
The healthy amount of regions this game sources Pokemon from is interesting and makes for a multitude of strategies, the lack of ugly HM moves you have to stick on your Pokemon make them much more powerful, and the touch screen interactions where you care for your Pokemon are really cute and add a lot of legitimacy and weight to what you're doing even if it is in essence mindless. I'm not very big of a fan of how the "new" EXP Share works by giving experience and EVs to everyone in your party when you turn it on so I kept that off since it's essentially an "easy" mode, but besides that this is probably the most difficult Pokemon game I've ever played. The switch from gym leaders to island trials allowed for this expansion of difficulty as you fight totem Pokemon that are super powerful and have many allies. The kahunas serve more as typical gym leaders with their one type of Pokemon and are typically much easier than the wild totem Pokemon but are still a challenge. There are plenty of trainers along the routes that are difficult as well, but nothing quite reaches the heights of the island trials and the "villain" fights since they actively switch in and out to avoid typing disadvantages and use powerfully stacked Pokemon. I've seen a lot of criticism thrown at the story because of how lengthy and childish it is, but I think a plot revolving around determination and treating others with kindness is just what this kind of game needs.
My main issue would definitely be how this game runs on a base 3DS that I have. There were many times during double battles, photo sessions, cutscenes, and evolutions that the frame rate would slow to a crawl and often not respond for up to 10 seconds. Thankfully the game never crashed but due to the amount of cinematics this game throws at you, I was pretty much always in a constant state of stress at even just a regular encounter. I think the new Alola Pokemon are generally pretty cool and useful, but every single one of them is far too slow and I'm not sure for what reason. This would be fine if it was an entire island of only Alolan Pokemon but since the game encourages many different regions to come together, I found myself getting constantly outsped no matter who I was using and would often lose Pokemon in places where I shouldn't. Many times the trial fights felt fair but challenging due to Z-power and typing advantages, but when I'm several levels above a traditionally slow Pokemon and it outspeeds me then I have no idea what to do. Why is a base Wailord faster than most of these Pokemon? This made me avoid using many Alolan Pokemon on my team despite my desire to since I would've had to EV train for even longer than I already did.
When I started screwing around in the post-game, I was about 50 or so hours into my save file and I felt as though I greatly enjoyed my stay on this new Island. If the game was a bit more lean in terms of assets and action in cutscenes and cleaned up the new Pokemon into far more desirable versions of themselves then I could see this being THE greatest Pokemon game of all time. As it stands, it is still a fantastical region with many ways to stab at it and many challenges along the way, just not ones that always work towards cohesion.
The healthy amount of regions this game sources Pokemon from is interesting and makes for a multitude of strategies, the lack of ugly HM moves you have to stick on your Pokemon make them much more powerful, and the touch screen interactions where you care for your Pokemon are really cute and add a lot of legitimacy and weight to what you're doing even if it is in essence mindless. I'm not very big of a fan of how the "new" EXP Share works by giving experience and EVs to everyone in your party when you turn it on so I kept that off since it's essentially an "easy" mode, but besides that this is probably the most difficult Pokemon game I've ever played. The switch from gym leaders to island trials allowed for this expansion of difficulty as you fight totem Pokemon that are super powerful and have many allies. The kahunas serve more as typical gym leaders with their one type of Pokemon and are typically much easier than the wild totem Pokemon but are still a challenge. There are plenty of trainers along the routes that are difficult as well, but nothing quite reaches the heights of the island trials and the "villain" fights since they actively switch in and out to avoid typing disadvantages and use powerfully stacked Pokemon. I've seen a lot of criticism thrown at the story because of how lengthy and childish it is, but I think a plot revolving around determination and treating others with kindness is just what this kind of game needs.
My main issue would definitely be how this game runs on a base 3DS that I have. There were many times during double battles, photo sessions, cutscenes, and evolutions that the frame rate would slow to a crawl and often not respond for up to 10 seconds. Thankfully the game never crashed but due to the amount of cinematics this game throws at you, I was pretty much always in a constant state of stress at even just a regular encounter. I think the new Alola Pokemon are generally pretty cool and useful, but every single one of them is far too slow and I'm not sure for what reason. This would be fine if it was an entire island of only Alolan Pokemon but since the game encourages many different regions to come together, I found myself getting constantly outsped no matter who I was using and would often lose Pokemon in places where I shouldn't. Many times the trial fights felt fair but challenging due to Z-power and typing advantages, but when I'm several levels above a traditionally slow Pokemon and it outspeeds me then I have no idea what to do. Why is a base Wailord faster than most of these Pokemon? This made me avoid using many Alolan Pokemon on my team despite my desire to since I would've had to EV train for even longer than I already did.
When I started screwing around in the post-game, I was about 50 or so hours into my save file and I felt as though I greatly enjoyed my stay on this new Island. If the game was a bit more lean in terms of assets and action in cutscenes and cleaned up the new Pokemon into far more desirable versions of themselves then I could see this being THE greatest Pokemon game of all time. As it stands, it is still a fantastical region with many ways to stab at it and many challenges along the way, just not ones that always work towards cohesion.