I had a lot of fun with this game, often seemingly despite itself. Pokemon Violet's rough foundation is obvious, and despite opening the world up to exploration, Pokemon Violet's inflexible leveling still effectively ushers you toward specific gyms and Team Star bosses as your own pocket monsters slowly grow.
At the same time, the overworld can feel barren at times, underlining that this game's focus is clearly on battling, grinding and catching monsters and little else. Pokemon wander the space between the cities and strangers invite a challenge, helping add a little life to Pokemon Violet, but role-playing games have long looked past leaning on only one or two mechanics to properly develop their worlds.
The battling, though, is fun. The rogue's gallery of returning Pokemon awaiting your capture is stellar, too, and many of the new additions are as welcome and imaginative as ever. (A lot of people, very understandably, seem to like the fairy with the hammer, but I was particularly fond of my salt golem, my ice kaiju and my electric seagull by the game's end.)
What I didn't expect, though, was to love Violet anywhere near as much as I did once its minimalist storytelling found its emotional core with one side character in particular and brought their story to both an unexpectedly maximalist and surprisingly sweet finale. A Pokemon game both earned and tugged at the heartstrings here, all while dropping an appropriately bonkers twist for a series about 12-year-olds beating terrorists and conquering gods. I can't overlook the incredibly valid criticisms of this game's unfinished launch. I can, however, say it's been one of the most memorable experiences I've had with this series in the more than two decades I've spent with it.
At the same time, the overworld can feel barren at times, underlining that this game's focus is clearly on battling, grinding and catching monsters and little else. Pokemon wander the space between the cities and strangers invite a challenge, helping add a little life to Pokemon Violet, but role-playing games have long looked past leaning on only one or two mechanics to properly develop their worlds.
The battling, though, is fun. The rogue's gallery of returning Pokemon awaiting your capture is stellar, too, and many of the new additions are as welcome and imaginative as ever. (A lot of people, very understandably, seem to like the fairy with the hammer, but I was particularly fond of my salt golem, my ice kaiju and my electric seagull by the game's end.)
What I didn't expect, though, was to love Violet anywhere near as much as I did once its minimalist storytelling found its emotional core with one side character in particular and brought their story to both an unexpectedly maximalist and surprisingly sweet finale. A Pokemon game both earned and tugged at the heartstrings here, all while dropping an appropriately bonkers twist for a series about 12-year-olds beating terrorists and conquering gods. I can't overlook the incredibly valid criticisms of this game's unfinished launch. I can, however, say it's been one of the most memorable experiences I've had with this series in the more than two decades I've spent with it.