We have to put the FATTEST asterisk on that score.
This game is a mess. Like, frequently falling apart with obvious visual glitches, frame rate tanking on the regular, various other hiccups, and the game has even crashed on us once. Bugs and issues always get exasperated on social media - the "Whooaaaaaa this game is sooooo glitchyyyy lmao" clips are like. The same 10 clips every time. - But this game REALLY is just blatantly not finished. Like, in a "this is not fit for public consumption" kind of way. This is the game where Pokemon's exhausting yearly release schedule is most obviously killing the series from the inside-out and the corporate higher-ups that need to keep the merch-money-train rolling are the cancer.
But in spite of all this, this is the most fun we've had with a Pokemon game since our favorite games in the series, Black and White/BW2. It's maybe not quite the open world Pokemon we dreamed of but it's at least close. The team-building potential in this game seems off the charts with how open the game is overall. A lot of the new Pokemon's designs are kickass, very much a step-up from Gen 8. And the game has a decent variety of main tasks so you're not doing the same thing for too long. (Though it could use some more interesting minor tasks. Rare Tera Type spawns, raids, and Gimmigouls don't quite carry it.)
This also feels like the best writing in the series since Gen 5 as well. We genuinely love each of the main cast, Arven and Nemona especially feeling like some of the best characters in this series. The ending also takes a twist we didn't see coming. Like for real, how did we go from Lysander and Chairman Rose to Volo and THIS game's villain?
It just SUCKS to know there's a timeline where this game came out next year and it JUST got to be the best Pokemon to date. It was THIS close. But instead, it gets held back by its numerous technical problems that could've been ironed out had this game spent more time in the proverbial oven.
It is - For better AND for worse - The Pokemon Game of All Time
This game is a mess. Like, frequently falling apart with obvious visual glitches, frame rate tanking on the regular, various other hiccups, and the game has even crashed on us once. Bugs and issues always get exasperated on social media - the "Whooaaaaaa this game is sooooo glitchyyyy lmao" clips are like. The same 10 clips every time. - But this game REALLY is just blatantly not finished. Like, in a "this is not fit for public consumption" kind of way. This is the game where Pokemon's exhausting yearly release schedule is most obviously killing the series from the inside-out and the corporate higher-ups that need to keep the merch-money-train rolling are the cancer.
But in spite of all this, this is the most fun we've had with a Pokemon game since our favorite games in the series, Black and White/BW2. It's maybe not quite the open world Pokemon we dreamed of but it's at least close. The team-building potential in this game seems off the charts with how open the game is overall. A lot of the new Pokemon's designs are kickass, very much a step-up from Gen 8. And the game has a decent variety of main tasks so you're not doing the same thing for too long. (Though it could use some more interesting minor tasks. Rare Tera Type spawns, raids, and Gimmigouls don't quite carry it.)
This also feels like the best writing in the series since Gen 5 as well. We genuinely love each of the main cast, Arven and Nemona especially feeling like some of the best characters in this series. The ending also takes a twist we didn't see coming. Like for real, how did we go from Lysander and Chairman Rose to Volo and THIS game's villain?
It just SUCKS to know there's a timeline where this game came out next year and it JUST got to be the best Pokemon to date. It was THIS close. But instead, it gets held back by its numerous technical problems that could've been ironed out had this game spent more time in the proverbial oven.
It is - For better AND for worse - The Pokemon Game of All Time