This is the best Pokémon game on the Switch, bar none. It is engaging and substantial (in spite of its middling performance), introduces you to a large, interesting, and varied cast of both humans and Pokémon alike in a story that even puts the likes of Black and White to shame, iterates on the social aspect of the series with a pleasant new MMO-lite feature, and adds a battle gimmick that provides an unprecedented increase in nuance & depth.

They hit the ball out of the park with this one, but it's regrettable that it wasn't left in the oven for a bit longer. Despite the flaws, make no mistake; the developers have outdone themselves and this game is an absolute treat.

EDIT: Just finished the game! 100+ hours best Pokemon story ever.

Absolutely amazing game so far! 30 hours in so far. Been very happy with it and having lots of fun! The sheer freedom of choosing what you want to do and achieve anytime you boot up the game yet still having a overarching goal is something Pokemon really benefits from. Having objectives that fit the tastes of different kinds of players.

I have to give a massive shout-out to the myriad QoL (quality of life) additions this game has too. Being able to breed anywhere on the spot at a picnic, changing nicknames from menu, relearning moves anywhere from the menu, etc it just all adds up to a much smoother experience in a game as jam packed with stuff to do as this.

To quickly mention some other stuff dynamic music that seamlessly transitions into one another is also a cool approach. The new Pokemon are very cool, the region is nice to explore. Terastallizing also has so much more strategic potential than other Pokemon gimmicks due to you being able to become another type that switches stuff up.

Shaping up to become a close favourite in the series which is something I hadn't considered since BW. Remember what the ultimate goal of a game is: fun.

Disappointment after disappointment, when will I ever grow up? Every damn game I am underwhelmed, yet I seem to never learn. I will never love an entry in this series again, the magic that I experienced from days long past will never be seen or heard from again. Forever I am chained to this merchandise-pushing bulldozer of a franchise. Why does my childhood keep pestering me? Is it a curse? Why do I bother? Just let it die already.

Being someone whose username looks like it's based on Pokemon and formerly having an Eevee PFP for quite a while on here, it would feel like my take on seemingly the most divisive entry in the series yet will come off as something easily discarded. An open world game that is apparently super buggy and super empty? No way I could love it. It's a despicable game that would probably steal my dog's lunch money if it got the opportunity. I can't believe they would release such a broken game in 2022, etc, etc, yadda yadda. Whatever, you heard it all already.

Lend me your ears though... I loved this game.

As I lie here on my bed and rest myself on my Slowpoke pillow, I think to myself "is this a dream?". Not since the early days of playing on my purple Game Boy Color with my copy of Blue version have I felt this same feeling of grand adventure. The ability to go wherever I please without a completely nothing rival constantly challenging me at every other route, or having someone stop me from going down a certain route because they dropped their contact lens. Even the overworld trainers have grown to finally get some manners, and allow me to walk around freely without being demanded to waste my time fighting their crappy low level Scatterbug that wouldn't even give me a single XP point. Finally, a game that eschews all of that so that I may feel free. Free to experience the world of which I seem to never grow out of.

This is MY adventure.

The best part? This game will only get better for me. I played Violet in pretty much the worst way possible, via portable mode on my Switch. I experienced the worst frame rate drops possible, I experienced the worst pop-in, and despite all the doomer talk on Twitter....I never once experienced a crash or even one of the funny glitches or bugs. (may have helped that I bought it digitally) It turns out you can't trust judging your incoming experience based on what you see on the internet, especially when everyone everywhere can easily record stuff that happens to them in what might be the new best-seller in the entire universe. Personally, that stuff actually endears me more to this game. There's a clip of a Jigglypuff that flew off into space out there somewhere that's actually perfectly in-character, and would've made me laugh my ass off if I had experienced it in my own game. To say that I can't wait to replay this later on either a patched version, on better switch hardware or emulator would be an understatement. I cannot imagine how much I would love this once I experience it at a consistent frame rate.

Despite the tacky school uniform you're saddled with at the beginning, I found the setting very charming. Clothing options suffer thanks to it, but these are probably my favorite set of characters since Black/White. Mela having to move her legs like a robot because of her ridiculous boots is more fun and entertaining than anything Leon and his merchandise-moving Charizard did in the last game, and Arven is someone who I want to fight for to the very end. Don't talk to me or my cybernetic lizard motorcycle son again. The last 5% of this game goes beyond words in how much of a step up it is from Sw/Sh's wet fart of a climax.

They say an image speaks louder than words, but here it is.

Call me a fanboy, call me chopped liver. You could even call me late for dinner, but...I enjoyed myself immensely...and that's all that matters in the end.

It's then that I ask myself again, "is this a dream?"

No, the sky has not fallen.....no cats and dogs are not currently living together.... Pokemon Scarvy is my game of the year. This is reality, and I still can't fucking believe it.

Ten.
Years.

Ten whole years since B/W, and they finally do it again... holy shit.

I refuse to grow up.

To start with: Yes, the performance issues exist. Anything too far out from your character has incredibly choppy animation, and it's very noticeable. There's also a lot of slowdown in battle and obnoxiously long load times in the box screens.

That being said, I didn't really care about any of that. The game is, frankly, a lot of fun. It's exciting to be able to play in the same instance of the world as my wife. The new Pokémon are, generally speaking, well designed and fun. The game has an actual, honest to god story. Multiple stories, even! And for the most part, they're pretty good. There's a few missteps, but the writing is solid, and funny, and just in general fun. The only reason Legends is my favorite Pokémon game this year is because the gameplay was better, and even that's a close one. If the next mainline entry has Legends gameplay and this level of writing, it'll be fantastic.