This was the first game I ever pre-ordered, but this game still feels like The Future to me. That subtle plaid-on-minimalism box cover reminds me of newly bought plastic smell. Down to the cold electronic tones of the menu SFX, or the way the bottom screen cascades on touch. The watery keyboard on brash electric guitar; the instrumentation is always bleeding these fittingly digital moods. The genuine coolness to how the protagonist's outfits manage to make american jean and cap fashion look. The neatness of its tech-y flexes; hearing instruments flow in and out of place in towns, adorable cinematography during gyms. The way the attacks animate snappily in a way that makes this the first entry in which leaving them on is still fun; this is the only Pokemon game that surpasses adorable simplicity and becomes stylish.

It's hard to romanticize nostalgia when your memories conflict with it, though; I know my younger self was a little disappointed with this one when it came out, and I spent a lot of this playthrough thinking about the superficiality of such feelings. A big reason at the time was that the raw amount of content these games have took a dive starting with this entry, but that's less relevant on replay. Unova is small though...you can feel the effect of moms complaining their kid got lost in Sinnoh down to the very shape of its map. My #1 issue with this game is that its straightforward routes don't make me feel things; the sense of journey is furthered through storytelling rather than quaint exploration, and neither sides of the team are equipped to thrive under that circumstance. Playing this back to back with the Scarlet and Violet DLC made me realize this series has reached a point in which it has genuine cutesy adventurous spirit to its dialogue that this one hasn't sharpened
When this game came out, a certain Youtuber micro-controversially stated the reason they didn't like this game compared to previous entries was that it had a serious story, and they played these games for escapism. Usually, I fundamentally think nothing like this, but on this replay, I think I got it; Team Plasma's plotline is icky. The obvious comparison the game is making of Pokemon battles to slavery requires the game to use historical abolitionism language that comes off as awkward being evoked without nuance by cartoon cultists. N is who all the salvageable plot forms around, but you sorta have to read his dialogue in a bubble and forget what he's textually talking about.

And to just jog a last few nitpicks: I've always liked the all-original Pokemon lineup; it does a lot to combine that new overfamiliar sequel feel: where you catch a Pikachu, and a Lucario, and a Gardevoir, and you're like "yep im playing the new pokemon". This time around though, I really caught how occupied the new Pokemon are in replacing mechanical functions. To give a crack-comparison, it's like how Street Fighter III is all about The New Generation, but is still too afraid of moving on to not throw a discount Guile or Dhalsim here and there (Necro is so much cooler than Bouffalant, though). It feels right to appreciate the precedent, but no wonder Black and White 2 is more fun when its idea of an exciting mid-game type combo isn't Grass/Poison or Water/Flying. And not to beef with composers that nobody reading this knows the name of, but i hate shota kageyama i hate that guy. The game's general sound is so cute, but a scathing bulk of the tracks are these boring major key solo brass thirty second loops, and it stings. If you don't feel like browsing through track credits to get a feel for his style, listen to this Smash remix he did lol. Genuinely shocked that they thought getting lost in the alleyways of Castelia would be exciting set to a song that loops so quickly.

Anyways, I was satisfied that I was able to put these criticisms into words more in-depth than before. Felt like I had really gotten in touch with understanding that mild disappointment I've always had for this game - and then beat up a legendary Pokemon with my little guys, got to the cool last scene with N, and was totally pacified. I tend to find that the process of writing a critique can narrativize one's opinions, leading to it being easy to stretch frustration in one's head for the product. But I wrote 700 words of complaining about this game, and I still like it, so I guess the strength of the series formula just came clutch? It also helps that Pokemon is like a secondary language for people who grew up with video games - I've gotten to know so many people in my life who all have this shared experience of being a kid, and excitedly playing this game. It adds a lot of weight to this entry as a shared social experience in a series of games empowered by social experiences; we all got together and talk about which little guys we have core memories of from our youth while I played this, and it was nice. Just a good time. And I was pretty harsh on the plot, but I appreciate that it essentially functioned as a narrative trojan horse - exposing children who had never gotten anything out of a book before to what a story looks like, one about something that they unfortunately might be familiar with: abusive parents. Giving children something fictional to feel less alone through, and the formative memories people tend to have for this plot are literally so much more valuable of an experience than my ancient gamer ass being like "wow the baby game isn't well written" lmao. I think that's why N - a character whose moment to moment dialogue kinda sucks - still manages to have enough real estate in our brains for me to see fanart of him once a month on my Twitter timeline. I don't think I get this one like you all do, but I think I "get it" in the sense that we were all there and we all know volcarona goes hard