TL;DR - A monumental leap in quality for the Pokémon franchise, but still held back a few traditions of the series.
The Good:
- The revamping of the combat is so refreshing it will be hard to go back to the traditional turned base style. The addition of using Strong and Agile versions of all your moves and action order introduces a ton of new strategy to the game. Probably my biggest unexpected highlight.
- Exploring is the open areas is glorious (once you're allowed to roam). See the Pokemon in the wild and how the behave is awesome. Being able to sneak up on them if you want or lure them with Berry's to catch them is so innovated and works really well in these existing formula.
- The core gameplay loop of catching, reporting to update the pokedex and ranking up is so satisfying. I repeatedly found myself saying, "Well let me just try to complete 1 more pokedex entry and then I'll be done". And I appreciate how the tasks for each Pokémon vary (i.e. feed this Pokémon, defeat that Pokémon with a fight type move etc)
The Bad:
- The handholding from traditional Pokémon is still very present. It took a solid 90 minutes before I actually started enjoying this game at all because the forced me to walk through particular steps to make I figured certain things out instead of letting me experiment at all. And to set up the story...
- The story. I'll admit both that I'm not a big Pokemon lore person and that this was better than most Pokemon stories but this game's story was a slog that I just couldn't get myself to care about. The most I enjoyed this game was when I went off exploring and totally ignored the story and main objective. And certain times after I'd complete something and I'd want to continue in the area I was in, the game just didn't give me the option and took me back to the town to report what I had just done.
- The visuals. I've seen it defended by those who say, "It looks great for a Pokemon game". And yes if you measure it with lower standards it looks fine but this game does not look good for a 2022 game. The textures and pop-in mainly are unacceptable. I love the visual design and get what they were going for but just wish it was technically executed better.
The Good:
- The revamping of the combat is so refreshing it will be hard to go back to the traditional turned base style. The addition of using Strong and Agile versions of all your moves and action order introduces a ton of new strategy to the game. Probably my biggest unexpected highlight.
- Exploring is the open areas is glorious (once you're allowed to roam). See the Pokemon in the wild and how the behave is awesome. Being able to sneak up on them if you want or lure them with Berry's to catch them is so innovated and works really well in these existing formula.
- The core gameplay loop of catching, reporting to update the pokedex and ranking up is so satisfying. I repeatedly found myself saying, "Well let me just try to complete 1 more pokedex entry and then I'll be done". And I appreciate how the tasks for each Pokémon vary (i.e. feed this Pokémon, defeat that Pokémon with a fight type move etc)
The Bad:
- The handholding from traditional Pokémon is still very present. It took a solid 90 minutes before I actually started enjoying this game at all because the forced me to walk through particular steps to make I figured certain things out instead of letting me experiment at all. And to set up the story...
- The story. I'll admit both that I'm not a big Pokemon lore person and that this was better than most Pokemon stories but this game's story was a slog that I just couldn't get myself to care about. The most I enjoyed this game was when I went off exploring and totally ignored the story and main objective. And certain times after I'd complete something and I'd want to continue in the area I was in, the game just didn't give me the option and took me back to the town to report what I had just done.
- The visuals. I've seen it defended by those who say, "It looks great for a Pokemon game". And yes if you measure it with lower standards it looks fine but this game does not look good for a 2022 game. The textures and pop-in mainly are unacceptable. I love the visual design and get what they were going for but just wish it was technically executed better.