It's funny how making all your citizens cute little beavers makes you more motivated to build a cozy, stable life for them.

Altogether very fun, but, as of me writing this, it's unfortunately possible to fall into the rut of having unlocked everything interesting and upgraded all your resource-gathering as much as you feel you need to. In other words, you can reach the point where you little motivation to keep playing beyond slightly improving your city. I've run into this when it comes to the few other resource-management/city sims I've played before, so I don't know if this is just what is considered the "end-game" of this type of game or there's an issue with the way I play.

In any case, it's kept my attention for 60 hours and counting, so that's gotta count for something. Slightly steep learning curve, but addicting as hell. I very much look forward to what this game will become with more updates.

I didn't expect how much I'd ADORE this game. This thing is like a hilarious fever dream with really good pixel art, until it suddenly pivots into tugging at your heartstrings at the end of every route. Think Hatoful Boyfriend with less worldbuilding and on 10x the crack.

It's obvious where some liberties were taken with the translation- there're some very obviously Western-exclusive references inserted- but the game itself is already such a fever dream that said translations never feel out-of-place, and are always hilarious.

Went for Marshmallow first but ended up converting to thinking Saeki Best Boi.

My biggest criticisms:
1) It was too short. Maybe it only makes sense for an absurd comedy game to keep it short so it doesn't overstay its welcome, but I became so attached to the characters that I lament I couldn't spend more time with them.

2) It's a bit broken. Specifically the text box. With most visual novels, you have the option when replaying the game to skip through text you've already read, and stop when it gets to something you haven't seen yet. This game does have that function, but it annoyingly will either not work, or work after you finagle with it by checking the "History", but not actually stop when you get to something new and just keep speeding through text.

That said: please, give this game more attention, if you can. There's a lot to, if not love, appreciate.

This game should be great. And it kind of is.

It has lovable characters! Unique gameplay compared to other Pokémon games! You have main quests besides the old “beat all the gym leaders become the champion” goal, and side quests on top of that! You have an interesting new “gimmick”- which is really just a retread of Mega Evolution (again…) with a new hat (literally, lol), but this time having the interesting twist of it changing your Pokémon’s type as well as its power. Neat! And it’s truly open world! Seemingly building on what was done in Arceus, your approach to catching Pokémon is, rather than rummaging through the tall grass, spying them in the wild- sometimes just chilling in their habitat, sometimes moving in herds- and sneaking up on them, with the other neat touch of being able to throw your owned Pokémon directly into battle. And the order in which you approach the story- including conquering the gyms? All up to you. You're not locked on a rail where you do things when the game says it's time to do them- you can approach pretty much any aspect of the world in any order you please. It really feels like the “more advanced” Pokémon game you’d dream of as a kid, one that goes beyond the standard, predictable Pokémon formula that's the series has stuck by for so long.

The “Pokémon school” concept is also built on pretty well; you get to know your teachers, attend class, take mini-tests based on stuff you actually learned in class, and your main goal is essentially completing your final thesis. It’s like small helping of Persona.

And the story…it’s not Metal Gear Solid, but found myself caring about the plot of this game more than I have any other Pokémon game before. All the teachers are memorable, each of the gym leaders are unique enough to make an impression, and your game-assigned friends are easy to like.

I’ll always long for the days when your rival was a jackass, but Nemona is so enthusiastic and supportive (and made a bit more interesting by how…eager she is about battling) that she comes off like a lovable big sister or upperclassman. And there’s this one character that made such a 180 from me thinking he’s a spoiled jackass to him being a sweet boy who deserves good things…if you know, you know. It’s so, so simple, but its damn effective.

In short, it’s fun. It’s the most fun I’ve had with Pokémon in a long time. I like playing this game.

…I like playing this game, but I can’t love this game itself.

Because there’s one "small" problem.

It. Runs. Like. Ass .

It performs horendously. The FPS constantly drops off the face of the earth, to a degree that's even people who don't know what FPS is could tell there's something wrong. Even as someone who tries to not care about graphics, it's gets harder and harder to ignore that everything in sight looks jagged and crispy; there's a box full of fruit that looks like a fucking jpeg. Swapping from one clothing item to another takes 5 seconds to load, and seeing your Pokémon's portraits takes something like 3 seconds; which I know doesn't sound like a lot but think of any other game made in 2022 that takes that long to load such basic shit.

And there’s no excuse for it of “ohhh well they have to fit everything including graphics and the Pokémon models and things like natures and egg groups and all the dialogue and animation so this is just the cost of having such a complex game” because I KNOW about the ocean-sky-sphere, people, it’s loading in Pokémon that are SO far out of bounds they’re practically in Kanto.

This should be good. This should be the best Pokémon game in years- decades, even. But the fact that it feels like I spent $60+ on a beta test, when I know the Switch can run Tears of the Kingdom and Xenoblade, is just...inexcusable. It's painful.

I want to love this game. I kind of do. But it makes me sad to think about the game we could've gotten if GameFreak had been able to actually finish it.