A really interesting little exercise in satire, and quite nicely done in terms of commentary on the games industry landscape and how it's changed in the past 30 odd years from both corporate, consumer, and developer perspectives.

The design is quite nice as well, it uses uses some existing screens from the first set of Pokémon games in a slightly more inventive way than most standard rom hacks. A little bit of thought goes a long way there.

The tomes that tell you some background on Tajiri's history are quite beautifully presented too. Cute, real, and a bit sad :'-)

This is such a fun, refreshing and addictive new addition to the Pokémon canon. Despite some jank in graphical glitches, some gameplay elements that feel a little too catered to young children, and some character designs I wasn't too fond of, I really loved this. I love running around in the wilderness with my little creatures, I love wearing a three piece suit (cool), and I love the way the game makes it rewarding to keep battling and catching the same Pokémon as you make your way across the land. Also having a smart phone in feudal Japan is funny. Thank you.

I had a pretty good time playing through this game. The plot leaves a lot to be desired and the game feels aggressively linear, but the combat is pretty interesting and fun, and I particularly loved a lot of the enemy designs. The summons can become motorbikes and stuff. That's cool and good. I really love the way Orphan looks, and the goth gibberish it spouts before battle.

The missions feel kinda tacked on to me - do I like running around the Gran Pulse plains over and over? Not really. But it is nice to have ONE thing to do other than progress the story. I just wish, more than anything, that the crystarium wasn't locked off and you could just do as much of it as you wanted from the beginning. That alone would make the game ten times better.

My ultimate conclusion is: it's ok.