So I finished it...and yet, when it comes to rating it, I feel conflicted. Don't get me wrong, the game is fun. In some aspects, miles better than Sword and Shield was. The story idea being a treasure hunt was a lot more interesting than the same old generic Pokemon story. Sure, you have to do all three story paths to get to the endgame path, but each story was good in their own ways. Team Star was probably the weakest storyline since it's a lot of tell, not show and the identity of the big boss of Team Star is incredibly obvious.
Path of Legends ties into the final story, while Victory Road was your standard "beat 8 gyms and the Elite Four" idea that we've seen for 8 generations now with the exception of Gen 7. The gym tests, while pretty easy, were a nice changeup that made the formula fresh. On one hand, however, this game lacks level scaling. Once you're let off the leash, you can wander into an area where Pokemon far above your weight class are casually walking around. Gym leader levels are also fixed, so there's a sort of order you should do, but can realistically avoid.
Even though this isn't exactly Game Freak's first outing with an open world, because Legends Arceus exists, I would say the exploration is pretty nice once you can ride your bike Pokemon around the world. Getting the movement upgrades like dashing, gliding, and swimming made getting around better too, and it was a nice way of adding to the range of places you could explore.
Meanwhile, as much as I didn't like the endgame of Sword and Shield being a "interrupt your final battle for an end of the world scenario," the last story being at the very end feels like a much better place to put the finale with the Area Zero things. We get a bit of info on our major players and learn the real professor actually is already dead. Death, in a Pokemon game, am I right? A rare subject they like to avoid like the plague. Having an endgame trainer who only used the Paradox mons was interesting too, as it was different from most evil leaders or final story parts. Being able to finally use Miraidon in it's battle form for the final battle was nice too.
However, this is where my confliction comes into play. This game was released in an abysmal state, to the point that it is utterly unacceptable for a 2022 Nintendo game to release in such a state. As fun as the game was, I cannot ignore the blatantly awful way this game was released. Camera issues, NPCs moving at 5 FPS, a memory leak, an RNG seed in online battles that led to problems on turn 6 along with certain move combos allowing OHKO moves to always hit, lag in raid battles. This game needed more time in the oven for sure, and people were rightfully mad about these issues.
Say what you will, but I think a game releasing in this state should have points taken off...but, therein lies the problem. I don't like doing half stars when I give ratings. It should either be all or nothing, but this is a special case. The game is fun, the story is good for Game Freak standards post Gen 5, competitive teambuilding is easier than ever, but the sheer fact they actively released the game the way they did must have points taken off.
Path of Legends ties into the final story, while Victory Road was your standard "beat 8 gyms and the Elite Four" idea that we've seen for 8 generations now with the exception of Gen 7. The gym tests, while pretty easy, were a nice changeup that made the formula fresh. On one hand, however, this game lacks level scaling. Once you're let off the leash, you can wander into an area where Pokemon far above your weight class are casually walking around. Gym leader levels are also fixed, so there's a sort of order you should do, but can realistically avoid.
Even though this isn't exactly Game Freak's first outing with an open world, because Legends Arceus exists, I would say the exploration is pretty nice once you can ride your bike Pokemon around the world. Getting the movement upgrades like dashing, gliding, and swimming made getting around better too, and it was a nice way of adding to the range of places you could explore.
Meanwhile, as much as I didn't like the endgame of Sword and Shield being a "interrupt your final battle for an end of the world scenario," the last story being at the very end feels like a much better place to put the finale with the Area Zero things. We get a bit of info on our major players and learn the real professor actually is already dead. Death, in a Pokemon game, am I right? A rare subject they like to avoid like the plague. Having an endgame trainer who only used the Paradox mons was interesting too, as it was different from most evil leaders or final story parts. Being able to finally use Miraidon in it's battle form for the final battle was nice too.
However, this is where my confliction comes into play. This game was released in an abysmal state, to the point that it is utterly unacceptable for a 2022 Nintendo game to release in such a state. As fun as the game was, I cannot ignore the blatantly awful way this game was released. Camera issues, NPCs moving at 5 FPS, a memory leak, an RNG seed in online battles that led to problems on turn 6 along with certain move combos allowing OHKO moves to always hit, lag in raid battles. This game needed more time in the oven for sure, and people were rightfully mad about these issues.
Say what you will, but I think a game releasing in this state should have points taken off...but, therein lies the problem. I don't like doing half stars when I give ratings. It should either be all or nothing, but this is a special case. The game is fun, the story is good for Game Freak standards post Gen 5, competitive teambuilding is easier than ever, but the sheer fact they actively released the game the way they did must have points taken off.