wanted to rate this higher because this was my shit when i was younger (had like 400 hours in it) but retrospectively it just doesn't hold up as well as i remember.
graphics-wise it's probably the best looking of the 2.5d pokemon games. the visuals are a bit more samey than the sinnoh games but it still has a great feel to it. and seeing your pokemon walk behind you is a great feature they really should've brought back.
now for the criticisms. first off, this game is sloooowwwwwwwwwww. even compared to platinum i feel like it's just a complete slogfest. someone really needs to make a rom patch or something that speeds up the animations/makes them play at the same time as the battle text/ etc., because even just a basic grindy encounter is going to take like 30 seconds each.
and more on grinding: you'll be doing that a lot. the wild encounters' and trainers' levels ramp up slower than the gym battles, which even then have a pretty shallow level curve. and once you get to kanto? i don't think there's a single trainer with pokemon over level 30. if it werent for the pokegear letting you do rematches, this game would be borderline unplayable.
hoping someone makes some sort of speeding up/balancing patch that fixes the more glaring issues because there is a really solid game beneath all that jank. otherwise i can't really see myself playing it again.
graphics-wise it's probably the best looking of the 2.5d pokemon games. the visuals are a bit more samey than the sinnoh games but it still has a great feel to it. and seeing your pokemon walk behind you is a great feature they really should've brought back.
now for the criticisms. first off, this game is sloooowwwwwwwwwww. even compared to platinum i feel like it's just a complete slogfest. someone really needs to make a rom patch or something that speeds up the animations/makes them play at the same time as the battle text/ etc., because even just a basic grindy encounter is going to take like 30 seconds each.
and more on grinding: you'll be doing that a lot. the wild encounters' and trainers' levels ramp up slower than the gym battles, which even then have a pretty shallow level curve. and once you get to kanto? i don't think there's a single trainer with pokemon over level 30. if it werent for the pokegear letting you do rematches, this game would be borderline unplayable.
hoping someone makes some sort of speeding up/balancing patch that fixes the more glaring issues because there is a really solid game beneath all that jank. otherwise i can't really see myself playing it again.