Review in progress:
The stagnation that began with Generation III continues here. Generation VI marks a turning point for the series where the quality starts to noticeably decline.
Generation VII visuals are mediocre at best. Everything is lacking in detail and the game has noticeable performance issues during double battles. Animations are poor. Other 3DS games like Dragon Quest VIII look and run substantially better. The improvements over Generation VI are minor.
Calling this a 3D game is laughable. The camera isn't controllable at any point in the game. It's a 2D game with a low poly coat of 3D paint. GameFreak's technical incompetence has always held back the series. The issues become harder to ignore as the hardware gets more powerful. Dragon Quest VIII has a large, fully 3D world with no random encounters. Pokémon has no excuse.
There aren't any noteworthy additions in this generation. Z moves are gimmicky and mega evolution is a much more interesting mechanic.
The postgame is mediocre at best.
Pokémon Ultra Sun's changes to Sun are very minor. Charging $40 for what should be a $10 DLC at best is criminal. They made the already poor story even worse, so it's not even a definitive upgrade in that aspect.
The litany of problems that have always held Pokémon back are still here and are completely unaddressed:
The story/writing is some of the worst that the medium has to offer. The world of Pokémon has a lot of potential for interesting storytelling, but it's completely wasted. The characters and story are paper-thin. It's basically the exact same plot as the first two generations. The world revolves around the player and no one else has any competence or agency.
The AI is brain-dead and the games are painfully easy for anyone older than six. Most of the time you can just mash A with your starter to win. Exploration is very limited. Dungeons are simplistic and straightforward. The lack of a difficulty option severely hurts the experience. The fact that players have to create ROM hacks and player-imposed rules (e.g., Nuzlocke) to make the games even remotely challenging is pathetic.
Quality of life features are lacking. Battles take forever even with the animations turned off. You can't skip through the shitty dialogue. It's so damn slow without using an emulator. You only get one save file.
The music is good, but the audio loops are very short. Towns are all small and only have a small handful of NPCs/buildings.
Balancing is nonexistent. Most Pokémon are completely useless from a competitive perspective due to glaring issues like poor typing, no evolutions, poor stat distribution, or a bad move pool. Some types are objectively terrible (bug and ice come to mind). Third parties like Smogon have had to create tiers so that the majority of the roster isn't ignored entirely. That's really sad.
Splitting the game into two versions (and then a third version that mostly renders the other two obsolete, but barely makes any meaningful improvements) has always been a greedy and anti-consumer move. I don't believe for a second that it has ever been about trying to get you to work together with other players. The third version always shows that the first two had a rushed development cycle. It shouldn't cost hundreds of dollars to catch 'em all.
The stagnation that began with Generation III continues here. Generation VI marks a turning point for the series where the quality starts to noticeably decline.
Generation VII visuals are mediocre at best. Everything is lacking in detail and the game has noticeable performance issues during double battles. Animations are poor. Other 3DS games like Dragon Quest VIII look and run substantially better. The improvements over Generation VI are minor.
Calling this a 3D game is laughable. The camera isn't controllable at any point in the game. It's a 2D game with a low poly coat of 3D paint. GameFreak's technical incompetence has always held back the series. The issues become harder to ignore as the hardware gets more powerful. Dragon Quest VIII has a large, fully 3D world with no random encounters. Pokémon has no excuse.
There aren't any noteworthy additions in this generation. Z moves are gimmicky and mega evolution is a much more interesting mechanic.
The postgame is mediocre at best.
Pokémon Ultra Sun's changes to Sun are very minor. Charging $40 for what should be a $10 DLC at best is criminal. They made the already poor story even worse, so it's not even a definitive upgrade in that aspect.
The litany of problems that have always held Pokémon back are still here and are completely unaddressed:
The story/writing is some of the worst that the medium has to offer. The world of Pokémon has a lot of potential for interesting storytelling, but it's completely wasted. The characters and story are paper-thin. It's basically the exact same plot as the first two generations. The world revolves around the player and no one else has any competence or agency.
The AI is brain-dead and the games are painfully easy for anyone older than six. Most of the time you can just mash A with your starter to win. Exploration is very limited. Dungeons are simplistic and straightforward. The lack of a difficulty option severely hurts the experience. The fact that players have to create ROM hacks and player-imposed rules (e.g., Nuzlocke) to make the games even remotely challenging is pathetic.
Quality of life features are lacking. Battles take forever even with the animations turned off. You can't skip through the shitty dialogue. It's so damn slow without using an emulator. You only get one save file.
The music is good, but the audio loops are very short. Towns are all small and only have a small handful of NPCs/buildings.
Balancing is nonexistent. Most Pokémon are completely useless from a competitive perspective due to glaring issues like poor typing, no evolutions, poor stat distribution, or a bad move pool. Some types are objectively terrible (bug and ice come to mind). Third parties like Smogon have had to create tiers so that the majority of the roster isn't ignored entirely. That's really sad.
Splitting the game into two versions (and then a third version that mostly renders the other two obsolete, but barely makes any meaningful improvements) has always been a greedy and anti-consumer move. I don't believe for a second that it has ever been about trying to get you to work together with other players. The third version always shows that the first two had a rushed development cycle. It shouldn't cost hundreds of dollars to catch 'em all.