"Superior men understand what is right. Inferior men understand what will sell."
Genuinely surprised that this game wasn't awful, but I had to sandbag hard to make it remotely challenging (for reference I ended up around 5-7 levels below Cynthia's team). If you want to do the same, what I did was avoid around 1/2 of all avoidable trainer fights and avoid all wild pokémon with repels. Once you beat the sixth gym, avoid as many avoidable trainers as possible instead of just 1/2. When I played it the way I did, I found it actually enjoyable even though it was super rough.
In short though, this and SP don't really have anything going for them over Platinum besides just updated movesets/typings and having a better Underground. So uh, if you were looking to play some Sinnoh stuff you're probably better off just going with Platinum anyway. It doesn't help that Platinum still looks and sounds a ton better than these games do...
Still, I'm glad I didn't regret this. Hopefully the next time TPCI outsources a major Pokémon game, they'll A) give it to a developer who is more prolific and familiar with consoles than ILCA, and B) not let Masuda direct it. If those two points are accomplished, we could actually see the first genuinely good Pokémon game in nearly a decade one day. It's TPCI though so I don't really have much hope.
Genuinely surprised that this game wasn't awful, but I had to sandbag hard to make it remotely challenging (for reference I ended up around 5-7 levels below Cynthia's team). If you want to do the same, what I did was avoid around 1/2 of all avoidable trainer fights and avoid all wild pokémon with repels. Once you beat the sixth gym, avoid as many avoidable trainers as possible instead of just 1/2. When I played it the way I did, I found it actually enjoyable even though it was super rough.
In short though, this and SP don't really have anything going for them over Platinum besides just updated movesets/typings and having a better Underground. So uh, if you were looking to play some Sinnoh stuff you're probably better off just going with Platinum anyway. It doesn't help that Platinum still looks and sounds a ton better than these games do...
Still, I'm glad I didn't regret this. Hopefully the next time TPCI outsources a major Pokémon game, they'll A) give it to a developer who is more prolific and familiar with consoles than ILCA, and B) not let Masuda direct it. If those two points are accomplished, we could actually see the first genuinely good Pokémon game in nearly a decade one day. It's TPCI though so I don't really have much hope.