it's so so close to being awesome, but it runs so badly and its presentation in general is so far under par that it winds up feeling sad in a way. there are aspects of it that are enjoyable and cool for sure - the general exploration and snappiness of gameplay, the tendency to let the game shut up, and even the writing somehow - but everything besides those things came across as needing to be in the oven for much longer. like it boggles my mind that a pokemon soundtrack can drop and be so consistently worse than mid, yet we somehow got that. nothing in the game scales, and that choice is one I'm super mixed on. the designs look terrible to me. the list goes on.
more than anything, though, I think this game was a good final hurrah for me with this franchise. I'm not going to turn around and fully stop caring at all since pokemon still has been a big part of my life (and pmd isn't dead yet), but I have to thank this generation for finally revealing that there don't need to be any more airs put on that the franchise is keeping the things that I fell in love with it for. I don't have to scrutinize it much anymore in the way I did for generations 6-8 and I don't have to feel the need to pick up any of the newer releases in hopes that they've realized the world is what makes pokemon so special. from the mcdonald's playplace region with all the biomes in a disc shape to the meme tier pokemon designs and names to the lore just generally not trying to make sense anymore, I think it's easy to acknowledge that now pokemon as it once was is wholly over. hell, even for the anime i've heard rumors that ash may retire, and now we've even reached over 1000 pokemon - a huge milestone. oras is what started the decline of the worldbuilding this series was so great at, but i think this is the proper turning point game that is a lot of fun and one last fun ride before getting off and moving on. i appreciate it a lot for that. maybe going forward tpci will let game freak put more time into their games to let them truly shine in ways this game clearly wanted to.
more than anything, though, I think this game was a good final hurrah for me with this franchise. I'm not going to turn around and fully stop caring at all since pokemon still has been a big part of my life (and pmd isn't dead yet), but I have to thank this generation for finally revealing that there don't need to be any more airs put on that the franchise is keeping the things that I fell in love with it for. I don't have to scrutinize it much anymore in the way I did for generations 6-8 and I don't have to feel the need to pick up any of the newer releases in hopes that they've realized the world is what makes pokemon so special. from the mcdonald's playplace region with all the biomes in a disc shape to the meme tier pokemon designs and names to the lore just generally not trying to make sense anymore, I think it's easy to acknowledge that now pokemon as it once was is wholly over. hell, even for the anime i've heard rumors that ash may retire, and now we've even reached over 1000 pokemon - a huge milestone. oras is what started the decline of the worldbuilding this series was so great at, but i think this is the proper turning point game that is a lot of fun and one last fun ride before getting off and moving on. i appreciate it a lot for that. maybe going forward tpci will let game freak put more time into their games to let them truly shine in ways this game clearly wanted to.
slimedotcom
6 months ago