This is a hard review for me to write. This game here is one of the most important games of my life. A favorite of mine since when I was a kid. By playing it more than 15 years later, I unfortunately found some glaring issues with it. Now, how does my feelings stand up after knowing about such flaws?

This is indeed a charming game. Its core systems work pretty well. The main thing is... this game punishes you for playing well. There I was, at Fall of the Second Year, having accomplished almost everything the game had to offer (the only thing left was to have my second child, but there was nothing I could on that sense; it was just a matter of time).

Without anything to look forward to, every mundane task of the farm became pointless. Why am I taking care of 12 chickens and 12 cows every single day if I can't be rewarded in any way for doing that? It was time consuming and tiresome (and it became worse knowing that the game can't handle many characters at the same screen; the framedrops were annoying). Half of the game felt pointless, really. I don't even know how I got to the end of it without dying of boredom.

House renovations? Got it. Marriage? Got it. Children? Got it. Max animals? Got it. Crops to the max. of my stamina? Got it.
Nothing of value was left. I had clearly exhausted the majority of the contents of the game halfway through it.

Although this game is still dear to me, much of the good experiences I had with Harvest Moon are directly linked to how poorly I played it when I was a kid. I'm not a pro, not at all. I could do much much better than I did. But just being a little above average was enough to make the game pointless. It's sad to admit it, but most of the fun I derived from this title came directly to my inexperienced younger self, learning what the hell a farming simulation game was. There were times when I didn't even manage to finish the game with a child, or even having any cows to begin with.

But the thing is... the systems work well. They are solid. And this game is special to me, still. I can't possibly give it a lower score than 3 stars out of 5. If I can let my heart speak and counsciously let it go over my critical thinking, let this game be the one where it does so. This one deserves it. My heart is willing to triumph this time, so it is with profound love that I thank this game for everything it did for me. For helping shape my taste in gaming and media in general, for keeping me company in my younger days of solitude. I love you, Harvest Moon!

I appreciate the changes in Pokémon catching and in battles, but this new open world structure of the main series lacks polish. This is an ugly and empty open world, filled with nothing but repetitive Pokémon catching and battling, both of which get old real quick. While the boss encounters are a fresh addition to the series, it is nothing new if you've been playing action games for the past 15 years or so. It is still Pokémon though, so the battling and leveling up is still fun, even if they're not accompanied by a solid progression system such as the gyms, which Game Freak never surpassed in my opinion. Moreover, the absolute state of this series currently seems to be this tired celebration of minor additions, even if they aren't new in the industry or even the genre as a whole. This isn't what a series with the size of Pokémon should strive for or deliver to its users.
Volo's theme rocks tho.

Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu is a really good game. Graphically, it goes for a pretty and cutesy aesthetic, adding a lot to the original game in terms of charm and personality. The gyms are prettier than ever, and even revamped in some cases. I could feel that the redesign of the gyms reflected the town they were located and also the character of the gym leaders, whom are also in their best form here.

It is good to see that the QoL changes present in SM are still here, like getting rid of HMs. Getting the "exp share" from the get-go is a welcome addition in my opinion, as it can get quite boring to train all new Pokémon individually, but I
also think that an option to turn it off should've been included for people who prefer it that way. The removal of random encounters is a huge plus, making some
tiresome sections of the original games like exploring caves and the sea much more comfortable and smooth. The addition of the Pokémon GO catching mechanic is a welcome one, because it turns the whole catching into a mechanic in itself, making the process much more interesting than it was before. They should've kept the wild
Pokémon battles, though.

This is nostalgic for those who played the original Kanto games or even the GBA remakes, but it is still Kanto, so I think this is nothing more than a 3.5/5. It is one of the most acessible and pretty ways one can experience the region, so I recommend it for newcomers and old fans alike.

This is a really beautiful game that pushes the 3DS' hardware to its limits and bring some welcome changes like getting rid of minor annoyances such as the double confirmation required to learn any new move. I also really like the new Pokémon designs, like Rockruff, Mudsdale and the introduction of Region Forms. It is great that HMs are finally gone, too. Gone are the times where you need to catch an HM slave so that you can progress in the game.

Nonetheless, the graphical and QoL improvements are not enough to make a good game, unfortunately. The trial systems, while harboring good intentions, are not as iconic as the gym battles, and they don't actually serve as good pacing tools like gyms do. This game's story drags and drags a LOT, and most of the time I felt that it wasn't even about the MC: you're just watching the story of Lillie and her family while battling some dudes and Pokémon here and there. The environments lack variety, mostly relying on grassy plains, cave variations and rocky/sandy beaches. The new gimmick, Z Moves, is a fun new addition with new, amazing animation sequences... that is, if you can handle seeing unskippable cutscenes every time you use them (trust me, they get boring after a couple times).

It is also clear that Game Freak was getting used to a new way of making the level design of Pokémon, different from the top down-ish pattern of the 2D games and XY, which despite being 3D games also followed it. The world is now fully designed with full 3D movement in mind, removing the "blocky" movement from the previous 8-direction limited generation. Movement is great in Ultra Sun, but the level design doesn't follow it quite yet, as the developers did not figure how to translate the route-to-route progress quite that well yet to this new dynamic.

TL;DR - Beautiful game that drags and really shouldn't be telling the kind of story it tells; many long requested QoL improvements accompanied by poor map/level design, frame drops, and interesting but problematic inclusions such as Z Moves and the Trial system.