After weeks of playing and seeing all of the mixed this reception this game has gotten, I had a pretty hard time deciding how I feel about this game. However, despite the numerous performance issues I’ve encountered and one of the worst level curves in the series, I can’t deny that Pokemon Scarlet is probably the most fun I’ve had playing a Pokemon game in almost a decade.

The grounded story, the lively characters, the breadth of exploration, the stellar soundtrack, the Pokemon designs, and the competitive accessibility features are all some of the best the series has to offer that made playing through the game a blast. Because you have the option to explore almost everywhere, smart use of the battle mechanics makes it possible sequence break unlike almost all other entries. It was especially satisfying for me to take down later gym leaders or Titans earlier than expected even if it accentuated the problems with the level curve even more. The ease of getting candies for leveling and ability changing capsules through raids make it the quickest it’s ever been to make a competitive ready Pokemon. Also, this is largely subjective, but I think this is the best set of new pokemon designs we have had since the 5th generation, with this game being a first in almost all of my team’s slots being filled by new Pokemon. The climax of the story and the entire last gameplay sequence is definitely the best the series has put out so far.

I do want to mention that it does feel like a couple steps back were taken from Pokemon Legends Arceus. The catching system, crafting system, animations, and speed of battles were all significantly better in that game and are sorely missed here. This is definitely because the games were in development at the same time, but it doesn’t excuse that it is still worse.

Regardless of if you had issues with the linearity of the past Pokemon games, I think the gameplay and story provide a lot to love here if you can look past the performance issues.