The story carries this game, and made me more excited for the Pokemon mainline series. Arven's story is so good. I love the professor's motivations in this one. The characters are very good and their motivations are well written. I haven't had this much fun with a Pokemon game in a while.

The multiplayer was really fun. I liked being able to play with viewers and connect with them and their teams on a new level in Pokemon outside of battling.

That being said, this is the most frustrating and infuriating gamplay experience ever. Glitches, cutting, and pop-in show a lack of polish and care. Basic Pokemon functions and quality-of-life upgrades that were solved in previous games are just not here (healing with potions multiple times with multiple Pokemon without having to go back into the bag section. I didn't realize how QOL that small feature was until it was missing in this game). Lack of a lot of favourites missing, empty towns with no purpose, unable to go into buildings, really show how corners were cut and features that Pokemon fans love were removed for the sake of time, it really shows.

It's all the small things adding up made for a frustrating experience. I want to like this game. I DO like this game, but it's unacceptable to have a game in this state STILL, months later. I am hoping the DLC rectifies at the very least, the bugs and lag.