Here are some thoughts on this game. I have yet to finish it, but as someone who has played every Pokemon game I felt I needed to give others some insight on this game.
Pros:
- The game is fun
- The Pokemon variety is almost unmatched. The amount of Pokemon you can have on your team and use in your playthrough is huge.
- Terrastalizing is a fun mechanic and is not a "get out of jail free" card that Dynamax was. You can terrastalize and still get completely OHKO'd.
- Exploring the huge map is fun and I could do it for hours without progressing the story at all.
- The three "stories" provides a changeup to the core series that is great to have.
- The character designs are top notch, especially the Team Star bosses.
- Some of the new Pokemon are really great.
- The new abilities and attacks are a great way to change up Pokemon and I hope they introduce more like them in the future.
- The internet connectivity features are FAR better than in Sword and Shield.
- The towns are huge
- The map overall has verticality and there are just loads of nooks and crannies to explore.
Cons:
- The techincal aspect of the game is absolute shambles. It runs like complete ass at times to the point of hitting 10 FPS.
- Glitches abound. This is by far the least polished Pokemon game I have ever played.
- Some of the new Pokemon designs are just not good.
- The towns are overall empty. You can't enter the houses or really interact with people at all like in all other Pokemon titles.
- The gym buildings are pointless and only serve as way points. Why have them at all?
- The lack of real trainer customization is a step backwards.
- What is the academy even for? I have classes I can take? Why would I even want to do that? This is a Pokemon game, not a school simulator.
- The lack of aiming when throwing your pokeball makes no sense. It was perfect in Legends: Arceus, but is gone now for some reason.
- I would rather be able to just catch Pokemon without battling them like you were able to do in Legends: Arceus.
- Textures are pretty ugly in some places.
- Gym Tests are boring to pointless sometimes, few are actually fun.
- The lack of a true open world is annoying. You can't face the gyms in any order, there is a "right" order to face them and level scaling doesn't exist.
- Shiny Pokémon that spawn in the overworld do not sparkle or make a noise when they appear as they did in Legends: Arceus. I have no idea why this feature was removed.
I'll likely update this when I beat the game.
Pros:
- The game is fun
- The Pokemon variety is almost unmatched. The amount of Pokemon you can have on your team and use in your playthrough is huge.
- Terrastalizing is a fun mechanic and is not a "get out of jail free" card that Dynamax was. You can terrastalize and still get completely OHKO'd.
- Exploring the huge map is fun and I could do it for hours without progressing the story at all.
- The three "stories" provides a changeup to the core series that is great to have.
- The character designs are top notch, especially the Team Star bosses.
- Some of the new Pokemon are really great.
- The new abilities and attacks are a great way to change up Pokemon and I hope they introduce more like them in the future.
- The internet connectivity features are FAR better than in Sword and Shield.
- The towns are huge
- The map overall has verticality and there are just loads of nooks and crannies to explore.
Cons:
- The techincal aspect of the game is absolute shambles. It runs like complete ass at times to the point of hitting 10 FPS.
- Glitches abound. This is by far the least polished Pokemon game I have ever played.
- Some of the new Pokemon designs are just not good.
- The towns are overall empty. You can't enter the houses or really interact with people at all like in all other Pokemon titles.
- The gym buildings are pointless and only serve as way points. Why have them at all?
- The lack of real trainer customization is a step backwards.
- What is the academy even for? I have classes I can take? Why would I even want to do that? This is a Pokemon game, not a school simulator.
- The lack of aiming when throwing your pokeball makes no sense. It was perfect in Legends: Arceus, but is gone now for some reason.
- I would rather be able to just catch Pokemon without battling them like you were able to do in Legends: Arceus.
- Textures are pretty ugly in some places.
- Gym Tests are boring to pointless sometimes, few are actually fun.
- The lack of a true open world is annoying. You can't face the gyms in any order, there is a "right" order to face them and level scaling doesn't exist.
- Shiny Pokémon that spawn in the overworld do not sparkle or make a noise when they appear as they did in Legends: Arceus. I have no idea why this feature was removed.
I'll likely update this when I beat the game.