listen, i know no one plays pokemon for the story, except apparently i do, because this story physically hurt me. it was so bland and so uninspired that i have to wonder who even allowed this absolute mess of writing to pass quality assurance. literally every character has exactly one (1) trait they never deviate from, and the story pretty much amounts to everyone saying the villain is "such a great man" only for the villain to literally just show up out of nowhere to say "this world is full of filth so i'm gonna kill everyone except the people i think are cool k thx bye". and then in the aftermath the game continues as if nothing happened and there are no consequences for the literal terrorist attack the local kids just prevented.

after the "climax" of the story (if it can even be called a climax) i was literally so mad that the game wasn't fun anymore, i could have stopped playing right there and nothing about my experience would have changed. the only reason i didn't stop is because apparently i'm stubborn enough to keep going just so i wouldn't have to mark this as abandoned. hell, i finished this game out of spite just to say that i have finished it, so i never have to touch it again. i genuinely don't think it's an exaggeration to say this is the first game i have ever outright hated, which makes it all the more shocking that it's a pokémon game, of all things.

the only reason i haven't ranked this lower is because the core gameplay is still pokémon, and the options you have in forming your team feel truly varied and interesting. also, the trainer portraits were genuinely beautiful and it's an art style i wish they kept in future games as well. shame such features were wasted on a game such as this.

good fucking riddance, pokémon y. i'm elated i never have to play you again.