So having finally finished the game after some long breaks here is my review. There will be story spoilers further down.
I like Pokémon going open world quite a lot. The games becoming more and more linear is something that has been annoying me for many many generations and seeing a 180 was a pleasant surprise. I got a bit overleveled for some areas but that's pretty much inevitable with this sort of game design. I also like the approach to overleveling in this game, with Pokémon you have raised still obeying you, and Pokémon you have caught over the badge threshold being harder to catch(but still catchable) and being disobedient.
The world felt a bit bland to me though. Not in how it looks and feels, which I liked, and traversing the land on your Raidon feels good, especially if you get to places you aren't really supposed to be. However I wish there were more Pokémon with very specific spawns as the only ones I actually had a hard time finding were some with very low spawn rates, not very specific spawn points, sans a few Paradoxes. The roaming Tera Pokémon were usually just evolved forms of easily available Pokémon, or just easily available Pokémon. I also wish there were more hold items you could find instead of just TMs, Evolution Stones, Potions, Pokéballs, and Berries. Almost all hold items are gated behind either beating a set amount of trainers or just purchasing them.
Keeping on that topic, the cities were very much a letdown for me. I have always had fun talking to every NPC I have encountered, but in this game I just looked for the ones with a yellow text box above their head. The lack of interiors also made the cities feel rather lifeless.
I think the three routes with one final route behind them was a pretty cool approach to the open world.
The Titan route was pretty decent, Arven is likable but I would have preferred if he couldn't just about solo most of the Titans on his own. The Gym Leader route is what you would expect which I am pleased with. Nemona is a cool rival, although I think she could have gotten a bit annoying if she appeared any more than she did given her one-note personality,what happened to her issue with catching Pokémon which they put emphasis on in pre-release material? I would also like to say that it was nice to for once get a feeling of the E4 as a proper group. The Star Route was probably the one I liked the least from a narrative standpoint. Every boss there going about "my greatest treasure" after you defeat them became a bit forced and kind of undermined the ending of the route a bit. The whole issue also felt rather contrived. Gameplay wise I'm a bit torn on the Team Star route, the actual battles against the bosses were great, but the raid segments felt like mindless padding. Also I didn't really like Penny, especially in the endgame when she became more snarky.
I don't really care for story in Pokémon games that much and prefer it to take a backseat to the gameplay but I did actually enjoy the endgame story quite a lot. Area Zero had an excellent atmosphere, from the design to the music to the narrative. Probably my favorite story segment of the main story in a Pokémon game to date although the Looker post-game story in XY is still the best in my opinion.
So onto the trainer battles. Aside from the final boss who has a Booster Energy, none of the main bosses have any hold items on their teams, although a few regular trainers do. I'm also pretty sure that they're incapable of switching or using in-battle items like Potions as well, which feels pretty dumbed down. To top it off I don't like how the trainers are hard-coded to send out their tera mon last, which makes the fights feel more spectacular than strategic. Key example is Geeta which enough people have complained about.
On to Tera, which I think is an actual fun battle gimmick that makes a lot of sense for Pokémon, although I find it hard to care about it since it's all but guaranteed to not stick around. The way the Gym Leaders used Tera was also rather underwhelming and became predictable rather quickly.
I want to give a shoutout to the school classes. I'm glad they're not mandatory but there is some nice bonus content there. The "Social Link" approach felt pretty pointless but ignoring that some of the most charming characters in the game are among the teachers. I also liked that they went pretty in-depth in explaining the battle mechanics. For example, giving the exact multiplier and odds for critical hits. Granted I knew that stuff already but Pokémon has always been vague about explaining stuff like that in-game and I can definitely see new players appreciating it.
I don't play Pokémon games for the graphics either, and when the game runs optimally then it's perfectly passable. But the frequent stuttering took me out of the experience quite a few times (I mainly played Docked on a V1 Switch for those wondering). I also had three crashes which I honestly find inexcusable, two of which were online if anyone wondered. On topic of the bad performance, it's understandable that the spawn distance is so low, although it is a bit annoying when Pokémon spawn after you have passed them by. I also question why they didn't keep Pokémon making contact while using physical attacks like in PLA.
I miss a few other things from PLA as well, like mapping the buttons to options in-battle, but I don't think the outside-of-battle-catching mechanics would make much sense in SV though since they're based around you catching plenty of the same Pokémon which would have felt a bit too easy in SV where there isn't the same incentive to do so.
I do dislike the "trimming" that went on in this game. Pretty much none of the abilities have out-of-battle effects anymore like Synchronize and Rivalry, although Flame Body still works I've heard. Other features like Pokérus and the Set Battle Mode are also removed. Granted these are very minor additions to the game but they add some depth and have given the series a lot of its charm for me.
As for the new Pokémon I'm pretty neutral about them. Some hits and some misses. For someone whose main draw of the games where always the Pokémon themselves and the collection aspect, I've found it hard to care as much as I did ever since the dexcut. This is still a massive negative for me for any new Pokémon game but I don't think that decision is ever going to change given how they stood their ground when the "Dexit movement" was at its loudest. I would also say that the game suffers quite significantly from the movecut as well, with a lot of movepools feeling quite restricted.
As for post-game you really only have Tera Raids, which I'm pretty indifferent towards. I have a Nintendo Online subscription so I'm not that bothered but they seem very unfun to do solo. But again I don't have that much time to play anymore so the post-game in general isn't that important to me anymore.
Speaking of online, I will say that I really liked the Union Circle stuff. I played with a friend a few times and I thought that was tons of fun. Hoping to see that return in future titles.
Didn't use picnics since I don't like Affection as a mechanic so I can't really comment on them at all.
All in all, I had a good time with the game, and I like that they did try some new things this generation, although I still don't feel like the games do enough to justify the dex cut, and I would really appreciate if Pokémon games came out less frequently although given the money they continue to make I find that rather unlikely.
I like Pokémon going open world quite a lot. The games becoming more and more linear is something that has been annoying me for many many generations and seeing a 180 was a pleasant surprise. I got a bit overleveled for some areas but that's pretty much inevitable with this sort of game design. I also like the approach to overleveling in this game, with Pokémon you have raised still obeying you, and Pokémon you have caught over the badge threshold being harder to catch(but still catchable) and being disobedient.
The world felt a bit bland to me though. Not in how it looks and feels, which I liked, and traversing the land on your Raidon feels good, especially if you get to places you aren't really supposed to be. However I wish there were more Pokémon with very specific spawns as the only ones I actually had a hard time finding were some with very low spawn rates, not very specific spawn points, sans a few Paradoxes. The roaming Tera Pokémon were usually just evolved forms of easily available Pokémon, or just easily available Pokémon. I also wish there were more hold items you could find instead of just TMs, Evolution Stones, Potions, Pokéballs, and Berries. Almost all hold items are gated behind either beating a set amount of trainers or just purchasing them.
Keeping on that topic, the cities were very much a letdown for me. I have always had fun talking to every NPC I have encountered, but in this game I just looked for the ones with a yellow text box above their head. The lack of interiors also made the cities feel rather lifeless.
I think the three routes with one final route behind them was a pretty cool approach to the open world.
The Titan route was pretty decent, Arven is likable but I would have preferred if he couldn't just about solo most of the Titans on his own. The Gym Leader route is what you would expect which I am pleased with. Nemona is a cool rival, although I think she could have gotten a bit annoying if she appeared any more than she did given her one-note personality,
I don't really care for story in Pokémon games that much and prefer it to take a backseat to the gameplay but I did actually enjoy the endgame story quite a lot. Area Zero had an excellent atmosphere, from the design to the music to the narrative. Probably my favorite story segment of the main story in a Pokémon game to date although the Looker post-game story in XY is still the best in my opinion.
So onto the trainer battles. Aside from the final boss who has a Booster Energy, none of the main bosses have any hold items on their teams, although a few regular trainers do. I'm also pretty sure that they're incapable of switching or using in-battle items like Potions as well, which feels pretty dumbed down. To top it off I don't like how the trainers are hard-coded to send out their tera mon last, which makes the fights feel more spectacular than strategic. Key example is Geeta which enough people have complained about.
On to Tera, which I think is an actual fun battle gimmick that makes a lot of sense for Pokémon, although I find it hard to care about it since it's all but guaranteed to not stick around. The way the Gym Leaders used Tera was also rather underwhelming and became predictable rather quickly.
I want to give a shoutout to the school classes. I'm glad they're not mandatory but there is some nice bonus content there. The "Social Link" approach felt pretty pointless but ignoring that some of the most charming characters in the game are among the teachers. I also liked that they went pretty in-depth in explaining the battle mechanics. For example, giving the exact multiplier and odds for critical hits. Granted I knew that stuff already but Pokémon has always been vague about explaining stuff like that in-game and I can definitely see new players appreciating it.
I don't play Pokémon games for the graphics either, and when the game runs optimally then it's perfectly passable. But the frequent stuttering took me out of the experience quite a few times (I mainly played Docked on a V1 Switch for those wondering). I also had three crashes which I honestly find inexcusable, two of which were online if anyone wondered. On topic of the bad performance, it's understandable that the spawn distance is so low, although it is a bit annoying when Pokémon spawn after you have passed them by. I also question why they didn't keep Pokémon making contact while using physical attacks like in PLA.
I miss a few other things from PLA as well, like mapping the buttons to options in-battle, but I don't think the outside-of-battle-catching mechanics would make much sense in SV though since they're based around you catching plenty of the same Pokémon which would have felt a bit too easy in SV where there isn't the same incentive to do so.
I do dislike the "trimming" that went on in this game. Pretty much none of the abilities have out-of-battle effects anymore like Synchronize and Rivalry, although Flame Body still works I've heard. Other features like Pokérus and the Set Battle Mode are also removed. Granted these are very minor additions to the game but they add some depth and have given the series a lot of its charm for me.
As for the new Pokémon I'm pretty neutral about them. Some hits and some misses. For someone whose main draw of the games where always the Pokémon themselves and the collection aspect, I've found it hard to care as much as I did ever since the dexcut. This is still a massive negative for me for any new Pokémon game but I don't think that decision is ever going to change given how they stood their ground when the "Dexit movement" was at its loudest. I would also say that the game suffers quite significantly from the movecut as well, with a lot of movepools feeling quite restricted.
As for post-game you really only have Tera Raids, which I'm pretty indifferent towards. I have a Nintendo Online subscription so I'm not that bothered but they seem very unfun to do solo. But again I don't have that much time to play anymore so the post-game in general isn't that important to me anymore.
Speaking of online, I will say that I really liked the Union Circle stuff. I played with a friend a few times and I thought that was tons of fun. Hoping to see that return in future titles.
Didn't use picnics since I don't like Affection as a mechanic so I can't really comment on them at all.
All in all, I had a good time with the game, and I like that they did try some new things this generation, although I still don't feel like the games do enough to justify the dex cut, and I would really appreciate if Pokémon games came out less frequently although given the money they continue to make I find that rather unlikely.
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