Ok, so I’ve caught em’ all on this one (as much as it’s possible to catch ‘em all in these newfangled games, anyway), so I thought I’d give this latest Pokémon entry a quick review.
Is it better than Pokémon Scarlet/Violet? Yes, thank Arceus, yes it is. Then again, that’s not saying a lot, since Scarlet/Violet were glitchier than me trying to pronounce a series of particular alphabet sounds without having a major league stammer attack (will I be telling you those particular sounds? No, I don’t think I will). (¬‿¬)
Are there any new Pokémon, you ask? Nope. Not hugely surprising, since this game’s set in a specific generation timeline, but come on Nintendo, give us something. The generation in question is number 6, so it’s all about mega generations this time. And there are some new ones, so I guess that’s something. I definitely wasn’t expecting the starmie mega evolution. Basically Patrick Star making his Pokémon debut. You remember that dance sequence where he’s in stilettos at the end of The SpongeBob SquarePants movie? Well, it looks a bit like that. Check out the memes for further reference. 𓇼
The decision to set this whole shebang in a single city rather than a whole region seems kind of sus. It’s ok, but it’s just limiting. And the battle system took me a while to get used to. It’s basically all out chaos button mashing for the most part, but at least it’s a bit different from the usual more mannered tradition of pressing buttons and waiting for the other player to make their move. ≽^•⩊•^≼
As for the storyline, it’s more interesting than Scarlet/Violet’s storyline. But again, not really saying much, because that’s Scarlet/Violet. And a main character dies. Which I think marks the first time a character has actually died in the series. Yay? And apparently, it’s easier to hunt shinies now. Good to know. I was mostly interested in buying every single piece of clothing possible. Sure, that set me back several million poké dollars, but it was worth it. Kind of. Ϟ(๑⚈ ․̫ ⚈๑)⋆
Definitely a marked improvement compared to, um…Scarlet and Violet, but still nothing to write home about. I sort of felt that the fact this was being released after a longer period of time compared to previous entries meant there’d be a lot more going on, but there isn’t. The graphics are fine, but you’d still expect more from a Switch 2 game. And there generally just aren’t as many good plot twists. Sure, there was L and all that, but was there a anything like Legends Arceus’ Volo Reveal alongside the Cynthia piano (if you know, you know). No, there wasn’t. And the hefty price tag doesn’t quite feel worth it either. Heck, that won’t stop the game shifting millions of copies, but still. I expected more.
(Here below should be the surprised Pikachu meme face in textual format, but good old WordPress don’t like their single spacing, so you’ll just have to look at this slightly unnerving Edvard Munch-style one instead)
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