Let me start the review out by cutting to the chase, this is the best Pokémon game you can play right now and probably will be for the next couple of years. Even so, the game has many flaws, some with gameplay, many more with game performance. This game has some great onboarding for new players, letting players attend classes that teach many of the systems in the game, and the rock papers scissors aspect makes it easy for anyone of any age to pick up and play, its deep stat-based system makes it very enticing for people that are more into min-maxing and crunching numbers, to make a hard-hitting team. The story is decent but not too memorable, the legendries treasure had me in tears a couple of times, but the other arcs were not very original.
This is the first Pokémon to seemingly open the world right away for the player to traverse, letting them choose where to go and what type of “treasure” they want to find. At the start you are told of three paths, collecting gym badges, collecting legendary treasure, or fighting the games main protagonist team star. The problem is you need to complete these tasks in a pretty linear order, otherwise you will not be able to progress, you need gym badges to control higher level Pokémon, you need treasure to traverse different landscapes, and team star blocks your path to progression at several turns. This leads to confusion, as they do not provide enough information to lead you to your next goal, so it can be frustrating to find where to go next.
One of the best things about a Pokémon game is the tremendous number of pokemon you are able to catch and train. This game has 400 Pokémon in the local pokedex and will have a national pokedex added later that will add so many more. For the first time you can actually see the pokemon on the field and you can pick and choose the ones you want to catch or battle. One great thing about this is that if a pokemon is shiny you can tell right away because it will be a different color, although there are no other signs to let you know, so you have to really look at everything on screen. Shiny hunting has become very popular as you can get a very rare pokemon that may be a totally different color from the regular one. They even allow you to eat a meal to increase the rate you may see shiny pokemon.
Another new thing to the series is a school campus where you can attend classes that teach you the ins and outs of the game and its world. While attending the classes I thought I had little to learn, being a veteran of the series since it started in 1997, but upon completion I was astonished to learn a few things I was unaware of. There are also social options with several of the school staff that add more story and depth to the characters but nothing that really effects the game. This is a bit disappointing as it seemed like such a great way to add new features or change the game in some way.
This game also has a pretty solid multiplayer where you can invite up to 3 other people to your party and each person can catch, battle, and progress their story. This also makes an easy way to trade pokemon between your friends, and if your friend has the other version of the game, pokemon from both games will appear in the world. A downsize is you have to be pretty close to each other for this to happen. One thing that was a bit disappointing about this is there is not drop in and drop out aspect, once you start a game, you cannot add any new members to the game, requiring everyone to save the game, disband the party, and then create a new group. While playing online with friends, I had several connection issues, but nothing so bad as to make me avoid the process
Raids have returned to the game, they are special pokemon battles where four players or computer-controlled teammates battle simultaneously and once beaten can be captured, they are identified individually on the map, so they are easy to find. However, they seem a bit lackluster as compared to the previous game as you can only see about 8 battles you can join and there is no option to search for anything in particular. Another issue I am finding, two week into the game, is that these battles are mostly failing, but this could be due to the fact the game is so new and not everyone has fully developed their team. These things can be very frustrating because they are the main focus after you beat the game.
Now let’s get to the technical issues with the game. First the game just doesn’t look very good. Many of the color choices are bland and could use a more vibrant choice. The biggest issue though are the technical problems. I cannot think of a game in the last two decades that has performed so poorly. The framerate drops drastically if there are more than a couple of things on screen, there are lots of times you will get pop in, and this is made even worse because you can run into a pokemon that hasn’t populated the screen yet. Just standing in any of the later cities has characters passing you seemingly moving a single frame at a time.
Overall, I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a game where you collect and battle. So far, I have over 100 hours of game time and I do not feel like I have fully completed everything I want to accomplish. Completing the collection of all the pokemon in the game has not been a goal of mine since the first released in 1997, however I find a deep desire to complete this one. If you have any games in your family or are looking for a child friendly game this will be easy to pick up and you can even play together.