Pokemon fans have been dreaming of an open world game since the 90s.
We wanted breath and scale, challenge, adventure, exploration and mystery.
I guess we kinda got some of those things.
In the end this feels like a game that sort of met us half way. But also revealled that Game Freak are too scared to take actual risks.
There are some nice game mechanics, and it is kinda nice wandering around. But it's the same old game when you think about it. It's old pokemon in a more open field minus the gyms. That's it. Pokeballs are supposed to be a brand new invention but we're still unlocking better and specialised balls .... that's the exact same old mechanic with a brand new mesh added. There is nothing new here. I repeat there is nothing new.
The concept is you're supposed to be in a time where people know very little about pokemon. You start the game with people being confused and terrified of weak common pokemon. I thought that was fantastic. That we're gonna dive in the deep end where nobody has been before. Have conversations about a pokemon evolving. Talking about never seen before pokemon. The potential was mind boggling. Instead we move from area to area only to discover people do infact know and understand all these pokemon already. And instead of "discovering" and "researching" we are instead given a checklist to pointlessly grind. It literally tells us what we must do, instead of being blind we're guided the while way. There is no reward n playing because there is no discovery.
The childish level this game has stuck with for decades is unfathomable. I can imagine why it started as a simple children's game. But its fanbase have long since grown up. We live in nostalgia and the best way to exploit that is to, like a pokemon, evolve. Zelda understood this. Which is why they mixed up the games. Creating different feel games for different audiences. Pokemon finally says they're gonna break free and ... well, I guess they broke one chain. Still many more caging them to a mediocre formula.
A lot of haters of critics jumped on me for saying this when I first agonised my way through the worst tutorial I've seen in years. But when you set the bar so low of course you're going to be impressed.... perhaps it's time to raise it a bit. Then maybe we won't get mediocre but an actual interesting game for once. If you're angrily shouting "but its open world!" Then sorry, if that's all it takes for you to declare this an exciting new direction that's never seen before then you're probably part of the reason why pokemon has been the same stale game it has been since those early days. Other franchises worked this s*** out yonks ago.
Dont get me wrong. It IS a step in the right direction. This is better than the more recent stuff, but also falls way short of the potential many of us dreamed of all those decades ago.
If I was to make one request. That would be to go all out. Take a real risk for once and give us something we can really get lost in. You can still make your boring kids versions. But actually step out for once and really build something great.
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