After a long hiatus Im back in the Pokemon series. I picked up Pokemon Y when it launched but wasnt feeling it at all, but in prep for Sun and Moon I decided to come back to it as well as ORAS eventually. Lets Begin:
Story
Me: So the story...
Fan: Wait mishakoz, you can't judge a pokemon game on its story!
Me: Yes i can, it clearly tried to have a story, moreso than most of the other games, so Im going to evaluate it.
This is the first game that really annoyed me with its story and characters. You essentially team up with 4 friends from the very beginning that have little to no character, each defined by a single attribute. Unfortunately, with four friends comes four times the interruptions. You will be stopped and holocasted constantly, I remember i was stopped 3 times on a single route for a cutscene (the Battle Mansion route). It breaks up the gameplay and its why I stopped playing the game when it first came out. Not to mention i felt more led by the nose than ever. It does lead to a nice moment where you battle them one after another at the tail end of the journey, but they were never a necessary part of the game to me.
So the plot of Pokemon games has always been over the top. Team Whatever wants to control time and space and yadda yadda. But for me it was always kept abstract. In Pokemon Y, Team Flare literally broadcasts to the entire region that they are going to straight-up genocide everyone, and its up to some 12 year old boy to stop them. No gym leaders, no elite four attempting to help (Like Lance in Gold and Silver). Its just you. Its fricking stupid, and no one in the world reacts to the news. Its a pokemon story, whatever, but its almost self-parody when your opponent is Hitler levels of evil.
Gameplay
When thinking about writing this, I was initially going to say that the difficulty scaling in this game was some of the best. That was, until, I discovered that I unintentionally neutered myself by turning off the XP share. Unbeknownst to me, its actually free additional XP, not "shared" like the name implies. Well, at least I enjoyed the difficulty.
This game is really strangely laid out and paced. Gym 2 is a long time from gym 1 and you go thru several gymless cities before finally finding number 2. Nothing wrong with that in particular but it was a bit strange.
One thing I hate was the constant barriers. Blackouts, construction, people talking, all preventing you from progressing forward. (the Blackout in Luminose is particularly hilarious because you can see NPCs in the background walking freely into the blackout area.) I know pokemon games never let you progress to far, but at least you could get the Fuschia badge before the Saffron, or go down the eastern route instead of the bike trail. This one is super linear.
Battles
Battles feel good but the types are getting harder to keep track of. Minor annoyance but I have to constantly look up some of the weirder relationships, like Bug being super-effective against Dark, or Steel against Fairy. Likewise, pokemon are getting harder to decipher which type they are based on looks, so looking them up is almost necessary (the ingame pokedex doesnt say unless you capture them)
Loved double battles, rotation battles, triple battles, but trainers themselves have been completely neutered. I think in the entire main game the only trainers with 6 pokemon are the Champion and that one guy with 6 magikarp. Its ridiculous, especially insulting when the Elite 4 only have four pokemon, gym leaders only have 3.
Pokemon
This Gen's additions were the most disappointing yet. There aren't that many additions, and not a lot of interesting type combinations that could have been added. Another straight dragon type, great. Nevermind all the dragon-combinations that havent been done yet. I tried getting some of the more interesting ones, the Ghost-Grass (should have gone with the steel ghost but nevermind) but I wasn't feeling much else. Eventually my lineup became all dragons: Druggidon, Dragonite, Hydreigon, Salamence, Tyrantrum, and Garchomp. Which is fun, I like my dragons, but I would have liked to try some new, more interesting types
One thing I hated about this game is how it gives you pokemon. You have your starter, the Gen 1 starter, the early snorlax, and Lucario. All powerful pokemon that you can happen upon, and likely you are going to use 2 of those for the mega evolution.
Conclusion
This is my least favorite Pokemon in years, possibly ever. I look forward to ORAS but this one was a grind to get through. I feel bad because maybe im outgrowing Pokemon, but at the same time I enjoyed the hell out of the game taking on the champion. I just want some things to be there, I want more trainers with 6 pokemon (or at least close to that).
So, eh? Onto ORAS!
Story
Me: So the story...
Fan: Wait mishakoz, you can't judge a pokemon game on its story!
Me: Yes i can, it clearly tried to have a story, moreso than most of the other games, so Im going to evaluate it.
This is the first game that really annoyed me with its story and characters. You essentially team up with 4 friends from the very beginning that have little to no character, each defined by a single attribute. Unfortunately, with four friends comes four times the interruptions. You will be stopped and holocasted constantly, I remember i was stopped 3 times on a single route for a cutscene (the Battle Mansion route). It breaks up the gameplay and its why I stopped playing the game when it first came out. Not to mention i felt more led by the nose than ever. It does lead to a nice moment where you battle them one after another at the tail end of the journey, but they were never a necessary part of the game to me.
So the plot of Pokemon games has always been over the top. Team Whatever wants to control time and space and yadda yadda. But for me it was always kept abstract. In Pokemon Y, Team Flare literally broadcasts to the entire region that they are going to straight-up genocide everyone, and its up to some 12 year old boy to stop them. No gym leaders, no elite four attempting to help (Like Lance in Gold and Silver). Its just you. Its fricking stupid, and no one in the world reacts to the news. Its a pokemon story, whatever, but its almost self-parody when your opponent is Hitler levels of evil.
Gameplay
When thinking about writing this, I was initially going to say that the difficulty scaling in this game was some of the best. That was, until, I discovered that I unintentionally neutered myself by turning off the XP share. Unbeknownst to me, its actually free additional XP, not "shared" like the name implies. Well, at least I enjoyed the difficulty.
This game is really strangely laid out and paced. Gym 2 is a long time from gym 1 and you go thru several gymless cities before finally finding number 2. Nothing wrong with that in particular but it was a bit strange.
One thing I hate was the constant barriers. Blackouts, construction, people talking, all preventing you from progressing forward. (the Blackout in Luminose is particularly hilarious because you can see NPCs in the background walking freely into the blackout area.) I know pokemon games never let you progress to far, but at least you could get the Fuschia badge before the Saffron, or go down the eastern route instead of the bike trail. This one is super linear.
Battles
Battles feel good but the types are getting harder to keep track of. Minor annoyance but I have to constantly look up some of the weirder relationships, like Bug being super-effective against Dark, or Steel against Fairy. Likewise, pokemon are getting harder to decipher which type they are based on looks, so looking them up is almost necessary (the ingame pokedex doesnt say unless you capture them)
Loved double battles, rotation battles, triple battles, but trainers themselves have been completely neutered. I think in the entire main game the only trainers with 6 pokemon are the Champion and that one guy with 6 magikarp. Its ridiculous, especially insulting when the Elite 4 only have four pokemon, gym leaders only have 3.
Pokemon
This Gen's additions were the most disappointing yet. There aren't that many additions, and not a lot of interesting type combinations that could have been added. Another straight dragon type, great. Nevermind all the dragon-combinations that havent been done yet. I tried getting some of the more interesting ones, the Ghost-Grass (should have gone with the steel ghost but nevermind) but I wasn't feeling much else. Eventually my lineup became all dragons: Druggidon, Dragonite, Hydreigon, Salamence, Tyrantrum, and Garchomp. Which is fun, I like my dragons, but I would have liked to try some new, more interesting types
One thing I hated about this game is how it gives you pokemon. You have your starter, the Gen 1 starter, the early snorlax, and Lucario. All powerful pokemon that you can happen upon, and likely you are going to use 2 of those for the mega evolution.
Conclusion
This is my least favorite Pokemon in years, possibly ever. I look forward to ORAS but this one was a grind to get through. I feel bad because maybe im outgrowing Pokemon, but at the same time I enjoyed the hell out of the game taking on the champion. I just want some things to be there, I want more trainers with 6 pokemon (or at least close to that).
So, eh? Onto ORAS!
