Best pokemon game i played after blue/red/yellow.
This is what gamecube pokemon should have been.
For people that wonder what the gameplay is.
U basically end up on a beach and dont know where you come from, u get pushed into this village that has a 1 hour introduction so yea that's kinda rough to get through. The village has side quests npc's, and u got a main headquarters that is like a military command installation it seems like.
U need to rank up as you start without any rank, and there are something like 10-12 ranks. U do this by completing research. And each rank gives you 10 extra levels of controls over pokemon what u normally get in gyms, but gyms aren't in this game it seems like.
They tell you, u no longer buy your pokeballs in a pokecenter but u craft them with a recipe, so u gotta loot materials when hunting on the world to craft pokeballs.
So basically, when u catch a pokemon, the pokemon has research checklists on him, which u can complete such as, catch 20 of them, evolve them, get different versions of them, shoot 10x flame blast or get hit or whatever. It all yields research points, that u deliver to the professor that gives you stars to move further to next area's that open up.
So what changed in the game versus traditional pokemon games.
1) Experience is gained not only through fighting but also through capturing
2) Your character plays a far bigger combat role then old pokemons and u can do multiple fights at the same time. ( for example u can throw pokeball to catch a pokemon and while that's busy u can catch the next one next towards it.
3) Pokemons attack you the player, and u gotta dodge there attacks, throw either if they aren't aggro on you a pokeball on there ass ( there is tactic towards it ) or fight them with your pokemons and capture / fight them in there.
4) tm's and hms not longer seem to exist ( thank god ), its all gone. U see a rock, throw any pokemon against it and it gets destroyed.
5) still 6 men team, and u can switch in combat through them easily and fluently no longer this gated fight cinematic, same goes for throwing pokeballs. Far better
6) u can throw pokeballs with pokemon and get the pokemon out of your pokeball and against objects to loot items
7) Catching pokemons is a far more focus in this game and i like it a lot more over the main game where u get 3-4 good pokemons and stick with it.
8) focus on leveling pokemons is far less relevant as they keep up perfectly fine, and new pokemon are found everywhere from every generation so u shift stuff out a lot.
9) no longer move remover or learner or anything like that, your pokemons learn 4 skills then all skills after it they learn automatically but never pop up. U want your pokemons to learn the new skills, just go to the menu and change the skills on the fly of no cost anywhere u are. It's great. The most obnoxious shit is finally fixed, skill learning and delearning.
10) crafting station is a thing now, u need to farm materials to craft pokeballs, u can still buy basic pokeballs at a vendor but its expensive. The crafting station can be found in village / camps on the maps and also u have a portable one so u can craft at any moment
11) u can swap pokemons for other pokemons at a npc at a camp, which are placed eveywhere.
12) no gyms leaders found, maybe it will come later but in 16 hours and didn't saw a single gym leader so far, and i can catch 50+ pokemons at this point.
13) game has mounts now, which u unlock in maps that u unlock when u do main quests and get more stars. They are really well done and i like them a lot and super easy to use with a press of a button + swap around.
14) far less dialogue in the maps itself, its still there but way way reduced from the shield games which was just unplayable long dialogue. U are far more busy with finding new pokemons now and catch them for research points and trying to capture higher level rare pokemons in the world
15) fully evolved pokemon of super high levels are found in the world, caught a alakazam at lvl 60 in the starter area.
16) there are time bubbles in the maps that sometimes show up that have loads of different pokemons even fully evolved at low level in them that u can catch.
The gameplay loop is far more better and well worked out from the main games. I like it a a lot and it gives a bit of a breath of the wild pokemon edition idea.
Visuals are perfectly acceptable, they are not next gen level of visuals obviously. But once u get used towards it, its not longer a problem for sure.
Great game.
