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After getting a glimpse of every other game that nintendo has made for this console, it's clear that the only department that doesn't update their content past the prototype stage is the Pokemon company and Game Freak. The main draw of the game is the art style and your favorite pokemon, and I think there's a lot of pokemon that have such a place in all the hearts of us fans that we will always love and find endearing. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing three doofy spinarak chilling in a corner during dialogue. But I think that's the only thing that has stopped everybody from calling out nintendo on their lack of desire to make pokemon rise up to the same level as Legend of Zelda, Mario, and every other franchise that they own, because there are free-to-play games with more heart and soul in them, as well as depth. The only place you can wander is the capital city. There are no puzzles. There are no movement abilities unless you fall. There are no secret passageways, no stunning scenery, and the pokemon they do drop into place are few and far between. This is the antithesis of what makes open worlds fun, and it's been something they've gotten wrong all the way back in Legends Arceus until now. If your open world is all open and no world, who cares? Please don't buy this game. As a huge fan of what pokemon was and can be, we deserve the same love and care poured into this franchise that is put into every other game of the same price tag. Don't reward them for publishing a game that clearly hasn't been updated since 2023.

I felt that the core mechanics of battle and stealth were really neat. It added something a little different to the gameplay. I also enjoyed being able to move around while your pokemon fights and seeing it in 3D. As far as the other mechanics, agile style and strong style didn't really matter too much in non boss fights, though, since you typically one to two shot most pokemon just like in games past. The thing that really bugs me, though, is the fact that they emphasized open exploration and then didn't put anything in worth exploring. Every nook and cranny that looks slightly different (and there aren't many of those) has the same 3 pokemon you were fighting in other parts of the region. There's no puzzles, there's no unique optional fights to seek out and find, and trying to maneuver over rocky terrain that looks like you could maybe get over is blocky and difficult. On top of that, the graphics are rather sub par for a switch release, and the game holds your hand constantly at the beginning, taking the better part of an hour just to be able to go where you want to instead of a story mission or a wall of text. I don't mean to be harsh, but this doesn't really meet my expectations of what I expected when I bought it. I wanted to be able to choose which region I explored first, but the game is almost as linear as the old ones despite having large, open fields. I was hoping for more to do besides just catching pokemon, like having special barriers that only certain type pokemon could deal with, but it's a bunch of achievement hunting. Some people may enjoy the repetition a lot, but I was just hoping this would be a much more free experience the way breath of the wild broke free of everything zelda used to be, and it kinda flopped in that regard.