Jamie Cross

This was an enjoyable game but it felt rushed. The gym battles were done very well and the puzzles were exciting to complete. However, there was little to do in between gyms so each time the next gym showed up I just thought "the next gym already? That was quick.". There should of been more to make the player think "theres the gym, am I ready for it?" rather then "oh, new gym already?" The game was repetitive as after each gym battle it was talk to Rose, Oleana, Sonia or the professor or battle Hop, Bede, Marnie and a few trainers and thats all the game is. Bede's gym leader story was OK but there could of been a lot more. Battles with Hop were bland as he battled you basically each time he showed up and always talked about wanting to be better then you and his brother. The dialogue of the characters was bland and easily skipable and didn't add much to the story. Near the end of the game there should have been more people in the tournament to make it more fun and realistic but it just felt boring fighting Marnie and Hop again. However, fighting the gym leaders again was fun. I really like the new pokemon designs including Cinderace, Sirfetch'd, Corviknight, Obstagoon and Moregrem. I feel like some pokemon are made just for the sake of making more like Skowvet and Wooloo as they didn't feel like exciting pokemon designs. The online is very good. Exploring the wild area was very fun as well as seeing all the pokemon that pop out but I had to get to close for that to happen. The music is very fun to hear each time I start a wild encounter. I enjoy the new ranked matches and Max Raid battles very much. Overall, this game needs a lot more story and character development so that the player gets engaged more with the plot. For reference, Pokemon Sword and Shield took me 25 hours to complete with training and messing around but Dragon Quest 11 took me 70 hours. I'd say buy DQ11 instead. I hope this review can help the developers improve for the next set of games to make them worth £50. Overall I give the game a 2/5 rating.