EJ Pinera

Preface: I would have given this game a 5/5 star if it had good graphics. As someone with vertigo, this game has given me really bad nausea. On to the main review——— POSITIVES I really like the concept of open world and how easily accessible a lot of pokémon are that would otherwise be end-game mons in other generations. The free choose-your-own adventure is nice. I also like most of the new pokémon forms aside from the starters’ evolutions (I’m a big fan of the fan design concepts that were coming out before release!). I think the mechanics of terastallization are cool and unique, but I haven’t used it personally because I just find the pokémon designs to be a major turnoff. It feels like another impermanent feature that will die off after this generation anyways, but the idea of switching types is novel and a good directional move, in my opinion. NEGATIVES After playing and loving PLA without major issues, this game was a disappointment. I see a lot of people defending the game’s development saying things like “it’s the first like this from the company” and “it’s forgiveable because the development team is small,” and this is a little too forgiving from my perspective. PLA was fairly successful and showed us there IS capacity to develop games like this. The company is charging $60 for a game while providing us with lesser quality than other games that exist on the market; it’s an overinflation just because of the name “pokémon.” TPC first and foremost has a responsibility to provide quality product to consumers, and it’s pretty disrespectful to charge $60 for a game that lacks proper and honest development. Had SV been released a year from now, I think a lot of the graphics issues and concerns wouldn’t even exist. In terms of gameplay, while running around, the terrain generates really slowly and the frame rate pacing has made me nauseous. I can only handle about an hour at a time before I need to take a break, which is rare because no game has actually given me this effect. It’s also hard to spot pokémon when running around, and very slow mechanics when battling on top of the removed ability to toggle off battle animations make it feel really slow. I like the new pokémon released and appreciate the new concept SV brought to the pokémon franchise, but I honestly think the poor performance far outweighs the positives for me. Which is a shame, considering I’ve followed the franchise with every game since the 90s! If the graphics improve I could rank this a lot higher. There aren’t many excuses for production considering we have Zelda BotW and other rpgs that the Switch CAN handle. If you can handle these kind of graphics, then you might really enjoy the game; however, if you get nauseous easily, I strongly encourage you to wait for improvements or don’t play altogether.