Dennis (Mootfrog)

Playing this game in the early 2010's was such a joy. The community was great, the admins actually took time to help each player, and matches actually involved playing as a team. What League has turned into is a bunch of selfish, lowbrow players who only care about getting kills and stroking their own ego. I can't tell when I'm in a match when a joke is too much or not without someone getting reported. The moment you start to speak your opinion, or actual news some snow flake who doesn't understand the word "individuality" reports you. There was once a time I recommended this game to people, even started a college club around it, but now it's divulged into bitterness and resentment towards others. If you're looking for a MOBA with team-focus play and good communities, find another game because the makers, RIOT, just want your money for passes and skins. They only see the surface level of problems and reports without doing the research to find the true faults of the issues.

I'd give this game a star and a half if I could. The music is good and most of the new pokemon look fantastic. Not to mention seeing said pokemon in some environments are breathtaking. But, this is where the praise ends. After finishing the game I couldn't help but feel like the original pitch for it was to be a MMO, or be akin to Fortnight. Its a barren world when ridding around on your bike watching pokemon pop in out of no where, and not frequent enough to match the speed it you travel at. People variety is basic besides gym leaders, and even they get bland after Larry. At right about the mid point of all the 3 mainline "quests," which is literally midpoint downwards on the map, everything just becomes cookie cutter generic or nonsensical. For instance, the first few gym areas do have that Spanish look that the game is supposed to be based off of. After that though its either normal looking landscapes, or worst the bamboo forest that clashes with the region. Spoilers here forward. The elite four is bland and uneventful as compared to other games. As for the final area and fights, they were decent. I feel as though the developers had a vision for the story to revolve around the final area, but just couldn't bring it all home. Or, they wanted to tease the hell out of players so make them buy the dlc to find out more. Either way, the developers really needed more time and fresh ideas to really bring this game home because its frustrating to see the gem this could of been turn out so "meh," in my opinion. Bugs and glitches are easy fixes, but failed story building are permanent. Now, I've played these games since Fire Red on my Gameboy and have watched them make banger after banger titles. The pinnacle for me was X and Y, with its rich story, characters, world, and overall replayability. Afterwards though, they started to falter as far as making something truly memorable and worthwhile. I don't know if it was GameFreak realizing they make more money from the merchandise, or if they can't catch up with the rest of the world in terms of technology; but, the games just feel like an afterthought nowadays. Breath of the Wild came out in 2017 and it still looks and plays beautifully, and its on the same console as the newest pokemon games. My point being here, this is all my opinion on this franchise as a whole right now. We'll have different views, and that's all right. But for me, it just saddens me to see the current state of pokemon. As I mention, I think X and Y are amazing titles, and you can feel the love and dedication that was put into making it. It was so good, it became the title my friends and I built our own gym and elite four challange for players in Nebraska, including badges and merch from the franchise to participants. But Scarlet and Violet feels like a a game that had to be made to just make money as fast as possible. With comparable franchises like Digimon and Nexomon in the "monster capture" category, pokemon can't compete with how they others are trying to get players to interact and be involved in those worlds. And for a company that's as big as GameFreak is, their worlds shouldn't feel like a failed Kickstarter idea. If, by the chance, someone from GameFreak does read this I want them to know this. I miss the attention to detail, the flare to design, and the love they used to put into pokemon. Your game was worth a playing once, but it fails to keep me interested in coming back again for either a new playthrough or making a competitive team.