When the game started off, i really felt disappointed. The first 4hours was extremely confusing and lengthy.
There were so much conversation going on in the first hour. The graphics was not as expected, not horrible but felt aged. Worst yet the challenges was so difficult, that my Pokemon keeps dying now and then. I spent so much time getting back and fro to the tent to rest.
Then I started to spend more time to read what was in the bag(satchel) Found useful stuffs like Candies and Dusts. Then spending more time at the tent I get to know that you can change Pokemon without needing to go back to the village. There were lots of things going on and I missed in teh beginning.
Soon enough i started to enjoy it.
Battling was ridiculously difficult at first, but slowly getting to understand the mechanics and items. It was beginning to be challenging and fun. At least my party doesn't die that easily and I get to use some simple strategy in the battles. Best yet is that the battle transition scene is eliminated, that is the BEST THING that ever happen in Pokemon franchise (especially, the time wasted in Pokemon Shield's Dynamax battle, a dumb 1 minute intro per-battle)!
Another crazy, partially challenging and frustrating is the battle challenge of multiple Pokemon against your single Pokemon at once, it can go up to 4 against 1. It's like facing a few hungry coyotes against YOUR Pokemon, it's a craziest approach ever! If you loose, that's it, if you win, you're left handicapped for sure.
The graphics, wasn't the best but once I got those legendary Pokemon to ride, it starts to be visible with the selected graphic approach. The terrain from air, grass and water are all interact-able environments and this was a nice open concept. Of course nothing beats BOTW in switch, but this was close enough.
Overall, into 12hours of the game, it starts to get fun and I now really enjoyed the storyline(when it begins, it's starts with "Pokemon are terrible creatures" and i went like -huh??).
It's a solid game, after some fair, nuh-uh games of Pokemon Diamond I played. It just gets better overtime and each action done is rewarding.
The only thing i do wish it had improve was the music, Pokemon Shield/Sword had a wonderful background music, while this seems mostly bland. The background music for the village felt so boring that it sounds disturbing.