hep cat

It's been a long time since I played the Pokemon series. When a friend offered to go halvies on this set with me, I was excited to get back into it. And I have to say, I'm kind of disappointed... The sense of wandering and discovery from the older games is completely gone. The whole experience feels very much like it's "on rails," with items so liberally scattered that it's impossible to ever run out of anything, and a very boxed-in feeling world with no sense of choice or excitement. There's no challenge or risk, and no sense that your training decisions really mean anything. The gameplay has been child-proofed to the point where it hardly feels like I'm playing at all. It was frustrating to me how much of the game is taken up by cut scenes and endless pointless chatter with your rival. Supposedly it takes about 30 hours to play the game, but I imagine a solid 10 of that must be spamming through endless unnecessary exposition from shallow characters that are impossible to care about. Some of the newest Pokemon designs are obviously low-effort, or just straight-up redos of pre-existing Pokemon. The art style has lost any sense of cohesion. The Dynamax thing is completely pointless and makes battles feel even less interesting than they already are. Pokemon has always been a cash grab, let's be real, but it had a little bit of heart in it at one point in time. I've even gone back to Pokemon Blue as recently as a couple years ago and still found it enjoyable. But these newest additions feel drained of all the fun and joy from the older iterations of the series. Low-effort, no story, and no sense of importance to anything. Is it an ok little game? I guess -- I'll finish it at least. Is it worth 60 bucks? God no. Is it Pokemon? Barely.