A fair attempt at what could be a decent game, however it quickly becomes boring
The story goes that an evil organisation known as Team Dim Sun are trying to use mind controlling devices to control Pokemon and get them to do their evil deeds for them. Your Hero, a Pokemon Ranger, quickly gets promoted through the Ranger Ranks and is sent of on many missions which involved dealing with Team Dim Sun.
A Pokemon Ranger is someone who goes around making sure people and Pokemon are safe. In the game you are sent on missions and you have to go and complete them. This involves a lot of running between towns. Pokemon have special abilities which you will need to use to do the missions. For example you will need a Pokemon with a water attack to extinguish blazing trees, and you may need Pokemon with a cut ability to cut vines so you can scale cliffs.
To capture a Pokemon you don't fight it. Instead you use the stylus to draw loops around the Pokemon, teh loops from the Rangers Styler magically convert feelings of love and friendship to draw the Pokemon to you. Each loop will fill up a bar which needs to be filled in order to capture the Pokemon. The bar will slowly deplete. Pokemon will try and attack you and the styler can only take a certain amount of damage before breaking. If you already have Pokemon with you, provided you assist meter is full you can use an assist command where a Pokemon you've already captured will be able to help. Capturing Pokemon can actually really be quite fun. A Pokemon's assist move depends on it's type. Flying types will allow you to create whilwinds where as Rock type will enable you to flick rocks. Once you have captured a Pokemon, it will follow you around until you use it's abilities or decide to release it as you can only have a certain amount of Pokemon with you.
Aside from main missions there are also many side quests which can range from bringing a Pokemon to show a person or calming or rescuing a Pokemon. Doing these missions normally results in you gaining extra abilities for your Styler such as improved defense against a certain Pokemon types attack.
Shadows of Almia quickly becomes boring because all you are doing really is running around drawing circles. While capturing can be fun, the game does quickly become boring. Overall it is a decent game and a fair attempt however it is too monotonous to hold my attention for long.
Graphically it's nothing really spectacular I don't really have any comments. The music is all light hearted, it's quite upbeat. The soundtrack is pretty cool.
At the end of the day, Shadows of Almia is a half decent idea and is quite fun at first, however the fact that you are doing the same thing all the way through the game makes it boring. What the game makes you do isn't fun enough to hold my attention throughout the whole game. Overall it is mildly entertaining though, just not entertaining enough. If you are a die hard Pokemon fan, then sure go ahead try it. I reccomend this for young children who may admire the exploration and easy gameplay. Overall Pokemon Ranger (2) Shadows of Almia is a decent game at first, but quickly becomes boring.
Milesprower2k9 Original Reviews