As a huge Pokémon fan since Generation One, I believe this game is as close to a perfect Pokémon game I have ever played!
A fantastic open-world Pokémon game! I absolutely loved the entire experience from beginning to end!
My favorite aspects include:
- Adventure: You can climb mountains, swim in oceans, explore caves, fly in the air, cross all sorts of different landscapes.
- Variety of Pokémon: Pokémon are everywhere and come from every generation, and finding rare Pokémon in a secluded area feels so satisfying!
- Simplicity: You can buy or obtain almost any item you need after collecting all the gym badges, eliminating unnecessary grinding.
- Storylines: You can do more than just battle gyms and there are interesting storylines, even some science fiction!
- Sounds and visuals: The music is terrific; the artwork is great.
- The end game of Area Zero was an amazing experience between the music, visuals, story, setting, characters and Pokémon.
My critiques include:
- The graphics issues are occasionally hard to ignore, e.g. NPCs walking in super slow motion or moving like robots in the background.
- Hardly any post-game content. No battle tower to keep playing with different strategies after the credits roll.
- Riding on a legendary Pokémon the whole game. Who are we kidding? This was nonsensical from a story perspective. Legendries should be difficult to capture and difficult to find, not your personal bicycle while your Pokémon are only at level 5.
- Some visuals could have been better. Move animations could have been bigger and bolder, e.g. Earthquake currently looks like a little bump on the ground. Also, the Elite Four should be battled in their own unique customized rooms, not just one simplistic room that looks like a tiny bland office space.
- Game controls can be confusing at times, e.g. accidentally opening the pokédex instead of the map or opening the camera instead of the outfit menu.
Overall, I really believe this game is close to perfect! The issues are so small compared to the vast amount of fun and engaging content! A must play for Pokémon fans of all ages!