This is the most ambitious Pokemon game that there's ever been, and it achieves everything it sets itself to. Not only it is the most ambitous Pokemon that there had been upon it's release, but the most ambitious there's been since, and even when I have a couple of games left to play, just based on what I superficially know about them I can assure without a doubt that none of them reach the levels of ambition and vision that this game has. With 16 years from the first game in the franchise and 4 entire generations behind, with already 493 pokemon that had been introduced by that point, being the second generation to appear in a console that was not on its popularity peak anymore, even with all of that, Junichi Masuda and all of the team behind this game decided to give a 180 degrees twist to the franchise whilst trying to mantain all of the features that have made the saga the titan it was when it released, with 156 completely new pokemon and a region chockfull only of the, they set themselves to reinvent the wheel, and they made it. This is the best Pokemon game I've played this far, definitely the best Pokemon game there was at the time. It's a very obvious reboot, and I'm not sure how it was promoted on its release but all of the critics I've heard that it has could only make sense if it was advertised as a continuation of what was shown on the fourth generation instead of a reboot of the franchise, because if you analyze it as a reboot, is fantastic; from that angle it has a lot more sense that there's so many evolutionary lines or design concepts that feel repeated or clearly inspired in the first generations (that in cases like Woobat they outstand by far the designs they were inspired on), and in general, the feel of "we're doing an effort to make this ginourmous titan of a franchise new and interesting again so that a new generation can feel like the kids in the 90s that played this for the first time" and considering how that was it's main purpose, the fact that I've ended up so in love with this game and generation has all the sense in the world, I am the target audience. But even with a base that can be so conservative as trying to make something new without it feeling that strange, the game finds a lot of ways to include new ideas and mechanics, like the stations and all of those fantastic games with the camera and perspectives that you can find everywhere, and the story... oh boi the story. Everyone who talks about the game has that aspect of the game so hyped up, and that ironically had me a little skeptical, because when people praise videogame stories it tends to be something really pretentious trying to be a Hollywood movie, and when it comes to videogames and what they can express I've always liked more subtle aproximations more focused on what you directly do in the game and how that can transmit something, in other words, I like when videogames try to be good videogames and not just movies with a mediocre story where you can play sometimes. And I have to say that, even with those mixed expectations... the story wasn't bad at all. I don't think it's a stroy that could've held very well in any other medium or audience, and I feel like it lost a couple of opportunities to tell it's story through mechanics (which is to say there was no story in the mechanics in general, the battles and how they develop was exactly the same as always), but even with all of that I recognize that is a HUGE step in the way that the stories had been told in the franchise up to that point, considering that the best and deepest stories related to the main line games are found on a manga that's completely seperate from them: in this game, all of the main characters have a really well done development besides having unique personalities tridimensional enough so that you can feel a bit of a conecction with them and you get involved in the story beyond being a simple complement to your journey (being the most notable and interesting, of course, the non binary icon of N, even though my favorite was probably Bianca, it has a lot of interesting and beautiful ideas in it as well) the gym leaders have their own lives and roles in their communities other than just staying inside all day waiting for teenagers come and challenge them to pokeasswhoops, something that was explored more or less in other games, but most notable is how they have such an active role all throughout the story, making them feel even more like real and strong characters in their own universe instead of just being just another boss, besides that, the themes that the plot explores are really interesting (and I find hilarious that the region inspired by the US is the one that has a radical movement that is built only to get power and benefits out of scared people or people that is blinded by guajiro ideals), and even when the topics are clearly simplified becuase well, it's a kid's game after all, they never end up sacrificing the message that they're trying to give or the conversations that they are trying to have. But even with how stellar and new is the story in this game, there's a lot of other things to praise in this. Introducing an entirely new pokedex is a very brave decission, and even more brave is making it so that you can only find new pokemon throughout all of the main story of the game, decission that I'll never get tired of praising, that works wonderfully and that is completely congruent and effective for me regarding the intentions of renewing and attracting new fans of the game, asides from the fact that all of the designs and the pokemon themselves are FANTASTIC on their own, each one has a very unique and vibrant air to it and all of them get benefited from the pixel art that Game Freak had already mastered by that point with their designs full of unique and bright details (also, this game has a kind of weird obsession with making everything and everyone dark type, I'm not complaining but it definitely is weird) the only problem that I had with the new desings being so well done is that I could only use 6 in any given time, but the fact that the HMs
finalfuckinglly are optional gave me the opportunity to use a lot of new pokemon that were different from my usual team as a sort of "exploration team" focused only on HMs so that I could enter different and new hidden places in the map. As my only complaints in the game I have that at times it can be too complicated and it introduces some unnecesary things (like everything related to triple and rotating battles), that aren't bad in and of themselves and I understand are made to please a specific audience more involved in the competitive side of the experience, but I feel like they are a bit counterproductive with the purposes of introducing new fans, and the fact that fucking GOLURK WAS DAMNED TO DIE ON THE PC WITHOUT EVEN TRYING IT ISWEARTOFUCKINGGOD HOW ARE YOU GOING YO MAKE A GHOST TYPE POKEMON WITH PHISICAL ATTACK STATS INCREASED AND MAKE IT FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE FOR IT TO LEARN THE ONLY FUCKING PHYSICAL GHOST TYPE MOVE UNTIL AFTER THE LEAGUE AAAHHHHHHH. Outside of those
tiny details, the game without any problems mantains itself as the best Pokemon game there's been so far (I'm open to change opinions on the future but I don't think I really will), and it looked as the bright beginning of really interesting things to come, but the corporate people responsible for it or some shit like that are freaking cowards and now we ahve in its place the fifth new mechanic to have an excuse so they can put Charizard and Pikachu and Gengar in the new game because we want that sweet, sweet money from some depressed millenial that only wants their simple 90s life back, but none of that matters, because this game still exists, and every day more people realize the masterpiece that it is, including meself. As I said, the most ambitious Pokemon game that there's been, and the best Pokemon game there is to this day.
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