so i beat the new pokemon this morning & i have a LOT of thoughts!! unfortunately most of those thoughts are spoilers, so i'm gonna write a little about the not spoilers up top & then duck the rest behind a Read More. okay? okay!
ugly stuff outta the way first: dang, the game really did not cook long enough for a lot of things. i don't think the art direction really lands! the rendering style doesn't convey the 'pokemon' look quite as well as sword & shield did. constructively, i think the map artists did not have proper direction for what distance each LOD would be viewed from. some aspects of the world seem to mesh at a very long distance (see: having scaled the central mountain), but those same LODs are still used far closer than look good. etc etc, lighting, bugs, performance. DONE. okay.
the music is exceptional across the board. out of anything, i feel like the inclusion of toby fox on melodic composition duty really REALLY honed the music team's soundtrack. the use of dynamic tracks for field & battles, the variety in composition, the execution in those recordings... stellar across the board.
i think overall the new pokemon designs are really cute!! there's some real standouts for me: lokix is an incredible take on a sentai grasshopper... good shapes and colors. Farigiraf is hilarious and was a permanent part of my team just cos of its silly hoodie mouth. maushold....... four of them.... pawmi's entire evo line is beautiful. i love it when a small boy continues to stay small and fierce. flamigo is hilarious. mabosstiff..... both of charcadet's evo forms. new wooper & clodsire.... so many round friends. tinkaton is the MVP of all time. i love her.
as for game structure & narrative.... let's get into it, with spoileys: