Game 32 - Pokemon Moon (3DS) - 43 HoursFinished the main story of Pokemon Moon yesterday. I have a lot of thoughts about it, because this is my first Pokemon game since White version. So, I’m splitting this up into some more detailed categories. I am excited to get into all the postgame stuff! Sorry for the long post.
Things I liked- The region. Alola is so beautiful and varied, it really takes your breath away. The environments are well designed and interesting.
- The characters. Because of the island challenge, I felt like a lot of the characters in this game got more screen time and development. I liked the Professor and Lillie especially. The captains all that their interesting quirks and traits.
- The new Pokemon. I thought the nailed a lot of the new designs! Some of my favorites were Mimikyu, Rockruff, Toucannon, Mareine, Decidueye, Crabrawler and many others.
- Poke Pelago! This is such a fun minigame thing. It's fun to train your pokemon, gather treasure, explore caves and grow berries.
- Pokemon Refresh. This is such a cool feature. It's not forced on you, but it's so immersive and fun to do. You really feel like you are growing more and interacting with your Pokemon instead of just using them to battle only.
- No HMS! It's so nice to not have to load up your party pokemon with a bunch of HMS just to navigate through the world.
Things I both liked and disliked- Team Skull. I love their aesthetic, it's funny and cleverly done. However, what the heck are they even here for? It seemed like they had no purpose for existing as a group unlike other teams in B/W or Ruby/Sapphire, etc.
- The Alolan forms. My favorites were Marowak, and the Sandshrew / Vulpix lines. I will say however that the majority of them I found were worse than the originals or otherwise did not change my opinion about them. And also, why the heck is Alolan Exeggutor dragon type??
Ridiculous.
- The story. I don't want to spoil the story, so I'll just say that there is a detour in the last few hours of the game that I just found really stupid and the motivations of the main antagonist suddenly made no sense to me. I do however like the overall progression of the story. The whole island challenge thing really helps with that. Speaking of which...
- The Island Challenges. I like that there are no gyms because it makes the game flow more and it fits the story better. However, the challenges themselves were pitifully easy or otherwise nonexistent. I really think that this feature has a lot of potential, but it was somewhat poorly executed.
Things I was neutral about- Z-moves. They were cool, they make the battles more interesting, but weren't super overbearing. They're just kind of there to use if you want to.
- Battle Royale. It was cool, I just didn't play it enough to form an opinion about it.
Things I disliked- The SOS system. Screw this feature. It's fine when you're trying to train, but it's so annoying when you're trying to catch something since you can't capture a Pokemon when there are two on the field! You have to take out one, and when you do, the first calls in another buddy since their at low health because your trying to capture them! I liked this feature in DQVIII and Earthbound, but in those games you had a party of 4.
- There is a lot of lag during double battles. Even on the New 3DS it is still very prevalent, though thankfully it’s only during the double battles with another trainer.
- Gladion. He's such a angst filled whiner. And that stupid pose that he makes whenever you talk to him. So dumb.
- The very slow, controlled start and the hundreds of free handouts you get from pretty much everyone you meet really made me feel like I was being treated like a child, lol.
- Your character's unchanging, unwavering, dopey smile. Every scene... every situation... While every other character has really nice inflection and facial animations, yours never changes... make it stop!
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