>>36025254The gameplay is really clunky and tedious. Everything moves slowly, and if you try to move fast, at any point, you could be put to a abrupt halt. It feels really dissatisfying and takes the joy out of the exploration. And exploration is a very big part of these games. If I'm not enjoying it, I'm not enjoying most of this game. The dungeon crawl is also boring, because the dungeons don't have much to see. It's just going from one corner, to another corner that looks the exact same. Dungeon exploration gets really boring, and it's a big part of it the game. Besides that, I also don't like how the game stops evolution until you finish the main story. I like seeing my Pokemon grow, and this entire series takes that away.
It ultimately ends up feeling very repetitive, clunky and tedious. I hate the gameplay. However, I have, in past, played many games with shit gameplay just for the story. What separates this series in particular is that the story feels slow at start.
Imagine this. I've spent an hour or so doing normal missions in a game I hate the gameplay of, found a few lost Wurmple and shit, I go on and take a story mission, and it's to save some critter from a Drowsey. It doesn't feel connected to an overall big story, that makes me want to see what happens next. It feels very monster of the week-ish. There's a lot of just exposition dumps in the beginning, telling you everyone's roles and showing you everything, and the early missions don't immediately have anything intriguing to hook you in, something you can look forward to.
That's the gist of it. If it was an anime, I can sit through some exposition dumps and boring episodes to get to the good parts. I don't have to do much besides just watching. But it's a game. And I don't like the gameplay. So getting through it is harder. It doesn't help that the games start with an annoying personality test to give you a character you want.
I might love these games, but so far, they've never hooked me in.