>>43919068I loved, and I do mean LOVED, the characters and how they paid attention to little characterizations or reactions from them (Hop and Leon both slapping their cheeks, charas getting frustrated, the little twitches, etc.), the music (and how it evolved for each chara as you progressed), the gameplay itself, the QoL changes, and how battling felt overall (I honestly never felt so hyped and excited battling against gyms/eli-well, finalists/champion before). It's because I loved these things so fucking much that it makes me unironically seethe how garbage the game was in general. How underused these amazing charas were, how rushed and poorly thought out the story was, as if "Tanaka-san, ui forugotsu za sutoti!", "Kiuku! Meiku Rousu eviru outto nouuer ando hav za dairema resovuru in faivo minutso!", "Ah, yatta! Paafecto!" Hated how empty the towns where, like Spikemuth, a literal line with a single Center, imagine everything that could've gone to a city with such aesthetic? The linear routes, how it seemed like you were speedrunning the gyms basically, exiting one, taking a small path and already being at the entrance of the next one, the last-decade graphics and visual glitches, how unpolished and unfinished everything looks in general, etc.
I had fun with this game, I won't deny it, I actually had as much if not more fun than I've had since gen 5, and again, those things I mentioned above I really did love. This game could've been great if only they wanted it to be great, because it's not that they couldn't, it's that they didn't want to bother. This game is a mess and I can't believe it got approved and shipped as is. It gives me so many contradictory feelings, I don't know what to think overall or how to rate it, I have such an intense love/hate for this title.
Bottom line is, was it the irredeemable trash everyone claims it is? Not at all, I didn't feel my time was wasted. But is it true that in [current year] this game is pretty much unforgivable? It is.
