>>45525190I was impressed by the actual dramatic execution of the story, but disappointed by the linearity and overall lack of content to previous entries. On later examination, I think the writing itself is pretty mediocre and boring even if the execution of events and concept is more interesting than previous entries.
At no point in the game are you ever thinking Ghetsis is a good guy.
At no point in the game is Team Plasma's goals treated with validity.
At no point in the game is N treated as anything more than misguided but with his heart in the right place.
So many NPCs have zero personality other than "I love Pokémon", and the series has had a similar issue since (Masters is a pretty good example of modern Pokémon dialogue).
Even Kageyama's music lacks the substance that you'll hear in Masuda's and Ichinose's.
The games still have ambition, but are held back by this looming corporate hand that wants the brand to remain as squeaky clean and accessible as possible. I feel like there was even a change seen in spin-off media in 2011 onward, where they seem a little bit brighter, a little bit more child friendly.
It feels like the increased focus on story is being used as an excuse to make the games more linear and straightforward for accessibility purposes, to the point where they're trying to spin that as a big appeal of the games rather than pre-Gen V. After all, it's easier to troubleshoot all variables if you have less variables. I don't get the impression that Game Freak is trying to be ambitious anymore. It's more like they're fulfilling a yearly quota to keep up brand momentum.
