>>47822074Overall, I really like it, but its flaws are enough to keep it from truly being one of the greats. Recent updates have done a lot to mitigate how repetitive it felt to just sort of go from Gym to Gym, with enough dungeons having been added that it's worthwhile to explore around. And Gen 2 is probably the best suited to an open world adventure, given that it already consists of the two least linear regions in the franchise. Still, it really made me notice how things like evil team events and mandatory trips through dungeons add a lot of spice to the games. I'd like to see a future update work Team Rocket back in, say by alerting the player to an evil plot via those League phone calls after they reach a certain number of badges.
Also, while it's been discussed to death, the OC Elite Four is really lame. It's one thing to include you and your buddies as bonus bosses hidden around the world, but making them the actual endgame just takes me out of the experience. Shockslayer's ego also gets in the way here, by virtue of the fact that he made himself both the hardest boss in the game AND the second hardest boss in the game. The fight against Red, a contender for the coolest moment in the franchise, was reduced to a sideshow that just sort of kicks off the post-game so that you can one day challenge the glorious Shockslayer by Shockslayer (presented by Shockslayer).
Oh and the multicolored NPCs are lazily implemented. Johto is the most overtly Japanese region in the series, with a good chunk of the NPCs very obviously being Japanese people. Seeing them given a palette swap to have darker skin breaks immersion.
