>>53302702>>53302979To be honest, the core gameplay of Pokémon (turn-based battles with restrictions on no. of moves and other Pokémon trademarks) is always solid, even in a dogshit game like XY or SWSH (from what I've heard, never played it), the gameplay of Pokémon will always shine through and battles will always be battles. However than alone isn't enough to make a good Pokémon game, the region has to be well-designed, the characters need to be somewhat engaging, the Pokémon designs need to be appealing, and there needs to be some sort of story that keeps you hooked enough to keep playing til the end.
In my opinion SV are the best games since BW2 in that regard, though not quite in the same class as the first five gens of Pokémon. GF are basically going through the growing pains of 3D game dev still but are slowly catching up with the industry, because I think the open-world of SV is pretty well designed and this is the most "open" region since Kanto in how you can basically do anything at any point in the game. The only issue is that there's no level scaling, which really hurts it.
Whether you like the characters and Pokémon is subjective but this is the first time I've given a single fuck about supporting characters in Pokémon games since BW2 when your rival wanted to get back his stolen Purrloin, the XY supporting cast were fucking atrocious and I burnt them from my memory, not to mention Serena was the most pathetic rival ever. By comparison, Nemona is one of the best rivals in the series and I'm disappointed we didn't fight her more.
Area Zero is probably the highlight and the closest Pokémon will get to being anything like SMT or more grown up JRPGs kek
I personally only dealt with occasional stutter in this game, and some funny visual glitches, if anything that is pretty soulful and reminiscent of Gen I.
I'm in no mood to keep playing this game for the foreseeable future since Octopath II is out now, but SV are pretty solid games.
