My thoughts on the new Pokemon game so far: it’s not as good as it could be, and it feels a bit lackluster.
In the older games, I was put to the challenge at hand, and my Pokemon and I grew from each battle. In "Sun and Moon," I’m not getting that same connection with them; if anything, they feel more distant. The game is too easy to form a bond over — not even your rival has been a challenge. He’s more annoying than running in a cave with no repel on. It feels as though every five minutes, he’s just there in your face, menacingly. He’s far too upbeat and happy about every situation, and with that, he gives off this annoying shonen protagonist vibe and just doesn’t take the situations seriously. I miss the days of your rival not liking you and not being your friend. How they would be your rival to be better than you, and through constantly losing they become a better person. Silver from the "Heartgold" and "Soulsilver" games is a good example of that. He started out as a common thief that stole a starter from Professor Elm. He treated his Pokemon like tools instead of friends, and when he sees how you battle with your heart and soul, he slowly but surely realises why his path was wrong and he begins to care for his pokemon.
Another thing I don’t like about the newer Pokemon games are some of the Pokemon designs themselves. It feels as though they try to compensate for their lack of pokemon by adding in older ones (most from the first generation) with new designs. You have an entire fan base that would love to see their cool ass Pokemon designs in the game, and we get Pokemon like The Donald Trump Weasel and Cutifly. Why is there a Pokemon named Cutifly? Where are my Destructogonasaurus or my Boarant? I need cool and dangerous Pokemon. Not a damn Pokemon called Cutifly. At least in the fifth generation, Joltik evolved into Galvantula which was great design.
The only thing I’m liking so far is Team Skull and how incompetent they are as the bad guys of this gen. Hopefully as I continue, the game will get better.
