You know what? It still works. Somehow, the team behind the Pokemon series crafted a simple but engaging formula 20 plus years ago, and it still works on me every single time. Is it perfect? Not at all. Is it balanced? Not even remotely. Does it provide the best story? Nowhere near.
Did I still enjoy this game? Absolutely. Do …
You know what? It still works. Somehow, the team behind the Pokemon series crafted a simple but engaging formula 20 plus years ago, and it still works on me every single time. Is it perfect? Not at all. Is it balanced? Not even remotely. Does it provide the best story? Nowhere near.
Did I still enjoy this game? Absolutely. Do I worry about diminishing returns? Oddly enough, not really.
I was deeply skeptical of this game before it came out. I remember playing the first Diamond, but also remember not finishing it. At the time I was bouncing off of the series for whatever reason - and something about the generation of DS games never really landed with me. I only picked up this one because my boyfriend wanted to play it together, and I thought it would be cute and fun and engaging. It was all of that, and I suspect it will be for quite some time yet.
So what happened to help me realize the strengths of the game that is here?
Honestly, I'm not sure about that either. The game is effectively broken in this generation, and even moreso in this iteration. There is a clear winner for best starter (who I will never play as a main because I find them incredibly boring), and every single route seems to have almost all the same Pokemon to catch and gather, and none of the cities or locales really pop with a bright and colourful sense of place that feels unique or distinct. The new additions of the Fairy type and the Grand Underground do help a good deal, but it isn't like the game is still anything more than just-good-enough.
But just good enough to put 50 hours of my life into it, and be confident that I'll still probably put in 10 to 15 more in the post game? Just good enough to make me want to purchase the expansions for Pokemon Sword and play through those for the first time? Just good enough to make me really think about finally playing my copy of Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, or go back to Ultra Sun and grab all of the legendaries that I've missed, and then buy Pokemon Bank and Pokemon Home so that I can get all of my favourite little pocket monsters into the same digital location and actually know which games I have and which ones I don't?
That's pretty damned awesome. Clearly this 20 year old formula is still working on 30-something me.
