I’ve been playing Pokémon since my mom got me Blue (even though I wanted the cool “dragon”) in the 90’s. I grew up playing the series and it’s always had a special in my heart. Now, as a dad, I get to share the adventure with my son! We spent endless hours on Sword and Shield, so when they announced Gen 9, we were both excited to hope on it! Now readers, let’s journey to the Paldea region and see if this entry in the series is worth the adventure!
Story
So, with every Pokémon game that comes out lately there’s usually a theme that present throughout the game. For Gen. 9 there’s a few things going on overall, the theme mainly is as a student, you must set out and find your “treasure”. Which the game says could be experience as a trainer, a Pokémon collector, or even an actual treasure! However, your character decides to interpret it; all while trying to figure out the mystery of area zero!
Now the sub themes involve finding mystic herbs, stopping a gang of meddling kids, and the past or future depending on which version you pick up. Now you still have your standard eight gyms and badges.
If you decide to go find the herbs mystica, you’ll be joining Arven. He’ll give you badges for defeating Titan Pokémon. Titan Pokémon are in a way this games’ Gigantimax Pokémon, but without the energy making them big. Each one follows the same formula find the Pokémon, battle it, it runs away, find it again, battle it with Arven, defeat it, go into a cave or openening, and grab the herb.
Now if I seemed vague on the last paragraph, I’m going to do the same here. I think these sub-stories are the best part and I don’t want to give too much away. So, this iterations’ gang is Team Star, a bunch of school delinquents. There are 5 bases you must raid to complete this sub-story. When you arrive at a base after the cutscene plays you’ll have a battle before you can actually raid the base. After that, get your team set up properly because your first 3 Pokémon will be used to raid. You must send out your Pokémon and defeat 30 Pokémon within the given time (10 minutes). This is done by using the let’s go feature (I’ll touch on that later). After that you’ll face off against the bases’ boss. After each base is completed, you’ll be contacted by the mysterious Cassiopeia who will give you materials upon completion.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Unlike Pokémon games nowadays, let’s get the basics out of the way. You battle and capture your Pokémon, then you level and evolve them while taking on challenges. This game is also now truly open world no linear paths anymore. Before we proceed for the sake of transparency reader, I know some mechanics were introduced in Legends of Arceus, but I’m not sure of every one that transferred over. I unfortunately did not get to play that either so think of this as new to the mainline series if I say new mechanic.
First we’ll go over what came back. While not Gigantimax, transformation have returned as Terastallization. Your Pokémon gains a gem body and a head decoration that changes depending on the Tera typing. The cool thing about this is your Tera type doesn’t have to match your Pokémon type, for example a fire Pokémon can have a water Tera type which it then gains the strengths and weaknesses of water Pokémon types. I was iffy at first with this new transformation type, but it’s grown on me with the way it’s opened up more strategic possibilities!
Max Raid battles are back as the renamed Tera Battles. This plays exactly the same other than instead of being based on beating it in ten turns it’s now a timed raid. Now you can only do up to four star raids at first but you can unlock harder ones after completion. Camping is back in the form of picnics, and cooking is also back although much simpler and less fun. You build sandwiches from pre-made recipes that boost things like increased exp gain, increased encounters, or attacks for certain Pokémon types. You can eventually unlock a recipe to increase shiny odds for you hunters out there!
Next, let’s talk about some very positive changes. Daycare is a thing of the past! Need to breed your Pokémon? Just have a picnic! Get the two Pokémon you want to breed or let’s be real the Ditto and Pokémon you want to breed in your party. Then you wait for an egg to appear near your basket on the table. You can create as many eggs as you want in one picnic instance just clear the egg on the table and wait for the next. As a side note, finding a Ditto isn’t easy it’s just kind of random if you find one because they disguise themselves as other over-world Pokémon. Do you remember collecting heart scales then going to trade them to the only person in the world so you can remember an old Pokémon move? Well that’s gone now just open up the menu, check Pokémon summary, page over and bam! You can remember old move straight from there nothing needed!
Lastly “new” mechanics. The let’s go feature is great send your Pokémon into the over-world to battle and collect items. Now battling in this manner seemed to give reduced exp so not the most efficient way to farm. There’s also a few Pokémon that evolve using this feature. There’s also seamless co-op with up to three other players. Trainer battles are now optional, but you’ll be rewarded at the Pokémon Centers for beating x amount of trainers in the area. You can attend classes at the academy to learn helpful tidbits I’d say it’s a more helpful version of the battle academies from past games. The character created is surprisingly deep this time around but clothing options are a huge let down. This time around it’s only accessories and four pre-made outfits all of which are ugly and don’t really match with most accessories.
All Your Pokémon Have Been Wiped
With a series this old, the cracks were bound to show. Starting off GameFreak has a tendency to leave out fan favorite activities. These include secret bases and Pokémon contests. Fans have also been dissatisfied with the amount of Pokémon in game compared to previous entries and the odd choice to cut some pretty popular Pokémon.
Next thing to be addressed is the litany of bugs and glitches. While I personally have not encountered many it’s hard to avoid the constant posts of rubber-banding, frame dropped and textures, and Pokémon randomly popping.
Co-op also seems a quarter backed. You can’t double battle, titans or gyms can’t be taken together, and you can’t challenge someone to a duel right then and there. So my question becomes why add the co-op at all? I still have to go through the menus to do everything what was the point? Now my biggest peeve is the balancing for the open world or I guess the lack of. Plenty of times I found my self in areas I shouldn’t be in yet. There’s no dynamic leveling so while you were just fighting a level 20 the next area across the bridge you’re getting stomped by a level 50. This goes for the gyms, titans, and star bases. Which just left me scratching my head again asking why even do this?
Final Thoughts
I feel like this may have been rushed after riding the high of Sword and Shield. I’ll be real honest there’s a lot of cool things in this iteration but they were poorly executed or not well thought out. With that said there’s still plenty of fun to be had. Leaving me to rate this…
7/10
Thanks for joining me on my Pokémon journey at VIBE. I’ll see you in the the next one!
