Review time!! ♡
- Story -
A rollercoaster ride of feelings, conspiracies, lore, and relationships that slowly piece together into a twisting, elaborate story. The pace of the plot takes its time and doesn't feel rushed, but it doesn't spoon-feed every detail either. Instead it leaves the player to come up with their own conclusions, and see this old region as something new, intriguing, wonderfully mysterious and ready to explore. The characters, dialogue, and writing leaves a story that dwells with you even after the game has passed.
- Graphics -
Polished with newer graphics that enrich the world without straying far from canon Kanto. Here lie more of the "off-limits" areas of Kanto that are brought into focus, as beautiful new areas that still feel realistic to the area and geography. Towns and cities have all been pushed-back several decades into a re-imagined look of Kanto with landmarks that bring just enough nostalgia and recognition without copying the canon game. Sprites and moves are all animated, and there's a day/night system that show gorgeously in the battle-backgrounds.
- Music -
Sounds believable for canon games. If you don't mind listening to pokemon soundtracks, leave the music on, it adds some story cues.
- Difficulty -
Refreshing level of difficulty that isn't just grinding levels. Not a terribly hard game, but it takes a getting used to not having all the bells and whistles of a modern trainer. The difficulty is pertinent to the story - namely resource management and pacing your pokemon, but there's a few good boss fights that took me a couple tries. You don't need to grind EVs or anything, good Natures are helpful but not necessary.
- Bugs -
There's still a couple of rare random crashes, but nothing that's stopped me from progressing.
- Gameplay -
You primarily explore and battle for the game, pretty normal for a pokemon setting. A lot of standard features like the Pokedex aren't around - something that makes the Kanto wilderness feel pressingly alien and isolated. It's really just you and your pokemon. Encounters and trainers seem appropriately scaled that they're challenges but not too hard or too easy. The game feels professionally presented and played through. There's some easter eggs too.
- Game time / Length -
A little shorter than the franchise games, I think? About 10.5 hours to complete for me, from start screen to credits.
- Critiques - (spoilers)
And last, a quick nod to the developer, who cares greatly for their players. Thank you for making this game, I hope others are encouraged give it a try! You can look forward to the novel on PSFE soon. :))
