These remakes do the bare minimum and charge $60 for it. Before you buy this game, know what you’re getting into:
– Poor presentation. It has a poor chibi art style, horribly converted music, and ill-fitting font.
– TMs are single-use again. The game adds in multiple QoL features, yet takes away the most QoL-friendly feature over the past decade. Some trainers give multiple TMs, but prepare for a slog if you want to get more in the post-game.
– Like Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, it omits additions from Platinum, such as the superior trainer rosters, a fleshed-out Distortion World, and Battle Frontier. It doesn’t even include the back button for the Poketch.
– No extra regions (like FireRed/LeafGreen’s Sevii Islands) or new post-game story (like Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire).
– Removes or simplifies certain features, like Super Contests or the Underground Secret Bases
– The games have a barely functional online multiplayer system at launch and don’t have the ability to transfer older Pokemon at launch.
– Like Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, catching older legendaries in the post-game is a tedious, luck-based process involving the Grand Underground.
– The games barely improve on the maligned Honey Tree mechanic, and the post-game grind for competitive items and TMs is still a slog.
– Like Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, it lacks a proper random online battling system, so be prepared to face random teams full of Dialga and Palkia.
– Only includes the first 493 Pokemon (similar to how Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee only included 153 Pokemon).
– Inconsistent addition of newer features; it adds in moves and consumable items from later generations, yet removes most of the recent held items (like Assault Vest).
– First Pokemon games since Crystal (2000/2001) not to include new Pokemon species, forms, or moves.
– The Platinum outfits are locked to early-order bonuses instead of being available normally.
(I won’t mention the mandatory Exp. Share, since all of the Pokemon games are easy. I will say that the series is long overdue for multiple difficulty levels, though.)
if you can look past that long list of negatives, there is some fun to be had. Walking Pokemon and trainer customizations are welcome additions from other games, and the post-game rematches have well-designed teams. Being able to catch a variety of Pokemon in the Grand Underground and participate in Super Contests online are also solid additions. Finally, the base games still hold up, even with all of the questionable changes.
Overall, there’s a reason these are the lowest rated paired Pokemon games to date. Decades of laziness has finally taken its toll on the franchise.