A bold and daring step forwards for the Pokémon franchise.

Debuting all new real-time battle system

First of all, we have to speak about the new battle system. This new mechanic is great, it’s incredibly immersive whilst still holding a little true to the old turn-based formula (in a fashion). It’s an exciting leap forward, and Game Freak has executed it very well.

Having your Pokémon out and mobile can be great. Some battles feel like something out of the anime; however, some are just heavy with attack spamming.

Moves like Protect are now timing-based. if you hit it just before an attack, you can nullify it, but get the timing wrong and you’ll still get hit. Other moves can move your Pokémon, like Rollout or Flame Wheel, which can work effectively as a dodge. Moves like Dig and Fly give you a brief immunity whilst underground or in the sky, which can be used tactically to your advantage.

When tactics like those work, the battles are brilliant. However, some of them descend into what is purely attack spamming, which is a bit mindless (but even that can be fun in its own right). Through the game, I caught a beast of an Alpha Abomasnow and had to nickname him Lesnar as he just ploughed through everything in brutal fashion.

The part I’m not keen on is having my trainer run around like Barry from Diamond/Pearl every battle just to get my Pokémon to move. It breaks the immersion where I think there were smarter choices that could have been made, such as:

• Keep your trainer static and have them issue move/dodge commands that have a cooldown.
  
• Let us outright control the Pokémon.
  
• Let the Pokémon have more than four attacks available, with some moves purely for dodging or movement functions. (You can sort of do this one in-game with certain moves.)
  

Understandably, the movement from the trainer is required out in the wild, as you need to dodge Pokémon moves. But it would be better to have that differentiation between wild Pokémon battles and trainer battles.

Overall, the new battle system is a big win for me. I definitely think there is room for Pokémon games to have a turn-based franchise and a real-time battling franchise simultaneously. This new system is the core of the game, and thankfully it doesn’t get tiresome even after 40+ hours.

Exploring Lumiose City

The gameplay loop has three parts to it. The first is during the daytime, where you can explore Lumiose City. Having every Pokémon be able to be out in the overworld is great, having them sit with you outside a café whilst you have a cuppa is a lovely touch, and they really should have added more role-playing opportunities like this in the game.

I was happy with the choice to be just in Lumiose City. But it doesn’t feel like a city. There are a lot of Pokémon and NPCs scattered about, which is great to see at face value. But they don’t do anything. Everyone is stood still for the most part. There are people having “a battle” in the tennis court, but the Pokémon never move. I know you can’t animate everything, but it feels like they just spammed NPCs everywhere and called it a day.

The graphics are great on my Switch 2; performance is spot on, even in handheld mode. The city is, however, a bit copy-and-pasted; it lacks a lot of character and none of the different regions of the city have any personality barring a few buildings. 

However, exploring the rooftops and completing the parkour-style scaffolding challenges are fun extras to do. Having your curiosity for exploring the rooftops rewarded by finding rare Pokémon such as Eevee, Ralts, Dratini, and Larvitar is really satisfying.

Wild Areas

The wild areas are incredibly basic, they are  little bite-sized zones to catch your Pokémon that resemble a zoo enclosure. They are either too easy or frustrating but not very fun. I found it a lot more satisfying bumping into a Trubbish in an alleyway or seeing a Pansear sat on a tree branch in the street. Catching Magikarp in the river running through the city. Catching them organically out in the open in an urban environment, for me, is a glimpse at what the future of Pokémon could and should be.

The available Pokémon choice is sufficient and well curated. We can’t expect them all in every game, especially when the game has taken such a big leap into new territory.

Battle Zones and Night Exploration

After day comes night time, where a portion of the city is turned into a battle zone. In battle zones, battles will trigger if you are seen. You can sneak up behind and sneak attack to start the fight, which can give you an easy KO to start with.

It’s a novel idea, but it’s a bit half-baked, as all the NPCs pretty much just stand in one spot and turn occasionally. These zones are mandatory to earn enough points for a promotion match, which is a battle against someone else to go up in rank in the Z-A Royale. Again it just feels a little lazy when it could have been so much better. 

Lumiose City also has various restaurants which offer up… battles. Three- and five-course “meals” can be quite challenging, as that means three or five trainers to battle with no healing in between. I found these a lot more interesting than the battle zones.

You can also still enter wild zones at night and they will sometimes have different Pokémon available in the dark.

Mega Evolution

I do like Mega Evolution, and I’m glad to see it back. The new Megas are plentiful, if a bit hit-and-miss. I’m still disappointed with Mega Meganium, but she is growing on me. I would have loved a regional variant, but it seems they have been left out this time, unfortunately.

Quelling Mega Pokémon is the third and final part of the gameplay loop and a big part of the story. This involves you and a side character tackling an enraged Mega Pokémon somewhere in the city. These battles, for me, are fun-ish. They’re not brilliant, but they are essentially mini-boss fights that break the gameplay up a bit and give you something different to do. The best part being you get the Mega stone as a reward for completing them.

Story and Characters

The story and characters are great, Corbeau being my favourite so far. He runs what seems like a mafia-style organised crime syndicate, but Corbeau himself is stuck between trying to look like a ruthless head honcho and his true intentions, which are to help Lumiose City and its people. I can almost picture him being some form of Lumiose City Batman-style character.

You have a good rivalry with him during the middle of the game, culminating in the inevitable battle. In my battle with him, we both deployed an Arbok to start, which felt like a true test of ability and skill. Team MZ and the city are packed with vibrant characters who each have their own story to uncover.

Final thoughts and score

All in all, this game feels like a big step forwards and a few steps sideways. It’s let down by some lazy development choices. Some of the side content, like catching Pokémon organically in the city and the battle restaurants, are better than the intended core gameplay wild zones and battle zones.

But it is very fun and an exciting step towards an immersive, open, real-time battling Pokémon world that I think a lot of people have been dreaming of since the 90s.

Score: 78/100

There is a great game in there, but also some cut corners which affect the score.