"Something the reviews have made clear: A new Pokémon can never be bad, but with the way GF is going, it can never be *great*"

Reviews are out now and as we’d hoped wouldn’t be the case, they’re glowing. Sw/Sh is currently sitting at 81% on Metacritic, you wouldn’t know there was any drama surrounding release at all.Most reviews are saying the same thing. It’s charming, fun, cute, imaginative, lighthearted, and nostalgic. It innovates in some areas and it’s a back step in others but overall it’s a good game. Some even saying this is the best game in the series so far.The problem I’ve realized, is that this could be applied to literally any game in the series. This is the baseline review of any Pokémon game. Catching Pokémon and journeying to become the champion is inherently fun. The core of what you do in Pokémon is what made it a phenomenon. You literally could not fuck this up. These aren’t reviews for Sw/Sh, they’re reviews for Pokémon as a whole.I think this is also why there’s such a divide in the community. Despite all the problems, the cuts, the poor optimization, the lack of innovation, Pokémon is and always will be fun. And that’s why so many people defend it still, because Gamefreak can do whatever they want with the series but as long as that core of catching Pokémon, building a team, and fighting to become the champion remains unchanged, Pokémon will always be a good game.But it’ll never be great.That’s the problem with this new Gen. It solidifies that “good” is all this series will ever be. It will always just be 8/10. Their first console outing was their chance to reinvent the series and make that vision we all had as children of playing a full expanded Pokémon game a reality. But Sw/Sh is just another game in the series.We won’t get our Super Mario 64, our Breath of the Wild, our Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. A new Pokémon game will never be touted as one of the best games of all time, let alone of the year. The reviews show that people are satisfied with Pokémon just being “good”. We will never have a great Pokémon game again. And that just makes me sad. via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/2XhEzOb