I wrote my first impressions in the metacritic thread but I'll just put basic points here:
- Game feels nice, graphics are good in most places.
- World design is basic, routes are short.
- Game is very easy even for a pokemon game. Short Routes, Easy to avoid wild battles (can even avoid some? all? trainers), Pokemon centres and random people who heal your pokemon everywhere, ridiculous amount of money to start with for buying items and tons of free pokeballs. Entire party levels, never done a fight I couldn't beat with one of my pokemon, and I have 5 more levelled that I've almost never used.
- Entire party levelling can result in annoying "X wants to learn this move but already has 4 moves" spam, it really hurts the pace of the game when the rest of the game is so streamlined and simplified.
- GTS missing is really annoying, because it has online trading but it's just god awful. You don't even select the pokemon you are trading or want to get? You just get randomly matched with someone?
It's a good experience, but it's really easy. And for a Pokemon game that's saying something.
I feel the world and routes have suffered from the change in graphics. But if you like pokemon you should still enjoy the game, even if you don't love it. I don't think it's a game that will stand the test of time. I'd be surprised if many pokemon fans remember this one as their favourite.
