Its 7.8. Maybe the game really deserves 7.8. Not all games have to get 9.

Yeah, I'm Team Magma all the way so this review makes me angry.

Yeah i was like WTF?

But the comment section was hilarious! that made up for it.

This is an interesting thread, as is the comment section of the article. It really highlights how immature some segments of the gaming community are when something they've decided to like is criticized.

I thought the review was well-written. I noted nothing egregious about it. If the text had an 8.5 attached, no one would say a word.

The attempt to discredit the review by focusing on the water comments is pretty stupid but, unfortunately, it's also effective. People latch on to stuff like that without ever bothering to read or think for themselves. You can take something like that, amplify it as more important than it actually was, feed it to the mob, and they'll fall right in line. It's a shame but that's the reality. I hope the reviewer understands that and doesn't let these kind of tactics bother them.

The line that caught my attention was this:

" However, as a remake, it does represent a big missed opportunity to fix several significant balance issues and mechanical problems — the difficulty I had going back after playing the much more modern Pokémon X shows how far Pokémon games have come in 12 years."

Which begs the question, should improvements to bad mechanics from the original games be made?  And if they aren't made, is it valid to deduct points for that?  Should mechanics be modernized in a remake?  At least to the point of filtering out the worst bits and fixing the most annoying?

Except people know what to expect from pokemon, especially a remake, so I don't think scores are going to change peoples minds if theyd preordered.

If this was a new franchise I could see your point though. Personally im ok with a 7.8. it's a remake, yes the water areas could be quite large and tedious, and reviewers are being harsher this gen after throwing out 9s like halloween candy last gen.

I'll never get why gamers care so damn much about review scores. He doesn't like water, whatever. Ignore the review and move on.

Yeah, it seems to be another case of scores making everything worse for everybody. Reviews are primarily for the consumer, and it is impossible to strike a balance between both sides: the side that played the game before and the side that will experience it for the first time. Either you value one side over the other or you release a review that sits in the middle somewhere whose score doesn't really help anyone. Without the score, these would all be valid complaints and comments, but as is, it is hard to say how much weight should be put onto each of these points.

I guess that is my conclusion to every related problem lately: the score is always the problem. 

That's pretty much the reason why Ruby and Sapphire were my least favorite entries. There is too much water, the water segments are not fun, and they're difficult to navigate. If they didn't change anything, I could see knocking it down a few points for that.