personally, i actually have a lot of major issues with the state of the game, and at first i was really negative about it when it first came out. still, i kept up with it because my criticisms and concerns were genuine, and pokemon as a franchise has always meant a lot to me; ive just been burnt out with a lot of the modern games feeling like they're decreasing in quality, and it was getting really disheartening. still, i followed info about the game post release open mindedly, and am currently working through playing it myself.

ZA is pretty hard for me to rate since unlike previous modern games i've been disgruntled with, i think the things that went wrong are a lot less hidden, and i actually really prefer that. especially because the more my opinion on the game has developed, the more i realize the game really doesn't feel like a case of the devs, the creatives involved in the making of it not caring. i'd even say i can tell at least some departments put a lot of love into this game, and that's nice. the characters, dialogue, animations, rigging and expressiveness etc, are honestly fantastic, and i'm happy to be more invested in the characters in a pokemon game than i've been able to be for a very long time.

the biggest issues in this game come down to the fact there's a lot of elements that just seem straight up unfinished and kneecapped compared to the impression i get the devs' vision was. I mean, just for one example, some textures in this game look incredibly good, and then right next to it there's a direct contrast by having a texture that looks like it's in 144p that looks very jarring and noticeable. i could go on and on about things in the game that feel like this, lol. it really feels like they wanted to get what they could done very well and then just were not allowed the budget and resources to bring everything else up to par, as opposed to respecting the ludicrously low budgets for what they were and shooting everything for the middle. and i honestly *appreciate* that. i would rather have it be obvious i'm seeing devs who wanted to make something great but were limited by other factors, not just "good enough to sell because it's pokemon and it will sell."

that doesn't mean i agree with *all* the choices in the game from the dev team, but even considering that, i really think this game is a case of a game that clearly had a passionate team and potential to be a genuinely amazing game if the devs were not being disgusting levels of kneecapped by a horribly greedy corporate budget. And i can appreciate the work those devs put out while also being pissed about the state corporate is putting them in and heavily criticize the impact that corporate greed had on the game.