Instead of standing still and picking menu options, you crouch in tall grass, sneak up behind wild creatures, and physically throw a ball at them in real time. It is set centuries in the past when nobody had catalogued these animals yet, so your job is to study them, and some will charge at you and knock you out if you are careless. Catching finally feels like actual hunting rather than a menu, which makes it the best entry point for people who found older Pokemon games slow.
Gameplay video
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Screenshots & review notes
The verdict
This is the most interesting the series has been in years, willing to strip away tradition in favor of something closer to a survival adventure.
The mechanics
Sneaking through grass and lobbing balls at unaware creatures makes catching feel tactile again, even though battles themselves remain fairly simple.
Presentation
Hisui's open regions look sparse compared to other open-world games, but the sense of frontier isolation the game is going for mostly lands anyway.
Staying power
It's a great pick for series veterans craving something different, though the modest visuals and slower pace might not win over open-world purists.
Frames captured from the gameplay video above; notes are our own take on the game.
What it's like to play
This looks like a Pokemon game but plays completely differently. Instead of walking into tall grass and waiting for a random battle, you crouch down, sneak up behind a creature that is visibly grazing in the field, and throw a ball at it yourself in real time. If your aim is good and it did not spot you, you catch it without a fight at all. If it does spot you, some of them charge and attack you directly, and you can be knocked out and lose items.
The setting is that region centuries in the past, before anyone had studied these creatures, so your actual job is research. You fill out a survey for each species by catching several, seeing them use certain moves, or feeding them, which is a much more interesting goal than simply owning one of each. You craft your own balls from materials you gather, so running out in the middle of nowhere is a real problem. Traditional turn-based battles still happen against trainers and against enormous frenzied bosses, where you also dodge attacks by rolling out of the way.
The world is split into a handful of large open zones you travel out to from a village hub, and you gradually unlock rides that let you cross water, climb cliffs, and fly. It is rougher looking than other entries, with plain textures and sparse landscapes, and there is not much of a traditional gym story. But the moment-to-moment act of hunting is so much more engaging than the old formula that it is the entry most likely to win over someone who always found Pokemon games too slow and menu-driven.