WARNING!: I lost my copy of Shadows of Almia a long time ago, so I am merely working off of memory in this review. I have played through the game 5 or 6 times so I have a good idea of the game overall.


So hey everybody! I'm making another review, the last one I did was Dragon Age Inquisition, so lets go from killing demons to drawing circles shall we?

For anyone who hasn't played a Pokémon Ranger game, you play as a....pokémon ranger, duh, using your capture rod thing(been awhile okay?) to temporarily befriend a pokémon and have him help you in battle, clearing obstacles, etc.
So let's get started shall we?

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Story: Well...it's predictable, meant to be simple so that younger fellas can understand.
You start off as a Ranger in training, moving to the region of Almia to go to Ranger School. Yes, the first parts of the game start in school...yay. However it does let you learn the game at a somewhat decent pace, just a quick tutorial to learn the story and gameplay.
I won't spoil too much this time around, but basically stuff happens, you become cool, you become a ranger, etc.

After all the school silliness, you get to the place you'll be operating from, the Ranger place in small town, Almia, which happened to be the place your family moved to! There you meet your ranger team for the next parts of the game and do some simple quests, again teaching you a little bit more.
One quest has you go into a cave to deal with the pokémon inside, but instead find wierd machines that influence the Pokémon and make them go nuts, when they are like this you can only free them, you cannot befriend them.
Then that whole thing is broken when you come out the cave and find a munchlax, pachirisu and a starley going nuts. Which then you have to go ahead and choose who to befriend.((ALWAYS CHOOSE PACHIRISU)). Then when you befriend them they become your first permanent companion.

The rest of the game has you climbing up to the top of Ranger elite, learning about the machines and stopping the evil guys. Nothing special at all here.

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Gameplay: This is basically the two things you'll be doing as gamplay.

Capture: Draw circles around pokémon.
Use captured Pokémon: Use the pokémon you capture to clear the way and beat an objective....

Yep, that's it. That's all.
Sure there is some puzzle bits, some parts you can kinda call platformers, etc. but this is the main two things you do.
And it's repetitve.

HOWEVER, just because it's repetitive doesn't mean it can't be fun!
As Shadows of Almia actually has some interesting boss pokémon to capture(Drapion always kicked my ASS!) and even little mini-bosses that can be just as difficult. As they use different tactics to break your circling and deplete your capture meter, or whatever it's called. When the meter is empty it's game over.

Again, the puzzle and platformer bits are fun, but the only time the MAIN part of the game is really challenging and unique is the boss fights.

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Music:
I can't remember, leave me alone, just look it up yourself.


FINAL VERDICT:
Nostalgia Verdict: 8/10
Unbiased Verdict: 6.5/10