I loved those 3 finals version (or one and a half regarding graphisms), But PES 2020 last official patch fucked up the ball physics, not only the Live Update issue for every player for us to buy the next version (Konami was already
When PES 2019 cames and to me, that was really the time that i stayed blocked on that version, i loved the changes they gaves, how they mastered finally Fox E., and yes it was fresher as it feeled like they introduced a new engine.
For me the second version after PES 2017. My favourite is Pes 2021 without discussion.
Now, where i PES 2021 can be stiff depending the way you play, but it can be really dynamic too : the issue is especially that practically ALL clubs got the same long range style of play, smaller club (so 95% of the game). That's the biggest issues of the games but to me : i won't say that it's the best football game i never played etc. but the one that maked me suffering to won a game.
I won't say that 2019 where easy or 2017, but i never really been cornered or humiliated by the AI, the level of difficulty, and i always felt it was my fault : i didn't do what you should when there's a counter attack or i was too agressive in attack than i opened space for the AI (whatever people said about the AI : in the higher difficulty of every PES yearly version the vision was pretty limited. It was the only one i could've lost to Antwerp with Inter Milan in superstar difficulty. But on ML it's a bit too hard so you got to tone down one leven above. The issue is that two level above, yes, the AI was a bit too dumb and attacked too rarely.
Now i don't understand that much the "stiff" part, it's looking and feeling more like football especially when the ground is bigger. It's just another purposal vision of realistic football game, and i really like the fact that the game could change the tempo from one game to another, and it's up to you to decide how. But that was already on PES 2019 so....
Then, since they added Tight Possession and Agression on stats, it was impossible to me to came back where dribbling was mixed with others stats to handle the tactical dribbling result, and Agression editable.... I can't play on a PES game without it, it's a bit like when they removed stats as they were auto-calculated by the engine for PES 2012 and 2013.
Now 2 big issues that suffers PES 2021 to me, no game could be perfect far from there:
-Tactics for approximatively 90% of teams where playing long ball/counter/defensively tight. It's a long work but with some information, at least for your ML league, you could edit the tactics and then you will get an astonishing AI but the difficulty will drop. They introduced Fluid Formation on 2015 version, and yes, even if the game was easier it was more tactical.
-I would said the introduction of transfermarkt values in ML / to me, it's a bit messing up the whole database values calculations. IF only, on PS4 (as a console players) you could've change it : it would have been pretty great.
But the total removal would have been an option too before starting a Master League, players values calculations was good before, why to change it?
-Now, regarding controls : i was in PES 2019 a big fan of R2 dribbling. The exchange with the right stick could have bring back a lot more of movement, but it wasn't the case unfortunately : perhaps 4 or 5 forgettable moves where possible. It's less natural than the button we were used to play with since PES 5, to dribble on face of the goal.
@Chris Davies i got the exact same feeling when i retried a vanilla PES 2017 version. Scoring every time i shooted. Don't know if i played on -1 speed. And then some people said that we got rose teinted nostalgia glasses.... It's has never been my case personnaly.
