changed the rating from 8/10 to 7/10 to reflect my thoughts on the game after about a week since i've finished it
pokemon scarlet and violet are the ninth generation of pokemon games and the third set of entirely new games set in 3d. following the mediocre and unfinished x and y, the unexpectedly good sun and moon, and the disappointing and ultimately hollow sword and shield, my hopes for scarlet and violet were not high, even if legends arceus felt like a step in the right direction. pokemon moon is one of my favorite pokemon games and counting the hoenn remakes, they pokemon company managed to make my top 2 pokemon games back to back during the 3d era but at the same time, the other two new generation titles released since the jump to 3d are without a doubt my least favorite games in the series.
well, i'm happy to say that scarlet and violet are fun pokemon games and aren't offensively terrible! the game certainly has issues, however. the story is largely unremarkable until the 4th story segment (which is probably some of the best pokemon content we've gotten since sun/moon) and arven is the only interesting character out of the 3 main rivals, but he's great enough to carry the entire game narratively and character wise. the main champion in this game is also very uninteresting and probably my least favorite after diantha.
visually the game is very okay, it doesn't look spectacular but it's certainly nicer looking than something like legends arceus or sonic frontiers. there's a lot of fps issues though, the game will sometimes struggle to keep a solid 30 seemingly out of nowhere and NPCs in the world will move at staggeringly lower framerates to everything else, it's really odd. i can't complain too much because the pokemon company's last outing on switch is easily their ugliest game so there is definitely an improvement but i think the lighting engine especially could've used just a bit more time in the oven.
you also can't rematch the elite 4 or champion which is an incredibly weird choice but i guess it makes sense because of paldea's weird pokemon league. the gym challenges weren't particularly fun either, but they haven't really been fun since alola's trials utterly outclassed them back in gen 7. it feels like they're just gyms for the sake of it now and for the last two gens they've just been tacking the challenges on just to say they're there. progression was also a bit odd, i found myself not really knowing where to go every now and then because paldea's round shape makes it hard to discern which direction is going to follow a sensible level curve, but this could've been fixed by team star and the gyms having different teams based on your number of badges (of which there is a badge for each type, something i think is really fun) or just having a more well designed region in terms of layout.
the tm crafting system also kind of blows if only because you are left to completely guess what random creature you need to harass in the wild for the ingredients and i ended up just not using the tms often like i would in the games before they became infinite.
the last negative i really have to touch on before i get into singing this game's praises is that character customization is utterly gutted, and as a result ultimately pointless. you are limited to a selection of four color locked and ultimately boring uniforms that are easily the worst default outfits any player character has had in the series' almost 26 year long run. i would rather look like nate from black 2 white 2 than wear these fucking awful uniforms, and you should never force your player to wish they looked like nate from pokemon black 2 white 2. gamefreak is, however boasting the most customization options in any pokemon game! sadly this is all fluff and ultimately pointless. you get a ton of facial customization options and the hair isn't locked to gender anymore which is great! but you also have to keep in mind that the game is open world and free camera the entire time, so you are literally only ever going to see the back of your head for 90% of the game.
outside of the face/hair options, there's a pretty standard amount of shoes/gloves/hats/bags and the addition of.. phone cases. lovely. they come in a pretty wide assortment of colors but so few colors actually go well with "lavender + violet" or "ugly light blue + orange" that it's utterly pointless to have included at all. everyone is going to end up looking so similar because so few of the clothing options actually look good that it was genuinely pointless to even keep character customization in this entry. you can make the argument that it's because you are in a school but 1.) no one actually likes wearing school uniforms in real life, 2.) you spend most of your time in the game outside of the shool, and 3.) there are literally other characters who either just don't wear uniforms or modify theirs even if the latter get reprimanded a bit near the end of the story. it's utterly bizarre why they just completely gutted the one feature that set 3d pokemon apart from the (mostly superior) 2d games in a game that boasts freedom and doing things your way.
it's honestly the biggest issue i have with this game because at least in swsh and xy, when those games were boring, i could at least take pleasure in the fact that i was playing as my trainer and expressing that through the customization, but now when i'm bored i also have to stare at the stupidest looking kid in any of these games and it's just annoying.
now that i've gotten the negatives out of the way, there is a lot i have nice to say about these games.
first and most importantly, the 9th generation of pokemon introduces one of the best dexes of new designs, being my absolute favorite behind legends arceus and on the same level as gen 2 for me. so many absolutely great designs, especially the paradox forms introduced later in the game. roaring moon is an absolute new favorite, and kingambit is fucking amazing (and hopefully people will realize that the bisharp line were based on shogi/mountain bandits/samuari and never had anything to do with chess because of him). the quartet of 4 legendaries is also the best sub-legendaries we've gotten since the regi trio in gen 3, it's fucking great. i could make teams entirely out of the new designs introduced in gen 9 and not be disappointed in any of my choices. like any dex there's two or three i'm not too big on, but the bangers go so hard that it's incredibly negligible to me.
outside of the new pokemon, the new characters are also incredibly solid. the gym leaders are pretty hit and miss (kofu and larry especially are some of my new all time favorites though, larry is great) but the elite 4 is probably the best elite 4 other than unova, they all have a lot of character and are fun even if the way they show up throughout your story is pretty boring and standard. the teachers at your academy are also really fun and make sitting through a system that's just blatantly supposed to evoke feelings of modern persona more enjoyable. outside of your school and the pokemon league, the team star admins are probably my favorite set of admins in the series. team skull and guzma are still better in terms of "evil team that isnt really evil" but the star admins are all at the very least interesting, with the really good ones being really fun. an obvious and definite improvement over the abyssmal team yell.
arven as mentioned previously is also just one of the best rivals in the series. imagine hugh without the edginess and stupidity of his arc and you've got a rough idea of arven. probably the only rival in the series who actually feels like your friend, it made me smile every time he called me his little buddy and his battle theme is probably the best one in this game.
in terms of the soundtrack, it's pretty good. there's a few really good themes (arven and penny both have really good battle themes) and the worst ones are forgettable at best. this does kinda suck though because the elite 4 theme is one of the more forgettable ones. before the first patch it would just loop the intro of the song infinitely which is really funny to me.
the entire game i feel like is a very firm 7/10, but then after wrapping up all of your story routes, after reaching the champion rank, disbanding team star, and collecting the herba mystica, you are tasked with entering the great crater of paldea. i won't spoil anything because it's one of the most enjoyable parts of the game but i love it to death. you get a lot of dialog between your entire set of rivals and you all feel like a rag tag friend group, if one mostly held together by your presence. the final boss is also really fucking cool and i enjoy it a lot, even if there technically isn't an overarching antagonist or apocalypse scenario it's done really well. the story also gets weirdly deep and personal and even tragic for a pokemon game, it's enough to bring the game up to a firm 7.5/10, or a very low 8 for me. celestial by ed sheeran being the credits song does kind of take a lot of the wind out from under the finale's sails of enjoyment and excitement though, i don't want to be too preachy about my music taste but he's one of the least interesting musicians i've heard on the radio in years and him being in pokemon is lame as hell. i can't even describe how quickly i muted my switch and put on something else while his garbage played.
overall, pokemon scarlet and violet are very solid first steps toward a direction for the series that i think will ultimately prove beneficial to the franchise while also finally justifying the leap into the 3d that had felt like a pointless downgrade up until now. i imagine with DLC, this could easily be one of the best games in the entire series, especially with hints towards new paradox forms and teasing towards mega evolution coming back and a "return" to the area in kalos we never got to explore in gen 6. just for the love of christ game freak, give us back the character customization.
also there is no fucking way anyone actually believes gen 8 was better than these games. gen 9 is buggy and isn't optimized but even when swsh runs perfectly they are still the worst pokemon games lmfao
pokemon scarlet and violet are the ninth generation of pokemon games and the third set of entirely new games set in 3d. following the mediocre and unfinished x and y, the unexpectedly good sun and moon, and the disappointing and ultimately hollow sword and shield, my hopes for scarlet and violet were not high, even if legends arceus felt like a step in the right direction. pokemon moon is one of my favorite pokemon games and counting the hoenn remakes, they pokemon company managed to make my top 2 pokemon games back to back during the 3d era but at the same time, the other two new generation titles released since the jump to 3d are without a doubt my least favorite games in the series.
well, i'm happy to say that scarlet and violet are fun pokemon games and aren't offensively terrible! the game certainly has issues, however. the story is largely unremarkable until the 4th story segment (which is probably some of the best pokemon content we've gotten since sun/moon) and arven is the only interesting character out of the 3 main rivals, but he's great enough to carry the entire game narratively and character wise. the main champion in this game is also very uninteresting and probably my least favorite after diantha.
visually the game is very okay, it doesn't look spectacular but it's certainly nicer looking than something like legends arceus or sonic frontiers. there's a lot of fps issues though, the game will sometimes struggle to keep a solid 30 seemingly out of nowhere and NPCs in the world will move at staggeringly lower framerates to everything else, it's really odd. i can't complain too much because the pokemon company's last outing on switch is easily their ugliest game so there is definitely an improvement but i think the lighting engine especially could've used just a bit more time in the oven.
you also can't rematch the elite 4 or champion which is an incredibly weird choice but i guess it makes sense because of paldea's weird pokemon league. the gym challenges weren't particularly fun either, but they haven't really been fun since alola's trials utterly outclassed them back in gen 7. it feels like they're just gyms for the sake of it now and for the last two gens they've just been tacking the challenges on just to say they're there. progression was also a bit odd, i found myself not really knowing where to go every now and then because paldea's round shape makes it hard to discern which direction is going to follow a sensible level curve, but this could've been fixed by team star and the gyms having different teams based on your number of badges (of which there is a badge for each type, something i think is really fun) or just having a more well designed region in terms of layout.
the tm crafting system also kind of blows if only because you are left to completely guess what random creature you need to harass in the wild for the ingredients and i ended up just not using the tms often like i would in the games before they became infinite.
the last negative i really have to touch on before i get into singing this game's praises is that character customization is utterly gutted, and as a result ultimately pointless. you are limited to a selection of four color locked and ultimately boring uniforms that are easily the worst default outfits any player character has had in the series' almost 26 year long run. i would rather look like nate from black 2 white 2 than wear these fucking awful uniforms, and you should never force your player to wish they looked like nate from pokemon black 2 white 2. gamefreak is, however boasting the most customization options in any pokemon game! sadly this is all fluff and ultimately pointless. you get a ton of facial customization options and the hair isn't locked to gender anymore which is great! but you also have to keep in mind that the game is open world and free camera the entire time, so you are literally only ever going to see the back of your head for 90% of the game.
outside of the face/hair options, there's a pretty standard amount of shoes/gloves/hats/bags and the addition of.. phone cases. lovely. they come in a pretty wide assortment of colors but so few colors actually go well with "lavender + violet" or "ugly light blue + orange" that it's utterly pointless to have included at all. everyone is going to end up looking so similar because so few of the clothing options actually look good that it was genuinely pointless to even keep character customization in this entry. you can make the argument that it's because you are in a school but 1.) no one actually likes wearing school uniforms in real life, 2.) you spend most of your time in the game outside of the shool, and 3.) there are literally other characters who either just don't wear uniforms or modify theirs even if the latter get reprimanded a bit near the end of the story. it's utterly bizarre why they just completely gutted the one feature that set 3d pokemon apart from the (mostly superior) 2d games in a game that boasts freedom and doing things your way.
it's honestly the biggest issue i have with this game because at least in swsh and xy, when those games were boring, i could at least take pleasure in the fact that i was playing as my trainer and expressing that through the customization, but now when i'm bored i also have to stare at the stupidest looking kid in any of these games and it's just annoying.
now that i've gotten the negatives out of the way, there is a lot i have nice to say about these games.
first and most importantly, the 9th generation of pokemon introduces one of the best dexes of new designs, being my absolute favorite behind legends arceus and on the same level as gen 2 for me. so many absolutely great designs, especially the paradox forms introduced later in the game. roaring moon is an absolute new favorite, and kingambit is fucking amazing (and hopefully people will realize that the bisharp line were based on shogi/mountain bandits/samuari and never had anything to do with chess because of him). the quartet of 4 legendaries is also the best sub-legendaries we've gotten since the regi trio in gen 3, it's fucking great. i could make teams entirely out of the new designs introduced in gen 9 and not be disappointed in any of my choices. like any dex there's two or three i'm not too big on, but the bangers go so hard that it's incredibly negligible to me.
outside of the new pokemon, the new characters are also incredibly solid. the gym leaders are pretty hit and miss (kofu and larry especially are some of my new all time favorites though, larry is great) but the elite 4 is probably the best elite 4 other than unova, they all have a lot of character and are fun even if the way they show up throughout your story is pretty boring and standard. the teachers at your academy are also really fun and make sitting through a system that's just blatantly supposed to evoke feelings of modern persona more enjoyable. outside of your school and the pokemon league, the team star admins are probably my favorite set of admins in the series. team skull and guzma are still better in terms of "evil team that isnt really evil" but the star admins are all at the very least interesting, with the really good ones being really fun. an obvious and definite improvement over the abyssmal team yell.
arven as mentioned previously is also just one of the best rivals in the series. imagine hugh without the edginess and stupidity of his arc and you've got a rough idea of arven. probably the only rival in the series who actually feels like your friend, it made me smile every time he called me his little buddy and his battle theme is probably the best one in this game.
in terms of the soundtrack, it's pretty good. there's a few really good themes (arven and penny both have really good battle themes) and the worst ones are forgettable at best. this does kinda suck though because the elite 4 theme is one of the more forgettable ones. before the first patch it would just loop the intro of the song infinitely which is really funny to me.
the entire game i feel like is a very firm 7/10, but then after wrapping up all of your story routes, after reaching the champion rank, disbanding team star, and collecting the herba mystica, you are tasked with entering the great crater of paldea. i won't spoil anything because it's one of the most enjoyable parts of the game but i love it to death. you get a lot of dialog between your entire set of rivals and you all feel like a rag tag friend group, if one mostly held together by your presence. the final boss is also really fucking cool and i enjoy it a lot, even if there technically isn't an overarching antagonist or apocalypse scenario it's done really well. the story also gets weirdly deep and personal and even tragic for a pokemon game, it's enough to bring the game up to a firm 7.5/10, or a very low 8 for me. celestial by ed sheeran being the credits song does kind of take a lot of the wind out from under the finale's sails of enjoyment and excitement though, i don't want to be too preachy about my music taste but he's one of the least interesting musicians i've heard on the radio in years and him being in pokemon is lame as hell. i can't even describe how quickly i muted my switch and put on something else while his garbage played.
overall, pokemon scarlet and violet are very solid first steps toward a direction for the series that i think will ultimately prove beneficial to the franchise while also finally justifying the leap into the 3d that had felt like a pointless downgrade up until now. i imagine with DLC, this could easily be one of the best games in the entire series, especially with hints towards new paradox forms and teasing towards mega evolution coming back and a "return" to the area in kalos we never got to explore in gen 6. just for the love of christ game freak, give us back the character customization.
also there is no fucking way anyone actually believes gen 8 was better than these games. gen 9 is buggy and isn't optimized but even when swsh runs perfectly they are still the worst pokemon games lmfao
edit (13/11/23): this review sucks. lol
I don’t understand Pokémon fans. When Sword and Shield released in 2019, it was understandable that Pokémon fans were quite upset. To start off with, the “graphics” at the time were considerably worse and when it was revealed that some Pokémon were not going to even be in the game, the game received heavy backlash from fans and was regarded as one of the most weakest mainline entries.
Then we got Pokémon Legends, which most fans agreed was a major improvement with it’s new formula of catching Pokémon out of the wild. However this also received some backlash as well, with a common theme running that the plot was shallow and the.. gameplay wasn’t fun? Wait, hold on, Game Freak has just changed the entire meta of the game for you and you’re still complaining. The fights were too easy? The graphics were too ugly? The characters are too one dimensional? It’s hard for the common Pokémon fan to find what they enjoy.
And as of now, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have released (although it leaked a week earlier if you know what I mean). And as of now, although a lot of positive comments, Pokemon fans are still complaining! The frame rate and performance is actually so bad now because you guys bullied poor Masuda into trying to produce good ones on a console that has the same specs as a car battery. The fights are too easy? The characters are too one dimensional? You want the mechanics back from a spin off game, even though some of you DIDNT EVEN LIKE IT????
You can hate this game. If you genuinely just don’t like this game or anything in it you are perfectly fine to criticise whatever you want, we are a website that criticises everything for god’s sake. What I just don’t understand is the Pokémon fans. Why do you guys stick with this series for so long if you do nothing but rag and complain about how bad they all are? Pokemon is a series dedicated to putting out low budget titles that appeal to 10 year olds and adults who can never seem to grow up, of course the fights are too easy and everything looks shit. And maybe if you’re favourite Pokémon didn’t make it into the new game, take it as a sign that maybe it’s time to move on and try new things. Go outside and take a nice walk.
I’m a few hours in, I’m enjoying the game. I like the fruity duck starter and the evil team leader’s a baddie so hey good job Game Freak 4 stars!!!!!
I don’t understand Pokémon fans. When Sword and Shield released in 2019, it was understandable that Pokémon fans were quite upset. To start off with, the “graphics” at the time were considerably worse and when it was revealed that some Pokémon were not going to even be in the game, the game received heavy backlash from fans and was regarded as one of the most weakest mainline entries.
Then we got Pokémon Legends, which most fans agreed was a major improvement with it’s new formula of catching Pokémon out of the wild. However this also received some backlash as well, with a common theme running that the plot was shallow and the.. gameplay wasn’t fun? Wait, hold on, Game Freak has just changed the entire meta of the game for you and you’re still complaining. The fights were too easy? The graphics were too ugly? The characters are too one dimensional? It’s hard for the common Pokémon fan to find what they enjoy.
And as of now, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have released (although it leaked a week earlier if you know what I mean). And as of now, although a lot of positive comments, Pokemon fans are still complaining! The frame rate and performance is actually so bad now because you guys bullied poor Masuda into trying to produce good ones on a console that has the same specs as a car battery. The fights are too easy? The characters are too one dimensional? You want the mechanics back from a spin off game, even though some of you DIDNT EVEN LIKE IT????
You can hate this game. If you genuinely just don’t like this game or anything in it you are perfectly fine to criticise whatever you want, we are a website that criticises everything for god’s sake. What I just don’t understand is the Pokémon fans. Why do you guys stick with this series for so long if you do nothing but rag and complain about how bad they all are? Pokemon is a series dedicated to putting out low budget titles that appeal to 10 year olds and adults who can never seem to grow up, of course the fights are too easy and everything looks shit. And maybe if you’re favourite Pokémon didn’t make it into the new game, take it as a sign that maybe it’s time to move on and try new things. Go outside and take a nice walk.
I’m a few hours in, I’m enjoying the game. I like the fruity duck starter and the evil team leader’s a baddie so hey good job Game Freak 4 stars!!!!!
xenoblade 4 goes hard TBH
but by god please stop with the crunch... it's very sad to see.
there's good and bad about scarvio, but it's miles better than swsh. not quite PLA levels for me (Play PLA btw) and bw/bw2 (undecided if i like it more than usum plotwise).
i have yet to finish or even play it, but based off of what i've seen and the leaks about the DLC, scarvio is a very neat experience... i wasn't even interested in it at first, but the plot changed that for me. the ost also is incredible. props to the work toby fox did.
some pokenon are a big hit or miss for me, but the ones i enjoy are my scrunkles now.
will update after i properly play this game. 👍 but it looks promising.
but by god please stop with the crunch... it's very sad to see.
there's good and bad about scarvio, but it's miles better than swsh. not quite PLA levels for me (Play PLA btw) and bw/bw2 (undecided if i like it more than usum plotwise).
i have yet to finish or even play it, but based off of what i've seen and the leaks about the DLC, scarvio is a very neat experience... i wasn't even interested in it at first, but the plot changed that for me. the ost also is incredible. props to the work toby fox did.
some pokenon are a big hit or miss for me, but the ones i enjoy are my scrunkles now.
will update after i properly play this game. 👍 but it looks promising.
"Release it"
"But sire, the quality!"
"JUST DO IT!!"
"But sire, the quality!"
"JUST DO IT!!"
First impressions just to write em down
Pokemon hater channels that came up during SwSh must be eating so well with all this jank
But it’s so FUN
WHEN IT WORKS IT WORKS SO WELL
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REST OF IT LMAO
Pokemon hater channels that came up during SwSh must be eating so well with all this jank
But it’s so FUN
WHEN IT WORKS IT WORKS SO WELL
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REST OF IT LMAO
Y'all owe Sword and Shield a fucking apology
OK, so, Donphan in the room, the technical issues. They're definitely present and noticable. For me personally, as a connoisseur of janky-ass games like Zero Escape, I'm not the kind of person to have my enjoyment affected by them, even if "the most profitable franchise in the world" should give its developers time to do actual QA. That said, I honestly don't think other aspects of the game feel that rushed at all.
First of all, as a baseline, it's Pokemon. This might be a hot take these days, but that's a pretty good thing to be! Palling around with these cute creatures and building your team in this accessible but relatively-deep JRPG framework is fun and satisfying.
The new facets of gameplay are great. A good open world is, IMO, characterised by being able to fuck around somewhere you have no right to be, and taking a risk to cheese a later-game event for an early reward. I was able to do both of those in this game, so it gets a thumbs up from me. I cannot comprehend the people who wanted this game to scale its levels to you. Have you ever heard of FF8? Oblivion? It would have been a disaster!
The multiple progression tracks, instead of having them arbitrarily and linearly interwoven, is a big winner for me too. It was great to be able to choose at my own pace when I'm sick of zipping between gyms, and go off to try another kind of challenge - with their own unique rewards. I actually found the gyms the least interesting part, because, get this - they had the least story attached.
Crazy, I know! I actually really like the writing in this game. It's no thematically deep narrative, but there's just enough going on to be interesting, and the character interactions - along with facial expressiveness - is honestly, actually, no-qualifiers good. Arven's desperate hope - almost in denial - that his injured companion can recover, Penny's blatant trans-coding, Team Star's unity in the face of being outcast, and the whole party dynamics when they come together at the end of the game - I love these idiots! There was a lot of love poured into the flavour for the school part of the game as well. And then the finale was actually a somewhat tense climax instead of a rote champion battle, complete with good old convoluted JRPG melodrama.
The multiplayer was a little disappointing - I get the impression that they couldn't do everything they wanted, because systems like the real-time, in-world battles feel made for multiplayer spectating but apparently it doesn't actually work that way. Still, just being able to hang out with friends in the same space while you do your own thing is a good time, and it does work very well with wild Pokemon, seeing each other battle and being able to share exclusives.
I dunno man! The game's good! Probably my favourite Pokemon game! I get that hating on Pokemon is the cool thing to do now because you couldn't import Scrimblo Bungus from Generation 2 into the last game but stop missing the forest for the poorly-rendered trees for just one second and actually evaluate the game on its own merits.
First of all, as a baseline, it's Pokemon. This might be a hot take these days, but that's a pretty good thing to be! Palling around with these cute creatures and building your team in this accessible but relatively-deep JRPG framework is fun and satisfying.
The new facets of gameplay are great. A good open world is, IMO, characterised by being able to fuck around somewhere you have no right to be, and taking a risk to cheese a later-game event for an early reward. I was able to do both of those in this game, so it gets a thumbs up from me. I cannot comprehend the people who wanted this game to scale its levels to you. Have you ever heard of FF8? Oblivion? It would have been a disaster!
The multiple progression tracks, instead of having them arbitrarily and linearly interwoven, is a big winner for me too. It was great to be able to choose at my own pace when I'm sick of zipping between gyms, and go off to try another kind of challenge - with their own unique rewards. I actually found the gyms the least interesting part, because, get this - they had the least story attached.
Crazy, I know! I actually really like the writing in this game. It's no thematically deep narrative, but there's just enough going on to be interesting, and the character interactions - along with facial expressiveness - is honestly, actually, no-qualifiers good. Arven's desperate hope - almost in denial - that his injured companion can recover, Penny's blatant trans-coding, Team Star's unity in the face of being outcast, and the whole party dynamics when they come together at the end of the game - I love these idiots! There was a lot of love poured into the flavour for the school part of the game as well. And then the finale was actually a somewhat tense climax instead of a rote champion battle, complete with good old convoluted JRPG melodrama.
The multiplayer was a little disappointing - I get the impression that they couldn't do everything they wanted, because systems like the real-time, in-world battles feel made for multiplayer spectating but apparently it doesn't actually work that way. Still, just being able to hang out with friends in the same space while you do your own thing is a good time, and it does work very well with wild Pokemon, seeing each other battle and being able to share exclusives.
I dunno man! The game's good! Probably my favourite Pokemon game! I get that hating on Pokemon is the cool thing to do now because you couldn't import Scrimblo Bungus from Generation 2 into the last game but stop missing the forest for the poorly-rendered trees for just one second and actually evaluate the game on its own merits.
This is the best Pokemon game that has been made in over a decade, many will see it as a technical failure but the "bugs" are either minor inconveniences or hilarious moments.
Baxcalibur carries
Baxcalibur carries
Man i feel so conflicted on the one hand this game did a lot right
The characters especially Nemona and Arven were pretty likeable and it probably had one of the best stories in a pokemon game probably only behind SM and BW
The new pokemon were generally really good and had some well designed towns on top of that it kept some of the great stuff that SWSH introduced like how easy it is to turn your team into a competitive ready squad and improved on raids making them way faster and more enjoyable
but the technical issues hold this game back a ton the FPS drops and glitches were awful and the well designed towns weren't done justice by the horrendous graphics
This game desperately needs patches because it should not have been released in the state that it is in right now
Even if i had fun with the game i think they should have delayed it a year and given us Legends Arceus DLC instead
Speaking of Legends Arceus this game takes a lot of steps back from Legends while i understand changing back to normal battle mechanics who the fuck thought it was a good idea to not make physical moves to make contact PLA did it just fine but nope back to the SWSH usual of just staying in one spot to punch someone
and voice acting as well while PLA didn't have much voice acting it at least had grunts this game has nothing yet again come the fuck on you guys have VAs for Pokemon Masters and the Pokemon Anime there is literally no excuse for this
If you are considering getting the game i'd personally wait for a patch unless your really desperate to get it
I personally like the game more than SWSH and BDSP but i have to rate it lower than those two entries just because of how many flaws this game has
The characters especially Nemona and Arven were pretty likeable and it probably had one of the best stories in a pokemon game probably only behind SM and BW
The new pokemon were generally really good and had some well designed towns on top of that it kept some of the great stuff that SWSH introduced like how easy it is to turn your team into a competitive ready squad and improved on raids making them way faster and more enjoyable
but the technical issues hold this game back a ton the FPS drops and glitches were awful and the well designed towns weren't done justice by the horrendous graphics
This game desperately needs patches because it should not have been released in the state that it is in right now
Even if i had fun with the game i think they should have delayed it a year and given us Legends Arceus DLC instead
Speaking of Legends Arceus this game takes a lot of steps back from Legends while i understand changing back to normal battle mechanics who the fuck thought it was a good idea to not make physical moves to make contact PLA did it just fine but nope back to the SWSH usual of just staying in one spot to punch someone
and voice acting as well while PLA didn't have much voice acting it at least had grunts this game has nothing yet again come the fuck on you guys have VAs for Pokemon Masters and the Pokemon Anime there is literally no excuse for this
If you are considering getting the game i'd personally wait for a patch unless your really desperate to get it
I personally like the game more than SWSH and BDSP but i have to rate it lower than those two entries just because of how many flaws this game has
i'm very conflicted on this game. on one hand, the open-world is really fun to explore and i'm really enjoying my time with it... but on the other hand, the technical issues are impossible to ignore including graphics in the background randomly bugging out, character models flickering in and out of existence, lots of crashing, pokémon getting stuck, character models bugging out, getting stuck on miraidon, miraidon disappearing, entire models struggling to load in and an abysmal frame rate to top it all off.
i want to love this game but the technical aspect of it is making it so hard for me. for a game from the biggest media franchise in the world, it's inexcusable.
i want to love this game but the technical aspect of it is making it so hard for me. for a game from the biggest media franchise in the world, it's inexcusable.
This game could get a 5/5 if they fix some of the performance issues.
This game is now my favorite of the series.
Edit After Completing Pokédex:
This game is slow, clunky, and over all very bland the more I play it. While I do enjoy it a ton, I understand it sucks on other levels. Arven is cool, the 4th story is cool, and possible DLC has some good set-up coming.
Video Game purist will not like this game imo. Pokemon mega fans will love this game and should consider it to be the best in the series. I am gonna knock this down to a 4/5. Updates to this can fix it and create a 5/5 experience. But until then, it will remain a great game but not a masterpiece.
This game is now my favorite of the series.
Edit After Completing Pokédex:
This game is slow, clunky, and over all very bland the more I play it. While I do enjoy it a ton, I understand it sucks on other levels. Arven is cool, the 4th story is cool, and possible DLC has some good set-up coming.
Video Game purist will not like this game imo. Pokemon mega fans will love this game and should consider it to be the best in the series. I am gonna knock this down to a 4/5. Updates to this can fix it and create a 5/5 experience. But until then, it will remain a great game but not a masterpiece.
holy fucking shit game freak you've got a good game fix the fucking performance issues what the actual fuck
This truly is a mixed bag. While the open world format is something that this franchise desperately needed and playing with friends was a blast, the look and performance of the game is not acceptable. It has the highest highs and the lowest lows.
It just shows that more development time was needed, but Pokemon wants to have annual releases and this is the end result. This franchise has been a part of my life for so long and seeing be in a state of decline from a quality standpoint has truly disappointing. I still had a lot of fun with this game, and it has me truly conflicted. Perhaps I will skip out on the next game or next gen if this is what is considered acceptable at launch by the developers.
It just shows that more development time was needed, but Pokemon wants to have annual releases and this is the end result. This franchise has been a part of my life for so long and seeing be in a state of decline from a quality standpoint has truly disappointing. I still had a lot of fun with this game, and it has me truly conflicted. Perhaps I will skip out on the next game or next gen if this is what is considered acceptable at launch by the developers.
This review contains spoilers
Wasn't really good until Area Zero, and even then it was a dreadful decision to have you walk that big ass area without Miraidon
It came out in the end and Team Star and Arven's story's endings were pretty nice, Area Zero had potential and all but it really doesn't erase anything else the game did wrong so lmao
I guess it just ended up as a 2/10 game, and it's frustrating because it really had the potential to be a good game
30-9-2023 REPLAYED
I played it with the Pokemon Compass mod and while it made the game a little bit more enjoyable with difficulty, we all know whether I can sweep Grusha with my team or not is not what makes this game bad
I kinda just wanted to replay this for the DLC and since I'm dumb I could've just skipped wasting 30 hours of my life actually downloading the right file instead of thinking you could go to Kitakami after you clear the main story
It came out in the end and Team Star and Arven's story's endings were pretty nice, Area Zero had potential and all but it really doesn't erase anything else the game did wrong so lmao
I guess it just ended up as a 2/10 game, and it's frustrating because it really had the potential to be a good game
30-9-2023 REPLAYED
I played it with the Pokemon Compass mod and while it made the game a little bit more enjoyable with difficulty, we all know whether I can sweep Grusha with my team or not is not what makes this game bad
I kinda just wanted to replay this for the DLC and since I'm dumb I could've just skipped wasting 30 hours of my life actually downloading the right file instead of thinking you could go to Kitakami after you clear the main story
I probably have more negative than positive things to say about this game, but I also had a really good time given the fact that I played nearly 24 hours since Thursday night/Friday morning.
First, the bad: It runs atrociously on Switch. Bad framerate, flickering textures, Pokemon clipping through terrain, outrageous pop-in, weird camera stuff constantly, etc. Arceus did not run great, but it ran like a dream compared to this.
Also compared to Arceus (my GOTY, for what it's worth), everything is just slower. Battles take longer, the story has even less going on (until near the end and then it briefly gets sick as hell???), there's no voice acting so the dialogue boxes hurt way more (not that there is in Arceus but the story moves so much slower here I was mashing through them during some chunks), and basic quality of life improvements from a semi-spinoff released in January aren't seen here. The traversal is also way slower compared to Arceus, which I'm only saying because the open world style is similar between the two games.
Lastly, it's bizarre how little post-game there is here because Arceus arguably had the best post-game in series history depending on how you feel about GSC.
And yet, I had a really good time? Game Freak is seriously onto something with their new open world format. The sense of exploration here is great, and I'm impressed that they made Paldea a fully connected open world. The presence of towns also gives the open world a bit more life and sense of place than Arceus had. The story is extremely undercooked, but the new characters are mostly really good, and many of them have a surprising deal of personality (we stan Larry!). The new gimmicks are fun, the new Pokemon are generally pretty fun (though all of my favorites are based on old mons so the jury is out...), and it feels like the exact opposite of Sword and Shield, which were dinky on-rails RPGs for babies until the DLC.
This is both one of the best Pokemon gens and one of the worst at the same time. It's really confusing. It's an enormous step down from Arceus in most ways, but progress in others. Still, if they add voice acting and put this kind of open world on stronger hardware in a few years (or get a better technical team IDK I don't make games), they got something here. There are bones in place for a really bright Pokemon future. I hope they get there.
First, the bad: It runs atrociously on Switch. Bad framerate, flickering textures, Pokemon clipping through terrain, outrageous pop-in, weird camera stuff constantly, etc. Arceus did not run great, but it ran like a dream compared to this.
Also compared to Arceus (my GOTY, for what it's worth), everything is just slower. Battles take longer, the story has even less going on (until near the end and then it briefly gets sick as hell???), there's no voice acting so the dialogue boxes hurt way more (not that there is in Arceus but the story moves so much slower here I was mashing through them during some chunks), and basic quality of life improvements from a semi-spinoff released in January aren't seen here. The traversal is also way slower compared to Arceus, which I'm only saying because the open world style is similar between the two games.
Lastly, it's bizarre how little post-game there is here because Arceus arguably had the best post-game in series history depending on how you feel about GSC.
And yet, I had a really good time? Game Freak is seriously onto something with their new open world format. The sense of exploration here is great, and I'm impressed that they made Paldea a fully connected open world. The presence of towns also gives the open world a bit more life and sense of place than Arceus had. The story is extremely undercooked, but the new characters are mostly really good, and many of them have a surprising deal of personality (we stan Larry!). The new gimmicks are fun, the new Pokemon are generally pretty fun (though all of my favorites are based on old mons so the jury is out...), and it feels like the exact opposite of Sword and Shield, which were dinky on-rails RPGs for babies until the DLC.
This is both one of the best Pokemon gens and one of the worst at the same time. It's really confusing. It's an enormous step down from Arceus in most ways, but progress in others. Still, if they add voice acting and put this kind of open world on stronger hardware in a few years (or get a better technical team IDK I don't make games), they got something here. There are bones in place for a really bright Pokemon future. I hope they get there.
Pokemon is back (derogatory). If you played Pokemon Legends and hated any of the quality of life improvements, being able to catch Pokemon in the overworld, an intuitive UI, the game isn't split into two versions and probably every single other thing people praised that game for then this is the game for you. I only got to like, the first gym but I can't do this it's so slow.
To simply put my thoughts in a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3G4NyelU2Y
Wake me up when they make another Legends game.
To simply put my thoughts in a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3G4NyelU2Y
Wake me up when they make another Legends game.
This review contains spoilers
UPDATED 12/05/22: Finished story.
Summary: At its core, this is the best Pokemon game ever made. Everything from the region's design to the new Pokemon to the music to the story is so good that it feels flawless. While the game's technical hiccups can sometimes detract from the gameplay, everything else about the game is so well-crafted that it doesn't really matter. I'll take a cracked and worn ball of gold over a polished turd any day. 10/10.
GAMEPLAY. The first thing I notice about a game. While P:LA felt like a completely different experience, SV feels like the perfect refinement of the traditional Pokemon experience. Wild battles are always initiated from the overworld, and some Pokemon require you to aim at them with a Pokeball to battle them; some hide when you get close, some are in the air, and some are in the water. Trainer battles are only initiated when you speak to another Trainer, a welcome change from how it was before, especially in an open-world game. There's a lot of strong Pokemon, and even the less ones feel viable for in-game teams. A lot of new Pokemon have signature moves, which is cool. The controls work really well, both on foot and while riding Miraidon. I got very, very overleveled very early into the game, but I'm much older than the target audience, and even overleveled I struggled with a few of the endgame battles. Battles are fun overall, though they're much slower than they were in Legends Arceus. The level/map design is great, particularly in late-game areas in North Paldea and Area Zero. There are serious frame rate problems, but I never had any adverse outcomes because of them, and the only serious glitch I found was five hours into the game and easily fixed by a restart. VERIDCT: Near-perfect, slightly flawed. 9/10.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN: This isn't the best-looking game on the Switch, but it still looks great. The Pokemon and human models are very well-done, with a lot of attention to detail and personality. Where the graphics falter are rendering (low-res textures are used even at a medium distance from some objects) and some of the overworld textures that obviously tile/repeat.
The art design is phenomenal. Each area feels very distinctive and different, the new Pokemon and human designs are great, the concepts behind the landscape are beautiful, some of the towns are gorgeous...IMO the art team at Gamefreak struggled with SwSh, but they really hit their stride here. VERDICT: Flawed graphics can't keep Paldea and its Pokemon and Characters from looking very pretty. 9/10.
MUSIC: This is by far the best Pokemon soundtrack. Everything works together as a whole and there were probably 10-15 times i just paused to listen to the music for a new area or a certain battle. It's easy to credit that to Toby Fox, but he didn't work on every song on the soundtrack - GameFreak was putting in their best effort too. Gamefreak's music team and Toby are a formidable combination and I hope they work together more in the future. VERDICT: Nearly flawless. 10/10.
STORY: The game's best aspect (though the music is close). There are three stories in this game. Victory Road didn't really have a narrative in the same way the others did, but most of the Gym Leaders are really interesting and the Gym Tests tend to be fun. Nemona is also a really funny rival. Starfall Street had me on the verge of tears, mostly because of Penny's reunion with Team Star and how sweet it was. It helps that I was a victim of bullying as well, so I can really relate to Team Star and why they did what they did. It's also nice to see some positive representation of trans girls in a Pokemon game thanks to Penny. I'm not kidding, there's a lot of evidence to suggest that she's canonically a trans girl, the strongest of which is her yelling "Become who you really want to be!" while Terastallizing her Sylveon (her ace Pokemon, and also a symbol of trans Pokemon fans due to its color scheme) - wording that's nearly exactly the same as the wording of a tweet from TPC on Trans Visibility Day in 2020. Some elements of the Team Star story could also be read as allegorical for certain trans experiences.
The story that really messed me up, however, was Arven's. Path of Legends is a sweet story, and I got choked up when Mabosstiff finally stood up. And then there's The Way Home.
The Way Home is the best story in all of Pokemon history. It's not even close. I started crying during a fucking Ed Sheeran song, it's THAT good. I refuse to spoil any details of it, even in this review. I've seen some people calling Arven the best character in Pokemon history - they're absolutely right.
Overall? The story alone makes this game worth it. 10/10. 11/10 if I could.
FINAL THOUGHTS & CRUNCH COMMENTS: Pokemon Violet manages to be greater than the sum of its parts - an atmospheric and immersive experience with an incredible story to go alongside it, with some of the best new Pokemon in years and some of the best music ever composed for a Pokemon game. At its core, the game is nearly flawless.
The problems that it does have were clearly caused by crunch. The Pokemon Company is to blame for this, not Gamefreak - I think Gamefreak asked for more time, and TPC refused to budge on the game's release date. I think Gamefreak knew to expect crunch, so they chose to focus on the game's core elements instead of optimization. I think it was the right choice (you can patch better optimization into a game; you can't patch in better Pokemon designs, better story, etc.) but I'm extremely frustrated that the choice had to be made at all.
I hope that the game's reception and Nintendo's willingness to offer refunds get TPC to stop forcing Gamefreak to meet such strict deadlines. With a couple more months for optimization, Violet could have been a nearly flawless experience. As it stands, I'm giving the game a 10/10 less for its intrinsic quality and more for the sheer emotional impact it had on me. That, and I can't stop playing it. I want to explore every inch of Paldea, even if 10 FPS is the price I pay.
If you can't get over the performance issues, then don't get the game until it's patched. But if you can? You're in for an incredible experience.
5 STARS OUT OF 5 - MASTERPIECE
Summary: At its core, this is the best Pokemon game ever made. Everything from the region's design to the new Pokemon to the music to the story is so good that it feels flawless. While the game's technical hiccups can sometimes detract from the gameplay, everything else about the game is so well-crafted that it doesn't really matter. I'll take a cracked and worn ball of gold over a polished turd any day. 10/10.
GAMEPLAY. The first thing I notice about a game. While P:LA felt like a completely different experience, SV feels like the perfect refinement of the traditional Pokemon experience. Wild battles are always initiated from the overworld, and some Pokemon require you to aim at them with a Pokeball to battle them; some hide when you get close, some are in the air, and some are in the water. Trainer battles are only initiated when you speak to another Trainer, a welcome change from how it was before, especially in an open-world game. There's a lot of strong Pokemon, and even the less ones feel viable for in-game teams. A lot of new Pokemon have signature moves, which is cool. The controls work really well, both on foot and while riding Miraidon. I got very, very overleveled very early into the game, but I'm much older than the target audience, and even overleveled I struggled with a few of the endgame battles. Battles are fun overall, though they're much slower than they were in Legends Arceus. The level/map design is great, particularly in late-game areas in North Paldea and Area Zero. There are serious frame rate problems, but I never had any adverse outcomes because of them, and the only serious glitch I found was five hours into the game and easily fixed by a restart. VERIDCT: Near-perfect, slightly flawed. 9/10.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN: This isn't the best-looking game on the Switch, but it still looks great. The Pokemon and human models are very well-done, with a lot of attention to detail and personality. Where the graphics falter are rendering (low-res textures are used even at a medium distance from some objects) and some of the overworld textures that obviously tile/repeat.
The art design is phenomenal. Each area feels very distinctive and different, the new Pokemon and human designs are great, the concepts behind the landscape are beautiful, some of the towns are gorgeous...IMO the art team at Gamefreak struggled with SwSh, but they really hit their stride here. VERDICT: Flawed graphics can't keep Paldea and its Pokemon and Characters from looking very pretty. 9/10.
MUSIC: This is by far the best Pokemon soundtrack. Everything works together as a whole and there were probably 10-15 times i just paused to listen to the music for a new area or a certain battle. It's easy to credit that to Toby Fox, but he didn't work on every song on the soundtrack - GameFreak was putting in their best effort too. Gamefreak's music team and Toby are a formidable combination and I hope they work together more in the future. VERDICT: Nearly flawless. 10/10.
STORY: The game's best aspect (though the music is close). There are three stories in this game. Victory Road didn't really have a narrative in the same way the others did, but most of the Gym Leaders are really interesting and the Gym Tests tend to be fun. Nemona is also a really funny rival. Starfall Street had me on the verge of tears, mostly because of Penny's reunion with Team Star and how sweet it was. It helps that I was a victim of bullying as well, so I can really relate to Team Star and why they did what they did. It's also nice to see some positive representation of trans girls in a Pokemon game thanks to Penny. I'm not kidding, there's a lot of evidence to suggest that she's canonically a trans girl, the strongest of which is her yelling "Become who you really want to be!" while Terastallizing her Sylveon (her ace Pokemon, and also a symbol of trans Pokemon fans due to its color scheme) - wording that's nearly exactly the same as the wording of a tweet from TPC on Trans Visibility Day in 2020. Some elements of the Team Star story could also be read as allegorical for certain trans experiences.
The story that really messed me up, however, was Arven's. Path of Legends is a sweet story, and I got choked up when Mabosstiff finally stood up. And then there's The Way Home.
The Way Home is the best story in all of Pokemon history. It's not even close. I started crying during a fucking Ed Sheeran song, it's THAT good. I refuse to spoil any details of it, even in this review. I've seen some people calling Arven the best character in Pokemon history - they're absolutely right.
Overall? The story alone makes this game worth it. 10/10. 11/10 if I could.
FINAL THOUGHTS & CRUNCH COMMENTS: Pokemon Violet manages to be greater than the sum of its parts - an atmospheric and immersive experience with an incredible story to go alongside it, with some of the best new Pokemon in years and some of the best music ever composed for a Pokemon game. At its core, the game is nearly flawless.
The problems that it does have were clearly caused by crunch. The Pokemon Company is to blame for this, not Gamefreak - I think Gamefreak asked for more time, and TPC refused to budge on the game's release date. I think Gamefreak knew to expect crunch, so they chose to focus on the game's core elements instead of optimization. I think it was the right choice (you can patch better optimization into a game; you can't patch in better Pokemon designs, better story, etc.) but I'm extremely frustrated that the choice had to be made at all.
I hope that the game's reception and Nintendo's willingness to offer refunds get TPC to stop forcing Gamefreak to meet such strict deadlines. With a couple more months for optimization, Violet could have been a nearly flawless experience. As it stands, I'm giving the game a 10/10 less for its intrinsic quality and more for the sheer emotional impact it had on me. That, and I can't stop playing it. I want to explore every inch of Paldea, even if 10 FPS is the price I pay.
If you can't get over the performance issues, then don't get the game until it's patched. But if you can? You're in for an incredible experience.
5 STARS OUT OF 5 - MASTERPIECE
People are talking about this game like it called a drone strike on their nan's house.
This review contains spoilers
I don't get what people do not like about this game. I love how you can go where ever when ever you want to. There is some lag issues here and there but its not game ruining at all or sometimes even noticeable.
Someone should stop the crunch over at gamefreak, their stuff is getting really buggy and its showing really hard now
So, I haven't completed the game yet but I really gotta get my first impressions out there because I got some choice words about this game. I'll start with what I like obviously, the pokemon models look fantastic and the human animations looks smooth most of the time. The map is also very well designed, and towns feel alive and lived in. I also generally like exploring and finding pokemon living in the environment. However, pokemon animations are a severe step down from legends as it seems like they've gone back to pokemon not making contact during battle, and moving the pokemon's idle animation on a certain axis for most animations. To address the elephant in the room the performance is HORRIBLE. Pop in (which was in other pokemon games) is more prominent than ever, and lag and slow downs are extremely common. Bugs and camera glitches are in no shortage as well, often clipping through the ground and put in very awkward locations. However, most of what I just listed can (hopefully) be patched out. Unfortunately this game is also home to some severe game design oversights that CANNOT be patched out, the most prominent being that there is 0 level scaling for gyms or bosses. Why make the world open to explore, and gyms being able to do in any order when the set level balancing makes it as though theres still an intended progression route? Another thing I dislike is the entire map being visible from the very start. This makes it so discovering towns, cool areas, and interesting landmarks have no surprise or reaction value. There is also no shirt or pants customizability with the player customization potentially being at a series low in my opinion. As I stated in the beginning of this first impressions I have not yet completed the game. I have done 4 gyms, 2 titan pokemon, and 2 team star bases. Because I have no completed this I will not be giving this a star review, but my first impressions would most likely be a 2/5.
its good and if it wasn't for the technical issues it would be truly spectacular. it is the best pokémon game of the 3d era by far. sorry i'll take a choppy framerate with a well designed world that's fun to explore over the complete lack of content that sword and shield had!
About halfway through and honestly this is the most fun ive had with a Pokémon game in a long time. Sure the graphics are really rough but the more non linear gameplay is really really great. I wouldn't be surprised if this gets bumbled up to a 9/10 by the time I beat it. Also bonus points for bellibolt and toedscool aka peak pokemon design.
A game like this is the definition of a joke. I don't need to list the problems it already brought. People will keep buying this garbage instead of trying out new things. And the sales rack up, making the studio pump out more garbage. How in the hell did they release 2 full on pokemon games in the same year? The crunch time must be insane(despite claims of giving their employees breaks; although that was probably a lie then.) This is the same thing with fifa and cod,pumping out the same cycle or rubbish. Industries only care about your money. Gamefreak used to make good products, but since they are billion dollar company they don't care anymore. I've seen more people blame the devs for being lazy in the industry. While that may be true, the issue lies in the corrupted greed of the higher-ups who don't give delays,crunchtime,abuse,harrasment,etc. Not buying more trash like this will make companies reconsider and we can actually get something good. I'm not saying to boycott, I'm saying not to buy so they can learn. Cause they won't learn if we keep buying.
This game frustrates the hell out of me it has almost everything I would want from a Pokemon game as far as Story and Gameplay goes, there are a lot of options just missing from the game. Set Battle, Animation removal and not being able to cut the bullshit and capture things like Legends Arceus(I would imagine this game was in development either around the same time or before Arceus)
But man, The performance is such an issue and I hope it is just an easily fixable memory leak but as much as I like this game and I mean I like it a lot it feels so wrong rating it any higher than a 2 * Hell I feel like it's generous. I really hope that tons of people being very critical and open about this game kinda opens Nintendo's eyes and gives Gamefreak some more help, you mean to tell me you can take half of Monolith Soft's team for BotW but you couldn't of taken some people for a Pokemon game? Maybe it isn't that simple but it don't make no goddamn sense to me, Also wanted to add that, These games NEED voice acting, Pokemon Masters has voice acting for English and Japanese why can't a mainline Pokemon? There was so many good scenes in this game I felt coulda been enhanced by voice acting. but I'm rambling.
I do not recommend getting this game in the current state unless you wanna power through some extremely egregious and unacceptable performance issues.
But man, The performance is such an issue and I hope it is just an easily fixable memory leak but as much as I like this game and I mean I like it a lot it feels so wrong rating it any higher than a 2 * Hell I feel like it's generous. I really hope that tons of people being very critical and open about this game kinda opens Nintendo's eyes and gives Gamefreak some more help, you mean to tell me you can take half of Monolith Soft's team for BotW but you couldn't of taken some people for a Pokemon game? Maybe it isn't that simple but it don't make no goddamn sense to me, Also wanted to add that, These games NEED voice acting, Pokemon Masters has voice acting for English and Japanese why can't a mainline Pokemon? There was so many good scenes in this game I felt coulda been enhanced by voice acting. but I'm rambling.
I do not recommend getting this game in the current state unless you wanna power through some extremely egregious and unacceptable performance issues.
There's a lot to like in Violet's open-world experience and I am enjoying it, but it all is dragged down by the absolutely massive caveat that this game is a technical mess. It's plagued by bugs, glitches, and exceptionally poor optimisation. Even a Switch game should not perform this poorly while frequently looking as technically unimpressive as Violet does.
It's pretty obvious that this game was rushed out well before it was ready, and frankly, it's unacceptable for a game to be launched in this state.
I'll do a proper review if GF ever patches the game to an acceptable standard. Until then, I'll just leave this as a warning about the game being blatantly unfinished.
It's pretty obvious that this game was rushed out well before it was ready, and frankly, it's unacceptable for a game to be launched in this state.
I'll do a proper review if GF ever patches the game to an acceptable standard. Until then, I'll just leave this as a warning about the game being blatantly unfinished.
Holy fucking shit this game runs so fucking bad holy fucking shit this is probably the best pokemon game since the 3d generations
I'm glad I didn't buy this game
Big elephant in the room is that this game is a buggy mess at the moment at the time of writing this and this does hold the game back a lot which is sad because with some more time polishing I would say that this game is great fun little journey and I enjoyed the open world
I wrongfully gave this game a 3 star initially. I've never been so wrong.