This review contains spoilers
Pokémon Violet is, in the truest sense of the phrase, a diamond in the rough. I wasn’t originally planning on playing it at all, having fallen off the series pretty hard after half-heartedly making my way through Ultra Sun several years ago. I expected a similar experience with this game, but what I ended up with was a wildly unexpected mixed bag.
On one hand, everything that’s been said about Violet’s performance is true. The frequency and variety of technical errors was immersion-shattering, if not at least humorous. From pop-in to lag to lighting errors to clipping to every loading screen lasting just long enough to make you think the game has crashed (though blissfully it never actually did for me), this game is absolutely rife with problems. Balancing is also a major problem, with the lack of scaling combined with a non-linear story resulting in the player having little idea where they can go next. The difficulty wildly ping-pongs across the scale, though all the final battles were pleasantly challenging.
On the other hand, this might be the strongest story and especially the strongest characters in a Pokémon game yet. I truly expected the story to fizzle out when all three paths are completed and the crater to simply be some bonus area, but instead I received a powerful finale and great character chemistry between the main three. “Professor Turo” was the greatest moment of the play through. Throughout my time with the game, I continually noted that the professor had literally no personality; he was a complete plank of wood. He even moved stiffly during the cutscenes where he is visible on a screen. Imagine my utter delight to discover that there was, in fact, a good reason for this to be the case! The ending of the game was well worth seeing.
In the end, I could only feel sadness that such a great story and characters were wrapped up in a sub-par package. I sincerely hope the next games are given more time in the oven, and if they are, I’m certain the series will have masterpieces on its hands the likes of which haven’t been seen since the DS days.
On one hand, everything that’s been said about Violet’s performance is true. The frequency and variety of technical errors was immersion-shattering, if not at least humorous. From pop-in to lag to lighting errors to clipping to every loading screen lasting just long enough to make you think the game has crashed (though blissfully it never actually did for me), this game is absolutely rife with problems. Balancing is also a major problem, with the lack of scaling combined with a non-linear story resulting in the player having little idea where they can go next. The difficulty wildly ping-pongs across the scale, though all the final battles were pleasantly challenging.
On the other hand, this might be the strongest story and especially the strongest characters in a Pokémon game yet. I truly expected the story to fizzle out when all three paths are completed and the crater to simply be some bonus area, but instead I received a powerful finale and great character chemistry between the main three. “Professor Turo” was the greatest moment of the play through. Throughout my time with the game, I continually noted that the professor had literally no personality; he was a complete plank of wood. He even moved stiffly during the cutscenes where he is visible on a screen. Imagine my utter delight to discover that there was, in fact, a good reason for this to be the case! The ending of the game was well worth seeing.
In the end, I could only feel sadness that such a great story and characters were wrapped up in a sub-par package. I sincerely hope the next games are given more time in the oven, and if they are, I’m certain the series will have masterpieces on its hands the likes of which haven’t been seen since the DS days.