Pokémon Scarlet is easily the most solid mainline entry on the Switch in that I have no qualms in calling it a good game. Do I think it’s among the best entries in the series? No, but if you’re looking to have an enjoyable time with Pokémon, you’ll certainly find it here.
Obviously what makes this entry distinct from every entry before it is the open world. I’m honestly kind of impressed that Game Freak tried to tackle something with this massive of a scope in this day and age. The implementation of an open world, along with the decision to give the game three separate story routes (I’m not sure what else to call them) demonstrates a further willingness to experiment beyond what was implemented in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and leads me to believe that Game Freak deserves maybe a little more credit than we’ve been giving them as of late. It’s just a shame they have to stick to such strict deadlines for what I can only assume to be marketing purposes, because uh, it shows.
When Pokémon Sword and Shield first came out, people kept criticizing them for being ugly, but in retrospect, those games look fine. A couple muddy textures here and there, but nothing compared to the smeary visual aesthetic of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and certainly nothing compared to the absolute trainwreck of Pokémon Scarlet’s graphical… everything. Aggressive pop-in, low-poly and low-framerate models intended for far away objects that are placed right in front of the camera, and flat, visually unappealing textures. They’ve got it all. It’s actually incredible how every Switch Pokémon game has managed to look exponentially worse than the last. Pretty much the only things that look okay in this game are the character models. I usually don’t even care if a game has poor graphics or frame rate, but I have never seen a game more eager to compete with Final Fantasy VII for the title of “ugliest game ever” than this one.
Back to the topic of the open world itself though, while it’s a solid idea, in execution, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. My main problem with Pokémon Scarlet’s open world is how hard it is to navigate. The world is filled with bodies of water and large rock walls that impede movement and force you to take longer, more obtuse routes to get to your destination until you obtain the late-game upgrades that allow you to traverse them. I don’t see the point in walling off parts of the open world like this, it just makes it less fun to explore. The game already essentially blocks off the higher level areas by opting not to implement level-scaling (a decision which itself limits the “openness” of the open world) in its major combat encounters, so this just feels like adding insult to injury. These seem like such antithetical design decisions for an open world game to include, I just don’t get it. It’s fun to explore when the world actually is open, but too often exploration is made intentionally tedious.
I also think the story was a bit overhyped. It’s certainly not bad, but it felt a bit like 20 hours of setup for a solid 2 hours of plot right at the very end. I appreciate how Scarlet went for a bit more emotional depth than the average Pokémon story, but I think it still left something to be desired. Going one route at a time, the Pokémon League route didn’t have much of a plot, it was mostly just Nemona being a raving lunatic, but to be fair, that was extremely entertaining even if she didn’t have any character development. Penny’s route was kind of underwhelming unfortunately. The plot was totally predictable, and Penny doesn’t get much of a backstory beyond having intense social anxiety, which surprised me, because I was expecting the game to really delve into Penny’s character at the end of her route. Arven’s route is the best of the three writing-wise, but again, it feels more like setup than anything else.
The final act is really solid, but serves as a weird tonal shift from the rest of the game. For this final area, you get a little party to explore with in the form of Penny, Arven, and Nemona, who team up to assist you. (I’m actually kind of disappointed that they only assemble here at the end, because this trio has such a fun dynamic.) The ending is a lot darker than the rest of the game too. Lots of talk about unusually violent Pokémon and that whole thing with the professor, which I will keep vague for spoiler reasons. Finally, it strikes me as a bit of an odd move that they chose to save this game’s gimmick regional form for these final 2 hours, and it annoys me that they’re counted as separate Pokémon in the Pokédex when they are clearly different forms of the same creatures, but neither of those are writing-related complaints, so I digress. I just wish the whole game followed the tone and form presented here at the ending, because from a writing standpoint I think it could’ve made for a very different, more interesting Pokémon game.
As a closing note, it’s been really hard to be a Pokémon fan recently. I used to be crazy about these games, but after being in denial for most of the Switch generation, I finally came to the conclusion everyone else had years ago: the games are just not as good as they used to be. And that’s really sad, because I still want to be crazy about Pokémon, but they’re just making it so hard to get invested. Game Freak needs to demand a year off, stop making these proofs of concept, and put together something that lives up to the ideas they’re so clearly trying to cultivate, because as it stands, Pokémon on Switch has been a series of good ideas that never really coalesce into anything. They came close with the ending of Scarlet, but it felt too little too late at that point. I want to be cautiously optimistic for the future, I really do, because I see the potential, but they just keep swinging and missing. Eventually, they’ve got to hit something.
Obviously what makes this entry distinct from every entry before it is the open world. I’m honestly kind of impressed that Game Freak tried to tackle something with this massive of a scope in this day and age. The implementation of an open world, along with the decision to give the game three separate story routes (I’m not sure what else to call them) demonstrates a further willingness to experiment beyond what was implemented in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and leads me to believe that Game Freak deserves maybe a little more credit than we’ve been giving them as of late. It’s just a shame they have to stick to such strict deadlines for what I can only assume to be marketing purposes, because uh, it shows.
When Pokémon Sword and Shield first came out, people kept criticizing them for being ugly, but in retrospect, those games look fine. A couple muddy textures here and there, but nothing compared to the smeary visual aesthetic of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and certainly nothing compared to the absolute trainwreck of Pokémon Scarlet’s graphical… everything. Aggressive pop-in, low-poly and low-framerate models intended for far away objects that are placed right in front of the camera, and flat, visually unappealing textures. They’ve got it all. It’s actually incredible how every Switch Pokémon game has managed to look exponentially worse than the last. Pretty much the only things that look okay in this game are the character models. I usually don’t even care if a game has poor graphics or frame rate, but I have never seen a game more eager to compete with Final Fantasy VII for the title of “ugliest game ever” than this one.
Back to the topic of the open world itself though, while it’s a solid idea, in execution, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. My main problem with Pokémon Scarlet’s open world is how hard it is to navigate. The world is filled with bodies of water and large rock walls that impede movement and force you to take longer, more obtuse routes to get to your destination until you obtain the late-game upgrades that allow you to traverse them. I don’t see the point in walling off parts of the open world like this, it just makes it less fun to explore. The game already essentially blocks off the higher level areas by opting not to implement level-scaling (a decision which itself limits the “openness” of the open world) in its major combat encounters, so this just feels like adding insult to injury. These seem like such antithetical design decisions for an open world game to include, I just don’t get it. It’s fun to explore when the world actually is open, but too often exploration is made intentionally tedious.
I also think the story was a bit overhyped. It’s certainly not bad, but it felt a bit like 20 hours of setup for a solid 2 hours of plot right at the very end. I appreciate how Scarlet went for a bit more emotional depth than the average Pokémon story, but I think it still left something to be desired. Going one route at a time, the Pokémon League route didn’t have much of a plot, it was mostly just Nemona being a raving lunatic, but to be fair, that was extremely entertaining even if she didn’t have any character development. Penny’s route was kind of underwhelming unfortunately. The plot was totally predictable, and Penny doesn’t get much of a backstory beyond having intense social anxiety, which surprised me, because I was expecting the game to really delve into Penny’s character at the end of her route. Arven’s route is the best of the three writing-wise, but again, it feels more like setup than anything else.
The final act is really solid, but serves as a weird tonal shift from the rest of the game. For this final area, you get a little party to explore with in the form of Penny, Arven, and Nemona, who team up to assist you. (I’m actually kind of disappointed that they only assemble here at the end, because this trio has such a fun dynamic.) The ending is a lot darker than the rest of the game too. Lots of talk about unusually violent Pokémon and that whole thing with the professor, which I will keep vague for spoiler reasons. Finally, it strikes me as a bit of an odd move that they chose to save this game’s gimmick regional form for these final 2 hours, and it annoys me that they’re counted as separate Pokémon in the Pokédex when they are clearly different forms of the same creatures, but neither of those are writing-related complaints, so I digress. I just wish the whole game followed the tone and form presented here at the ending, because from a writing standpoint I think it could’ve made for a very different, more interesting Pokémon game.
As a closing note, it’s been really hard to be a Pokémon fan recently. I used to be crazy about these games, but after being in denial for most of the Switch generation, I finally came to the conclusion everyone else had years ago: the games are just not as good as they used to be. And that’s really sad, because I still want to be crazy about Pokémon, but they’re just making it so hard to get invested. Game Freak needs to demand a year off, stop making these proofs of concept, and put together something that lives up to the ideas they’re so clearly trying to cultivate, because as it stands, Pokémon on Switch has been a series of good ideas that never really coalesce into anything. They came close with the ending of Scarlet, but it felt too little too late at that point. I want to be cautiously optimistic for the future, I really do, because I see the potential, but they just keep swinging and missing. Eventually, they’ve got to hit something.