evergreenemily
Bio
trans rights!
"mastered" means 100% completion, or close to it - for games that don't have that sort of metric, like some multiplayer online games, it's a subjective assessment of my own skills at the game. i consider myself to have "mastered" a game if i can consistently play at a high skill level without straining myself or struggling a lot
rating system:
5: masterpiece, genre-defining
4.5: excellent, one of my favorites
4: great, really enjoyable to play
3.5: good, fun to come back to
3: decent, but definitely flawed
2.5: mediocre, something went wrong
2: not fun to play, but it has some good ideas
1.5: just outright bad, unfinished, unfun
1: laughably bad, shipped in beta
0.5: this game is bad, and so are the developers
trans rights!
"mastered" means 100% completion, or close to it - for games that don't have that sort of metric, like some multiplayer online games, it's a subjective assessment of my own skills at the game. i consider myself to have "mastered" a game if i can consistently play at a high skill level without straining myself or struggling a lot
rating system:
5: masterpiece, genre-defining
4.5: excellent, one of my favorites
4: great, really enjoyable to play
3.5: good, fun to come back to
3: decent, but definitely flawed
2.5: mediocre, something went wrong
2: not fun to play, but it has some good ideas
1.5: just outright bad, unfinished, unfun
1: laughably bad, shipped in beta
0.5: this game is bad, and so are the developers
Badges
Clearin your Calendar
Journaled games at least 15 days a month over a year
GOTY '23
Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event
1 Years of Service
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Liked
Gained 10+ total review likes
GOTY '22
Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event
Listed
Created 10+ public lists
Organized
Created a list folder with 5+ lists
Roadtrip
Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap
Full-Time
Journaled games once a day for a month straight
On Schedule
Journaled games once a day for a week straight
Busy Day
Journaled 5+ games in a single day
Gamer
Played 250+ games
N00b
Played 100+ games
Favorite Games
362
Total Games Played
007
Played in 2024
079
Games Backloggd
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It only took completing one dungeon to solidify the fact that this is the best game I've ever played - and it's not even close.
Full review incoming.
Final ratings by category:
Gameplay - A+
- Map design: Perfect
- Puzzles/shrines: A+
- Combat: A
- Exploration: A+
Story - A+
- Characters: A+
- Plot: A+
- Emotional connection: Perfect
Graphics/design - A+
- Graphics: A
- Art design: A+
- Immersiveness: A+
Music - A+
- Exploration music: A+
- Story music: Perfect
- Combat music: A+
Full review incoming.
Final ratings by category:
Gameplay - A+
- Map design: Perfect
- Puzzles/shrines: A+
- Combat: A
- Exploration: A+
Story - A+
- Characters: A+
- Plot: A+
- Emotional connection: Perfect
Graphics/design - A+
- Graphics: A
- Art design: A+
- Immersiveness: A+
Music - A+
- Exploration music: A+
- Story music: Perfect
- Combat music: A+
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
I've completed story mode and played enough of the various online modes and minigames to get a feel for them, and...wow. Everything about the story mode blew me away - it's a MASSIVE improvement over Hero Mode from the first two games, and in many ways it's an improvement over Octo Expansion as well. I'll avoid details to keep this review spoiler-free, but the story mode really is incredible, and well-worth a play. Maybe even a replay or two, as well.
Turf War battles feel more fluid than ever, partially because of the improvements to the lobby system and partially because of new movement options and less frustrating specials. The controls work great, and the weapons are impressively well-balanced for a game that hasn't had any patches yet. It's easy to join up with friends in their battles, too, which can save a lot of hassle.
Salmon Run is better than it was in Splatoon 2, for sure. It's largely the same, but the new bosses add some variety and the egg throwing mechanic makes things so much more bearable. Where was that mechanic in Splatoon 2???
The other stuff to do is great, too - decorating lockers is fun, getting the right abilities on gear is a lot less annoying, Tableturf Battle is a fun mini-CCG...really the only thing I miss from previous games is Squid Beatz, but its omission is a non-issue with so much extra stuff to do.
Basically, this game is a huge improvement over Splatoon 2 in just about every way, and I already loved Splatoon 2. This is almost certainly my game of the year, and it could even end up my game of the decade. I could easily see myself playing this for 500 or 1000 hours.
[Review written after approximately 30 hours of gameplay, about 10 of which were in the Splatfest World Premiere. Contents subject to change.]
Turf War battles feel more fluid than ever, partially because of the improvements to the lobby system and partially because of new movement options and less frustrating specials. The controls work great, and the weapons are impressively well-balanced for a game that hasn't had any patches yet. It's easy to join up with friends in their battles, too, which can save a lot of hassle.
Salmon Run is better than it was in Splatoon 2, for sure. It's largely the same, but the new bosses add some variety and the egg throwing mechanic makes things so much more bearable. Where was that mechanic in Splatoon 2???
The other stuff to do is great, too - decorating lockers is fun, getting the right abilities on gear is a lot less annoying, Tableturf Battle is a fun mini-CCG...really the only thing I miss from previous games is Squid Beatz, but its omission is a non-issue with so much extra stuff to do.
Basically, this game is a huge improvement over Splatoon 2 in just about every way, and I already loved Splatoon 2. This is almost certainly my game of the year, and it could even end up my game of the decade. I could easily see myself playing this for 500 or 1000 hours.
[Review written after approximately 30 hours of gameplay, about 10 of which were in the Splatfest World Premiere. Contents subject to change.]