This review contains spoilers
This game feels like an alternate universe version of Pokémon Legends: Arceus that failed to stick the landing.
I played this game primarily in docked mode, where the framerate goes between bad and nearly unplayable.
Yeah, there's glitches too, but that didn't bother me as much.
The "open world" of this game is frankly awful. You can go basically anywhere from the beginning, but there's a pretty clear level progression that if you don't follow, you'll end up massively overleveled and bored for most of the game.
I would prefer they just went back to Sword/Shield style with a mostly linear game with fine tuning, and then a few big areas for endgame repeated play.
Or if the next game keeps this open world style, they either need some kind of level scaling to keep the game from getting too boring, or at least show us the recommended level of each quest so we don't go too far over them and get bored.
The graphics are extremely dull, the game is filled with repeated textures and massive amounts of empty space. And they're still going for a frankly awful lighting/rendering style. Everything has a sick white sheen, like a plastic figure. It looks nasty. I really wish they'd go for a more cartoony/cel-shaded look. Flat shading with outlines would really help give life to these fantasy creatures, I think.
The writing is over the top. Characters talk so much, and the game is eager to wrestle control away from you, and make you read countless text boxes stating the obvious. I know this is a game for children, but surely they would benefit from something more concise as well. Also, the cutscenes are quite dynamic. Lots of movement and lip syncing... but no voice acting. I think it's fine the game doesn't have voice acting, but it feels out of place with how the rest of the presentation. And they could at least have a "beep beep beep" voice system, like so many RPGs of yore.
I really wish they had fully copied the stealth-action catching system of Legends: Arceus. The catch rates are absolutely abysmal in this game. Even a lv.19 Magikarp will repeatedly wiggle out of a great ball lol.
The gyms all have a unique and awful minigame before the overly easy gym leader battle. The star bases have an offensively boring and easy minigame that is repeated before each one (5). The Titan Pokémon are at least a bit more interesting.
Oh, and the game makes you think "school" will be important but then you spend the entire game on summer break!! What gives. A complete waste with all that school build up at the beginning. And to make matters worse, you're forced to wear a school uniform! So there's literally only 4 outfit choices in the game. Everything else is accessories.
The new monster are cute, and Tinkaton is just lovely. The battle music is great, though some of the overworld music is overly in-your-face and becomes grating.
Where this game really shines is final area. I will keep spoilers about this area very light, but if you're sensitive, you should stop reading now.
AREA ZERO IS SO COOL. You get to team up with 3 other Pokémon trainers and actually form an adventuring party. If you've seen Annihilation, this definitely takes some inspiration from Area X, which is awesome. In this area the geometry is strange and the Pokémon are stranger. The story finally takes an interesting twist, and you have to go through a few challenging battles. Also the music rocks in this area. I was blown away. It's too bad the game doesn't get this mindblowing until 30+ hours in, and then it's gone in a few more hours.
This game needed more time in development, a better sense of direction for the player, and better art direction. This could've been "Breath of the Wild" for Pokémon, but instead it feels like an unpolished bag of ideas. I still have hope for Pokémon's future, but that's primarily because 2022's Pokémon Legends: Arceus shows that the same studio already knows how to handle some of these ideas better. The games were developed in parallel, so hopefully they'll fully understand what they need to improve for next time. BUT, the sales of Scarlet/Violet are off the charts compared to PL:A, so who knows if they'll actually get the message.
I played this game primarily in docked mode, where the framerate goes between bad and nearly unplayable.
Yeah, there's glitches too, but that didn't bother me as much.
The "open world" of this game is frankly awful. You can go basically anywhere from the beginning, but there's a pretty clear level progression that if you don't follow, you'll end up massively overleveled and bored for most of the game.
I would prefer they just went back to Sword/Shield style with a mostly linear game with fine tuning, and then a few big areas for endgame repeated play.
Or if the next game keeps this open world style, they either need some kind of level scaling to keep the game from getting too boring, or at least show us the recommended level of each quest so we don't go too far over them and get bored.
The graphics are extremely dull, the game is filled with repeated textures and massive amounts of empty space. And they're still going for a frankly awful lighting/rendering style. Everything has a sick white sheen, like a plastic figure. It looks nasty. I really wish they'd go for a more cartoony/cel-shaded look. Flat shading with outlines would really help give life to these fantasy creatures, I think.
The writing is over the top. Characters talk so much, and the game is eager to wrestle control away from you, and make you read countless text boxes stating the obvious. I know this is a game for children, but surely they would benefit from something more concise as well. Also, the cutscenes are quite dynamic. Lots of movement and lip syncing... but no voice acting. I think it's fine the game doesn't have voice acting, but it feels out of place with how the rest of the presentation. And they could at least have a "beep beep beep" voice system, like so many RPGs of yore.
I really wish they had fully copied the stealth-action catching system of Legends: Arceus. The catch rates are absolutely abysmal in this game. Even a lv.19 Magikarp will repeatedly wiggle out of a great ball lol.
The gyms all have a unique and awful minigame before the overly easy gym leader battle. The star bases have an offensively boring and easy minigame that is repeated before each one (5). The Titan Pokémon are at least a bit more interesting.
Oh, and the game makes you think "school" will be important but then you spend the entire game on summer break!! What gives. A complete waste with all that school build up at the beginning. And to make matters worse, you're forced to wear a school uniform! So there's literally only 4 outfit choices in the game. Everything else is accessories.
The new monster are cute, and Tinkaton is just lovely. The battle music is great, though some of the overworld music is overly in-your-face and becomes grating.
Where this game really shines is final area. I will keep spoilers about this area very light, but if you're sensitive, you should stop reading now.
AREA ZERO IS SO COOL. You get to team up with 3 other Pokémon trainers and actually form an adventuring party. If you've seen Annihilation, this definitely takes some inspiration from Area X, which is awesome. In this area the geometry is strange and the Pokémon are stranger. The story finally takes an interesting twist, and you have to go through a few challenging battles. Also the music rocks in this area. I was blown away. It's too bad the game doesn't get this mindblowing until 30+ hours in, and then it's gone in a few more hours.
This game needed more time in development, a better sense of direction for the player, and better art direction. This could've been "Breath of the Wild" for Pokémon, but instead it feels like an unpolished bag of ideas. I still have hope for Pokémon's future, but that's primarily because 2022's Pokémon Legends: Arceus shows that the same studio already knows how to handle some of these ideas better. The games were developed in parallel, so hopefully they'll fully understand what they need to improve for next time. BUT, the sales of Scarlet/Violet are off the charts compared to PL:A, so who knows if they'll actually get the message.
Reviewed on Dec 01, 2022