All-Purpose Pokémon Thread
- Thread starter Jew D. Boy
- Start date
Waited to do my review on this game to properly collect my thoughts but here I am.
Scarlet and Violet are great games. But they are bogged down terribly with well... I'll save it for when we get there. Let's start.
What I liked:
Story:
Easily the best story this series has had since Black and White, even the weakest storyline among the 4 (victory road) had its charm.
The best story imo was Arven's
From parental issues(Scarlet mommy issues) (Violet daddy issues), to what looked like you seeing his dying dog's last breath for most of it Arven's is the one I resonated most with. A sort of writing structure I hope they do more of in the future.
Team Star's was also good, but I found most of it sort of generic and predictable. There was no real twist on who the leader was, you figured this probably wasn't a legit evil team from the start (cause ya know these kids are 15 at most), but Penny is cute and she had a really good moment towards the end and that's all I needed.
Victory road is the weakest by far as it's the same get 8 badges quest and fight the elite four story we've done for decades now. The gym challenges are largely forgettable too.
Final boss/4th story
Very unique twist with the professor actually being dead and a robot being the one taking their place, the fight itself is perfect. It's tough if you're not overleveled, their team is varied and the game made actual use out of the cover legendary by having it be apart of the finale (something also seen in Black and White)
The new Pokemon are great:
All gens are gonna have outliners but gen 9 did a great job overall. It's no shocker Tinkaton became an instant fan favorite with her adorable design (also the whole killing birds thing but ya know)
QoL improvements: Auto Heal ect
Nemona: Hop done right. Do more like Nemona next time GF.
Larry: I don't need to say anymore than that
Raids are infinitely better than they were in Sword and Shield, in solo mode for example you are no longer penalized for the AI being shit and dying constantly. Now its only when you die do you feel the repercussions. The timer depleting faster.
And I appreciate that this game tried something new like open world even if the open world looks like well... we'll get into that.
What I didn't like:
So time to finally address the elephant in the room, this game had no business being released in this sorry state.
Breath of the Wild was released in 2017, what am I looking at here?
We've all seen the silly viral clips on Twitter of character models spazzing out
People falling through the map, NPC's wandering into the battle during the middle of it, T-poses ect, but I'm actually not even talking about those. Bugs are gonna happen in modern games. I'm talking general technical performances. Like when this game was released it didn't even run at a consistent 30 FPS.
character models from not that far away from you moved at 5FPS. Looking like literal JPEGS. Characters would pop in and out even if you weren't far away from them, the camera constantly glitches out of bounds
Raids are bugged to shit. There's a particually nasty bug with Play Rough where it'll outright heal the boss instead of damage it. It was especially noticeable during the Charizard raid when Azumarill was one of the go to's for most players. sometimes it'll and bug out and deal no damage at all. Raid bosses will prop their shields earlier than they're supposed to as well.
This game also has a memory leak problem, so get ready for at least a few crashes. Pokemon also stuck in walls btw 😂 and you cannot encounter them without going out of bounds.
Technical issues aside.
Gym Rematches being one and done is stupid, and the Elite Four not being rematchable at all is especially egregious. You can only fight Hassel in the Ace tournament at random as the art teacher, and
(but only once)
Gyms do not have level scaling. Trainers in the overworld not having it is fine because its open world, the gyms not so much. Made especially apparent with the Nemona battles which go off the number of badges you have not which gym leaders you've actually beaten. You could have beaten the 8th gym leader second and she'll still use the team meant for after you've beaten the second gym leader. The game expects you to at least do the gym quest in the correct order, which just flat out makes no sense.
The postgame was basically merged with the main story which makes the actual postgame just barren. Like you feel empty when you've beaten the game. This game doesn't have a Battle faculty, not even the watered down version in Sword and Shield. There's nothing but raids left and that's just lame.
Forced EXP is dumb. There's no excuse for it not to have a toggle, and any excuse they may have given in interviews is nonsense.
More unnecessary evolution methods that makes completing the dex a complete pain in the ass.
Multi billion dollar corporation doesn't want to put in the effort into having voice acting, if the issue here is time then stop feeling the need the shit out a game every 3 years and do it. We can wait. No way the anime was an excuse this time, its only just ending the current season next week. The anime was behind this time
Character customization was rather weak this time, but to be fair I get it. You are a student and you have a dress code. But this is also a videogame, did it really need to be that restrictive?
Finally the gimmick: Terrestrialization is the least interesting gimmick bar none, there are no unique forms that come with it either this time, and changing your Pokemon's tera type is too much of a pain in the ass than it's worth. Why 50 tera shards a Pokemon? Who's idea was that?
But overall great game, just bogged with many many technical issues that will get fixed with patches, and personal gripes of mine. But I highly recommend trying it out.
Scarlet and Violet are great games. But they are bogged down terribly with well... I'll save it for when we get there. Let's start.
What I liked:
Story:
Easily the best story this series has had since Black and White, even the weakest storyline among the 4 (victory road) had its charm.
The best story imo was Arven's
From parental issues(Scarlet mommy issues) (Violet daddy issues), to what looked like you seeing his dying dog's last breath for most of it Arven's is the one I resonated most with. A sort of writing structure I hope they do more of in the future.
Team Star's was also good, but I found most of it sort of generic and predictable. There was no real twist on who the leader was, you figured this probably wasn't a legit evil team from the start (cause ya know these kids are 15 at most), but Penny is cute and she had a really good moment towards the end and that's all I needed.
Victory road is the weakest by far as it's the same get 8 badges quest and fight the elite four story we've done for decades now. The gym challenges are largely forgettable too.
Final boss/4th story
Very unique twist with the professor actually being dead and a robot being the one taking their place, the fight itself is perfect. It's tough if you're not overleveled, their team is varied and the game made actual use out of the cover legendary by having it be apart of the finale (something also seen in Black and White)
The new Pokemon are great:
All gens are gonna have outliners but gen 9 did a great job overall. It's no shocker Tinkaton became an instant fan favorite with her adorable design (also the whole killing birds thing but ya know)
QoL improvements: Auto Heal ect
Nemona: Hop done right. Do more like Nemona next time GF.
Larry: I don't need to say anymore than that
Raids are infinitely better than they were in Sword and Shield, in solo mode for example you are no longer penalized for the AI being shit and dying constantly. Now its only when you die do you feel the repercussions. The timer depleting faster.
And I appreciate that this game tried something new like open world even if the open world looks like well... we'll get into that.
What I didn't like:
So time to finally address the elephant in the room, this game had no business being released in this sorry state.
Breath of the Wild was released in 2017, what am I looking at here?
We've all seen the silly viral clips on Twitter of character models spazzing out
People falling through the map, NPC's wandering into the battle during the middle of it, T-poses ect, but I'm actually not even talking about those. Bugs are gonna happen in modern games. I'm talking general technical performances. Like when this game was released it didn't even run at a consistent 30 FPS.
character models from not that far away from you moved at 5FPS. Looking like literal JPEGS. Characters would pop in and out even if you weren't far away from them, the camera constantly glitches out of bounds
Raids are bugged to shit. There's a particually nasty bug with Play Rough where it'll outright heal the boss instead of damage it. It was especially noticeable during the Charizard raid when Azumarill was one of the go to's for most players. sometimes it'll and bug out and deal no damage at all. Raid bosses will prop their shields earlier than they're supposed to as well.
This game also has a memory leak problem, so get ready for at least a few crashes. Pokemon also stuck in walls btw 😂 and you cannot encounter them without going out of bounds.
Technical issues aside.
Gym Rematches being one and done is stupid, and the Elite Four not being rematchable at all is especially egregious. You can only fight Hassel in the Ace tournament at random as the art teacher, and
Larry as a gym leader not an elite four
Gyms do not have level scaling. Trainers in the overworld not having it is fine because its open world, the gyms not so much. Made especially apparent with the Nemona battles which go off the number of badges you have not which gym leaders you've actually beaten. You could have beaten the 8th gym leader second and she'll still use the team meant for after you've beaten the second gym leader. The game expects you to at least do the gym quest in the correct order, which just flat out makes no sense.
The postgame was basically merged with the main story which makes the actual postgame just barren. Like you feel empty when you've beaten the game. This game doesn't have a Battle faculty, not even the watered down version in Sword and Shield. There's nothing but raids left and that's just lame.
Forced EXP is dumb. There's no excuse for it not to have a toggle, and any excuse they may have given in interviews is nonsense.
More unnecessary evolution methods that makes completing the dex a complete pain in the ass.
Multi billion dollar corporation doesn't want to put in the effort into having voice acting, if the issue here is time then stop feeling the need the shit out a game every 3 years and do it. We can wait. No way the anime was an excuse this time, its only just ending the current season next week. The anime was behind this time
Character customization was rather weak this time, but to be fair I get it. You are a student and you have a dress code. But this is also a videogame, did it really need to be that restrictive?
Finally the gimmick: Terrestrialization is the least interesting gimmick bar none, there are no unique forms that come with it either this time, and changing your Pokemon's tera type is too much of a pain in the ass than it's worth. Why 50 tera shards a Pokemon? Who's idea was that?
But overall great game, just bogged with many many technical issues that will get fixed with patches, and personal gripes of mine. But I highly recommend trying it out.
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Waited to do my review on this game to properly collect my thoughts but the here I am.
Scarlet and Violet are great games. But they are bogged down terribly with well... I'll save it for when we get there. Let's start.
What I liked:
Story:
Easily the best story this series has had since Black and White, even the weakest storyline among the 4 (victory road) had its charm.
The best story imo was Arven's
From parental issues(Scarlet mommy issues) (Violet daddy issues), to what looked you seeing his dying dog's last breaths for most of it Arven's is the one I resonated most with. A sort of writing structure I hope they do more of in the future.
Team Star's was also good, but I found most of it sort of generic and predictable. There was no real twist on who the leader was, you figured this probably wasn't a legit evil team from the start (cause ya know these kids are 15 at most), but Penny is cute and she had a really good moment towards the end and that's all I needed.
Victory road is the weakest by far as it's the same get 8 badges quest and fight the elite four story we've done for decades now. The gym challenges are largely forgettable too.
Final boss/4th story
The new Pokemon are great:
All gens are gonna have outliners but gen 9 did a great job overall. It's no shocker Tinkaton became an instant fan favorite with her adorable design (also the whole killing birds thing but ya know)
QoL improvements: Auto Heal ect
Nemona: Hop done right. Do more like Nemona next time GF.
Larry: I don't need to say anymore than that
Raids are infinitely better than they were in Sword and Shield, in solo mode for example you are no longer penalized for the AI being shit and dying constantly. Now its only when you die do you feel the repercussions. The timer depleting faster.
And I appreciate that this game tried something new like open world even if the open world looks like well... we'll get into that.
What I didn't like:
So time to finally address the elephant in the room, this game had no business being released in this sorry state.
Breath of the Wild was released in 2017, what am I looking at here?
We've all seen the silly viral clips on Twitter of character models spazzing, people falling through the map, T-poses ect, but I'm actually not even talking about those. Bugs are gonna happen in modern games. I'm talking general technical performances. Like when this game was released it didn't even run at a consistent 30 FPS.
character models from not that far away from you moved at 5FPS. Looking like literal JPEGS. Characters would pop in and out even if you weren't far away from them, the camera constantly glitches out of bounds
Raids are bugged to shit. There's a particually nasty bug with Play Rough where it'll outright heal the boss instead of damage it. It was especially noticeable during the Charizard raid when Azumarill was one of the go to's for most players. sometimes it'll and bug out and deal no damage at all. Raid bosses will prop their shields earlier than they're supposed to as well.
This game also has a memory leak problem, so get ready for at least a few crashes. Pokemon also stuck in walls btw 😂 and you cannot encounter them without going out of bounds.
Technical issues aside.
Gym Rematches being one and done is stupid, and the Elite Four not being rematchable at all is especially egregious. You can only fight Hassel in the Ace tournament at random as the art teacher, and
(but only once)
The postgame was basically merged with the main story which makes the actual postgame just barren. Like you feel empty when you've beaten the game. This game doesn't have a Battle faculty, not even the watered down version in Sword and Shield. There's nothing but raids left and that's just lame.
Forced EXP is dumb. There's no excuse for it not to have a toggle, and any excuse they may have given in interviews is nonsense.
More unnecessary evolution methods that makes completing the dex a complete pain in the ass.
Multi billion dollar corporation doesn't want to put in the effort into having voice acting, if the issue here is time then stop feeling the need the shit out a game every 3 years and do it. We can wait. No way the anime was an excuse this time, its only just ending the current season next week. The anime was behind this time
Character customization was rather weak this time, but to be fair I get it. You are a student and you have a dress code. But this is also a videogame, did it really need to be that restrictive?
Finally the gimmick: Terrestrialization is the least interesting gimmick bar none, there are no unique forms that come with it either this time, and changing your Pokemon's tera type is too much of a pain in the ass than it's worth. Why 50 tera shards a Pokemon? Who's idea was that?
But overall great game, just bogged with many many technical issues that will get fixed with patches, and personal gripes of mine. But I highly recommend trying it out.
Scarlet and Violet are great games. But they are bogged down terribly with well... I'll save it for when we get there. Let's start.
What I liked:
Story:
Easily the best story this series has had since Black and White, even the weakest storyline among the 4 (victory road) had its charm.
The best story imo was Arven's
From parental issues(Scarlet mommy issues) (Violet daddy issues), to what looked you seeing his dying dog's last breaths for most of it Arven's is the one I resonated most with. A sort of writing structure I hope they do more of in the future.
Team Star's was also good, but I found most of it sort of generic and predictable. There was no real twist on who the leader was, you figured this probably wasn't a legit evil team from the start (cause ya know these kids are 15 at most), but Penny is cute and she had a really good moment towards the end and that's all I needed.
Victory road is the weakest by far as it's the same get 8 badges quest and fight the elite four story we've done for decades now. The gym challenges are largely forgettable too.
Final boss/4th story
Very unique twist with the professor actually being dead and a robot being the one taking their place, the fight itself is perfect. It's tough if you're not overleveled, their team is varied and the game made actual use out of the cover legendary by having it be apart of the finale (something also seen in Black and White)
The new Pokemon are great:
All gens are gonna have outliners but gen 9 did a great job overall. It's no shocker Tinkaton became an instant fan favorite with her adorable design (also the whole killing birds thing but ya know)
QoL improvements: Auto Heal ect
Nemona: Hop done right. Do more like Nemona next time GF.
Larry: I don't need to say anymore than that
Raids are infinitely better than they were in Sword and Shield, in solo mode for example you are no longer penalized for the AI being shit and dying constantly. Now its only when you die do you feel the repercussions. The timer depleting faster.
And I appreciate that this game tried something new like open world even if the open world looks like well... we'll get into that.
What I didn't like:
So time to finally address the elephant in the room, this game had no business being released in this sorry state.
Breath of the Wild was released in 2017, what am I looking at here?
We've all seen the silly viral clips on Twitter of character models spazzing, people falling through the map, T-poses ect, but I'm actually not even talking about those. Bugs are gonna happen in modern games. I'm talking general technical performances. Like when this game was released it didn't even run at a consistent 30 FPS.
character models from not that far away from you moved at 5FPS. Looking like literal JPEGS. Characters would pop in and out even if you weren't far away from them, the camera constantly glitches out of bounds
Raids are bugged to shit. There's a particually nasty bug with Play Rough where it'll outright heal the boss instead of damage it. It was especially noticeable during the Charizard raid when Azumarill was one of the go to's for most players. sometimes it'll and bug out and deal no damage at all. Raid bosses will prop their shields earlier than they're supposed to as well.
This game also has a memory leak problem, so get ready for at least a few crashes. Pokemon also stuck in walls btw 😂 and you cannot encounter them without going out of bounds.
Technical issues aside.
Gym Rematches being one and done is stupid, and the Elite Four not being rematchable at all is especially egregious. You can only fight Hassel in the Ace tournament at random as the art teacher, and
Larry as a gym leader not an elite four
The postgame was basically merged with the main story which makes the actual postgame just barren. Like you feel empty when you've beaten the game. This game doesn't have a Battle faculty, not even the watered down version in Sword and Shield. There's nothing but raids left and that's just lame.
Forced EXP is dumb. There's no excuse for it not to have a toggle, and any excuse they may have given in interviews is nonsense.
More unnecessary evolution methods that makes completing the dex a complete pain in the ass.
Multi billion dollar corporation doesn't want to put in the effort into having voice acting, if the issue here is time then stop feeling the need the shit out a game every 3 years and do it. We can wait. No way the anime was an excuse this time, its only just ending the current season next week. The anime was behind this time
Character customization was rather weak this time, but to be fair I get it. You are a student and you have a dress code. But this is also a videogame, did it really need to be that restrictive?
Finally the gimmick: Terrestrialization is the least interesting gimmick bar none, there are no unique forms that come with it either this time, and changing your Pokemon's tera type is too much of a pain in the ass than it's worth. Why 50 tera shards a Pokemon? Who's idea was that?
But overall great game, just bogged with many many technical issues that will get fixed with patches, and personal gripes of mine. But I highly recommend trying it out.
Waited to do my review on this game to properly collect my thoughts but the here I am.
Scarlet and Violet are great games. But they are bogged down terribly with well... I'll save it for when we get there. Let's start.
What I liked:
Story:
Easily the best story this series has had since Black and White, even the weakest storyline among the 4 (victory road) had its charm.
The best story imo was Arven's
From parental issues(Scarlet mommy issues) (Violet daddy issues), to what looked you seeing his dying dog's last breaths for most of it Arven's is the one I resonated most with. A sort of writing structure I hope they do more of in the future.
Team Star's was also good, but I found most of it sort of generic and predictable. There was no real twist on who the leader was, you figured this probably wasn't a legit evil team from the start (cause ya know these kids are 15 at most), but Penny is cute and she had a really good moment towards the end and that's all I needed.
Victory road is the weakest by far as it's the same get 8 badges quest and fight the elite four story we've done for decades now. The gym challenges are largely forgettable too.
Final boss/4th story
The new Pokemon are great:
All gens are gonna have outliners but gen 9 did a great job overall. It's no shocker Tinkaton became an instant fan favorite with her adorable design (also the whole killing birds thing but ya know)
QoL improvements: Auto Heal ect
Nemona: Hop done right. Do more like Nemona next time GF.
Larry: I don't need to say anymore than that
Raids are infinitely better than they were in Sword and Shield, in solo mode for example you are no longer penalized for the AI being shit and dying constantly. Now its only when you die do you feel the repercussions. The timer depleting faster.
And I appreciate that this game tried something new like open world even if the open world looks like well... we'll get into that.
What I didn't like:
So time to finally address the elephant in the room, this game had no business being released in this sorry state.
Breath of the Wild was released in 2017, what am I looking at here?
We've all seen the silly viral clips on Twitter of character models spazzing, people falling through the map, T-poses ect, but I'm actually not even talking about those. Bugs are gonna happen in modern games. I'm talking general technical performances. Like when this game was released it didn't even run at a consistent 30 FPS.
character models from not that far away from you moved at 5FPS. Looking like literal JPEGS. Characters would pop in and out even if you weren't far away from them, the camera constantly glitches out of bounds
Raids are bugged to shit. There's a particually nasty bug with Play Rough where it'll outright heal the boss instead of damage it. It was especially noticeable during the Charizard raid when Azumarill was one of the go to's for most players. sometimes it'll and bug out and deal no damage at all. Raid bosses will prop their shields earlier than they're supposed to as well.
This game also has a memory leak problem, so get ready for at least a few crashes. Pokemon also stuck in walls btw 😂 and you cannot encounter them without going out of bounds.
Technical issues aside.
Gym Rematches being one and done is stupid, and the Elite Four not being rematchable at all is especially egregious. You can only fight Hassel in the Ace tournament at random as the art teacher, and
(but only once)
The postgame was basically merged with the main story which makes the actual postgame just barren. Like you feel empty when you've beaten the game. This game doesn't have a Battle faculty, not even the watered down version in Sword and Shield. There's nothing but raids left and that's just lame.
Forced EXP is dumb. There's no excuse for it not to have a toggle, and any excuse they may have given in interviews is nonsense.
More unnecessary evolution methods that makes completing the dex a complete pain in the ass.
Multi billion dollar corporation doesn't want to put in the effort into having voice acting, if the issue here is time then stop feeling the need the shit out a game every 3 years and do it. We can wait. No way the anime was an excuse this time, its only just ending the current season next week. The anime was behind this time
Character customization was rather weak this time, but to be fair I get it. You are a student and you have a dress code. But this is also a videogame, did it really need to be that restrictive?
Finally the gimmick: Terrestrialization is the least interesting gimmick bar none, there are no unique forms that come with it either this time, and changing your Pokemon's tera type is too much of a pain in the ass than it's worth. Why 50 tera shards a Pokemon? Who's idea was that?
But overall great game, just bogged with many many technical issues that will get fixed with patches, and personal gripes of mine. But I highly recommend trying it out.
Scarlet and Violet are great games. But they are bogged down terribly with well... I'll save it for when we get there. Let's start.
What I liked:
Story:
Easily the best story this series has had since Black and White, even the weakest storyline among the 4 (victory road) had its charm.
The best story imo was Arven's
From parental issues(Scarlet mommy issues) (Violet daddy issues), to what looked you seeing his dying dog's last breaths for most of it Arven's is the one I resonated most with. A sort of writing structure I hope they do more of in the future.
Team Star's was also good, but I found most of it sort of generic and predictable. There was no real twist on who the leader was, you figured this probably wasn't a legit evil team from the start (cause ya know these kids are 15 at most), but Penny is cute and she had a really good moment towards the end and that's all I needed.
Victory road is the weakest by far as it's the same get 8 badges quest and fight the elite four story we've done for decades now. The gym challenges are largely forgettable too.
Final boss/4th story
Very unique twist with the professor actually being dead and a robot being the one taking their place, the fight itself is perfect. It's tough if you're not overleveled, their team is varied and the game made actual use out of the cover legendary by having it be apart of the finale (something also seen in Black and White)
The new Pokemon are great:
All gens are gonna have outliners but gen 9 did a great job overall. It's no shocker Tinkaton became an instant fan favorite with her adorable design (also the whole killing birds thing but ya know)
QoL improvements: Auto Heal ect
Nemona: Hop done right. Do more like Nemona next time GF.
Larry: I don't need to say anymore than that
Raids are infinitely better than they were in Sword and Shield, in solo mode for example you are no longer penalized for the AI being shit and dying constantly. Now its only when you die do you feel the repercussions. The timer depleting faster.
And I appreciate that this game tried something new like open world even if the open world looks like well... we'll get into that.
What I didn't like:
So time to finally address the elephant in the room, this game had no business being released in this sorry state.
Breath of the Wild was released in 2017, what am I looking at here?
We've all seen the silly viral clips on Twitter of character models spazzing, people falling through the map, T-poses ect, but I'm actually not even talking about those. Bugs are gonna happen in modern games. I'm talking general technical performances. Like when this game was released it didn't even run at a consistent 30 FPS.
character models from not that far away from you moved at 5FPS. Looking like literal JPEGS. Characters would pop in and out even if you weren't far away from them, the camera constantly glitches out of bounds
Raids are bugged to shit. There's a particually nasty bug with Play Rough where it'll outright heal the boss instead of damage it. It was especially noticeable during the Charizard raid when Azumarill was one of the go to's for most players. sometimes it'll and bug out and deal no damage at all. Raid bosses will prop their shields earlier than they're supposed to as well.
This game also has a memory leak problem, so get ready for at least a few crashes. Pokemon also stuck in walls btw 😂 and you cannot encounter them without going out of bounds.
Technical issues aside.
Gym Rematches being one and done is stupid, and the Elite Four not being rematchable at all is especially egregious. You can only fight Hassel in the Ace tournament at random as the art teacher, and
Larry as a gym leader not an elite four
The postgame was basically merged with the main story which makes the actual postgame just barren. Like you feel empty when you've beaten the game. This game doesn't have a Battle faculty, not even the watered down version in Sword and Shield. There's nothing but raids left and that's just lame.
Forced EXP is dumb. There's no excuse for it not to have a toggle, and any excuse they may have given in interviews is nonsense.
More unnecessary evolution methods that makes completing the dex a complete pain in the ass.
Multi billion dollar corporation doesn't want to put in the effort into having voice acting, if the issue here is time then stop feeling the need the shit out a game every 3 years and do it. We can wait. No way the anime was an excuse this time, its only just ending the current season next week. The anime was behind this time
Character customization was rather weak this time, but to be fair I get it. You are a student and you have a dress code. But this is also a videogame, did it really need to be that restrictive?
Finally the gimmick: Terrestrialization is the least interesting gimmick bar none, there are no unique forms that come with it either this time, and changing your Pokemon's tera type is too much of a pain in the ass than it's worth. Why 50 tera shards a Pokemon? Who's idea was that?
But overall great game, just bogged with many many technical issues that will get fixed with patches, and personal gripes of mine. But I highly recommend trying it out.
Yeah, I have to say that Violet and Crimson are disappointments.
The game is too incomplete, the gimmick is very forced the the new mechanics for evolution does not reward the player for their dedication. Instead, the player is bottlenecked into picking from a much smaller category of pokemon because no one wants to collect 1,000 coins for an evolution.
A lack of features from Gamecube era games (voice acting, side quests, an actual story...) really baffles me. If you make an open world game, you need to either allow modding to save it (Skyrim) or add content. Post game for Pokemon's always been pretty bad and this time it's atrocious. No real reason to keep playing it in its current state.
Titans are cool. Add more unique encounters like that into the game. Add quality of life fixes, a good rival (someone who you may reset against once or twice), better gym puzzles and a competent elite 4 to make this on par with a standard Pokemon title. But IMO, Pokemon needs to really up its game if it intends to be an open world series from now on.
Between 1-10, a 5 is always my average score. Nothing special, nothing bad. i give this gen of Pokemon 3/10.
The game is too incomplete, the gimmick is very forced the the new mechanics for evolution does not reward the player for their dedication. Instead, the player is bottlenecked into picking from a much smaller category of pokemon because no one wants to collect 1,000 coins for an evolution.
A lack of features from Gamecube era games (voice acting, side quests, an actual story...) really baffles me. If you make an open world game, you need to either allow modding to save it (Skyrim) or add content. Post game for Pokemon's always been pretty bad and this time it's atrocious. No real reason to keep playing it in its current state.
Titans are cool. Add more unique encounters like that into the game. Add quality of life fixes, a good rival (someone who you may reset against once or twice), better gym puzzles and a competent elite 4 to make this on par with a standard Pokemon title. But IMO, Pokemon needs to really up its game if it intends to be an open world series from now on.
Between 1-10, a 5 is always my average score. Nothing special, nothing bad. i give this gen of Pokemon 3/10.
The VO thing is a common refrain and for good reason…but the Titans were the least enjoyable storyline for me, I thought the E4 and Gym challenges were fine, and the Team Star plot gave us the best, actually relatable villainous team in the history of the franchise. Some of the QoL updates from Legends: Arceus should have been implemented here (will always pine for battle-free catching until it’s a permanent feature), and I agree, there are still several steps Game Freak SHOULD have taken by now to shore up some of their weaknesses, but I really believe this is the best Pokémon game I’ve ever played, or at least since Gen 5 
*Fighting the Titans was dumb and boring, but Arven’s part with his Mabostiff…I may be cold and heartless on this forum, but I am still human 
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The VO thing is a common refrain and for good reason…but the Titans were the least enjoyable storyline for me, I thought the E4 and Gym challenges were fine, and the Team Star plot gave us the best, actually relatable villainous team in the history of the franchise. Some of the QoL updates from Legends: Arceus should have been implemented here (will always pine for battle-free catching until it’s a permanent feature), and I agree, there are still several steps Game Freak SHOULD have taken by now to shore up some of their weaknesses, but I really believe this is the best Pokémon game I’ve ever played, or at least since Gen 5
The VO thing is a common refrain and for good reason…but the Titans were the least enjoyable storyline for me, I thought the E4 and Gym challenges were fine, and the Team Star plot gave us the best, actually relatable villainous team in the history of the franchise. Some of the QoL updates from Legends: Arceus should have been implemented here (will always pine for battle-free catching until it’s a permanent feature), and I agree, there are still several steps Game Freak SHOULD have taken by now to shore up some of their weaknesses, but I really believe this is the best Pokémon game I’ve ever played, or at least since Gen 5
What didn't you like about the titans? I thought they were a very fun way to break up the monotony of pokemon gameplay. It may have danced a little too close to something like a Zelda game or an older JRPG but it was nice and different. Maybe make them less mandatory and more into fun side quests.
Team Yell from Sword/Shield will always be the most useless “bad” guys, so even if that means Team Star is only a step above them, it’s a BIG step...they presented so little threat that their base (and city) of operations was literally a back alley and the only members who were worth a damn in a fight were the brother and sister who basically disavowed them any chance they got. Compared to them, a broken group of friends who were bullied into leaving school is a full and rich emotional arc 
I don’t know, the Titans felt superfluous in a game that already contains raids with better rewards (not to mention powerful Pokémon you can actually catch) and comes after another game that introduced Alphas who felt more intimidating in the wild and required something other than a straightforward battle to beat. If they were side quests, sure, they wouldn’t have to carry the plot forward so they could just be tough battles for people who seek those out…as an entire third of the campaign, though, I was unimpressed.
I don’t know, the Titans felt superfluous in a game that already contains raids with better rewards (not to mention powerful Pokémon you can actually catch) and comes after another game that introduced Alphas who felt more intimidating in the wild and required something other than a straightforward battle to beat. If they were side quests, sure, they wouldn’t have to carry the plot forward so they could just be tough battles for people who seek those out…as an entire third of the campaign, though, I was unimpressed.
Waited to do my review on this game to properly collect my thoughts but here I am.
Scarlet and Violet are great games. But they are bogged down terribly with well... I'll save it for when we get there. Let's start.
What I liked:
Story:
Easily the best story this series has had since Black and White, even the weakest storyline among the 4 (victory road) had its charm.
The best story imo was Arven's
From parental issues(Scarlet mommy issues) (Violet daddy issues), to what looked like you seeing his dying dog's last breath for most of it Arven's is the one I resonated most with. A sort of writing structure I hope they do more of in the future.
Team Star's was also good, but I found most of it sort of generic and predictable. There was no real twist on who the leader was, you figured this probably wasn't a legit evil team from the start (cause ya know these kids are 15 at most), but Penny is cute and she had a really good moment towards the end and that's all I needed.
Victory road is the weakest by far as it's the same get 8 badges quest and fight the elite four story we've done for decades now. The gym challenges are largely forgettable too.
Final boss/4th story
Very unique twist with the professor actually being dead and a robot being the one taking their place, the fight itself is perfect. It's tough if you're not overleveled, their team is varied and the game made actual use out of the cover legendary by having it be apart of the finale (something also seen in Black and White)
The new Pokemon are great:
All gens are gonna have outliners but gen 9 did a great job overall. It's no shocker Tinkaton became an instant fan favorite with her adorable design (also the whole killing birds thing but ya know)
QoL improvements: Auto Heal ect
Nemona: Hop done right. Do more like Nemona next time GF.
Larry: I don't need to say anymore than that
Raids are infinitely better than they were in Sword and Shield, in solo mode for example you are no longer penalized for the AI being shit and dying constantly. Now its only when you die do you feel the repercussions. The timer depleting faster.
And I appreciate that this game tried something new like open world even if the open world looks like well... we'll get into that.
What I didn't like:
So time to finally address the elephant in the room, this game had no business being released in this sorry state.
Breath of the Wild was released in 2017, what am I looking at here?
We've all seen the silly viral clips on Twitter of character models spazzing out
People falling through the map, NPC's wandering into the battle during the middle of it, T-poses ect, but I'm actually not even talking about those. Bugs are gonna happen in modern games. I'm talking general technical performances. Like when this game was released it didn't even run at a consistent 30 FPS.
character models from not that far away from you moved at 5FPS. Looking like literal JPEGS. Characters would pop in and out even if you weren't far away from them, the camera constantly glitches out of bounds
Raids are bugged to shit. There's a particually nasty bug with Play Rough where it'll outright heal the boss instead of damage it. It was especially noticeable during the Charizard raid when Azumarill was one of the go to's for most players. sometimes it'll and bug out and deal no damage at all. Raid bosses will prop their shields earlier than they're supposed to as well.
This game also has a memory leak problem, so get ready for at least a few crashes. Pokemon also stuck in walls btw 😂 and you cannot encounter them without going out of bounds.
Technical issues aside.
Gym Rematches being one and done is stupid, and the Elite Four not being rematchable at all is especially egregious. You can only fight Hassel in the Ace tournament at random as the art teacher, and
(but only once)
Gyms do not have level scaling. Trainers in the overworld not having it is fine because its open world, the gyms not so much. Made especially apparent with the Nemona battles which go off the number of badges you have not which gym leaders you've actually beaten. You could have beaten the 8th gym leader second and she'll still use the team meant for after you've beaten the second gym leader. The game expects you to at least do the gym quest in the correct order, which just flat out makes no sense.
The postgame was basically merged with the main story which makes the actual postgame just barren. Like you feel empty when you've beaten the game. This game doesn't have a Battle faculty, not even the watered down version in Sword and Shield. There's nothing but raids left and that's just lame.
Forced EXP is dumb. There's no excuse for it not to have a toggle, and any excuse they may have given in interviews is nonsense.
More unnecessary evolution methods that makes completing the dex a complete pain in the ass.
Multi billion dollar corporation doesn't want to put in the effort into having voice acting, if the issue here is time then stop feeling the need the shit out a game every 3 years and do it. We can wait. No way the anime was an excuse this time, its only just ending the current season next week. The anime was behind this time
Character customization was rather weak this time, but to be fair I get it. You are a student and you have a dress code. But this is also a videogame, did it really need to be that restrictive?
Finally the gimmick: Terrestrialization is the least interesting gimmick bar none, there are no unique forms that come with it either this time, and changing your Pokemon's tera type is too much of a pain in the ass than it's worth. Why 50 tera shards a Pokemon? Who's idea was that?
But overall great game, just bogged with many many technical issues that will get fixed with patches, and personal gripes of mine. But I highly recommend trying it out.
Scarlet and Violet are great games. But they are bogged down terribly with well... I'll save it for when we get there. Let's start.
What I liked:
Story:
Easily the best story this series has had since Black and White, even the weakest storyline among the 4 (victory road) had its charm.
The best story imo was Arven's
From parental issues(Scarlet mommy issues) (Violet daddy issues), to what looked like you seeing his dying dog's last breath for most of it Arven's is the one I resonated most with. A sort of writing structure I hope they do more of in the future.
Team Star's was also good, but I found most of it sort of generic and predictable. There was no real twist on who the leader was, you figured this probably wasn't a legit evil team from the start (cause ya know these kids are 15 at most), but Penny is cute and she had a really good moment towards the end and that's all I needed.
Victory road is the weakest by far as it's the same get 8 badges quest and fight the elite four story we've done for decades now. The gym challenges are largely forgettable too.
Final boss/4th story
Very unique twist with the professor actually being dead and a robot being the one taking their place, the fight itself is perfect. It's tough if you're not overleveled, their team is varied and the game made actual use out of the cover legendary by having it be apart of the finale (something also seen in Black and White)
The new Pokemon are great:
All gens are gonna have outliners but gen 9 did a great job overall. It's no shocker Tinkaton became an instant fan favorite with her adorable design (also the whole killing birds thing but ya know)
QoL improvements: Auto Heal ect
Nemona: Hop done right. Do more like Nemona next time GF.
Larry: I don't need to say anymore than that
Raids are infinitely better than they were in Sword and Shield, in solo mode for example you are no longer penalized for the AI being shit and dying constantly. Now its only when you die do you feel the repercussions. The timer depleting faster.
And I appreciate that this game tried something new like open world even if the open world looks like well... we'll get into that.
What I didn't like:
So time to finally address the elephant in the room, this game had no business being released in this sorry state.
Breath of the Wild was released in 2017, what am I looking at here?
We've all seen the silly viral clips on Twitter of character models spazzing out
People falling through the map, NPC's wandering into the battle during the middle of it, T-poses ect, but I'm actually not even talking about those. Bugs are gonna happen in modern games. I'm talking general technical performances. Like when this game was released it didn't even run at a consistent 30 FPS.
character models from not that far away from you moved at 5FPS. Looking like literal JPEGS. Characters would pop in and out even if you weren't far away from them, the camera constantly glitches out of bounds
Raids are bugged to shit. There's a particually nasty bug with Play Rough where it'll outright heal the boss instead of damage it. It was especially noticeable during the Charizard raid when Azumarill was one of the go to's for most players. sometimes it'll and bug out and deal no damage at all. Raid bosses will prop their shields earlier than they're supposed to as well.
This game also has a memory leak problem, so get ready for at least a few crashes. Pokemon also stuck in walls btw 😂 and you cannot encounter them without going out of bounds.
Technical issues aside.
Gym Rematches being one and done is stupid, and the Elite Four not being rematchable at all is especially egregious. You can only fight Hassel in the Ace tournament at random as the art teacher, and
Larry as a gym leader not an elite four
Gyms do not have level scaling. Trainers in the overworld not having it is fine because its open world, the gyms not so much. Made especially apparent with the Nemona battles which go off the number of badges you have not which gym leaders you've actually beaten. You could have beaten the 8th gym leader second and she'll still use the team meant for after you've beaten the second gym leader. The game expects you to at least do the gym quest in the correct order, which just flat out makes no sense.
The postgame was basically merged with the main story which makes the actual postgame just barren. Like you feel empty when you've beaten the game. This game doesn't have a Battle faculty, not even the watered down version in Sword and Shield. There's nothing but raids left and that's just lame.
Forced EXP is dumb. There's no excuse for it not to have a toggle, and any excuse they may have given in interviews is nonsense.
More unnecessary evolution methods that makes completing the dex a complete pain in the ass.
Multi billion dollar corporation doesn't want to put in the effort into having voice acting, if the issue here is time then stop feeling the need the shit out a game every 3 years and do it. We can wait. No way the anime was an excuse this time, its only just ending the current season next week. The anime was behind this time
Character customization was rather weak this time, but to be fair I get it. You are a student and you have a dress code. But this is also a videogame, did it really need to be that restrictive?
Finally the gimmick: Terrestrialization is the least interesting gimmick bar none, there are no unique forms that come with it either this time, and changing your Pokemon's tera type is too much of a pain in the ass than it's worth. Why 50 tera shards a Pokemon? Who's idea was that?
But overall great game, just bogged with many many technical issues that will get fixed with patches, and personal gripes of mine. But I highly recommend trying it out.
There's an amazing game here, but you have to deal with stretches of batshit insanity to play it.
I feel like Pokemon would be better off making a live service game/MMO for stuff like this: have a big cash cow like Fortnite, Final Fantasy XIV, etc, then pump money into making tight, polished, AAA games like BotW. Game Freak has the talent to create great games, but, they need more time and resources (and a better engine, probably).
Pokemon won't die out, it's too big. But, if the series doesn't get serious about fixing its flaws, a competitor could overtake it in the next decade.
Imagine Genshin Impact, but with Pokemon + Furry shit, and better quality gameplay.
Pokemon's gameplay mechanics, graphics, world building, and other important elements are all easily beatable.
Top notch character design is what has carried this series, along with nostalgia.
If another series can tap into that nostalgia, match the level of character design, and perform much better technically, they could actually push Pokemon.
No one has made a BotW-level monster catching game yet, and whoever does is going to make a shit ton of money.
999 Gimmighoul coins
The stupid dolphin that needs you to level it up online with a friend in your group
Kingambit's evolution method (just what? why?)
1000 steps BS
At the time of XY's release Malamar's evolution gimmick was dumb but in comparison harmless, and there weren't more evolution gimmicks like that so it was fine. Now they've gone overboard to the point of insanity.
The stupid dolphin that needs you to level it up online with a friend in your group
Kingambit's evolution method (just what? why?)
1000 steps BS
At the time of XY's release Malamar's evolution gimmick was dumb but in comparison harmless, and there weren't more evolution gimmicks like that so it was fine. Now they've gone overboard to the point of insanity.