Gosh, what can I say about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet? I’m very a lot in two minds about this recreation. On the one hand, as you’ve most likely seen in trailers, the efficiency of the title could be very very tough. On the opposite… it’s most likely the perfect Pokémon recreation I’ve performed in years. Possibly ever.
For some 20-odd years now, mainline Pokémon video games have had fairly related story beats. There’s an evil staff inflicting bother, there’s a world-ending risk on the horizon, and also you, a 10-year-old little one, should clear up all of those issues, all whereas discovering time to squeeze in just a few health club challenges right here and there. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are completely different.
Gone are the worldwide catastrophes and cartoonishly evil end-game bosses, changed with a narrative that focuses on what Sport Freak does finest: characterisation. Scarlet and Violet are full of character-driven storytelling, with three distinct storylines on supply that every one ship an extremely sturdy story to vibe with. I’ll begin with the health club problem story.
See, that is the a part of the sport that feels essentially the most like a Pokémon recreation. You’ve been tasked with defeating eight health club leaders, accumulating eight badges, and taking up the champion to turn into a champion in your personal proper. It’s nothing mind-blowing or stunning, all the correct beats are right here, however it’s elevated by some actually beautiful characters. Your rival, Nemona, is a neighbour and a buddy, however she’s not the pleasant, do-nothing rival you’ve come to anticipate in current generations.
Nemona is not any Hau, no Hop. She’s an completed coach, with a fever for battling, and he or she’s additionally already reached champion rank. Yup, your rival is a god-damn champion. It’s a pleasant turnabout on what’s turn into a reasonably drained trope for the collection at this level, and it pays off handsomely within the league storyline. As a substitute of your rival plodding alongside, overlaying the identical beats you do, Nemona is off doing her personal stuff, solely popping in now and again to cheer you on and check your expertise a bit. It’s an extremely compelling dynamic.
There’s no “oh no I misplaced a battle and now I’m unhappy” storyline for Nemona, as we noticed with, ahem, different rivals previously. She’s not trailing within the footsteps of someone else like Hop and Hau each did with Leon and Hala, respectively. She’s a rattling good coach, and he or she is aware of it. So why is she following you round? As a result of she’s bored. As a result of she longs for a problem and proper now, no one’s received the talents to take her down. She desires you to win, to get stronger, to combat again like no one else has earlier than. She’s a battling prodigy who swept by means of the area’s strongest trainers and not using a second thought, and he or she thinks you’ll be the identical.
Regardless of the health club problem storyline being the extra subdued of the three, it’s exhausting to not like Nemona. There’s different characters alongside the way in which that you simply’ll meet, they usually’re nice too, however Nemona is the primary draw right here. She’s encouraging and longing for you, and it genuinely seems like she cares about how properly you’re doing. She’s written in such a method that you may’t assist however need to get stronger. If it’s not apparent sufficient but, I feel Nemona might be the perfect rival within the collection, and her part of the story won’t be essentially the most mind-blowing, however it’s the most satisfying whenever you lastly get by means of all of it.
Subsequent up on the record is the Titan storyline. I used to be coming into this anticipating it to be lots much less intense than it was. In my thoughts, there have been a bunch of big, rampaging Pokémon, I most likely needed to defeat them to stop individuals getting harm, and that will be concerning the extent of story involvement. Boy was I incorrect.
The Titan storyline is targeted on a personality known as Arven, and sadly, I can’t truly speak all that a lot about his particular backstory. Suffice to say although, it’s deeply affecting, and there have been elements of the Titan storyline exterior of the particular Titan battling that made me sob like a child. Yup, a Pokémon recreation of all issues had such good writing, such good characterisation, and extra importantly, such good restraint, that it made me bodily emotional on multiple event. A good warning to anybody leaping into this blind, too: this storyline is laser-focused on making pet-owners really feel loads of very sturdy feelings.
Now, certain, there may be all of the stuff about defeating gigantic Pokémon too, and that’s a bit… y’know, no matter, you hit the large Pokémon and win. But it surely’s these moments of downtime between these fights, the place it’s simply you and Arven and a pair Pokémon hanging out, chatting concerning the previous, determining the longer term, that’s the place Pokémon Scarlet and Violet shines. Like most characters in these video games, Arven is a personality with nice depth. He’s a conflicted character, a polarising character. He’s not excellent, and he by no means feels same-y, as a result of we see him in such a variety of emotional states that he feels actual. Nicely, not fairly actual precisely, he’s nonetheless a personality in a recreation, however he’s an especially good character in a recreation that I grew fairly keen on all through its runtime, regardless of principally hating at first.
And that brings us to the final of the storylines, the Group Star path. I wasn’t truly certain what to anticipate with this one — on the floor, it appears to be like like your customary “evil staff kinda sucks so go beat them up” story. However… it’s not that, not likely. It’s a little bit that, however there’s loads of depth to all of it, too. Quite a lot of comedy as properly, from an especially stunning supply. I received’t give it away, however when a sure character first appeared on display, I truly burst out laughing because of the sheer absurdity of all of it.
If you happen to’ve performed any Pokémon recreation since Solar and Moon, you’ll know that this complete “evil staff” factor not often works out that method, and with current video games we’ve began to see Sport Freak broaden on the function these groups take. Scarlet and Violet take the framework laid by Solar and Moon’s Group Cranium and run with it, giving us a gaggle of “villains” which can be a few of the most fascinating and complicated characters that the collection has to supply. I can’t say way more with out giving all of it away, however I’ll say that I’m glad there have been moments of comedy to interrupt up a few of the intense character-driven work carried out on this storyline.
Whereas these tales are largely separate and segmented from one another, there are moments the place it comes collectively to make all of it a really cohesive expertise. I can’t go into an excessive amount of element on that, for a lot of causes, however the set-up all through the sport could be very a lot definitely worth the payoff. Your motivations for shifting by means of the story are lots, and there’s at all times the thriller of the nice Paldean crater looming on the middle of the area, ready to be uncovered, however spending time with some completely beautiful characters is actually on the core of the Scarlet and Violet expertise, and it really works extremely properly.
So! Now that the story’s out of the way in which, and we all know that I completely cherished the overwhelming majority of it, let’s speak concerning the gameplay. Scarlet and Violet are type of a wierd combine between current video games by way of gameplay — it’s an enormous step up from Sword and Defend, but in addition not fairly as excessive in its variations as Legends Arceus. Let’s speak concerning the largest change although: the open world.
Yup, The Pokémon Firm hasn’t been mendacity to you about what Scarlet and Violet are, that is completely an enormous, linked, open-world recreation. There’s a few very tiny exceptions, like the sport’s huge hub metropolis, however apart from that, you’ll be able to stroll from anyplace in Paldea to some other place within the area with out ever hitting a load display. It’s not like Legends Arceus, which had a collection of various open areas segmented by loading screens, it’s a full fats, “if you happen to can see it you’ll be able to go to it”, open-world recreation.
It’s a fairly rattling good open world, too. I’ve been a bit harsh on video games like Breath of the Wild previously, primarily as a result of whereas they’ve huge open worlds, they at all times really feel a bit of bit empty. I don’t assume Scarlet and Violet have that downside. The world is completely bustling with Pokémon, all on the market residing their very own lives, doing their very own issues. They have a tendency to spawn in fascinating patterns too, with loads of variability in what these patterns can carry. You’ll very often see a Mankey snoozing on the foot of a tree, or a Growlithe combating off a horde of Skiddo, or a gaggle of child Hoppips huddled round their mama Skiploom.
There’s lots to see and do across the area, too. After all, you’ll be able to search out uncommon Pokémon, it’s a Pokémon recreation, however there’s gadgets scattered about to select up, towers and buildings to poke round in, caves to discover. It’s all loads of enjoyable, and it’s extraordinarily simple to only get misplaced on the planet and spend hours wandering round. At one level, I instructed myself that tonight was the evening I used to be going to tackle the final Titan… after which I spent 5 hours wandering round, catching wild Tera Pokémon, searching for shiny Pokémon, and simply typically seeing what the area needed to supply.
Gaining access to Koraidon, your trusty steed and lovely little dragon lad, so early within the recreation implies that shifting round within the area is a heck of loads of enjoyable. You received’t have entry to all of its motion skills instantly, you’ll should do some story stuff for that, however even simply with the ability to hop on for a experience and zoom across the area instantly is an enormous impetus for exploration. Koraidon performs a fairly large half in a few of the story too, as you’d most likely anticipate, and I like him a lot. The poor little man simply wants a bit of bit of affection and care.
The sport’s development advantages lots from the open world, too. You are able to do any of the sport’s gyms, Titan fights, or Group Star battles in no matter order you want. Wish to tackle the toughest health club first? You are able to do that. You received’t have a enjoyable time, and your Pokémon will completely get thrashed, but when that’s what you need to do, then go for it. You’ll be able to select to go down one path at a time, knocking out the health club problem path in its entirety earlier than ever setting foot in a Group Star base, or you’ll be able to combine it up a bit. I deliberate to do the previous, taking up just a few Titans in a row, however there’s a small caveat that made me default to doing the latter as an alternative and mixing my actions — there’s a stage cap, and in case your Pokémon hit that cap, they received’t take heed to you anymore.
This has been a factor in earlier video games as properly, however tended solely to have an effect on traded Pokémon. Right here, each Pokémon stops listening if it’s the next stage than the cap. To lift the cap, you want to get health club badges, so if you happen to’re planning on doing one story at a time, it’s in your finest curiosity to do all of the health club challenges first. That stated, there’s so many implausible new Pokémon to play with, and doing every of those tales individually fairly than mixing them up offers a very fascinating incentive to modify up your staff with every storyline. Clearly, when you end the health club storyline, you’ll be sitting on a staff of stage 60+ Pokémon, which might be a bit overkill for the complete remainder of the opposite storylines.
Which truly brings me to my subsequent level: there’s no stage scaling for the actions within the recreation. If you happen to rush to the ultimate health club the second you begin your journey, you’ll be dealing with Pokémon within the 50+ vary, and you’re going to get your butt handed to you. I do know lots of people received’t be significantly pleased with this, preferring that every essential exercise within the recreation scales relying in your Pokémon ranges or what number of badges you’ve received, however I truly choose this sort of development. As enjoyable as it might be to see a Bug health club chief with stage 55 Pokémon, having particular stage ranges for particular fights implies that these on the excessive finish really feel appropriately epic, thematically. It’d really feel a bit of bizarre for me, personally, if I toughed it out to achieve the highest of an icy mountain to take down the Ice health club chief Grusha, just for him to ship out a stage 10 Bergmite.
One other advantage of forgoing scaling is that it permits you to make your personal challenges. I did this just a few instances, taking up gyms and Star bases that weren’t the “meant” subsequent problem within the record. Considered one of these was unintended, as a result of I wasn’t certain what the subsequent problem was truly imagined to be, however after the push of that first one and developing with higher methods to take it down, I began doing it increasingly more. Positive, it meant that once I went again to the precise meant challenges, they weren’t significantly troublesome, but when each problem was scaled to match my stage, these sorts of tales of triumph wouldn’t be doable. Once more, it received’t be for everybody, and I settle for that some gamers would’ve a lot most well-liked to have correct stage scaling, however for me it labored out simply effective.
After which we come to the nitty-gritty of the overview, a bunch of small issues that don’t in the end imply a lot in isolation, however contribute total to the expertise — for higher or for worse. I like very a lot that character customisation is just not even the slightest bit gender-locked. Each outfit, accent, and coiffure is on the market to whichever physique type you decide. That’s nice! It implies that the shape you do decide solely impacts the pronouns different characters use for you. There’s sadly no choice for they/them pronouns, nonetheless, one thing that different video games have gotten fairly good at, however Pokémon continues to be a bit missing in. It’s a small step forwards, not less than.
I’m a lot much less a fan of what I might name a collection of high quality of life regressions, a few of that are fully and completely nonsensical. For instance, shiny Pokémon now not sparkle or make a noise on the overworld, regardless of their shiny colouration showing simply effective. Why? What objective does that serve? The system labored effective in Legends Arceus, and for colourblind individuals like me, it was completely essential. It’s not one thing that wanted to be modified, and I can’t perceive the reasoning behind it.
There’s additionally some bizarre stuff to do with menus. In a battle, the sport now not remembers the place of your cursor within the transfer menu between every flip, so if you happen to’re in a protracted battle and also you’re not utilizing the highest transfer within the record, you’ll should scroll all the way in which down every flip. Each Pokémon recreation for like 25 years has remembered the battle cursor place, so it’s completely bonkers that this one one way or the other doesn’t. Therapeutic a Pokémon utilizing gadgets is equally unusual — current video games would let you choose an merchandise, say a Potion, after which go down the record one after the other with out having to reselect the merchandise in between. Or you could possibly decide a decrease stage merchandise like an Oran Berry and spam it to heal up a Pokémon, to save lots of your self from utilizing up a costlier merchandise you’re saving for an enormous combat.
As a substitute, you now have to pick out the merchandise every time, after which choose the Pokémon, after which do all of it once more as soon as the merchandise is used up. There’s an choice to auto-heal, although it’s just for one Pokémon at a time, in order that’s good, but when half my staff is paralysed after a troublesome combat, I’d actually like to have the ability to undergo the record rapidly with therapeutic gadgets fairly than tediously doing it one after the other.
You can also’t transfer held gadgets between your Pokémon on the primary menu. You’ll be able to add or take away them, however if you wish to transfer an merchandise from one Pokémon to a different with out it hitting the bag, you’ll should open up the bins menu. And there’s no search choice within the Poké dex, from what I can inform not less than, so it’s a must to scroll by means of the complete record every time you need to see a particular ‘dex entry. Once more, a very unusual determination. One other unusual determination is the lack to show off transfer animations. I truly fairly like transfer animations, but when I’m going to grind up a Pokémon or hunt for a particular Pokémon whereas I grind, I’d like to have the ability to flip off a few of the longer transfer animations in battle.
None of those points are an enormous deal, within the grand scheme of issues, however they don’t make any sense. Why would anybody resolve that this was a greater solution to do issues? A few of these eliminated options have been customary within the video games for over twenty years, they had been clearly working properly for gamers, so why are they not right here? I simply don’t perceive the reasoning behind excluding objectively worthwhile high quality of life choices. Small points, as I stated, however they add as much as loads of frustration over time.
And I suppose whereas I’m being unfavorable, it’s most likely an excellent time to speak about efficiency. It’s dangerous. Worse than Legends Arceus, about the identical as Sword and Defend at that recreation’s worst. There are fairly fixed body drops in most areas, and it will get even worse when there’s loads of stuff occurring like rain or different results. A stable 30fps is uncommon, and that’s fairly unlucky. It’s in no way unplayable, but it surely’s not precisely an amazing look both.
Nonetheless… I can type of forgive it, to some extent. I do know this makes me sound like an enormous apologist, and I promise that’s not what I’m making an attempt to do right here, so let me make it clear: the extent of efficiency on this recreation is just not ok. However, it doesn’t really feel like that is the results of extraordinarily poor optimisation or builders being “lazy” as some individuals appear to throw round lots. This can be a recreation that’s completely gigantic in scope, and it appears to be like wonderful visually more often than not. It feels lots like this can be a recreation that’s simply too huge in scope for the Change.
Now, an argument may positively be made that Sport Freak may and possibly ought to have scoped down a bit to suit throughout the console’s limitations, and I’d typically agree with that. But it surely is a fully unbelievable recreation, no two methods about it, warts and all. If you happen to’re inclined to eye pressure and movement illness as a consequence of decrease body charges, this isn’t the sport for you. However if you happen to can typically dwell with the efficiency drops, you’ll discover a recreation that simply stands not solely above each different Pokémon recreation previously, however loads of different JRPG contemporaries too.
However as I stated, so many phrases in the past, this isn’t fairly Legends Arceus. You’ll be able to’t simply chuck a ball at a Pokémon within the wild and catch it and not using a battle. You’ll be able to, nonetheless, use a brand new characteristic known as Let’s Go mode, which regardless of the needlessly complicated title, is sort of helpful. Activating it’s going to let the primary Pokémon in your get together stroll alongside you, they usually’ll decide up gadgets and immediately battle random wild Pokémon they arrive throughout. It’s a neat little characteristic for grinding up a Pokémon too, since you’ll be able to knock out 5-10 Let’s Go mode defeats in the identical time it’d take you to complete one or two conventional battles.
There’s additionally Tera raids, that are loads of enjoyable and an enormous step up from Sword and Defend’s raids. Now, granted, I cherished the raids in Sword and Defend, however that is simply so so significantly better. As a substitute of ready round for every coach to pick out their strikes, you simply use your strikes and it occurs instantly. It’s as if every coach is in their very own battle, combating at their very own tempo, however the Pokémon they’re combating has its HP shared between all of them. It’s very excellent.
And wow, one way or the other I’ve gotten this far with out speaking about Terastallizing. That’s a fairly neat mechanic too! It permits you to change the kind of a Pokémon, as soon as per battle. Or you’ll be able to double down on its current sort, and make the same-type assault bonus much more highly effective. Most random Pokémon you come throughout may have a Tera sort that matches one in all their common sorts, however there are some uncommon wild Teras which have completely different Tera sorts, and most raids characteristic a Pokémon with a special Tera sort, too. There are loads of Pokémon which can be extraordinarily fascinating however, let’s face it, have crummy typing (taking a look at you, each single Ice Pokémon ever), so this can be a nice solution to get extra out of a Pokémon that in any other case would wrestle a bit. Or you’ll be able to amp up an current good Pokémon to absurd ranges. Aggressive play goes to be extraordinarily various and enjoyable, and I can’t wait to verify all of it out.
After all, I’d be remiss to speak a couple of new Pokémon recreation with out speaking concerning the new Pokémon in it. I can’t significantly speak in-depth about most of them, and I wouldn’t need to even when I may, as a result of a part of the appeal of a brand new Pokémon recreation is discovering new Pokémon for your self. Having stated that, that is simply one in all my favorite generations for Pokémon designs, with virtually each single Pokémon an absolute banger. There’s one or two misses, for me, however most of them are completely nice. And there’s loads of cool stuff happening with current Pokémon too, that I’ll additionally go away you to find for your self. Belief me, you’re most likely gonna adore it.
Oh and one other factor, simply to throw one final unfavorable into the pile earlier than we end up, there’s just a few bugs within the recreation because it stands. Issues had been positively improved by the day one patch, however there’s nonetheless a few lingering points that may undoubtedly should be mounted in future updates. Most of them are extraordinarily tiny issues, which received’t actually have an effect on the expertise in any respect, however one stored popping up for me that was a bit annoying. In Tera raids, typically if you happen to’re the primary Pokémon to hit the raid Pokémon, it received’t present the injury you dealt to the Pokémon on the large well being bar on the prime of the display. You positively did do injury, and you’ll see it when you choose a goal for a transfer, however the huge well being bar will stay weirdly bugged for the remainder of the raid. It’ll go down on subsequent hits, however then it’ll appear like the Pokémon is at half well being when it faints. It’s bizarre!
There’s most likely a lot extra that I may discuss, like the entire picnic factor that allows you to eat meals that increase the probability of some issues occurring, or the way in which that Star bases work, or the unbelievable minigames that include health club challenges. However truthfully, there’s a lot happening in Scarlet and Violet, and it’s actually at its finest when it’s found, fairly than instructed to you. I’ve additionally written virtually 4000 phrases at this level and my wrists are aching, so let’s end up.
There’s little doubt that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are the perfect within the collection. The open world is implausible, the story is unbelievable, and the sport appears to be like wonderful, even when the efficiency could be very rocky. There are issues, and high quality of life points, however for each unfavorable there’s a dozen extra positives that blew me away each step of the way in which. Will probably be divisive, however for me, it’s virtually all the things I need from a Pokémon recreation.
Ranking: 4/5