"Pokémon Scarlet and Violet" Free Me

 

    As an avid Pokémon fan, I have to admit that I had some optimism watching trailers for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, I mean it was trying something new, and as someone who had rekindled their love for the series in recent years, for once I was hopeful that they'd continue on this new trend started by Pokémon Legends: Arceus. However, in the end all I got was a mockery that had bits of potential, but once again showed the glaring flaws that leak out of the gaping pores that cover this once beloved bundle of joy. If Pokémon Legends: Arceus was like a breath of fresh air, then Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is like a stinky aftertaste that quickly makes you forget what even happened.

    I mean, there's nothing wrong with the story, the gameplay is fine, but it's like Gamefreak and Nintendo put it in a glossy package that releases a stinky fart when you open it. Like the greed is so apparent, the year long cycle doesn't work with these games, but people like me keep on buying them despite it all, because we all want to see for ourselves if they've made any progress on improving our childhood favourites. Frankly, it's a cruel cycle I don't think I'll ever escape, because at the very least it gives me something to talk about, and at the very best I actually enjoy the 60 something hours I spent on it.

    Like, it's become so sad how desperate Nintendo fans are for a good product when I see them cream themselves online over even the most mediocre textures despite the fact that the models still lack any shadows or texture. I mean even the starters look terrible, search up Skeledirge, and examine the Pokémon model and tell me with a straight face that it looks like something acceptable in 2022 from the highest grossing franchise of all time. Some poor kid probably loves this game, and they'll return to it 5 or 10 years from now, only to be disappointed once the rose tinted lenses they once used have dissipated from their life. I mean don't even get me started on the overworld, which is a problem that also plagued Pokémon Legends: Arceus a game I enjoyed much more.

    If you're going to look shitty, at the very least have it so that the performance is solid, but in reality, you'd be lucky to even reach a consistent 30 FPS in this game. This feels like a game in development, they didn't even try to optimize it at all, for the hardware at hand, which is baffling because they saw how poorly it ran, and shipped it out anyways due to a lack of time. I mean it chugs along like a soup that's too thick, even jumping with Miraidon felt like a slug, and honestly really gross. I mean it's one of the main features of the game, you ride a legendary Pokémon, and all that you're left with is a game that slows down when you're jumping in the middle of a city. Speaking of cities, you don't even want to be in one because of how bad the performance is, and frankly, the more forgettable they are the better, it's just unacceptable.

    Now, bugs have dominated this games launch cycle quite a bit and while I didn't face anything major personally, a month into the games release cycle and I still regularly found Pokémon hiding in walls, in the final zone, Area Zero, nonetheless. They have not even released many patches for the game, so its quite sad, because deep down I know the developers are already being forced to work on the next yearly Pokémon release, despite the fac that this game needs about 50% more polish anyways. If I had to describe this game, I think it would be like a Bethesda game, but with a tenth of the actual ambition or freedom that it also comes with, making the bugs just that much more annoying.

    Lets not get into how "open-world" this game actually is either, because frankly it's pretty sad. Anyone whose actually played a Pokémon game remembers that one of the features is entering random houses in these towns or cities and interacting with the NPC's to see if they have any cool items, but here there is none of that. Instead every city is just filled with the same 10 shops dedicated to sandwich ingredients. Personally, I didn't really use the sandwich feature, especially during the story because I never really felt the need to, so it was really annoying that every city had 10 houses that one could actually enter, and most of them were just sandwich shops. 

    Frankly, I could easily make the argument that I enjoyed Pokémon Sword and Shield more, and frankly the more I play Pokémon Scarlet and Violet the more I miss Pokémon Sword and Shield. Though, I do have to admit that the story in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet blows Pokémon Sword and Shield out of the water, and by a good margin too because I barely remember Pokémon Sword and Shield's plot either. It would be way better if it wasn't mired by the performance issues sapping any and all joy I had for the series though, so I suppose I'll just have to live with it.

Final Score: 65/100

    I suppose that last sentence is my entire feelings about this series summarized. I'll just have to live with it, and you will too, because this quickly became the fastest selling switch game of all time, which is a real shame because it could have earned that spot too if it wasn't for time constraints. This entire review was me berating the game, but really if the performance was fixed, it would receive a near passable 70, even with all of the other complaints about it being lazily put together still existed. I suppose I was a bit spoiled with the adequate Pokémon Legends: Arceus, but I just wanted something better, something more than what I got.