Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have sanctioned some first times for the pocket monster series. Game Freak's first real act of bravery in drastically changing the progression structure, the first fully Open World adventure themed Pokémon from the main series and, sadly, too the first real technical massacre and consequently media. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are two very good games, even excellent at times, which however barely stand up as software. A inadmissible technical result for any game that comes out exclusively for a console. There are so many things to say, so let's not delay any longer and let's start with the review.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: three stories that don't invade yours
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are set in Paldea region, an island that is very reminiscent of the Spain of our real world for biomes and settings, whose peculiarity is to have a huge Accademia Pokémon in the city of mesapoli, whose name differs according to the game version (Academia Orange for Pokémon Scarlet and Academy Grapes for Pokémon Violet). This Academy presents theoretical courses with a final exam for each subject, which also act as advanced tutorials for newcomers to the series regarding some game mechanics, and also an extra-curricular practical activity: the search for one's own personal treasure, i.e. the 'go on adventures in the region and also apply what we have learned. We play a new student of this Academy and will be the Dean himself, Clevel, to visit us at home to welcome us and deliver the our starter. We will soon get to know you Nemi, our main rival, and all the other supporting actors in history such as pepper, Penny e Clevel himself with dialogues after our first meeting at home.
As widely advertised in the marketing campaign of these two new games, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet propose three main quest lines alternable at any time and without a really specified order, let alone imposed. They are the Path of Champions, Legendary Path and Avenue of Stardust!
Il Path of Champions it's the classic run-up to eight medals of the Pokémon Gyms, which once completed will give us the opportunity to face the Pokémon League of the Paldea region, taking the practical exam. The Legendary Path will join Pepe in his search for rare spices and with extraordinary properties, and the motivation for this research will be clarified by Pepe himself by advancing in the quest line. Finally there is the Avenue of Stardust, which consists of the operation of disbandment of the Star team entrusted to us by Cassiopeia, the founding archchief of the team who is intent on disbanding it for reasons that will be clear to us later (again, excellent job with the narration).
Once all the main quests have been completed, it will be the turn of the final one, which obviously we won't spoil you, but which we anticipate to be functional and successful, able to give the answers we seek to the questions that arise spontaneously during the adventure (even if, reading all the descriptions and all the books, some questions remain pending, and perhaps we will find the answers in the DLC). Mysteries such as those behind Koraidon/Miraidon depending on the game version, which are entrusted to us immediately and with which we will face the entire adventure using them as means of transport.
The best thing about history of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is that, being an open world game, we can carry it forward at our discretion and without the obligation to continue as and when we are told by the game. A story in some ways simple, sometimes even deep, but more invasive towards the other important story: the own personal adventure. Like any self-respecting open world game, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are impossible to tackle with photocopy runs or in any case very similar to each other, because each player explores and plays inside Paldea in his own way, deciding what to do, how and when in full autonomy, creating a own path which is just as important as that of the narrative. Ultimately, and without going into further details so as not to spoil any surprises, we have found it the story of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet pleasant to follow and ideal for a video game structured in this way, resulting in a work promoteable from almost every point of view without special praise.
Was the open world the right choice?
Net of all the doubts of the eve, and net of the complete completion of the game, we can say with absolute certainty that the open world structure did a lot of good Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, helping it to give the player a sense of adventure and freedom that is compelling in so many ways. The conceptual composition of the level design is as functional as possible, as the player is in close proximity to mesapoli the areas that act as theater to initial challenges, with the more overwhelming threats placed in more distant places. In this way, even a very young player, or even just an inexperienced one, does not easily or by mistake come across obstacles that are too difficult to overcome, managing to easily find challenges at his level. However, Mesapolis is located in the central area of the map and the adventure can be started both to the left and to the right of the city, for this reason it was decided for a similar balance for both areas. In essence, both initial areas on the sides of Mesapoli provide 3 challenges of increasing difficulty, whose starting point in terms of levels is slightly higher on the right side. What does this entail? That if you were to start and complete the first challenges of one side yes it would partially invalidate the challenge level of the other's initial ones, given that you would end up with a team at a significantly higher average level. In fact, in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet it was decided not to apply any adaptive level scaling, a feature which, however, we do not believe was really needed for very simple reasons.
That in a JRPG there is the presence of different level challenges in the map, both in cases of open world and more linear gaming experiences, is a standard and it is not a practice followed just to do. The player must be stimulated to become stronger, and the only way to do this is to place recognizable "checkpoints" in front of the player that provide the sensation of progress. In the case of open worlds, a very intriguing game dynamic is to take it head-on overly tough challenges, for example a dominant Pokémon that outruns us by 12 levels or more, and see if we're good and smart enough to strategically overcome the number wall it represents.
A bit like when they face each other in other contexts advance boss fight in advance, which, however, in exchange for our commitment, provide us with an amazing equipment capable of wiping out what is weaker than the game world has to offer. Perception subjective of choice? Obviously Yup, there are no parameters to objectively establish whether the absence of level scaling is a good thing or a bad thing, some see level scaling as superfluous nonsense and others as something necessary, and often level scaling is associated with a constant sense of challenge on par with the CPU.
The point is that Pokémon doesn't offer a CPU to rival a seasoned player, could barely bother us when we were kids, and Pokémon addresses both them and us. What would level scaling change? That a gym leader instead of losing in 5 turns would lose in 7? We could perhaps say that it's time to put more difficulty levels, a young mode and a veteran mode perhaps, but certainly it would not be the level scaling to solve the "problem". Indeed, the absence of him allows a veteran to find some challenge point nice, like deliberately going to the furthest areas immediately to fight with a clear and constant handicap (which is impossible to do with level scaling), so as to have fewer easy challenges, or choosing to face the game's quest lines with specific teams to each. Of the self-imposed clauses therefore, along the lines of the more classic ones, like the Nuzlocke for instance. Finally, let's not forget that the accumulation of experience points in Pokémon is particular, in the sense that a Pokémon takes a variable number of experience points based on the relationship between its level and that of the opponent.
If I beat a Pikachu at level 40 with a Charizard at level 30, I take X number of experience points, if the same Pikachu beats him with a Charizard at level 70 I take very few, which is very different from other cases where you get the same points. So doing the challenges in order, so to speak, or doing the harder ones first and then the easier ones will lead pretty much the same end resultin terms of levelling. As already mentioned, however, tastes are important in this sense and therefore perhaps the absolute truth about it there will never be. A meeting point could be to leave the biggest challenges of us unchanged and, at the same time, climb those that are exceeded in leveling. Perhaps this solution would satisfy both schools of thought, and who knows if we will see it applied in the future.
Staying on the subject of balancing it must be given to Caesar what is Caesar's, as at the end of questline the final boss fights will almost never be surpassed in leveling, unless you decide to do a lot of additional farming unrelated to fights in gyms, dominants and so on. We could therefore say that when the game should have been for real was really serious. Obviously we always talk in terms of a Pokémon game, but let's say that without a minimum of strategy and without a full one awareness of the mechanical, both basic such as the relationship between types and more advanced, some bosses will also be punishing at times. If you are a veteran or in any case experienced enough, they will limit themselves to snatching a smile, with a few treat that ai fan of old date you might like it (including a boss fight we all wish we'd had to go through at one point or another!).
Closing the discourse of balancing the difficulty, if we take into account the desire to meet both veterans and younger players as much as possible, we could say that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have done a much more than decent job, excellent at times, because you can both follow an orderly path and go hard-nosed with very strong bosses to put us to the test, always finding the most suitable bread for our teeth. However, due to this balance within everyone's reach and a very streamlined game formula compared to many other open worlds, we do not feel like defining it completely as such. We like to say that it is a open world season 7, that for those who have always chewed the genre it's not the best but what results ideal for approaching this type of gameespecially if you are younger. And let's face it, make an open world valid for everyone and above all within everyone's reach (really everyone) is not a trivial matter!
Il balancing was a subject with which we wanted to start, as always crucial and delicate for this series, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are certainly no exception, but there are also many other aspects to deal with and the next one is related to exploration.
Explore Paldea
How the first open world Pokémon behaves from the point of view of exploration? Does it manage to immerse the player in the game world to the fullest? Net of some scattered imperfections, we can say with certainty that the world of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet it works really well. Paldea is not a particularly varied region in terms of level design and activities to be carried out, however the large spaces and the great exploratory freedom offer help to make the player feel immersed in this new world. Pokémon, contrary to what might have been feared, are present in large numbers, and where Pokémon do not appear, there are tools to collect or trainers to beat. The pocket monsters they have never been so alive, since now they all have more or less unique behaviors such as the Pachirisu that climb trees, or the beetles that hang from the branches with their own thread, passing through the Water Pokémon that sometimes stroll peacefully and sometimes go for a swim . Moreover battles now take place in the exact place on the map where they are started, a feature introduced in Pokémon Arceus Legends and revived on Scarlet and Violet, but this time the landscape around us remains totally unchanged. If at the beginning of the fight there are Pikachu to our right, for example, they will remain there and perhaps stop to observe the battle curiously. Many little gems that are a panacea for the sense of immersion.
Cross the Paldea region without finding interesting cues towards which to head is almost impossible, especially in blind runs, and for the entire duration of one's adventure one always has the pleasure, the interest, towards discovering that area, capture that Pokémon or go to that other one Raid Teracristal (which we will talk about later). The thing we liked the most is that, despite the limits of the terraforming of Paldea and the amount of activities to be carried out, there are still nice and worthy of a Nintendo game.
Is there a mountain peak seemingly bare and devoid of content? Wrong, going up there sometimes you find TMs, rare items or Rarer Pokémon (or in any case very strong final evolutionary stages), such as the Garchomp sadly afflicted by occasional interpenetration bugs with the mountain, the protagonist of some clips on the web. Of course, sometimes simply an apparently bare place is confirmed as such, but having these little ones scattered rewards even in unthinkable places it is what keeps the desire to explore every inch alive. An absolute note of merit is the presence of certain collectibles that allow you to have access to particular Pokémon, but we do not go into detail so as not to spoil the surprise.
Impossible to talk about exploration without mentioning Koraidon/Miraidon, our handy Pokémon transport. Legendaries of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet can have access to exploratory skills of various types, 5 in total, each unlockable once you beat one of the 5 Totem Pokémon on the map, making it significant the order in which to address them as it determines which Koraidon/Miraidon abilities we get first. In any second runs, an experienced player can therefore decide to overfarm a special team for an advanced dominant, in order to immediately have a late game power for the whole adventure and, if desired, putting the used over leveled Pokémon in the box in the fight so as not to ruin the challenge with the rest of the boss fights. This is a thick extra point in favor of freedom given to the player, a bit as if in the old games it had been possible to obtain Surf at the beginning of the adventure to limit backtracking to a minimum, just to give an example.
Another point in favor is the removal of the level cap for catches, introduced in Sword and Shield and wisely removed in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Now the 8 medals of the Gyms are used only to make us obey Pokémon obtained above a certain level, being able to easily capture all without limitations. It is a pity that the 5 bases of Team Star do not give equally delicious rewards, but on the other hand they allow you to obtain useful MTs both from the leaders and by exploring the bases once they have been conquered. MT returning single use, but on the other hand they can be craftate to the open-air Pokémon centers on the map in exchange for CL (League Credits) and above all materials now dropped by defeated Pokémon (such as Bonsly's Tears or Starly's Feathers), making their research attractive no longer just to level or capture them, but also to accumulate materials.
But not all that glitters is gold, and the open world of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet isn't exactly made of gold in terms of composition: while terraforming isn't brilliant, it isn't even insufficient, to the point that we consider it more a neutral factor that a pro or a con, what it really does turn up one's nose it is excessive redundancy of some spawns. Various Pokémon appear in so many game areas, with more marked cases and others that have less repetitiveness, but in an absolute sense many areas do not transmit that sense of uniqueness that would be expected, or at least not entirely. We realize that similar habitats can be populated by the same species of Pokémon, logically, but following this rule so meticulously is not always a good idea, especially in a game like Pokémon that makes pocket monsters themselves the strength of the discovery. Seeing Lechonk and its evolution, as well as other Pokémon, repeated to exhaustion for half the map, somewhat dampens the feeling of finding a new place because it is not always perceived completely new.
Mind you, the peculiar areas are not lacking and indeed there is one in particular which, net also in that case of some repetitions in the wildlife, has a wonderful charm and the atmosphere that makes you breathe is the same. But a little more could have been done, perhaps streamlining the most recurring repetitions and giving significantly more character to all the areas that have less character, especially compared to those like the area mentioned a moment ago.
Il second and last flaw of world building it's in dialogues with npc, which are revealed very often bland and banal. No one seems really aware of the events around him, and there are virtually no dialogues that delve into it lore of the game world, mostly relegated to papers and books to read. A gap in total contrast with the excellent work done with the lore content presented by the Academy, within which we can carry on relations with the secondary characters (including the teaching staff), who will tell us more about the their past and of themselves in general. From the nurse who would like to have a chair to teach in turn, to more important characters such as Nemi, of which we will find out more through these dialogues.
Ultimately, experiencing Paldea is pleasant even net of the shortcomings it presents, which we hope will be shored up in future chapters to give even more personality and depth to the game world. The difficulty of the game downwards we don't think is a noteworthy factor, not that much at least, considering that these are games that focus on collecting and exploring. Pokémon's motto has always been gotta catch’em all, when we were kids we also finished the game with starters, a couple of random Pokémon and an HM worker so it was never the difficulty we were looking for, and if it seemed more difficult it was only due to the tediousness of the leveling and the fact that we were small. Pokémon's strength has always been its commitment to collect them all and it's really hard this time, considering how many evolutions and alternate forms have hidden methods of obtaining. Consequently, that's perfectly fine.
Gameplay and competitive perspectives
For now, I'm taking the reins of the analysis on a more personal level, because if we usually discuss many considerations and reflections in this specific case, being a competitive player of Pokemon VGC which is the official tournament format of the game, I would like to make some more specific examinations also in that sense during the analysis of the gameplay. The gameplay structure of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is the classic one of the main series, with a turn-based combat system whose order of attacks is dictated by the Speed statistic of the Pokémon involved in the fight. During a fight in the main story we can use the turn to attack with one of the moves of our Pokémon(s), replace Pokémon(s) on the battlefield with those in the backline, use a healing or stat-boosting item, or run away from the fight. The clashes with the trainers and the boss fights, however, prevent the escape, while the other choices will remain active.
The new ones take care of breaking the monotony of the classic fights as we know them Raid Teracristal, Revised and streamlined versions of Raid Dynamax introduced in Pokémon Sword and Shield and which remain the main source of farming, in terms of farming items (such as candy) and other useful tools. This reinterpretation of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet introduces a timer by which deadline you must win, under penalty of automatic defeat, e undocks the execution of the moves from the choices of the other coaches. What do I mean? That each player's Pokémon will be able to attack independently, so if one of our teammates chooses the move to do first, it is performed immediately, without waiting for everyone to have chosen what to do. You can only bring one Pokémon each into raids and they can be tackled either alone or with maximum 3 comrades, if the maximum number of players is not reached, the remaining places will be filled by generic npc. I don't usually like to make comparisons with other games, but I would like to underline how the awful habit of the NPCs of the Sword and Shield Raids, who often sent useless Pokémon like Magikarp or Wobbuffet into the field, has disappeared. NPCs now only ever send Pokémon at least nearly as strong as the one in the raid, so if we are against a Charizard the npc use Pokémon like Staraptor, and not like Lechonk.
The raids also received a boost to the potential difficulty, bringing the maximum number of stars from 5 to 7 (obviously increasing the rewards proportionally as well). Their utility to make our Pokémon competitive is therefore confirmed, which work better on paper than their Galar predecessors but in practice they have a thousand technical problems. Sometimes the moves hit without doing damage (so far it has only happened with the first move), other times the Raid is conquered at random even though the raided Pokémon is still healthy, still others there is real lag before being able to make a move. Practically Raids are bugged about 4 out of XNUMX times, and while they remain very useful for farming, they are sometimes frustrating.
Get the tools to be competitive, both for Pokémon breeding and battling, was later rendered even easier from the choice to make them purchasable directly with Pokédollars, far easier to obtain than the old Battle Points. Even the CLs, which are obtained by interacting with the crystals of the Raids, can be spent instead of the Pokédollars on purchases, exponentially increasing the number of useful in-game currency obtainable with the Raids. Proof of how they would be a great component if not at the moment ruined from technical problems.
The next aspect of the gameplay of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, the most important for the fights, is the introduction of Teracristal. It is a game mechanic that allows any Pokémon to, in fact, Teracrystallize and assume hisTeratype” as the active Elemental Type, while retaining the 50% power boost to moves of its original type. We do a practical example: Charizard is a Fire/Flying Pokémon, and let's say it has the Teratype Fire. Teracrystallizing, that Charizard becomes only by type Fire (losing its weakness to Electric and immunity to Ground-type among other things), it still retains the 50% boost to Flying-type moves as part of its original type. Fire moves, on the other hand, go from having 50% additional power to 100%, because Teracristal adds a 50% boost to moves that match the Teratype. If instead Charizard were Theratype Dragon, it would have a 50% boost to Fire, Flying and Dragon moves and would have the weaknesses and resistances of the Dragon Type.
It is a useful mechanic for both offensive purposes, such as further enhancing a boost to a move of a certain Type, and both for defensive purposes as it can also vary quite a lot in the weaknesses and resistances of the Pokémon that use it. There is also a MT that contains the move teraposcopy, learnable from every Pokémon, of Normal type but which changes Type based on the Theratype if the owner is Teracrystallized. It's a move from 80 power and 100 precision, that change category (Physical or Special) based on the highest offensive stat of whoever uses it. This distinction is intended as dynamic, in the sense that if during a fight the highest offensive stat becomes lower than the other (such as for a physical Pokémon that suffers many Attack drops) then Teraburst automatically changes category from Physical to Special or vice versa. such as Necrozma's Photon Geyser.
La Teracristal di Pokémon Scarlet and Violet promises a lot of mechanics versatile, but also with a rate of unpredictability that must be monitored with extreme caution. If I had to give my preliminary prediction, I would say that, on a competitive level, good things await us all in all, also by virtue of some general balancing and rebalancing choices implemented by Game Freak. THE new Pokémon they also brought new interesting Moves and Abilities, capable of changing some power balances and competitively revitalizing some previously ignored Pokémon. The first example that comes to my mind of the second case is gallade, than with the Skill Sharpen it it reaches a much higher power level in terms of damage, perhaps not becoming top tier but certainly leaving the "Pokémon to be ignored regardless" area in which it has always been confined, which also applies to other Pokémon. We'll see, but for now the sensations are positive.
The main non-competitive novelty, on the other hand, is certainly the introduction of Autonomous Struggles. In practice we can unleash the first Pokémon of the team with the R key and he will fight independently with the wild, clashes determined by the type of Pokémon fighting and the level of both. This way it can be done clean sweep of all nearby Pokémon in seconds, at the price of taking about a third of the experience points, with the advantage of farming the materials droppable from wild Pokémon very quickly. Furthermore, the Autonomous Struggles are also very useful for doing Shiny hunting since you grind kills for chains quickly, in case you're interested.
La Board PokémonFinally, it was completely removed and eggs can be farmed by having compatible Pokémon participate in the new mode picnic. It is also possible to increase the possibility of discovery of certain Pokémon, the effectiveness against certain others, and even the amount of experience points obtained by fighting (as well as the possibility of finding Pokémon Shiny), all by preparing special sandwiches with predefined or customizable recipes, each capable of giving some of the boosts mentioned above. A nice acceleration to the previous cumbersome Pokémon breeding, culminating in the level required for the use of IVs Caps raised from 100 to 50.
In general, the work done with the gameplay and the progression related to the competitive, and not only if we also consider the streamlining of the times of Shiny Hunting, makes Pokémon Scarlet and Violet titles with a highest Quality of Life level regarding these gaming activities. All with the perspective of an intriguing official competition, on which, however, perhaps it is too early to say too much.
Perhaps the post game was a little too disappointing, not exactly full of things to do (indeed). It would seem that Game Freak wants to understand online as a true post game, especially Raids and ranked fights, but perhaps with future DLC we will see the addition of new activities Single Player as happened with those of Sword and Shield. We'll see, but for now the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Single Player post game is extremely lacking and the main activities are relegated to online.
The multiplayer
Let's start by Pokémon Scarlet and Violet co-op, which seems to be quite similar to the single player in terms of stability, however, in the sense that there are no worse framerate drops of those present by default so it is impossible to understand whether it depends on the game or on the servers. On the other hand, it is nice to finally be able to be in the game world with friends, being able to make Raid together more easily and even combine their ingredients for picnic sandwiches, making them with several hands.
One of the reasons we waited to release the review was test stability, and in general the structurealso of the sector competitive online (and not) of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Unfortunately we are not not even close to a truly optimal structure, for a variety of reasons. First the system Rank it is pretentious, in the sense that there are not so many competitive players in Pokémon and dividing the Ranked Battles into so many Ranks seems unsuitable to us. Practically if at the beginning of the month a player has to do for 5 or 6 days and as a Master he restarts from the Mega, for example, if he doesn't risk not finding anyone, we are almost missing, and consequently he risks having to give up that month of Ranked Battles. Dividing the players into skill ranges is right, but in this sense and for the number of effective competitive players a return to the origins would be more functional, when su 3DS il matchmaking era solely based on the score and it was always possible to find someone, even with important differences in installments perhaps but still better than being left out if you don't hurry to play.
We did not appreciate then too much, by the way, the fact that we both had the short arm with rewards. 1000 CL for each victory are very few, just think that a single player post game mode (i.e. a sort of small 4-round tournament) provides around 14.000 Pokédollars for each victory (with an infinitely lower level of challenge and effort required). Each move to the next rank actually gives 10.000 or 20.000 CL depending on which Rank it is, but however, there is very little compared to what is farmable offline. Perhaps 20.000 for each win and 100.000 for each Rank pass would have been a more adequate distribution of rewards, to give a quick indicative example. A minimum is improved with the seasonal rewards, but even in that case much more could be done and, perhaps, significantly rewarding those who not only finish in Master Rank but also those who reaches certain positions, like a top 500 or a top 100. Maybe even with Championship Points from the official circuit, albeit in small quantities like in the official Online Competitions, just to give more sense to Ranked and reward those who commit themselves online as much as in a tournament.
A technical sieve
You can't get around the issue, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are extremely battered video games from technical problems of any kind. Bow, glitch, frame drops once yes and the other even up to 17 fps of minimum peak, very serious ingenuity for a triple A like the Teracristal logo, present next to the moves, whose glow of particles illuminates the battlefield as if a beacon were turned on , moving the projection of the light also on the coaches in case of direction of the camera during the fights. As if the move list and its effects were glued to the camera as an asset, and the serious thing is that it's all true!
Pokémon, items and NPCs appear and disappear continuously from the map at different distances; npc, pokemon and movable objects like wind turbines move at maybe 5fps max if in the distance (jerking even if you're just a little bit far away) and it's riddled with technical errors in animations and framing. We even found during some cutscenes, such as some of those in the spice cave, some Poké Ball/Mega Ball on terra completely at random that – and here I express myself again personally as Game Designer – I guess they were put like markers for the placement of the scripted scenes and forget in the game. Cutscenes which also take place in real time, but literally real, to the point that while we are talking to this or that character in the open everything remains loaded, including the passing characters present up to a second before who continue on their way, progressively losing framerate as they get further away, in scenes halfway between disastrous and hilarious.
All with an absence of care, of ingenuity, of optimization that has the absurdity. Example: when we enter our class for the first time we are introduced to our classmates, with the classic scene of the pupil standing near the desk in front of everyone. In that scene, half of the class stands looking at us and the other half moves their legs back and forth in unison, like some kids do while sitting. Except that it's funny that exactly half is almost still and the other half exactly moves in a synchronized way, but then to say those kids' animation is at 10fps is a compliment. But why animate them if the result is that there? Apart from the fact that it is not conceivable that they could have lag, to the point that we seriously doubt that the game keeps the entire game map loaded always and in any case (without a minimum lightening of the load, such as the temporary deactivation of hitbox), but if the result is that mess it would have made more sense to make only a couple of them move, or to keep them all still.
Why expose an obvious difficulty encountered in the process of optimizing games in such a blatant and unnecessary way? Also in Ranked Battles there are no shortages, especially in those in Double. Pokémon that go into low poly without there being a real need, the HP bars that often don't empty immediately but it takes almost two full seconds, a few too many crashes of the matches and a game camera that makes a bestial effort to provide a view worthy of the name, this is because the Pokémon models are now scaled much better than in the past but we persist in using the classic 3DS cameras, ending up finding some Pokémon completely visually hidden by those in front of them on several occasions.
A really long and profound discussion could be opened on the question, because these results seem to be children of a game that has not received proper polishing or even testing, and we don't know if it was due to the stringent release schedules of Pokémon titles or something else. We talk about how the definitive change of the programming language has to do with it, preparatory to expanding the staff in the programmer team but which has put the historical ones in difficulty, accustomed to writing code in the old way, however we will not go into the technical as programming it is not our responsibility.
None of us want to demonize a historic software house that yes, maybe not always made impeccable titles, but never has he made video games so badly reduced. Surely something has happened, and we hope that everything can be resolved for the best, however we cannot ignore it almost been from early beta and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet present technically.
It's not really a problem of grainy textures because only some of the ones in the overworld are, and indeed those of urban areas, those of the interiors and above all those of characters and Pokémon I'm really buone, if not great to be on Nintendo Switch, so it's not about that. The problem lies in the optimization, in the very excessive number of trivial errors, in bugs, in glitches and also in a really marked aliasing, too much for an exclusive game. And staying on the theme "too much for an exclusive game", we find inadmissible that there is an exclusive crashed not once but three times as we used to play, there is a limit to everything. Seeing such a good video game - and it really is, even with some imperfections and things that can be improved - so technically reduced makes you feel really sorry, thinking of what could have been with a more solid technical realization.
The music is among the best in the series!
Let's finally talk about positive things with the last aspect of the game, namely the colonna sonora. Pokémon may disappoint in a thousand ways, but when it comes to OST, there really is no way to be disappointed. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet in fact they have some really well done music, some of really high level and which will probably end up in the playlist of many enthusiasts.
Usually we don't talk about soundtracks separately, it rarely happens, but this is one of those cases where the emphasis is necessary. If in the end these two titles have escaped the insufficiency in extremis, despite an unpresentable technical state, it is also due to the remarkable and commendable work done artistically with the OSTs (and one in particular is really crazy, it seems to come out of jrpg of absolute thickness like xenoblade).
Definitely
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are great video games reduced into a very worrying state technically speaking, they barely run decently and sometimes even crash for no reason. Fortunately, the videogame quality is good enough to keep the shack and puppets up, but it is necessarily necessary to intervene with patches. In this regard, the 1.1 a little bit better in the framerate and crashes in general (which have now disappeared), but until the cover says "internet connection required to play a little more decently" we won't condone the state of 1.0 all that much solo per patch.
It simply seemed right to point out that if you have the opportunity to update the game, and to be honest, everyone has this availability nowadays, the situation is slightly less serious but still so, given that a lot of bugs and glitches haven't moved from there and frame drops certainly haven't gone away. We would then like to close with a final reflection.
You know the vote you are about to read? It's just one of many ratings you could give it to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. If you are avid Pokemon fans this game is bordering on 10, because believe us when we say that playing Pokémon, apart from perhaps Pokémon Arceus Legends, has never been so exciting. If you are simply players who don't pay too much attention to technical problems, and many games, even masterpieces of the past, have had just as many (just think of day 1 of Cyberpunk 2077 or the PC port of Dark Souls) then we could also define it a game of 8 or so. The truth, however, is that the manufacturing quality is bad and therefore we cannot ignore it, and in this case the seriousness is exponentially increased by the fact that we are talking about an exclusive, and when working ad hoc for a single piece of hardware, a result is even less admissible. like this. Why then not an insufficiency? Because we believe that in the end what matters is the game, after all Pokémon Scarlet and Violet they don't have problems that make them really unplayable, ed A great technically bad game is always better than a bad technically great game. Scarlet and Violet are this, excellent games technically badly reduced, and it is a great pity.
Review- Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (Tested on Switch)6.3 Final Vote
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are yet another case of release day 1 gone not bad, but worse, and it is a great regret. Excellent games technically battered by a thousand problems, but under the rubble of technical quality there is a game of undeniable value, which succeeds in the small business of making the open world genre really suitable for everyone, elevating and emphasizing the charm of Pokémon not just. However, if you have no problems playing titles with significant technical defects, and you are a fan of the series, it is a must buy!
