The newest addition in the mainline series of Pokemon games comes in the form of Scarlet and Violet. I’d be lying if I just said I didn’t enjoy it, but the truth is, it is a good game. It’s just lacking in many areas as well as moving the series forward once more.
Having enjoyed Legends Arceus so much and with many of the quality of life upgrades that came along with it, finally having the fully explorable open world that Pokemon has long deserved is great. It’s a tad shit to see how many of these great features have just been passed by in the newest entry. One of my biggest gripes with Pokemom games is the seem to have a new gimmick each entry and honestly I couldn’t care less for it. Mega evolutions was great, Dynamax was alright for gym battles, but ultimately fell flat. Terrastallizing is fun and does help mix up battles somewhat but what’s the point in getting used to it when it’ll be fucked off forever come the next game.
Even if you overlook the lack of graphical finesse, and the terrible rendering as you traverse along, you can see they have put more effort in, especially in textures, and giving Pokemon fur if they should, a metallic shine etc. It’s not so much there’s no effort here it’s just lagging behind the quality it should be especially coming from one of the biggest franchises in the world. It is nice to see some actual world building in the design of the Paldea region, having the freedom to tackle the Team Star base, Gym challenge or the Titan Pokemon as you please is nice. However in only having 5 star bases and 5 Titan Pokemon too battle, a few more too pad out the world wouldn’t go amiss.
Battling still works the same, wild trainers dotted around to run into and crush their dreams and steal their money, with a more Arceus approach to the overworld with multiple Pokemon free ranging it. Even occasionally having a group of 5/6 of the same Pokemon to destroy. I usually use the R trigger function that sends your lead Pokemon out to pick up items automatically or decimate the local wild life. I mainly use my combine harvester of a Baxcalibur to gleefully reap the souls of the masses for easy and slightly lower exp and items. This is a great way to farm exp and level up quickly. Baxcalibur is the newest psuedo-legendary and outside of seemingly missing a few design flairs it’s a monster. If you don’t have one in your party you’re playing the game wrong.
I really wish this game had carried over 6 features from Arceus; catching Pokemon without battling, the item crafting, the Pokedex entry filling system, the mini side quests, self contained evolutions no trade only ones, and finally the ability to learn all moves but pick and choose the loadout as it were. The closest of any of these features that came over is the TM crafting. If these had all been implemented into the final product, it’d be such a better game for such small features. It’s like telling your parents you dug a hole in the garden and found diamonds, only for them to take it away and give you a lump of dog shit. Ones an unrefined product but is ultimately potentially priceless and the other is just shit and lying to them by trying to be thankful for being given it.
I love Pokemon games. They’re hard not to be hella fun as long as your into the whole grind of battle, catching and levelling up. With the nicely designed and open area of Paldea it is fun exploration and the new wave of side characters are good and engaging. Even with your Legendary Mon depending on which version you’ve got makes for fun world travelling, gliding swimming running up sheer cliffs. You’d be hard pressed not too easily pass an hour or two just battling around picking up endless items and TMs. It does still feel lacking, and for all the steps forward, it also feels regressive. I can’t say I’ve ran into many glitches or bugs which many did on release, I did enjoy where an entire town was just getting rained on by an endless stream of Jigglypuffs. Somehow as game bugs go that’s one that heightened the experience.
I’d argue I’ve spent far too much time on surprise trade as well, Lord be damned if I won’t get all version exclusives without owning both versions. Having all three starters, Charmander and only lacking Dreepy at the moment I’m not doing too bad in the task of completing the Pokedex.
I would give this game a 7/10, Positively Tasty.
It follows the typical Pokemon game formula, and as such if you’ve been along the ride for nearly 30 years, you’ll enjoy this. It has a few new nice bells and whistle to make the world seem bigger and more detailed. Battling is fun as it ever has been however, it does miss some of the forward thinking game mechanics of Arceus which I hope will either get a new entry or at least be implemented in the series going forward.
Released 18th November 2022, Nintendo Switch.
TastyRetroGaming 