Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Review
I really wanted this game to be brilliant and in many ways it is. But in so many other ways, it really falls on its face and I think will do lasting harm to the Pokemon franchise.
First, the positives. Many of the new Pokemon designs are wonderful and fun. The world is flavorful, often very bright and colorful and feels like it should full of life and excitement. The open world is novel and allows you to explore, but I think it also ultimately hurts the game as well.
Tera battles are great. They work great, they take less time as you have a somewhat real time action system to them. I do find it frustrating that in higher raids, my menus are interrupted by the boss and because of the performance issues of the games, it feels like it lags when getting me back to picking my moves. But the Tera system is more interesting than I expected and adds a level of thinking - sometimes in gym battles even - that is very refreshing.
There are three plot line. Pokemon did a very smart thing by keeping the three plot lines very small in scope and scale, allowing them to be very personal and human. The titan plot line and Arven is a very relatable touching story of a person who really wants to help heal their beloved friend. It is so very human and relatable, something that Pokemon needs to do more of. While I don’t think it is as good as Sun and Moon, mainly because SM tackled a much heavier and important topic, it still comes off well and well told. It’s a very predictable story line that isn’t that surprising but it doesn’t need to be. It would have been nice to have had a few twists and turns, but the growth arc for Arven is solid.
The second plot line is the gym plot line This is really a very standard gym story line and doesn’t really tell much of a story. This is too bad because it is the one story line that is entirely about you and your choices. While Nemona is there to push you along a little, it’s really up to you and your choices how to approach the gyms. The new gym leaders are fun but ultimately not a huge part of the world like in most Pokemon games. You only seem to run into them in their one function and they do their dance and you move on. That said, Larry is the greatest thing they’ve done for a gym leader in a while. It’s also interesting that the gym leaders all seem to have a more fulfilling job outside of gym battles which felt a little odd to me. I really wish Pokemon would make the gym story lines more engaging and interesting. I think it would be more interesting for a region to have an additional reason to be going after the gyms that isn’t just to get the badge. Some other plot line or mystery that told through interacting with the gyms and their leaders.
However, they decided to do this with the Team Star plot line This is probably the goofiest plot line to me. While bullying is a huge topic and important, they don’t really address the actual ramifications of people who have dealt with bullying. Instead they have this weird thread that Team Star got kicked out for standing up for themselves and were labeled the villains because the real bullies all left. And then the entire teaching staff and director RESIGN from the school and someone deletes the records about what actually happened. The only believable thing here is that someone deleted the records for a cover-up. Otherwise, it really feels like that kid who fantasized about how sorry everyone will be when they go blind from having to eat their vegetables. The true identity of Cassiopeia is so easily guessed that it isn’t worth talking about. The Team Star designs are incredible and they are memorable characters, but their whole deal is so trope laden and silly that I couldn’t take them very seriously. That said, once again, they kept the story small and about human beings and not world ending issues, so it works. It’s enjoyable albeit completely silly. The message of finding and standing with your friends is nice but definitely not new ground. My main issues is that again, this story isn’t really about my character, it’s about Cassiopeia and Team Star. I’m just the vehicle to push things forward.
The end game in Area Zero is an excellent way to pull everyone together and while the plot line is once again world level stakes, Pokemon remembers to keep it human and grounded so it works really well. The connection with Arven and the professor is heartfelt and sad. Ultimately though, I would like them to make these plot line more about me as a main character. The ending emotion is about Arven.
Now the big thing is that the game runs very poorly. It’s even worse if you are online with friends. The camera is janky, there are bugs everywhere. The game runs like it is in mud. This is unacceptable from this big of a company, and if I wasn’t such a huge fan, I would have put the game away long ago. The open world concept is fine but I think the open region aspect of Arceus serves the series and the franchise better and could help eliminate so many of the sluggish issues that the game displays. The open world feel also just ends when you are in towns. They feel like shallow set pieces with their fake store fronts and few people. The people who are there move so oddly because of the frame rate, that all the towns tend to feel out of place and wrong most of the time I’m in them. They scattered the plots and gyms about with poor sign posting of where to go. They game doesn’t really give you much in the way of level ideas for where you are in the game which can lead to some very frustrating moments as you are burning through items to stay alive. Items that can be hard to come by because money is hard to come by. If you aren’t constantly exploring and trying to find trainers to fight who you can’t see until you are literally right on top of them, you can feel super cash strapped for a lot of the game.
Without the many trainers in the world like we had in Sword and Shield, the game feels empty of other human life. It’s a big, empty space that is thankfully full of Pokemon.
Frustratingly, I can’t say that non super fans should pick up and play Scarlet and Violet. It doesn’t break enough new ground to feel revolutionary and the game play issues are laughably bad. Those of us invested in Pokemon can look past it and have a ton of fun. I don’t think anyone else should have to do that. The games should just work.