The Pokemon franchise has been an absolute mixed bag for close to a decade now. The last truly feature complete titles were probably Pokemon Black 2 and White on the DS in 2012--every title since then has felt it has been compromised or missing a major feature that was standard in the franchise's heights of Generations III through V.Unfortunately, Pokemon Violet (and Scarlet, presumably), do not reverse this trend, missing essential and basic features such as the national pokedex still, as well as the Battle Tower or other late/postgame content aside from the new Tear Raids. Additionally, these titles are amongst the worst performing and looking games on the Switch, every corner of this game feels unpolished and unfinished.Which is a massive shame because these ... MoreThe Pokemon franchise has been an absolute mixed bag for close to a decade now. The last truly feature complete titles were probably Pokemon Black 2 and White on the DS in 2012--every title since then has felt it has been compromised or missing a major feature that was standard in the franchise's heights of Generations III through V.Unfortunately, Pokemon Violet (and Scarlet, presumably), do not reverse this trend, missing essential and basic features such as the national pokedex still, as well as the Battle Tower or other late/postgame content aside from the new Tear Raids. Additionally, these titles are amongst the worst performing and looking games on the Switch, every corner of this game feels unpolished and unfinished.Which is a massive shame because these games also mix-up the Pokemon formula in some of the most exciting ways in years. The new Terastallization mechanic is second only to mega evolutions, and probably is the best in terms of actually shaking up the battle system, giving every Pokemon access to a third type of your choosing (after some grinding).And of course, there is the much ballyhooed open world, which the game pulls of to mostly good results. You can go anywhere almost instantly after the game starts, choosing which of the three main story paths you want to pursue. This is hampered however by poor level scaling, as there's an obvious linear path that the game wants you to follow, and then not much to do in the open world once you have completed those stories. This results in a world that feels empty and hollow--most buildings don't have any actual interiors, and those that do are copy and pasted from others, and some towns even have little to no actual content in them, making them inessential window-dressing.Again, this makes the world feel unfinished and unpolished. The bones of a great experience are in here. I think I enjoyed the game more than I did not enjoy it, and its far more engaging that Sword and Shield were, but another year or even two of dev time was probably needed to really round out the experience and iron out performance.The Pokemon franchise feels like its coming so close to evolving, but instead someone hit B at the last possible moment and cancelled it out, leaving us with a Wooper instead of a Clodsire.

I want to start this review off by saying I absolutely love Pokémon and have been a big fan of the games since I was a child. My husband and I were super excited for Scarlet and Violets release, so we decided to purchase both versions. The game/story line isn’t bad, hence the three star review, but it has a lot of issues that should be addressed. In my opinion, the graphics are poor for a 2022 release, and I often have to take breaks because the erratic camera and visual issues cause a bit of motion sickness. I’ve never experienced this with a game before, but discovered others online were having the same problem with Scarlet and Violet. The characters and layout of the game are decent, and I do like the open world concept. It does feel like the Pokémon are more ... MoreI want to start this review off by saying I absolutely love Pokémon and have been a big fan of the games since I was a child. My husband and I were super excited for Scarlet and Violets release, so we decided to purchase both versions. The game/story line isn’t bad, hence the three star review, but it has a lot of issues that should be addressed. In my opinion, the graphics are poor for a 2022 release, and I often have to take breaks because the erratic camera and visual issues cause a bit of motion sickness. I’ve never experienced this with a game before, but discovered others online were having the same problem with Scarlet and Violet. The characters and layout of the game are decent, and I do like the open world concept. It does feel like the Pokémon are more alive in this game because you will see them sleeping, flying around, or climbing trees, which I think adds something special to the gameplay experience. If the graphics and details had been thought out and executed more carefully, I believe this would have been an incredible game. The visual quality of a video game really makes or breaks the playing experience; Therefore, I personally wouldn’t have purchased this game if it weren’t for the novelty of collecting and experiencing the excitement of a new Pokémon title. Overall, I’d probably skip this version unless some of the issues are addressed through an update.

It's rough but I'm enjoying myself.I've mostly laughed off some of the jank like the camera clipping through the ground or how goofy it looks when an NPC wanders around at 3fps in the background of a cutscene, but it's harder to forgive the stutters during stuff like animations for throwing a pokeball or the way the game will freeze for split second while (presumably) assets are loading for an in-engine cutscene like an NPC entering the room for a conversation. I've disliked these types of interactions less and less since the 3DS era. The quick cutscene of the trainer throwing the ball (or even the mechanics of sneaking around and throwing balls) is a huge step back from the approach Arceus had, and I think that might be my biggest disappointment. I just wanted ... MoreIt's rough but I'm enjoying myself.I've mostly laughed off some of the jank like the camera clipping through the ground or how goofy it looks when an NPC wanders around at 3fps in the background of a cutscene, but it's harder to forgive the stutters during stuff like animations for throwing a pokeball or the way the game will freeze for split second while (presumably) assets are loading for an in-engine cutscene like an NPC entering the room for a conversation. I've disliked these types of interactions less and less since the 3DS era. The quick cutscene of the trainer throwing the ball (or even the mechanics of sneaking around and throwing balls) is a huge step back from the approach Arceus had, and I think that might be my biggest disappointment. I just wanted Arceus's mechanics in an open world with a gym path and more to do. I got the gym path and more to do, but the mechanics somehow got left behind. Arceus felt modern mechanically, with the ability to catch a wild Pokemon by surprise with different ball type altering your odds of catching them without a fight. I can't help but feel they wanted to dumb down the mainline game because they patronizingly think kids can't do the right stick to aim.Besides those gripes, there's a solid game in here. It's an actual open world, whereas Sword/Shield had some open zones mixed into the usual linear routes, and Arceus had just open zones that were distant biomes that didn't flow into each other. And frankly, it's pretty good. The three main narrative paths keep things varied and you're allowed to tackle things in any order, so long as you have the skill to overcome some level gaps.This could have been favorite Pokemon game, and it may end up being my favorite on Switch, but I can't ignore some of the technical shortcomings.