Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

[Memory]

Is anybody else playing the new Pokemon? Which version did you get?
 
I'm really impressed so far. This is the first Pokemon RPG I've actually enjoyed since Red. I bought Violet because I liked the look of the legendary more.

And also Eiscue!

I know a lot of people are talking about the game being ugly and running poorly. I don't really agree. It's definitely not the prettiest game on Switch and it does have some performance issues, but it's not nearly as bad as a lot of the complaints I've read make it out to be and neither issue is severe enough to ruin the game.

To me it feels like one of the old RPGs crossed with Pokemon Snap. It has the classic gameplay, but you get to see the Pokemon out in the world doing things naturally. There are maybe too many Pokemon scattered around, so the world feels kind of cluttered and like their placement is haphazard. But I prefer that over there being too few and having to search endlessly to find something, like hunting in Red Dead Online.

[pleb-hates-the-modern-web]

i'm not able to yet because my gf is using my switch to play

she got a copy of violet, and it looks pretty cool, though i've never played a pokemon game before so i'm not sure what exactly is expected of it. i have noticed some graphical issues, and issues with framerates - not to be a snob, but sometimes it gets distracting/worries us that the game has frozen or is going to crash. i do agree, though, that it is neat to see pokemon just out and doing their thing, not to mention really immersive.

[sig]

I got Scarlet a few weeks back, and I agree with the general consensus of "broken on a technical level but fun nonetheless". Within my first half hour of playing I already had numerous graphical glitches and even clipped through a door at some point, leaving me to hang out in the void. The gameplay is fun as usual though, and I like the system of three seperate story objectives. The world does feel a bit less "Pokemon" though: there's not as much stand-out locales like in the previous games, just generic locations with ugly repeating textures.

Like I said, I'm having fun with it, but if people decide to skip the game or otherwise hold Negative Opinions about it, that's absolutely valid in my book. I just wish they had more time with it but that's never gonna happen when the most profitable IP in the world is built completely around the periodical release of a new videogame: if TPC would grow up and start introducing Pokémon in spin-off media like the anime and whatnot, maybe Game Freak can finally take the time to polish their games... (and maybe reintroduce the battle frontier please i beg of you)

(Picture related: sig in the void)

[Leekleeks]

I definitely want to play it, but I can't break my "beat two games before buying one" rule. The last game I bought was Switch Sports which is really fun. But yeah it's a bummer about the technical glitches and all that.

[Memory]

I'm going to be frank that I was definitely one of the people who was turned off by the brokenness of it. It just seems way too much to justify the price. Honestly I've felt the Pokemon series has been going downhill for quite a few years now. There were still some fun bits of the last couple generations but the lack of quality control and bringing in DLC just feel like red flags to me.

I also know every generation has its duds but I've been pretty unimpressed by most of the new gen 9 Pokemon and evo designs I've seen (Dundunsparce, seriously?).

I haven't played it though so maybe it could still be fun. I don't know.

[sig]

I'm going to be frank that I was definitely one of the people who was turned off by the brokenness of it. It just seems way too much to justify the price. Honestly I've felt the Pokemon series has been going downhill for quite a few years now. There were still some fun bits of the last couple generations but the lack of quality control and bringing in DLC just feel like red flags to me.

I also know every generation has its duds but I've been pretty unimpressed by most of the new gen 9 Pokemon and evo designs I've seen (Dundunsparce, seriously?).

I haven't played it though so maybe it could still be fun. I don't know.

I was the same and had major doubts at the start of the game, but I started enjoying it not long after. That said, it's a very steep price for a game that you don't find appealing so it's not a bad idea to skip out on it if you feel like it.

[Memory]

Honestly I think the game isn't enjoyable even if you ignore the technical difficulties.

The world feels utterly un-designed, with assets like buildings and NPCs seemingly plopped into the world without context, often clipping through the terrain. There is no real transition between town and nature, civilization just begins somewhere on a platform as if it was user-generated content in a game with a base building side mechanic. The story is as always bland and uninteresting, with the "twists" being obvious from reading the premise and no real interesting characters or plot points. The customization has been almost removed, forcing you into a school uniform. Most of the game world is completely empty, and items and Pokémon are strewn around in a way that I can't imagine has been decided through anything but procedural random placement. The gameplay itself has been nearly unchanged since the first generation, only that we now have a bland and empty open world instead of specifically designed scenic routes. The graphics honestly remind me of licensed Wii games, too; repeating terrain textures, the character models, all of it.

And this is all if you choose to ignore the egregious technical issues: a grand vista that's supposed to show a breathtaking view of a field full of windmills has them spin with two frames a second, NPCs and Pokémon pop in and out a few meters away, people and Pokémon are still T-posing in cutscenes. The game lags unbelievably much and often.

This is something I would criticize even in a student project, let alone the highest grossing media franchise of all time. It was utterly unenjoyable even with goodwill.

[sig]

Honestly I think the game isn't enjoyable even if you ignore the technical difficulties.

That's completely fair. I especially agree on the whole open world being bland: the previous generations had much more interesting locales and routes with personality, but that has slowly faded away over the years. I especially noticed it with Sword and Shield, where basically none of the locations were interesting or unique in any way, shape or form, making the whole overworld just straight up bland. Also the cities themselves don't have much to do in other than going to shop, unless I'm missing something...

[randomtangent]

yea really same, i find open-world games i end up getting lost or not progressing at all, because i'm not really used to them? more on my end :P but still
and i do agree the world itself felt a bit bland. i understand it's the Switch lol, but i kinda wonder why they half-assed the development behind BD/SP and S/V lately, i'm worried for Legends Z-A for that reason..

i got the game in i think late 2023? December 2023, on my Lite, it def had some technical issues here and there, graphical glitches etc. but especially since i came straight from XY and SM/USUM i kinda felt the difficulty was a little weird.
like, if i'm a level lower than the opponent's mon, i get obliterated. but negative effects (like paralysis and all that) are a lot more forgiving, i land critical hits most of the time when the opposing mon is at low health, etc. i dunno it just felt easier in a lot of ways.

i love the kitikami region though, it's kinda nice to relax in and find mon i'd never have found natively in Paldea. and i love how immersive the game is too~ getting lost into it's nice.

[Julie]

Remembered getting Scarlet back when the special Pikachu distribution for early buyers was still running. Definitely better than Sword was to me personally. The graphical glitches are not that horrid, but some ended up being hilarious if not annoying. Can do without the Tauros charging into me while I have the menu open. I did get the DLC content when that dropped and honestly loved Kitakami - and the fact that they added Vulpix back into the games got me so happy.

At this point, still haven't finished The Indigo Disk portion of the DLC but working on the Dex mostly... Got all of Kitakami Dex done and wanted to get back into Ogre Busting again for the sake of grinding items. I had been obsessed with getting all the customization clothing bought in the recent games with the feature. Not much into the competitive scene but been trying to go that route for the ID DLC. Mainly because those battles are a bit more difficult than what I've been used to.
I'm also the same player that hasn't rematched against the gym leaders and/or E4 + Champion in Shining Pearl. If nothing else, I like messing around in the Blueberry Academy for BPs in Scarlet.

Had thought about getting in touch with some players and seeing about trading to get the few trade evolutions I can't get via Legends Arceus. Just very shy and not open to sharing my Switch Friend Code often...