So Nintendo wants to be bold with Pokémon?
Well, it would have been awesome had they not fucked it up really bad in some parts.
Or did they?
Now, Don’t get me wrong, Scarlet and Violet are great journeys towards our dream of playing a Pokémon game that would live up to the expectations of being a Pokémon Journey. Right out of the gate, you have 3 paths to follow, all incredibly interesting, full of nuances, and what may seem silly at first proves to be very deep and layered given the chance. Trust, this game’s plot will make you weep at times like the little child you were when you first saw Ash saying goodbye to Butterfree.
We have three very beautiful stories that culminate into one of the best plot twists to ever grace a pokémon game. Seriously, for the first time we can feel the stakes are high and Paldea proves to be one of the most eerily mysterious regions since those days of Unowns haunting the Ruins of Alph in Johto.
Never in my life I thought Nintendo would DARE to mix Nier Automata and Westworld with Pokémon, and this marriage is EXACTLY what the franchise needed to bring life and a breath of fresh air to its silly storytelling. Let’s face it, not since Black and White ONE would a Pokémon game grace us with a good story. Kalos was beautiful, but Team Flare was stupid; Lusamine was a great villain and yet all the potential of the Ultra Beasts was kinda squandered; whatever the hell Sword and Shield tried to be about; and here, Paldea brings the best, the absolute best in stakes and character development. Yes, your rival is still annoying, but your other friends are layered as onions and I bet one of them will make you ugly cry. I BET!
What about the music? OOOHHH it’s so good. Sometimes it feels like the best of the JRPGs styles mashed with Pokémon magic. Sometimes it’s surprisingly dark, other times soothingly majestic. So good. Oh my god, probably my favorite Gym Battle theme since X/Y. An absolute banger.
The new Pokémon also bring some great designs (and some very generic ones, though I liked most of the new monsters. My main team, for instance, is filled with only new Pokémon. They are great additions and fun to use and explore. I also think the addition of Paradox Pokémon brings something very new to the table, and I ABSOLUTELY love their design and how they are introduced in the story. I will never forget how I gasped during some scenes and how absolutely terrifying they are in the lore of the game. Seriously, Legends Arceus ran so Scarlet/Violet could marathon in the plot department.
Also, I’d like to say that this game makes shiny hunting fun. So much so that you don’t even need to resort to hacking this game to have fun. It is quite easy. That being said, I received shiny starters via friends and I have no idea how they got it, so…
So why did Nintendo **** it up, you ask. Well, very simple. The game is technically unfinished, and it gives STROOOOOONG Final Fantasy 15 vibes. Great world but unfinished. And while Pokémon S/V story has delicious cliffhangers and a start and an ending (different from FF15), the performance is awful. The game is rigged with lags. Lags for days, weeks, months, years! My god, you can’t go to a lake area without having everything slow down. Infuriating. But I think the absolute worst aspect, the one aspect that WILL bring this game down is the Raid Battle.
Clap once if you faced issues. Clap twice if it suddenly stopped for 20 seconds just to return with your defeat. Sword and Shield had AI issues when your AI controlled partner used a Magikarp against anyone. But here you have the whole game sabotaging you. And if the raids were just a trivial mechanic, you could completely ignore it. Except NO, you can’t. It’s the only way to get ability patches, or xp candies or most items the game offers as part of its mechanic.
THIS GAME WILL NEVER SCORE HIGHER THAN A SEVEN DUE TO HOW BAD, HOW BUGGED AND HOW FRUSTRATING THE RAIDS ARE.
Which is a bummer, cuz for all its problems (and there were many), Sword and Shield nailed the online raids.
Scarlet and Violet could have copied and pasted without Nintendo trying to reinvent something. Let’s face it, they copied and pasted every single game since RBY, why try to be different in this specific mechanic?!
Seriously, it’s laughably bad.
I used to think this game could have been GOTY material. No, it could not. Not with these bugs. Which is a shame, cuz the writers really have outdone themselves this time and it’s the most beautiful and nuanced plot Pokémon has ever had, while the soundtrack is one of the best in the genre.
Such a pity. Such a shame.
I give this game a 7,0.
- My review on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSZGL98YoNA