Uncharted territories for better or for worse

Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way. Is my review of Pokémon nearly three months late? Absolutely. Was there a reason? There were multiple. Should I even bother seeing how many copies of the game sold over the past two months? I think I should if only if there is someone out there still wondering. Well, anyway, here’s my review of Pokémon Scarlet.

Now, for the actual introduction. I’ve been playing Pokémon games for nearly 20 years now. That’s even wild for me to say. I was not well versed in Arceus so I can’t comment much on that game, but I can most certainly see the transition from the standard tried and true Pokémon games of the past to the new open world approach that is happening in this new generation of Pokémon games. I think it is both a fascinating change as well as a detrimental change.

Platform: Switch
MSRP: $59.99
Price I’d pay: $40

Taking place in the Paldea region, players take on the role of a new up and coming Pokémon trainer going though their years at a prestigious Pokémon academy. It lends itself well to both the theme and the story that this takes place throughout a school especially since players have always been a young trainer. They are then tasked with three different paths to take on in the quest for catching ’em all which lends well to the open world aspects of the game itself.

The first path is taking on all the gyms and moving on to the Elite Four. This is the most traditional path that old fans will know. Going from gym to gym taking on the leaders and earning badges. The next path is more about exploration. This quest line will lead trainers to massive Pokémon to battle that will allow them to collect special herbs that grant major buffs to both party members as well as encounter rates and other gameplay mechanics. Finally, there is the Operation Starfall questline that has players taking on the Team Star villains in their respective bases. There is a lot here to see and do and completing all these questlines can rack up the play hours.

That’s the best way I can do to describe Scarlet and Violet – tons to do. If I wanted to catch a lot of Pokémon, that can be done right away even before reaching the school at the beginning, and with 400 Pokémon in the game, it can keep players busy for a while. If I wanted to take on the gym leaders or Team Star bases that could be done at will. All of this is at my disposal. The issue is that this is truly and open world game. In a sense, I still played the game like I would an older generation Pokémon game, but with some major caveats. I couldn’t take on whoever I wanted. I most certainly could try, but would quickly find myself in an area or gym with Pokémon 10-15 levels higher than mine. It’s like the game wants me to explore, but only in a funneled way. Now, it worked in some instances. I was actually able to take on the, technically, second gym and second Team Star base, but I was only able to make it by the skin of my teeth. When I realized I had done that, I then went to what was technically the first gym and completely wiped the floor with the enemy team. Problem is, I was only able to figure out which area I should have been in by looking at a guide online. The last thing I wanted to do was run up to a Team Star fight that was 30 levels above me. This is just a bad look for an open world game.

A big event Scarlet and Violet push are the Tera Raids. These multiplayer battles (both offline and online) are found throughout the region and offer up a special version of a certain Pokémon. These battles have a difficult rating attached to them so players can at least know what they are going up against before trying them out. This is one of the online co-op selling points. Players can join up to three other players and battle, trade, and explore. There is some limitations, though. They can’t help out with major story battles like gyms and such, but can still make progress though their own ways. It’s not like I could get a buddy that has over powered teams take on my gym leaders for me.

The one thing I’m sure people reading this review knows are the glitches and bugs that are experienced in this game. Even when my review is this late, I can still say even after patches this game can be rough. I fell through the world twice and graphical errors happened almost every time I played, this also crops up in the performance as well. I experienced tons of slow downs in frame rate. I think it comes with both Game Freak not being very experienced with open world games and the limitations of the Switch hardware. All of these occurred both in handheld and docked modes.

This generation of Pokémon is one that is both ambitious and flawed. I can see what they’re going for and many times, it hits the mark. I’ve always wanted a Pokémon game that was a living breathing world for me to explore, but keeping RPG aspects of it doesn’t lend itself too well to this new format. Sure, you don’t want to go straight to the Elite Four and beat them right away, but going where I wanted and doing what I wanted is what makes an open world game, well, open. The way this one plays makes me feel like it didn’t need to be open world in the first place. I’m sure it can happen eventually, but in the end, this one feels like a stop-gap for better things to come. There’s still a ton to see and do in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, but before going out on your adventure, you may want to at least plot a course before you stumble into a world of hurt with under leveled party members.

That’s where I stand with Scarlet and Violet. It’s got the trappings of a great Pokémon game, but I think this is most certainly a learning experience for both the players and the developers. Hopefully, the next generation will improve on both the pacing and the technical issues found here. In the meantime, players can get a lot of enjoyment out of this outing, just remember, even though this is a choose your own adventure style game, it doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want when you want.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.