User Score
3.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 3197 Ratings

User score distribution:
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
  1. Nov 20, 2022
    5
    Besides from all the bugs everyone knows about (which are inexcusable, especially for an AAA game), the game feels weirdly empty for something that's supposed to be open world? We're given three different 'plotlines' at the start of the game, but no idea on how basic features of the game work. I had to find out several features from forums and talking with friends. I don't need a tutorialBesides from all the bugs everyone knows about (which are inexcusable, especially for an AAA game), the game feels weirdly empty for something that's supposed to be open world? We're given three different 'plotlines' at the start of the game, but no idea on how basic features of the game work. I had to find out several features from forums and talking with friends. I don't need a tutorial for everything, I've been playing Pokemon since Fire Red, but knowing how to change your appearance or that there's a reward system for collecting certain amounts of Pokemon seems like something that should be told to you.

    There's nothing to do in towns besides buy food that give you effects that you have to guess on what they do exactly and buy accessories for your outfit. NPC's don't say anything interesting and there's no unique places to visit in the towns (like a fanclub or an academy) - I half expect to see tumbleweed blowing through the streets.

    There are some bits I like - the raids, some of the newer Pokemon designs, the Pokedex design - but they're completely overshadowed by the game crashing every other time it's loaded, the awful lagging, the stripped features, the weird emphasis on other features that aren't super important (seriously, what is with all the sandwiches), the 'targeting system', the illusion of choice, and the fact your mount goes as fast as you do running (or maybe that's just the lag - I literally don't know).

    Lesson learned, I guess. I think the only reason I'm giving it a 5 is because I'm (somehow) still hopeful I'll find something else to like about this game.
    Expand
  2. Nov 21, 2022
    5
    This is my first review, and fitting as its the first pokemon game i've played since Pokemon Emerald on the Gameboy Advance.

    I want to start with what the game does positively because this game will get drowned out on the negatives so people who already knows it runs like ass can see what the game does well to see if its worth the purchase. POSITIVES This game actually has some
    This is my first review, and fitting as its the first pokemon game i've played since Pokemon Emerald on the Gameboy Advance.

    I want to start with what the game does positively because this game will get drowned out on the negatives so people who already knows it runs like ass can see what the game does well to see if its worth the purchase.

    POSITIVES

    This game actually has some really deep well thought out storylines about bullying, self identity and loss of loved ones. I really did not expect it to have stories like this as its basically a childrens game. I don't want to spoil the game, but it was a pleasant surprise.

    As i haven't played a Pokemon game since Emerald, i'm unsure what quality of life features are new or old, but all pokemon getting exp from battles, getting more exp from new catches to incentivise you to catch new pokemon and being able to access boxes anywhere are really good.

    NEGATIVES

    What can i say? Gamefreak and by extension Nintendo, are honestly losing their flair and grip when it comes to one of their most influential franchises. The Nintendo Switch, continues to be the biggest blight in gaming history. It's outdated hardware forces console exclusives to be so behind the curve of modern gaming that they can do almost nothing spectacular or push any boundaries because it forces the game to have poor performance in doing so.

    Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is no different. It runs awfully, doesn't matter if you're docked, handheld, new or old device. This game at times will run like a windows 94 PC. Can we really blame Gamefreak? Yes, yes we can. People will compare this game to breath of the wild, but honestly, breath of the wild is a far more empty world that looks pretty, whereas S/V is a way more populated and interesting world, but looks like its on PS1.

    Combat is unbelievably slow, if you don't auto battle it feels like watching paint dry, but if you auto battle you get less exp so you end up taking forever to grind up pokemon.

    The open world honestly was just a miss. It was an interesting attempt but making the open world essentially a circle where you can go left or right, means one side gets neglected and you're vastly over levelled when eventually travelling there. Also if you still keep the badge system where pokemon only listen to you based on how many badges you have, whats the point making it seem like the game has player freedom, as you'll have to tackle these gyms just to play the game.

    The end game zone was a massive let down, without spoiling, the pokemon there are basically no different to anywhere else save for the 6 specific paradox pokemon for each version, it seems like they could have done a lot with that zone. But no minimap, no raids, no ability to even see the zone even post game on the map, just seems weird.

    Why is your box legendary shiny locked? Do you really feel like people will leave so quickly that you need to put their shiny version in a future update forcing people who didn't know this to play a second playthrough to potentially get it?

    Why yet again after the sword and shield debacle do you feel the need to keep half the pokemon missing from the game and say you're going to add them in a few months? why not just delay the game till they could all be in it?
    Expand
  3. Nov 21, 2022
    5
    Gameplay wise I think GameFreak have finally cracked the code when it comes to pokemon. The world is fun to explore, the battles are just as fun as they have been(albeit still a bit of a slog), the structure of the game makes it more replayable than any pokemon beforehand, and the ability to actively play online with friends elevates it into being one of the best pokemon games for a longGameplay wise I think GameFreak have finally cracked the code when it comes to pokemon. The world is fun to explore, the battles are just as fun as they have been(albeit still a bit of a slog), the structure of the game makes it more replayable than any pokemon beforehand, and the ability to actively play online with friends elevates it into being one of the best pokemon games for a long time....At least it would be if the game was finished.

    I have never before played a game that is so clearly, utterly unfinished to the point of taking away from the experience as a whole. The graphics are...fine actually. Not amazing but ultimately inoffensive. The performance however is absolutely dreadful. Generally speaking I dont mind it when a game doesn't run great, especially on the switch, but this is inexcusable. Constant stuttering, frame drops, pop in, character animations become choppy the moment you walk 4 feet away from them, lighting errors, pokemon disappearing and reappearing, the list goes on and on. It is clear to me that Pokemon Scarlet/Violet were rushed out the door(likely by the Pokemon Company and Nintendo) in order to meet the holiday deadline.

    It really sucks because underneath that there is a legitimately phenomenal pokemon game here, but its so hard to look past the technical errors when they're a constant inconvenience. Im positive that in a few months the game will likely be looking and running a lot better, but in its current state I can't in good conscious recommend it to anyone unless you're a fan of the series or you really just wanna play with friends. Ill update my review when the game is finished.
    Expand
  4. Nov 21, 2022
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Performance wise, the game is pretty bad. I haven’t run into any of the big bugs I’ve seen people talk about, but for the Lake Titan boss fight of the story, and also the Fairy Base for Team Star, the fact that there is some water nearby makes the game chug down to a snails pace. Really kills the fun and dynamic aspect of a big cool boss fight when all your Pokémon attacks look like a slow-mo move from the Matrix. Menus also run pretty slow, and you can feel the game struggling to keep up. Graphics range from “wow look at the textures of fur on Hoppip!” To “are those mountains copy/paste backgrounds from Goldeneye 64?” Graphics aren’t always a big deal in these games, to me at least. It’s about the adventure and the discovery of stuff. The story is where this game honestly shines, and is really all that’s propping this up from being a complete joke of a game. Most Pokémon games are more or less the same. Fight the gyms, save the world or whatever from some bad guys. This game has three separate storylines to complete in more or less whatever order you want. There’s the usual Gym/Elite 4 battle, which is whatever. Then there’s the Titans, where you help a person find these rare herbs to ultimately heal one of his Pokémon, and not gonna lie I kinda cried at the end. It felt very relateable. Then the third story is about stopping the “bad guy Team”, Team Star in this region. Turns out there’s a lot more to it going on, and even though a few of the twists are kinda obvious, the ending again has a good message to it that I think a lot of players can relate to. The core gameplay is great. If you liked Legends Arceus, you’ll probably like this even more. It’s still classic Pokémon catching, but a HUGE world that manages to feel both very empty and bursting with things to see at the same time. Lots of little winding paths and holes to look in, or mountain trails to nowhere for exploring. By far the most fun I’ve had with a Pokémon game, just held back by technical difficulties that can hopefully be fixed. Expand
  5. Nov 22, 2022
    5
    Nunca he esperado una buena historia de pokémon (me encantaria que la tuviera), sin embargo esta vez si se pasaron, los diseños de los pokemon son horribles, los iniciales están mas o menos, pero nunca había experimentado un rendimiento tan horrible en un juego de pokémon, ya ni Leyendas Arceus presentó tantos problemas y a mi parecer está mejor desarrollado y las texturas son mejores queNunca he esperado una buena historia de pokémon (me encantaria que la tuviera), sin embargo esta vez si se pasaron, los diseños de los pokemon son horribles, los iniciales están mas o menos, pero nunca había experimentado un rendimiento tan horrible en un juego de pokémon, ya ni Leyendas Arceus presentó tantos problemas y a mi parecer está mejor desarrollado y las texturas son mejores que en Scarlet / Violet. GAME FREAK, PONTE A TRABAJAR. Expand
  6. Nov 22, 2022
    5
    Me parece bien más allá de lo gráfico. Hay que darle una oportunidad, y rogar que actualicen pronto.
  7. Nov 23, 2022
    5
    The story is front and center the entire game. The new Pokémon are very likable. The performance of the entire game is very bad! Framerate drops everywhere, especially during some of the gym tests. There are game crashing bugs in the game. Hopefully Pokémon Home Intergration saves it. Textures look ugly. Pokémon just walk around, none of the behavoir in Pokedex entries are actually presented.
  8. Nov 23, 2022
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Game is extremely buggy, lighting is choppy and doesn’t generally work, and the amount of framerate dips is appalling. Otherwise the game can be decently fun in a perfect situation. Expand
  9. Nov 24, 2022
    5
    The story is interesting, the new pokemon kind of cool and i like the new characters the story introduces. But thats it for the good stuff.

    The technical point of the game is really terrible. It lags, animations get choppy when you are further away, the textures for the ground cant even hold up to Pokemon Arceus. If you look at a comparision you might even think that another developer
    The story is interesting, the new pokemon kind of cool and i like the new characters the story introduces. But thats it for the good stuff.

    The technical point of the game is really terrible. It lags, animations get choppy when you are further away, the textures for the ground cant even hold up to Pokemon Arceus. If you look at a comparision you might even think that another developer team did the new game, since its just really blank in contrast to Arceus. The fluid transition from running in the open world to a battle we had in Pokemon Arceus is just gone, which takes the flow out of the game.

    I really love the story and want to keep going, but currently the game doesnt pull me in like Pokemon Arceus did, since the whole game just seems way to bland.
    Expand
  10. Nov 24, 2022
    5
    The game has so much potential to be great but it fails in term of performance and bugs. This cant be accapted from a multi bliion franchise. I hope they will fix this issue
  11. Nov 25, 2022
    5
    While being one of the most entertaining Pokémon games in the last years, its performance is heavily underwhelming. It slows down, crashes far too many times, connectivity issues... Even the PC suffers from lag. How can you get the PC perform even worse than the PC in GBA games? For Heaven's sake.
  12. Nov 26, 2022
    5
    Also an sich ist es ein gutes Pokémon Spiel. Das Ding ist es ganz einfach, dass man sich keine Zeit mehr nimmt um den Fans optisch und technisch mal ein richtiges Brett zu liefern! Die Switch hat einiges drauf und nach sieben Jahren kann kein Entwickler mehr sagen er käme mit der Technik nicht klar! Aber die Pokémon Company ist nur auf Kohle aus! Wenn es möglich wäre würden die jedesAlso an sich ist es ein gutes Pokémon Spiel. Das Ding ist es ganz einfach, dass man sich keine Zeit mehr nimmt um den Fans optisch und technisch mal ein richtiges Brett zu liefern! Die Switch hat einiges drauf und nach sieben Jahren kann kein Entwickler mehr sagen er käme mit der Technik nicht klar! Aber die Pokémon Company ist nur auf Kohle aus! Wenn es möglich wäre würden die jedes Quartal ein Hauptspiel raushauen um noch mehr Geld zu machen! Expand
  13. Nov 27, 2022
    5
    I like how it finally feels like an open world game but the amount bugs is absolutely horrendous and the graphical issues are terrible. It would be a 100/100 game if it were to be a Wii game form 2007 but for todays standards its an insult to the community.
  14. Nov 29, 2022
    5
    A game that could have easily been a 9 ends up being a 5. The story itself is great, but the technical aspects are just too bad sometimes. There are moments in the game that is very frustrating, and the whole experience is just destroyed.

    Anyway, I still think it's a good game and I hope they can fix these major things with the updates (if that's possible)
  15. Nov 30, 2022
    5
    The worst Pokémon title on Nintendo Switch.
    The map is empty while the open-world is a bag full of bug, pop-up effect and elements moving at 5fps.
    There’s no level-scaling and the most of the story is so ripetitive and boring…wtf r’u thinking about while developing this game GF!?
  16. Dec 6, 2022
    5
    Saved by the fact that the mechanic of catching, training and battling Pokémon is fun. The ambition of the game was right - Pokémon has been crying out to be fully open world, and the game does a great job of making the world feel alive with Pokémon roaming the world in appropriate habitat. The story is vanilla at first but really kicks up a notch too. Unfortunately though, the performanceSaved by the fact that the mechanic of catching, training and battling Pokémon is fun. The ambition of the game was right - Pokémon has been crying out to be fully open world, and the game does a great job of making the world feel alive with Pokémon roaming the world in appropriate habitat. The story is vanilla at first but really kicks up a notch too. Unfortunately though, the performance of the game is distracting. The character models look amazing, but the world looks like it was handed over to the interns, which ruins the immersion. With more polish and a year or two more in the oven, this could have been the perfect Pokémon game. If only TPCI would prioritise quality over quantity for once. Expand
  17. Sep 11, 2023
    5
    Juego que se ha pasado al mundo abierto, con algunos aciertos, pero empeorandose conforme avanza el juego;
    Me gustan los mapas, son muy bonitos.
    Pero las misiones son repetitivas, faltan los puzzles que tanto caracterizaban la saga, los poblados estan vacios, los npc son vagos y no te dan recompensas, no incita a ir a hablar con ellos… la dificultad es irrisoria… en definitiva un juego que
    Juego que se ha pasado al mundo abierto, con algunos aciertos, pero empeorandose conforme avanza el juego;
    Me gustan los mapas, son muy bonitos.
    Pero las misiones son repetitivas, faltan los puzzles que tanto caracterizaban la saga, los poblados estan vacios, los npc son vagos y no te dan recompensas, no incita a ir a hablar con ellos… la dificultad es irrisoria… en definitiva un juego que podría haber sido mucho mejor con más cariño. Prefiero que se alejen del mundo abierto pero enriquezcan mas mundo.
    Expand
  18. Dec 11, 2022
    5
    I really had fun with the game but getting bullied and made fun of because of these buggy mess. Even the patches don't make it better. It's a shame that's so unfinished because I really liked the story. But hurting the Fans is Gamefreak's thing now. Stop bullying your fans since bullying is a thing you point out in this game
  19. Dec 13, 2022
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. El juego es divertido, tiene probablemente la mejor historia hasta ahora en lo que va de las recientes generaciones 3d, pero esto queda opacado debido a los glitches, bugs, texturas, caídas de fotogramas, entre otras.

    Es irónico que el juego no pueda correr ni siquiera a 30 fps estables, llegando a tener caidas de 15 fps cuando llegamos a ciudades al haber caminado por rutas, los fotogramas a los que se mueven los npc y algunos elementos del entorno (molinos, banderas, entre otras) son pobres, tiene muchos problemas de popping e incluso spawns bugeados de pokemons (aparecen dentro de edificios inaccesibles, paredes, dentro de los cristales del area cero e incluso debajo del agua).

    Y en cuanto a la personalización de nuestro personaje, me encanta el poder modificar el aspecto de este, pero me parece bastante pobre los conjuntos a poder usar, teniendo 4 de estos en total (todos feisimos por cierto).
    Expand
  20. Dec 25, 2022
    5
    Graphics horrible, pkmn designes worst, good stories but far away from a good game
  21. Feb 7, 2023
    5
    I played Pokemon Red when I was six years old. It was decently challenging but completely within my ability to play and beat. If a six year old could beat the original games, there is really no need to make the new ones easier, especially SO much easier. You can swap out Pokemon between your party and the boxes at any time, so there's no challenge in traversing a large distance betweenI played Pokemon Red when I was six years old. It was decently challenging but completely within my ability to play and beat. If a six year old could beat the original games, there is really no need to make the new ones easier, especially SO much easier. You can swap out Pokemon between your party and the boxes at any time, so there's no challenge in traversing a large distance between Pokemon centers without your whole party fainting. Most trainers only have one Pokemon and are often a one hit KO. You can fly right off the bat so you're never at risk of your party fainting outside of a few moderately tough boss fights. The have is still fun and I'm enjoying it, but there's zero challenge in it anymore and it's frustrating because there are probably as many adults who play Pokemon as there are children, and the original games were still more than accessible enough for children. There was no need to strip out any degree of challenge. Also Team Star aren't even bad guys. The whole thing is just Pokemon in ultra baby mode. Expand
  22. GT9
    Jul 17, 2023
    5
    I recently played Pokemon Scarlet and I have to say, it was just okay. The graphics were decent and the gameplay was fine, but it didn't really stand out to me. I found myself getting bored after a while and not really feeling motivated to continue playing. Overall, I would give it a 5 out of 10. It's not terrible, but it's not amazing either.
  23. May 15, 2023
    5
    This game has a lot going for it but it needed longer in the oven. The open world is great and the story is the best we've seen in a Pokémon game for a long time. There's no scaled progression despite being able to do the gyms in any order, so even though you can go "anywhere you want", you could end up at a high end gym as your first thing, only to breeze through the other gyms. It alsoThis game has a lot going for it but it needed longer in the oven. The open world is great and the story is the best we've seen in a Pokémon game for a long time. There's no scaled progression despite being able to do the gyms in any order, so even though you can go "anywhere you want", you could end up at a high end gym as your first thing, only to breeze through the other gyms. It also runs really bad, and there's tons of glitches.

    One more year in dev and qa, this could have been really good, but the performance issues really hold it back
    Expand
  24. May 25, 2023
    5
    Technically I like the game but it has numerous technical performance issues that make it very difficult to play comfortably. The battery on the switch drains like you won't believe playing this, and of course I really don't like the dex cuts.

    Additionally, Nintendo should not be cutting out entire postgames and selling it back as DLCs. They did this with Sword and Shield too; Platinum
    Technically I like the game but it has numerous technical performance issues that make it very difficult to play comfortably. The battery on the switch drains like you won't believe playing this, and of course I really don't like the dex cuts.

    Additionally, Nintendo should not be cutting out entire postgames and selling it back as DLCs. They did this with Sword and Shield too; Platinum had a postgame nearly double the size of the postgame in the DLCs.
    Expand
  25. Jul 20, 2023
    5
    This game was enjoyable, but it is sadly so rushed. I heard that they made this in only 1 year, why gamefreak? Games don't take that much time to make anymore. There are so many glitches and the game looks awful, and that's not deu to the switch (take BotW and TotK for an example). It's ok, if you like Pokémon, give it a try. It just had so much more potential.
  26. Aug 20, 2023
    5
    Scarlet is overpriced and just generally not a fun game. Bugs aren't too much of a problem, although they can be annoying.
  27. Nov 24, 2022
    4
    The game is unfinished: there are so many bugs that it is unbearable at times. It stutters to less than 10 fps very frequently and there is nothing that you can do about it, that's probably the biggest downside to it. That's my main problem.
  28. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    Game released full of bugs, MASSIVE slowdowns across the game, removed previous options in other games like exp-share and the list goes on and on...
    What i RLY don´t understand is...If they can´t or don´t want to upgrade to good graphics in 3d...Just do cell shade stuff or that semi 2d/3d they did in some games. People would be fine with that in an open world environment with more options
    Game released full of bugs, MASSIVE slowdowns across the game, removed previous options in other games like exp-share and the list goes on and on...
    What i RLY don´t understand is...If they can´t or don´t want to upgrade to good graphics in 3d...Just do cell shade stuff or that semi 2d/3d they did in some games. People would be fine with that in an open world environment with more options for the player.
    Pokemon scarlet/violet is just a mediocre fast food version of the franchise, you can eat it...sure...But at what cost you let yourself pay to be **** raw with salt?
    Expand
  29. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    Jogo muito bom, divertido, mas as falhas técnicas infelizmente prejudicam muito a imersão.
  30. Nov 19, 2022
    4
    The game itself is fun but it runs so poorly it can really ruin it for you. Slow downs, frame drops, pop in, camera clipping through the terrain or sometimes just going somewhere else and not even seeing your character. Gamefreak should honestly feel ashamed of themselves for releasing s a pokemon game that just messes up so much.
  31. Nov 22, 2022
    4
    Pro's

    Open world Con's Extremely limited character customization Extremely limited clothing options Graphical lag and glitches are common Boring and empty areas Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is a serious step backwards from Shield/Shield and even Arceus, its graphically dated with severe framerate issues, graphical glitches are frequent too. Gameplay is a mixed bag with many
    Pro's

    Open world

    Con's

    Extremely limited character customization
    Extremely limited clothing options
    Graphical lag and glitches are common
    Boring and empty areas

    Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is a serious step backwards from Shield/Shield and even Arceus, its graphically dated with severe framerate issues, graphical glitches are frequent too.

    Gameplay is a mixed bag with many areas being barren and empty, Nintendo removed a lot of character customization options, extremely limited clothing options in which, I'll call it now...they are probably monetization the clothes so expect 'clothing dlc' soon™
    Expand
  32. Nov 21, 2022
    4
    The game is just broken. To the level of Cyberpunk 2077. That game was fun as well and gas a good game is you didn't mind the developing issues, but still the company apologised, removed the game from stores, refunded the money and released the game afterwards, ince they had finished it. Game Freak and The Pokemln Company should do the same and people giving it more than a 7 just becauseThe game is just broken. To the level of Cyberpunk 2077. That game was fun as well and gas a good game is you didn't mind the developing issues, but still the company apologised, removed the game from stores, refunded the money and released the game afterwards, ince they had finished it. Game Freak and The Pokemln Company should do the same and people giving it more than a 7 just because others are hating it should have a higher quality standar. Pojemon Deserves better, fthe fans deserve bettee Expand
  33. Nov 24, 2022
    4
    This is not an acceptable state for a game to be released in, even less for the highest-grossing franchise of all time. There are more bugs than there is game, the enviroments look worse than those from most 1st year student projects.

    Lately, this series has become Game Freak's experiment to see what percentage of **** they are allowed serve onto the fans' plates without harming sales
    This is not an acceptable state for a game to be released in, even less for the highest-grossing franchise of all time. There are more bugs than there is game, the enviroments look worse than those from most 1st year student projects.

    Lately, this series has become Game Freak's experiment to see what percentage of **** they are allowed serve onto the fans' plates without harming sales and, considering it broke the sales récord again, the answer is 100%.
    Expand
  34. Nov 23, 2022
    4
    I really wanted to like this game, but it's impossible!

    Game design is a massive step back from Arceus, and graphically is one of the worst games I have seen on Switch, a visual mess. Please Nintendo fix this game, it's an embarrassment...
  35. Dec 6, 2022
    4
    There's no such thing as a "bad" Pokemon game, but this one still isn't great. While there are a lot of really cool improvements, none more so than the open-world gameplay expanded from PLA, this game, even after the recent patch, has HORRIBLE performance.

    The pop-in, the dropped framerate, the terrible slow loading of assets when switching camera perspectives (such as when throwing a
    There's no such thing as a "bad" Pokemon game, but this one still isn't great. While there are a lot of really cool improvements, none more so than the open-world gameplay expanded from PLA, this game, even after the recent patch, has HORRIBLE performance.

    The pop-in, the dropped framerate, the terrible slow loading of assets when switching camera perspectives (such as when throwing a Poke Ball at a wild Pokemon in combat) are all jarringly bad and constant.

    I'm sure things will improve somewhat over time, as they at least want to iron out most of the performance issues, but even if they actually FOR ONCE fully fixed a Pokemon game to run well instead of just being good enough (PLA still crashes the game when shiny Giratina uses its signature move, btw; every single time), it is still UNACCEPTABLE for a game to be in this state at launch. There is no reason to have pushed this game out this soon in this state instead of just taking more time to develop it.

    Beyond the general incompetence Game Freak has shown over the years, this game release is just proof of their laziness.
    Expand
  36. Nov 24, 2022
    4
    It kills me how close game freak keeps getting to a fantastic pokemon game. Arceus made so many excellent steps forward, the open world, quick catching, the traversal, and the story being a bit more unique. Scarlet and violet removed the quick catch completely, the traversal is worse with the removal of the flight ability, and most of the story is the same as its been for the past 20 yearsIt kills me how close game freak keeps getting to a fantastic pokemon game. Arceus made so many excellent steps forward, the open world, quick catching, the traversal, and the story being a bit more unique. Scarlet and violet removed the quick catch completely, the traversal is worse with the removal of the flight ability, and most of the story is the same as its been for the past 20 years kid get their first pokemon and a week later they are the strongest on the continent and did some insane feat. The giant pokemon fights from Arceus that had unique boss mechanics are gone they are now just normal fights with big pokemon. They have also gone back to the duel game releases where there's about 5% of unique content locked away in each version, and again you cannot get all pokemon for the dex without either owning both games or trading with other people, which was very welcomed in Arceus. Then there's the performance, my god it's so bad. I would constantly have to restart my game every 30-45 minutes because my games fps would just drop to the point it would just be a slide show, which at times would give me a headache to just look at, and the game isn't exactly pushing the graphics department even for the switch.
    It's not all terrible there have been some changes and additions that I did enjoy. The new auto-battling was good and I regularly used it. The storyline for Arven was good and gave me the motivation to finish it. The world does have more buildings and structures in the open world which is a step up from arceus, but should still be improved in the future.
    Then there's the stuff that was a good idea on paper but needed to be fleshed out more. The school system could have been really cool if they made the system deeper and centered the story more around being a student, at some point, I just completely ignored ever going to the school it never mattered. I liked the idea of the school bullying storyline for the bullies was a good idea but they just didn't get enough development time for the characters, the sections for the auto-battling got boring really fast too. The idea of the great crater was cool but i wish there was more of those ancient pokemon. The last bit of the story with Arven's mom was interesting but I wish more of the game utilized and spent more time with it.
    I can tell the devs at game freak are trying to get creative with the pokemon games but they just don't have enough time and or devs to get it done. It's still a pokemon game and if you like pokemon I'm sure you're still going to enjoy it but for me, there are just too many systems that were great in previous games that got removed coupled with the absolutely horrible performance the best I can give it is a 4. Let's just hope the devs are given the resources needed to make the next pokemon game even better.
    Expand
  37. Dec 4, 2022
    4
    Finally, "Pokemon 06"
    Unfinished, Lags alot, especially in the water and the Bambo Forest Area, really low performance.
    Almost no creativity in pokemon designs "Pawmi" evolution line just gets bigger and stands up with little changes in design, Tandemaus is just ... more smaller rats; The "Wiglett / Toedscool" "Not BeiNG tHe sAMe pOKemON" doesn t stick, just say its a region variant
    Finally, "Pokemon 06"
    Unfinished, Lags alot, especially in the water and the Bambo Forest Area, really low performance.
    Almost no creativity in pokemon designs "Pawmi" evolution line just gets bigger and stands up with little changes in design, Tandemaus is just ... more smaller rats;
    The "Wiglett / Toedscool" "Not BeiNG tHe sAMe pOKemON" doesn t stick, just say its a region variant
    "Scovillain" Great ideia but bad execution
    You just slaped a heart on Palafin when it evolves and the method of evolution is so... wierd and random, just make a trade/item evolution (Great Abilitie tho)
    "Flamigo" its literally a flamingo... (Gamefreak be like: Flamingo take the "N" and its sounds like flaMIGO, AMIGO in Spanish/Portuguese OMG im so funny and original)
    It could of been more original like "Flamingo, Flame+amigo Flameamigo" i dont know and make him fire, fighting type...
    Veluza just lookes likes a fish made of Metal
    Past Paradox Forms are way better than the Future ones in design, but still no original ideias just changing the base design of the pokemon and giving it really random/bad names and not being able to breed them because they are genderless just because there from the past/future.
    "Lechonk" looks great but just evoles into a bigger pig
    GameFreak just doing it on purpuse trolling Pokemon Fans giving "Dunsparce" a lame no effort/thought into a original design its again another evolution that he just gets bigger "wow" and has 2 forms for some reason
    "Maschiff" is again just a dog...
    Tauros has 3 paldean forms and only the fire type one looks good, it would be better if it only had 2 for each version... but ok the base Fighting type is just a recolor that just slaped the color black and call it a day
    And Squawkabilly another parrot pokemon that has 4 difrent "forms" colors only difrence is that the blue/green have "Sheer Force" as an Hidden Ability and the other 2 (white/yellow) have "Guts" as its Hidden Ability

    Rival Nemona, Annoying like Hop, really dum and oblivious and choses the weaker starter and she is the class president of the school and achived champion rank... yeah right
    Oh and the Eletric Gym Leader is just cringe

    Atleast the story and Arven are not bad
    Expand
  38. Dec 1, 2022
    4
    Firsti, the open World addition is not that and story is actually really good. But all these flaws ruins the experience:
    1- Art direction is the worst it's ever been, Pokémon and Human characters look like Garbage.
    2- The game is WAAAY too buggy. 3- The battle System is painfully SLOW. 4- The Open World feels lifeless and empty. 5- Horrible Performance for game that was developed by
    Firsti, the open World addition is not that and story is actually really good. But all these flaws ruins the experience:
    1- Art direction is the worst it's ever been, Pokémon and Human characters look like Garbage.
    2- The game is WAAAY too buggy.
    3- The battle System is painfully SLOW.
    4- The Open World feels lifeless and empty.
    5- Horrible Performance for game that was developed by company with a multibillion brand behind it... and running on a console that is capable of so much more.

    not worth of your time and money, Pokémon fans deserve better Collapse
    Expand
  39. Nov 21, 2022
    4
    No matter how well designed the game might be, it's almost impossible to enjoy.
    I don't think I've ever seen a Switch game running so poorly.
    Releasing a game that runs at less than 60 fps in 2023 is already ridiculous but selling one that can't even reach 30 at any point and frequently dips under 20 is beyond unacceptable. This doesn’t even look good, mind you. Sword and Shield looks
    No matter how well designed the game might be, it's almost impossible to enjoy.
    I don't think I've ever seen a Switch game running so poorly.
    Releasing a game that runs at less than 60 fps in 2023 is already ridiculous but selling one that can't even reach 30 at any point and frequently dips under 20 is beyond unacceptable.

    This doesn’t even look good, mind you. Sword and Shield looks much better.
    Some of the textures in this game look worse than stuff I’ve seen two decades ago.

    This needed at least one more year of development.

    A lot of the cool stuff introduced in Arceus is also missing.
    Some of the Pokemon magic is still there but, overall, it’s just a big step back on all fronts.
    Expand
  40. Nov 23, 2022
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It’s the worst Pokémon in a long time.
    The graphics are ok, but there are some bugs. This games shows that Pokémon doesn’t need an open world. It said it gives you the freedom to do what ever you’d like but that’s not true. I skipped the grass type gym because I wanted a more difficult grass type gym so I went back after 7 badges and the gym leader didn’t scale. I mean what’s the need for an open world then if you can’t even choose which Leader you fight first. And the trainer in this game are a joke. 1 Pokémon each and maximum of 3, from what I’ve seen, also not scaled. I don’t want to talk to the trainer in order to fight them that’s not how it works. The games is way to easy and the gym battles are not exciting because they don’t use potions! Give them potions!
    The titans were all dead in one hit so they weren’t even fun.
    Please get back to your roots with linear games and more difficult trainer, or at least make the effort to scale them. I mean you can collect 18 Badges, just raise the level after each Badge. You can leave the wild Pokémon as they are, but preferably not visible.
    Sad to say, but I do not recommend this game.
    Expand
  41. Jun 19, 2023
    4
    Corto de contenido, feo visualmente, con una historia aburrida y sosa, con menos de la mitad del pokédex está es uno de los peores juegos de la serie, lo único bueno de esta entrega es la nueva mecánica que le da un giro fresco al competitivo, pero no es suficiente para hacer brillar al juego
  42. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    Do not understand how people are rating this a 10, despite listing it's many flaws in their reviews? Underneath the various graphical, lighting, clipping issues, poor unstable fps, lag, stutters, and animation flaws there's a lot of fun to be had. But all of the aforementioned issues really dampen the experience, this clearly is an unfinished product which unfortunately we've come toDo not understand how people are rating this a 10, despite listing it's many flaws in their reviews? Underneath the various graphical, lighting, clipping issues, poor unstable fps, lag, stutters, and animation flaws there's a lot of fun to be had. But all of the aforementioned issues really dampen the experience, this clearly is an unfinished product which unfortunately we've come to expect by now.

    Clearly there was a lot more creative vision here than we're used to seeing, but was executed horrifically. But of course since everyone eats these games up every time, they will likely never improve. Truly a shame, as with a little more development time, fine tuning and optimisation these could have been phenomenal entries.
    Expand
  43. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    So let me start by saying that gameplay wise and what they are trying to do is brilliant. It's the most fun I've had playing a Pokémon game for a long time. However.... Hooly Dooly the performance is shocking. Textures a terrible, frames drop the second you go too fast, everything looks so janky. This game could have been a 10 if they had just delayed for a bit and put some polish on it,So let me start by saying that gameplay wise and what they are trying to do is brilliant. It's the most fun I've had playing a Pokémon game for a long time. However.... Hooly Dooly the performance is shocking. Textures a terrible, frames drop the second you go too fast, everything looks so janky. This game could have been a 10 if they had just delayed for a bit and put some polish on it, but nope, GF once again need to milk the money cow to get their annual cash injection, really is a shame as it's so close to being perfect Expand
  44. Nov 24, 2022
    4
    Core gameplay is fun. but performance and visuals is not. For a Multi million franchise, GameFreak as developer is LAZY.
  45. Nov 25, 2022
    4
    Review em PT-BR

    Como fã de longa data da série, posso dizer que me diverti por algumas horas, mas seguramente posso dizer que não recomendo. Esse foi seguramente o pior jogo da série principal de pokémon que já joguei. Falar das questões técnicas é chover no molhado, todo mundo está falando disso, e não é por menos, o jogo está desastroso tecnicamente, toda hora algum bug ou glitch
    Review em PT-BR

    Como fã de longa data da série, posso dizer que me diverti por algumas horas, mas seguramente posso dizer que não recomendo. Esse foi seguramente o pior jogo da série principal de pokémon que já joguei.

    Falar das questões técnicas é chover no molhado, todo mundo está falando disso, e não é por menos, o jogo está desastroso tecnicamente, toda hora algum bug ou glitch te tira da imersão, e quando algo não está bugado, só está feio mesmo, com texturas em baixíssima qualidade, tudo isso prejudica a experiência.

    Sobre o mundo aberto, é apenas uma ilusão, o level dos pokemons selvagens e ginásios não escala junto com o seu, e existem locais que você precisa de determinadas habilidades para alcançar, ou seja, existe uma ordem recomendada de caminhos a seguir, mesmo que escondida. Eu até tentei chegar em um lugar antes da hora, e fui barrado por uma mensagem "você não pode vir aqui agora". Todo o restante é repetitivo, principalmente as batalhas contra os líderes da equipe Star, todas iguais.

    A mecânica nova é interessante, mas não acho mais legal que as anteriores, e visualmente ela é bem estranha.

    Os desafios pré ginásio são fracos, sem emoção e não são divertidos (te fazem empurrar uma azeitona gigante como se fosse algo extraordinário), senti falta daqueles ginásios temáticos, só pela arquitetura e decoração você já sabia o tipo de pokémon que seu líder usaria, senti falta dos puzzles ou desafio de outros treinadores fortes até chegar no líder.

    A liga também não tem emoção nenhuma, você praticamente conhece todos os integrantes dela antes de chegar nela, não tem uma surpresa ao enfrentar o campeão ou coisa do tipo. Não existem mais salas pra cada um da elite, você os enfrenta numa sala branca sem graça, e na minha gameplay a música travou, no clímax do jogo eu não pude ouvir a trilha sonora (muito boa por sinal), e vi que isso aconteceu com muita gente. E por decisão de algum infeliz, não é possível desafiar a liga novamente, sério, quem teve essa decisão? Sempre foi possível, por que dessa vez foi melhor remover essa feature?
    E pra piorar, depois que você vence a liga não tem mais um Hall of Fame mostrando os pokémons que você usou.

    Não existe mais uma caverna ou caminho cheio de pokémons fortes até você chegar na liga, você simplesmente entra no prédio e pronto.

    O sistema de breed está uma porcaria, quem curte ficar fazendo times perfeitos pro competitivo vai se frustrar muito.

    O ponto positivo fica por conta da trilha sonora e na ideia de alguns novos pokemons, que ficaram bem legais.

    De resto, continuo recomendo o Sword and Shield como melhor pokémon do switch, com o ambiente mais acessível pra montar um time competitivo e com visuais infinitamente melhor do que esses do Scarlet, se for pra fazer um mundo aberto assim, prefiro os lineares do Sword.
    Expand
  46. Dec 4, 2022
    4
    Problemas com texturas, quase não se vê pokémons selvagens, quedas de fps, animações horríveis... E muito mais.
  47. Nov 22, 2022
    4
    A game so bad nintendo had to issue refunds. Gamefreak keeps getting lazier with each title and to be honest I can’t blame them. Releasing titles every few months is probably exhausting for the programmers there. If they had more time im sure the glitches and bugs could be ironed out to be every 5 minutes instead of every 5 seconds. There are PS3 games that look better than this
  48. Dec 20, 2022
    4
    The game is very buggy, laggy, glitchy, ugly, new art style is a stepdown from the old one Imo. Battles and menus are slow. Traversing some towns are painful. Pokémon look so small in the overworld and pop in and out. NPCs pop and flicker in the overworld. Terrain doesn't make any sense. Animations are somehow WORSE than sword/shield. Terastalising gimmick is just goofy and doesn't fit inThe game is very buggy, laggy, glitchy, ugly, new art style is a stepdown from the old one Imo. Battles and menus are slow. Traversing some towns are painful. Pokémon look so small in the overworld and pop in and out. NPCs pop and flicker in the overworld. Terrain doesn't make any sense. Animations are somehow WORSE than sword/shield. Terastalising gimmick is just goofy and doesn't fit in the game. Postgame is minimal. Multiplayer is a mess. The only positives I can think of was there were alot of cool new Pokémon and the music was pretty good. Honestly I can not believe I am saying this, but I even enjoyed Sword/Shield more than this with the dlc. I honestly don't think updates/dlc can even fix the game. Its just so awful to play. I feel the life force of my switch draining whenever I play the game for more than an hour. Compared to other Pokémon games, even on the same system, it feels like a 5 dollar steam game in beta. Compared to other JRPGs on the switch that have launched recently, (XBC3, CCRFF7). The game looks cheap rubbish, just to make a quick buck. Expand
  49. Nov 25, 2022
    4
    Pokemon titles are a marmite topic for many people when it comes to more recent releases. Half the fanbase forgive the series' technical and visual flaws and appreciate the premise of catching them all (not that you can "catch em all" any more within standalone titles). The other half, and the half of the camp I sit within, expect the largest franchise in the world to treat its IP withPokemon titles are a marmite topic for many people when it comes to more recent releases. Half the fanbase forgive the series' technical and visual flaws and appreciate the premise of catching them all (not that you can "catch em all" any more within standalone titles). The other half, and the half of the camp I sit within, expect the largest franchise in the world to treat its IP with respect, and more importantly treat its fanbase with respect. Scarlet and Violet are no exception to this opinion. If anything, the issues presented this time around are WORSE than what people criticised with Arceus' arrival at the start of the same year.

    Game Freak are not only too small a team to be expected to deliver the content asked of them, but their release schedule is far too crammed to deliver the quality of games expected of what should be the slickest, most polished looking gaming franchise there is out there.

    The Pokemon Company need to pull their act together and provide Game Freak with the budget, team and time that these modern Pokemon titles need. Otherwise people can expect less and less quality from these bigger and bigger titles as time goes on.

    Pokemon deserves better, we deserve better.
    Expand
  50. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    The game in content looks like a classic Pokémon game, despite the premise of the Overworld, and based on this premise the game looks worse than the previous ones. Some examples: ● Interaction with and between NPCs is reduced to almost 0, as the player's actions have no effect on their before and after. ● Almost non-existent side quests.

    Compared to the classic series, it has many new
    The game in content looks like a classic Pokémon game, despite the premise of the Overworld, and based on this premise the game looks worse than the previous ones. Some examples: ● Interaction with and between NPCs is reduced to almost 0, as the player's actions have no effect on their before and after. ● Almost non-existent side quests.

    Compared to the classic series, it has many new features, some of which are really pleasant, for example, the pokemon-environment iteration is done quite well. The main problem of the game is the instability of the software, with numerous bugs, and the very poor graphic quality which ruins its immersiveness. I will not dwell on these problems both because they are many and because they are easily found by anyone. The real question is: why make such a game when you don't have the time, means and skills to do it? Something simpler is done, without trying to overturn everything, even if times go by quickly and the fans want something more. Obviously, any product that you go to make must be sold at a fair price and this time it didn't go like this, a real shame ....
    Expand
  51. Nov 19, 2022
    4
    I love pokemon and, sadly, hate these games. There are some good Ideas here: auto battling, world sharing, multiple paths, a companion pokemon that is upgraded at certain benchmarks that open up different traversal options, and auto healing all come to mind as positive changes.

    However, the game is just not good for several reasons: the game is completely infested with immersion
    I love pokemon and, sadly, hate these games. There are some good Ideas here: auto battling, world sharing, multiple paths, a companion pokemon that is upgraded at certain benchmarks that open up different traversal options, and auto healing all come to mind as positive changes.

    However, the game is just not good for several reasons: the game is completely infested with immersion breaking bugs, there isn't a point to sharing the world as there is very little multiplayer content to chew on other than raids, the game feels directionless and exploration just amounts to catching different pokemon without every truly feeling like you are discovering anything, team star... I don't understand what they are or what their goals are or why they are even a threat but all of the characters seem to not like them, the mounted controls feel very shallow and jank, absolutely horrid pop in, many assests seem to be stop animated even at close range, the gym challenges are more annoying than anything, the majority of npcs have horrible designs, trainer battles can be completely skipped, many of the new pokemon designs are either wack or lazy, and even though this is a personal issue I can't get over the hats when the pokemon terrastilize it looks so dumb... I could go on.

    TLDR: There are some good ideas but I cannot recomend this game to anyone based on its many flaws both from a design and technical standpoint.
    Expand
  52. Nov 19, 2022
    4
    This game sadly is not good at all. I like the direction the game goes to, but everything good has at least 3 bad things overshadowing it. It is also clear that Game Freak went for the open world style not because they had a good vision they wanted to execute, but because they wanted to squeeze money out of that very successful trend, especially looking to BoTW, without even realising howThis game sadly is not good at all. I like the direction the game goes to, but everything good has at least 3 bad things overshadowing it. It is also clear that Game Freak went for the open world style not because they had a good vision they wanted to execute, but because they wanted to squeeze money out of that very successful trend, especially looking to BoTW, without even realising how far they missed the mark.

    The gameplay (when it is not just a buggy mess) is pretty good. Just usual Pokemon stuff you would expect.

    The art direction is pretty interesting, and most things look a lot better designed.

    The technology of this game doesn't even compare to N64 titles. Constant graphic glitches (I am not kidding, you will constantly see some kind of graphic error). The game is in a comparable technical state as Cyberpunk 2077. NPC's, your player character, and the world around you just casually glitch out at any given time. The FPS are bad, not even cracking 30 FPS. And that is just sad if you look at what the Switch usually is capable of if you give your games enough time, which Game Freak clearly did not do.

    Graphics are as bad as a NGC game today. It is not doing the Nintendo Switch any justice, and could have been easily improved to at least 3DS or Wii U standards. If Game Freak really would try, they could easily do it, but not in 3 years.

    Animations are as robotic as they have been since X/Y. The only difference is: X/Y is 9 years old, and was the first fully 3D pokemon title. There are some exceptions though: The main characters have some good looking animations in certain cutscenes, that even feel natural.

    The sound is pretty mediocre, as it has been since OR/AS. It is not bad, but not outstanding as well.

    Overall it breaks my heart that Game Freak just does not care about the customers. They throw half backed lackluster games on the market, because the executives force them to. And I am sick of fans defending them like their own family. People would often say: "The Pokemon Company forces Game Freak to rush their games", or the classic "What else can you do on the Switch? It has not enough power", which is just mind boggling to me. Game Freak is part owner of the Pokemon Company, so clearly TPC doesn't dictate Game Freak to do anything. And for the power of the Nintendo Switch: look at BoTW, look at Xenoblade Chronicles, look at Mario Kart 8 (which originally has been released on the Wii U), and you are gonna tell me the Switch does not have enough power?! Game Freak just needs to do it right, give the games more time, but they clearly don't feel the need to do that even with nearly unlimited money, because the hardcore fan boys and girls buy it anyway and defend them with their own lives. I hope Game Freak gets a well needed wake-up call.
    Expand
  53. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    I don't understand why they removed the good decisions of Leyends: Arceus. I WANT TO CATCH POKEMONS WITHOUT ENTER IN COMBAT. I WANT TO THROW THE POKEBALLS. Please Game Freak, do it. The transitions and this way of play is NOT good.

    The design is also HORRIBLE, I want back the anime style from Arceus and the other Pokemon games. This realistic style just doesn't fit Pokemon. And, the
    I don't understand why they removed the good decisions of Leyends: Arceus. I WANT TO CATCH POKEMONS WITHOUT ENTER IN COMBAT. I WANT TO THROW THE POKEBALLS. Please Game Freak, do it. The transitions and this way of play is NOT good.

    The design is also HORRIBLE, I want back the anime style from Arceus and the other Pokemon games. This realistic style just doesn't fit Pokemon.

    And, the last thing, but not less important, the game is broken, the FPS are too bad, there are too many bugs, this is disgusting.

    I think that the game is rushed, this needs at least 6 months more of developing. I really hope that in the next game they use the good mechanics present in Arceus, the Anime style and a good performance.
    Expand
  54. Dec 27, 2022
    4
    PROS:
    - Open world pokemon game
    - Wild exploration improvement - Accessibility improvement - Good soundtrack CONS: - Ugly graphics, Pokemon X/Y (2013) looks better - They changed the iconic humans art style from the series (why? It's like removing Akira Toriyama's art style from Dragon Quest saga) - NPCs design are ugly with few exceptions - Bad performance, some crashes, bugs
    PROS:
    - Open world pokemon game
    - Wild exploration improvement
    - Accessibility improvement
    - Good soundtrack

    CONS:
    - Ugly graphics, Pokemon X/Y (2013) looks better
    - They changed the iconic humans art style from the series (why? It's like removing Akira Toriyama's art style from Dragon Quest saga)
    - NPCs design are ugly with few exceptions
    - Bad performance, some crashes, bugs and frame drops
    - The new pokémon design is ridiculous and they don't look like monsters anymore (a half motorcycle lizard? who had this idea? a 5 years old kid?)
    - The new cities are forgettable, they have no content, the houses no longer have interior, there is no reason to explore
    - Gym challenges are pathetic
    - Visual issues like texture pop in or NPCs and distant objects running at 5 FPS

    CONCLUSION:
    - Rushed game with good and bad decisions, sacrifices quality in favor of innovation
    Expand
  55. Dec 8, 2022
    4
    Lovely how 'most helpful' reviews aren't helpful in the least, glorifying the game to something it's not.
    I guess it's an average pokemon game AT BEST. The bugs are awful though, sometimes straight up breaking the game and it shouldn't have come out in this state.
  56. Nov 28, 2022
    4
    this game is an insult, it shows how fatal the development of this game was. it is glitched, and its pokedex is not the best, instead of buying this game with 60 dollars, better understand god of war ragnarok, this game is a jewel. This game is trash but more trash are the pokefans who defend this game
  57. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game would be a 9, but the technical sector suck, this game costs like GOW are you kidding me? Just take more time to do the game! Do a patch now or im not buying any pokemon game again. Please tpc and gf the story idea for this games was so cool, why you have to destroy everything all the time. Final battle was fantastic! Why cant the entire game be like it Expand
  58. Nov 22, 2022
    4
    Very disappointed. They had so much going for them in Arceus. They took it back to the boring and basic system. Battles are just slow and underwhelming. The animation in moves are lackluster.
    Get badges, win league. Boring.
    The world is open and pretty, pokemon running around. They feel dopey and not wild as they should feel. Hope they can correct their ways in the next installment. I
    Very disappointed. They had so much going for them in Arceus. They took it back to the boring and basic system. Battles are just slow and underwhelming. The animation in moves are lackluster.
    Get badges, win league. Boring.
    The world is open and pretty, pokemon running around. They feel dopey and not wild as they should feel.
    Hope they can correct their ways in the next installment.
    I tried to enjoy it, in the end, I put it down just as I have with Sword/Shield.
    Expand
  59. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    Now, I’m always the kind of guy to say graphics don’t really matter as long as the game is fun. However, this game somehow goes beyond what I go by, that it’s amazing. The constant slow down just absolutely kills the pacing for the game. And it’s not a rare occurrence, this **** happens literally in the tutorial. The gameplay and music, for what it is, is fine. But my worst encounter isNow, I’m always the kind of guy to say graphics don’t really matter as long as the game is fun. However, this game somehow goes beyond what I go by, that it’s amazing. The constant slow down just absolutely kills the pacing for the game. And it’s not a rare occurrence, this **** happens literally in the tutorial. The gameplay and music, for what it is, is fine. But my worst encounter is all the glitches, and pisspoor animations. I mean, this is just absolutely disappointing to see. There’s way too many visual glitches, even on cutscenes that it makes me reconsider if this is the same franchise that’s worth over a hundred billion dollars. This could be a really decent game, if it was optimized right in the slightest. My warning is, if you own an earlier switch, DO NOT play this on handheld. It just doesn’t work. I am extremely disappointed in gamefreak. Sword and shield already set a new low, but this? This is just depressing. The Pokémon games need more time on the oven instead of being rushed. If games like Xenoblade and breath of the wild can work on switch, then Pokémon shouldn’t have any issues whatsoever. Expand
  60. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    It's a shame to say this but I would've give it an 8/10 if the visuals and performance weren't that bad. The game is fun, I like it to be honest but it just looks so bad that it takes all the enjoyment of playing it. The only thing that looks good are the charactersl and Pokémon models.

    There is no excuse for this game to look so bad, if Monolith Soft made Xenoblade Chronicles 3 look and
    It's a shame to say this but I would've give it an 8/10 if the visuals and performance weren't that bad. The game is fun, I like it to be honest but it just looks so bad that it takes all the enjoyment of playing it. The only thing that looks good are the charactersl and Pokémon models.

    There is no excuse for this game to look so bad, if Monolith Soft made Xenoblade Chronicles 3 look and run so great on the Switch, then Game Freak could and should have made a better looking game
    Don't make the same mistake you all did with Sword and Shield, don't excuse this because if you do they'll just keep dropping poor quality games
    Expand
  61. Nov 19, 2022
    4
    I am loving the gameplay so far, but the performance is buggy... Frame rate is highly unstable, sometimes my character will be glitching out and I even got crash in the middle of the gameplay (Rip my 4 hours of gameplay). I would enjoy the game more but the performance isn't really my cup of tea. This game is a technical mess.
  62. Nov 19, 2022
    4
    When the game works it's pretty fun, exploring the open world, catching beasts, and doing the story at any order you want is great. Being able to find creative ways to tackle Pokemon stronger than you is fun and the story is actually pretty good. All things considered the game is actually fun but there is one little probem and that is...

    THE GAME IS NOT FINISHED! That's right this
    When the game works it's pretty fun, exploring the open world, catching beasts, and doing the story at any order you want is great. Being able to find creative ways to tackle Pokemon stronger than you is fun and the story is actually pretty good. All things considered the game is actually fun but there is one little probem and that is...

    THE GAME IS NOT FINISHED!

    That's right this game is definetely unfinished because the performance is not bad in the well it's a Switch game bad no it's completely broken. While anyone should expect lower resoltuion and low frametates of around 25-30fps due to being an Open World game on the Switch this game is worse, much worse. Framerates dip into the single digit category here folks. Anytime you are in the open world it feels like molasses. Not only is the frame rate poor but there's slow down gallore. The game can barely run. The Switch is going at full power trying to run this unoptimize nightmare. But not only is the framerate and speed of the game faulty but there's a constant gallery of glitches and bugs. Things pop in and out worse than Sonic in Frontiers going at Mach 4 it's embarrasing. Things in the background look like bad n64 games. You will see inside walls, the ground and even inside the very people themselves. THE MENUS, THE MENUS LAG! Heck even the LOAD SCREEN LAGS! Overall because of the performance I can not recommend this game to anyone until GF fixes this.
    Expand
  63. Nov 19, 2022
    4
    while i think there is a good game in here but the performance issues, the fact that when you move your camera you can see the sceneario popping out and the fact that the pokemon pop up on the screen in the worst possible way makes this game the biggerst disappointment i ever had with a video game
  64. Nov 19, 2022
    4
    Game just is a buggy mess and runs extremely poorly. Not at all indicative of what this system is capable of. It's clear this wasn't given enough time. Framerate drops, pop-in, visual bugs, etc. Any other first party Nintendo title would've been delayed in this technical state.
  65. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Jogo mal polido e queda de fps constantes no mundo aberto, falta de tempo pra ser lançado deveria ter sido adiado pra dezembro Expand
  66. AYR
    Nov 20, 2022
    4
    Este juego es un paso adelante en el mundo pokemon en lo que respecta a mecánicas de juego, se hace muy entretenido pasear por las rutas y ver a los pokemons interactuando entre ellos y con el entorno; aunque algunas cosas funcionaban mejor en pokemon Arceus, como la movilidad del personaje.
    Jugar en castellano es genial por la localización y el humor del juego , pero este juego no es
    Este juego es un paso adelante en el mundo pokemon en lo que respecta a mecánicas de juego, se hace muy entretenido pasear por las rutas y ver a los pokemons interactuando entre ellos y con el entorno; aunque algunas cosas funcionaban mejor en pokemon Arceus, como la movilidad del personaje.
    Jugar en castellano es genial por la localización y el humor del juego , pero este juego no es perfecto ni mucho menos.
    Es inexcusable que una empresa como Game Freak, que desarrolla juegos para la IP que más dinero recauda al año (Pokemon) traiga un juego tán mal optimizado: caidas brutales de framerate incluso en videos, tirones, bugs y glitches gráficos por doquier...
    No me importa tanto que el juego no sea bonito (porque los gráficos están bastante anticuados, no a nivel PS2 como mucha gente dice, ya que no tiene un diseño realista, es normal, pero digamos principios de la era PS3) pero aun así el juego sería disfrutable... de no ser por el pésimo rendimiento.

    Espero que GF recapacite y le de una vuelta a la saga de pokemon, al menos en cuanto a calidad se refiere, porque lo de Pokemon Scarlet es indefendible.
    Expand
  67. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    Two steps forward with open world gameplay and the nascent concept of story paths, and three steps back on everything else. Visuals date back to older times before anti-aliasing was a thing. Performance as unoptimized as Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, and a severe lack of character personalization options. I feel bad for devs who are obviously throttled by crunch and budget into makingTwo steps forward with open world gameplay and the nascent concept of story paths, and three steps back on everything else. Visuals date back to older times before anti-aliasing was a thing. Performance as unoptimized as Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, and a severe lack of character personalization options. I feel bad for devs who are obviously throttled by crunch and budget into making games that have the seed of imagination stolen away by corporate timelines and subservience to selling plushies Expand
  68. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    The worst performing game ever made. A shameful chapter for the Pokemon history
  69. Nov 24, 2022
    4
    The mechanics are really good, the story its a great improvement, but it feels like if the game is not finished, the only possible interaction with wild pokemon is fighting when obvioulsy feels like you can do another kind of interactions, there are many bug, the quality is really below the average for each good things there are three bad, the missing of clothes for customization of theThe mechanics are really good, the story its a great improvement, but it feels like if the game is not finished, the only possible interaction with wild pokemon is fighting when obvioulsy feels like you can do another kind of interactions, there are many bug, the quality is really below the average for each good things there are three bad, the missing of clothes for customization of the character is the worst of all, the uniform is awfull and 80% of the NPC have de same awfull school uniform even NPC who obviolusly are live more than 20 y/o using the uniform? what the hell? The part of the school is lacking deep, the schools story is lame, you only visit 3 places and thats all. Talking to NPC its a pain since most you cant but they have a pokemon at one side and even if that pokemon is far away detect the action and interacting with the pokemon its too slow. Expand
  70. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    In a very embarrassing technical condition. Bad repetitive textures (e.g. mountains), lags, frame drops, NPC/objects with 5fps.
    Very boring arena trial and generally very easy level of difficulty.
    Inconsequential and soulless cities. Just a few polygon blocks with non-existent anti-aliasing. A plethora of places to eat. No clothing selection worth mentioning (so far), just socks, shoes,
    In a very embarrassing technical condition. Bad repetitive textures (e.g. mountains), lags, frame drops, NPC/objects with 5fps.
    Very boring arena trial and generally very easy level of difficulty.
    Inconsequential and soulless cities. Just a few polygon blocks with non-existent anti-aliasing.
    A plethora of places to eat. No clothing selection worth mentioning (so far), just socks, shoes, useless stuff.
    No building can be entered, except for the loveless cinder block arena, the academy and, funnily enough, the barber shop (for whatever reason. A sign that more was probably planned).

    There may be some heart in the game, but no soul. You surely know the test levels in game development that developers have to test mechanics? Well, this is what Pokemon Scarlet/Violet looks like. You didn't make it further in development.

    Cyberpunk was also in a very bad state. But at least it was gradually improved. I wouldn't count on that for Pokemon though.
    Expand
  71. May 5, 2023
    4
    Game Freak no ha sabido crear un juego óptimo de mundo abierto.

    Aunque no todo su contenido es criticable, sí que es cierto que da la impresión de que el juego no está bien adaptado para jugarlo en la Switch, y se siente como si se hubiera hecho con prisa. A diferencia del Leyendas de Arceus, esta nueva generación se siente más viva gracias a su historia, cinemáticas, y animaciones,
    Game Freak no ha sabido crear un juego óptimo de mundo abierto.

    Aunque no todo su contenido es criticable, sí que es cierto que da la impresión de que el juego no está bien adaptado para jugarlo en la Switch, y se siente como si se hubiera hecho con prisa.
    A diferencia del Leyendas de Arceus, esta nueva generación se siente más viva gracias a su historia, cinemáticas, y animaciones, pero la experiencia se interrumpe por la bajísima calidad del renderizado y de los framerate.

    Es complicado sentirse cómodo al moverse por el mundo de Paldea cuando cada poco rato sientes que el juego sufre para no colapsarse tratando de reducir su rendimiento y calidad (aun teniendo en cuenta que la capacidad de la Switch es de 40fps y 720p). Y es triste que pase este tipo de problemas teniendo en cuenta que el mundo de Paldea no está tan detallado como otros juegos de la compañía.
    Expand
  72. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    I really wanna love this game but honestly it’s kinda disappointing. With every good thing they did, there’s bad things that come with it. Like for example, I like the concept of the three storylines, it gives you lots to do and I like how the mechanics around how you complete those three story lines is different and not always the usual turn based battle, but that is overshadowed by theI really wanna love this game but honestly it’s kinda disappointing. With every good thing they did, there’s bad things that come with it. Like for example, I like the concept of the three storylines, it gives you lots to do and I like how the mechanics around how you complete those three story lines is different and not always the usual turn based battle, but that is overshadowed by the fact that they said you could do it in any order but the levels don’t scale…. Then you can’t really do it in any order. Then, I liked that they added more customization for the face features and that hairs aren’t gender locked but all of that is overshadowed by the fact that we are stuck in our school uniforms. Sure they gave us different socks and backpacks and shoes but what is the point of any of it when all of it clashes with the ugly orange pants that I’m stuck wearing?? Where is the customization in that? It feels like an even bigger slap on the face because NPCs have other cool outfits and hairs on but we can’t use ANY of it??? Also, the Pokémon models are way too small. The Pokémon are arguably some of the best looking assets in the game but we can’t even SEE them bc they’re so tiny. Lastly, they advertised this big open world experience but the world is empty. They clearly made attempts to make it feel full by separating all the stores but that just made it even worse because now we have to go to a million different places just to get some ugly socks and hats and to add insult to injury, the stores are just rabbit holes?! Virtually none of the buildings in the worlds are accessible in any way and you can barely even talk to the townies now, so we don’t even get those cool tidbits of story or surprise items from them like in the old games. The world feels empty and lifeless, and not to mention UGLY. The textures are honestly laughable, a company with as much capital as gamfreak couldn’t at least find some seamless textures? You can literally see the squares of textures on the side of the cliffs, and it’s NOT a switch hardware issue, more intense games like no mans sky run just fine on switch, and have less frame rate drops than Pokémon does. Honestly gamefreak should be EMBARRASSED, the clearly released an unfinished game and they better release a BIG BIG Im sorry update with fixes, larger Pokémon models and added content, so we can actually customize the way they advertised Expand
  73. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    The game runs poorly with frequent frame drops, lighting issues, and many bugs that need to be fixed ASAP.
  74. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are the worst running Pokemon games that have ever been released. There is horrendous pop-in, a low and inconsistent framerate, and has various hangups when doing just about anything, including entering menus or entering battle. On top of this, it somehow manages to look worse than any other Switch based Pokemon game, and even worse than Pokemon Colosseum, a gamePokemon Scarlet and Violet are the worst running Pokemon games that have ever been released. There is horrendous pop-in, a low and inconsistent framerate, and has various hangups when doing just about anything, including entering menus or entering battle. On top of this, it somehow manages to look worse than any other Switch based Pokemon game, and even worse than Pokemon Colosseum, a game on the Gamecube from nearly 20 years ago.

    The gameplay is acceptable in some places but takes several steps back in others. Customization is severely limited, and you are not able to change your clothes beyond 4 outfits. The Battle Tower and any post game facilities are gone, likely to be included in a future DLC, if at all. For some inexplicable reason set mode is gone and you are unable to change basic things such as skipping battle animations. You are advertised as being able to challenge the gyms in any order but this is very misleading, as there is no scaling on the gyms, so doing them out of order will mean you are going to either be too high of a level or too low, and never on par with the gyms.

    If a future patch fixed all the bugs and performance then the games would still only be about a 6-7, just due to the removal of features.
    Expand
  75. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    Podría ser el mejor juego de pokemon de todos los tiempos y el juego con el que siempre había soñado si no fuera porque el apartado técnico y gráfico es pura basura, algo rompedor cuando salió Half Life 1 pero que ahora pues como que no.
    Es genial en jugabilidad, historia, exploración, opciones varias... pero joder, me rompe todo el juego tener que estar sufriendo con lo que veo.
  76. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    An embarrassing, lazy mess. I've been playing since Blue first came out and it saddens me to see that a series that started off with so much charm (and is one of the most lucrative franchises in history) has been reduced to...this. I think there might be a fun game hiding under the horrible performance and optimization, inconsistent game design choices, and uninspired, bland aesthetic ofAn embarrassing, lazy mess. I've been playing since Blue first came out and it saddens me to see that a series that started off with so much charm (and is one of the most lucrative franchises in history) has been reduced to...this. I think there might be a fun game hiding under the horrible performance and optimization, inconsistent game design choices, and uninspired, bland aesthetic of the overworld, but I'm not sticking around to find out. Expand
  77. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    This game is soulless. It simply feels unfinished. While playing this game the main question that pops into my mind is “…why?” They’ve just gone and removed things. They’ve removed the ability to go into houses and talk to NPC’s. This removes soul from the game as all towns are completely and utterly pointless. No more trades with random NPC’s or mini quests to deliver love letters from aThis game is soulless. It simply feels unfinished. While playing this game the main question that pops into my mind is “…why?” They’ve just gone and removed things. They’ve removed the ability to go into houses and talk to NPC’s. This removes soul from the game as all towns are completely and utterly pointless. No more trades with random NPC’s or mini quests to deliver love letters from a ghost. Add in the fact clothes shops sell really dumb stuff like helmets so it’s not like you’re using those often. I’m not sure why they’ve added 1000 sandwich shops to towns. Making sandwiches isn’t even a fun mini game. At least you could make yucky poffins and soup in previous games. On to the next point, making my character stuck in a hideous school uniform with hideous hairstyles also removes soul from the game. Game freak apparently doesn’t want girls to be girly in anyway. No long hair or skirts. The Pokémon league is complete joke in this. They actually ask “do you like Pokémon hurrr durr” before you’re allowed to battle the league. You do not feel like a champion after defeating them. This game also suffers from the over talking. Can they please just shut up when we’re battling. I’m not sure why Nemona is being praised for being a breath of fresh air. She’s the most annoying character in the game. The constant stopping me at gyms to say “yay! battling! I like battling” urgh. Can I have Silver as my rival again please. This game really would be 10x better with all the Pokémon. The open world is fun but there’s not enough in it to want to explore. As I said, towns are pointless so I don’t wanna explore those. There’s only 400 Pokémon so exploring the map to catch them doesn’t take too long. I also don’t know why people say “the stories sooo good” HOW. How is the story good? Titan Pokémon is interesting. Team star sucks so much. I hate them. Nemona sucks. The Pokémon league sucks. The TINY BLOB of good story at the end of the game does not equal the best story pokemons had in ages. Game play is fun, shiny hunting is fun.. so 4/10. Game freak really dropped the ball on this one. Their team that made Legends Arceus should’ve been in charge of Scarlet and Violet as the drop on quality between these games is quite significant. Arceus didn’t feel soulless at all. Expand
  78. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    Although the content is engaging and the game doesn’t think we’re 5y old, the glitches, bugs and graphical performances are even worse than Sword and Shield. If TPC can’t cheap out on one part, they will do it on another and it shows every time. It’s the same old story, but give your developers more time, support and recourses to make the games.
  79. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    Why do they just remove features for no reason? Removed outfits options, infinite tms, set mode and on top of that horrible bugs and performance. This game could've been actually good if gamefreak wasn't this incompetent.
  80. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    Steps forwards and steps backwards. Its alright in its current state but could be much better.
  81. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    60+ hours of gameplay.

    Did GameFreak play even play the game themselves? Pixel glitch, break terrain is everywhere, Extremely low FPS, its 2022 and it perform worse than PS2. The improvements are actually there, like better RPG mechanism, non-linear World with fixed difficulty (this is a ok for me, like Elden Ring) , story-telling. However, the game performance is too low for us to
    60+ hours of gameplay.

    Did GameFreak play even play the game themselves?
    Pixel glitch, break terrain is everywhere, Extremely low FPS, its 2022 and it perform worse than PS2.

    The improvements are actually there, like better RPG mechanism, non-linear World with fixed difficulty (this is a ok for me, like Elden Ring) , story-telling. However, the game performance is too low for us to enjoy anything else.

    It is not acceptable for a game cost 60$ to perform like this.
    I will give a 8/10 for the designs but 1/10 for the engineering part.
    Expand
  82. Nov 20, 2022
    4
    Gamefreak needs new project managers, ones that love and have foresight. The game could be made an 8+ by simply adding: a simplier and less ambitious graphics style (like animal crossing vibe), ability to see your friends battle, some sort of sound when characters speak, decent antialiasing, some sort of rendering occlusion for performance.
  83. Nov 21, 2022
    4
    Nice large open world but fails to utilize that space making it feel dead in parts and the parts that arent dead have abysmal frame rate.
    Battling is slow as heck wild pokemon are down right annoying to encounter partly due to the bad controll scheme and frame rate.
    The Map is terrible. It inverts everytime you open it why? Cant you just stay facing north you give us a compas but doing
    Nice large open world but fails to utilize that space making it feel dead in parts and the parts that arent dead have abysmal frame rate.
    Battling is slow as heck wild pokemon are down right annoying to encounter partly due to the bad controll scheme and frame rate.
    The Map is terrible. It inverts everytime you open it why? Cant you just stay facing north you give us a compas but doing this with the map is idiotic and makes the entire thing harder to read why no other game does this.
    This entire game looks rushed as hell November release date is marketing special move for christmas release to maximise sales.
    Extensive character creation without gender locked clothing nice but NO SKIRTS.
    Its a 4/10 at best in its current state it is fun though but its problems overshadow its small victories.
    Expand
  84. Nov 21, 2022
    4
    This is the best pokemon concept Ive ever played but as a game is unacceptable. As a veteran player, I played all main games in the series and completed national pokedex since Black and White. I feel this game could be the funniest catching pokemon, investing in them and completing the pokedex while you win medals around the region. But I almost played 30 hours and the game is fun but theThis is the best pokemon concept Ive ever played but as a game is unacceptable. As a veteran player, I played all main games in the series and completed national pokedex since Black and White. I feel this game could be the funniest catching pokemon, investing in them and completing the pokedex while you win medals around the region. But I almost played 30 hours and the game is fun but the render is poor. I dont want use the mount because the render is worse. The game has closed twice, with an error message, when Ive entered into a City (the electric one).
    Has the best pokedex ever but you cannot search for an specific Pokemon. Do you ask how could it be? the answer is allways the same: not enough development.

    On the wild the Pokemon are mini, sometimes you will crash with them and you won't ever notice. In the boxes the images of the Pokemon are also mini. You will need a magnifying glass to identify what Pokemon it is. Really, they are too mini. This game looks like an aplha of a pre-released game. With some parts well developed and some others created quickly to save the day, with bad design, bad rendering, bad processing, bad graphics (some textures look like a N64 game) and some unjustified decisions as dont be able to change the maintain pokémon in battle, deactivate the animations, or the controversial allways activated Exp. Share, what facilitate an easy game. I can only recommend to play the game knowing that you will play an alpha with plenty of bugs/low development.
    Expand
  85. Nov 21, 2022
    4
    O Arceus foi muito melhor! A imersão era muito superior. Esse parece feito na pressa, ao pegar um item no chão o personagem nem se curva para pegar, apenas ouço um "plim". Ao colocar algum pokemon adversário para durmir em batalha, ele nem fecha os olhos, ficam todos com os olhos abertos. Ao andar pelo mapa você vê objetos relativamente distantes, uns 20 metros, já teleportando quadroO Arceus foi muito melhor! A imersão era muito superior. Esse parece feito na pressa, ao pegar um item no chão o personagem nem se curva para pegar, apenas ouço um "plim". Ao colocar algum pokemon adversário para durmir em batalha, ele nem fecha os olhos, ficam todos com os olhos abertos. Ao andar pelo mapa você vê objetos relativamente distantes, uns 20 metros, já teleportando quadro quadro, você fica perdido pelo mapa, não tem uma história forte que te prenda ao jogo, parece um sandbox. Expand
  86. Nov 21, 2022
    4
    The game lag is severe and requires me to run the game at 720 and restart it every hour to mitigate the lag. I am a die-hard Pokemon fan but this game is tough to play. Shame on Game Freak for releasing such an unpolished game.
  87. Nov 21, 2022
    4
    It's an okay game, glitches and bugs aside. The story is alright, the character designs are cool, but sometimes it's just so buggy that it's game breaking. It ruins the experience and any immersion. There definitely should have been more time and effort put into this, but maybe it will get better with future updates. Below average for me.
  88. Nov 21, 2022
    4
    Since Pokemon Arceus set such a good example with gameplay and awesome stuff with different mechanics battle stuff and over all how it is this game goes back to the rpg style that we are using for years and not really interactive and battle animations not looking expressive really says something how Nintendo is going for the money Arceus set a good example and this game forgot about it.
  89. Nov 21, 2022
    4
    Don't get me wrong, the core of the pokemon game is fun, the idea of ​​collecting pocket monsters, trading and battling each other while exploring seamlessly, freely and without feeling punished for neglecting main quests is a great idea to sell the product, it is an evolution that the franchise needed, but the problem is how the developers leave the final product in half, poorlyDon't get me wrong, the core of the pokemon game is fun, the idea of ​​collecting pocket monsters, trading and battling each other while exploring seamlessly, freely and without feeling punished for neglecting main quests is a great idea to sell the product, it is an evolution that the franchise needed, but the problem is how the developers leave the final product in half, poorly programmed, with technical problems of poor construction of the game engine and the graphic limitations of the Switch .
    Despite the game being very fun for those who aren't too demanding, it is overshadowed by flaws in the textures, frequent bugs, constant gameplay below 30 FPS, rendering errors and among other things, such as mechanics that were successful in previous games, such as capture of pokemon arceus and the interaction with the pokemons captured from Lets Go, make the game a disappointment for anyone looking for something new to play on the switch and who is not yet a fan of the franchise, a fan on the other hand, will play it precisely because it is fan and already accepts that this is how it will always be.

    my note goes for the opportunity to be the definitive pokémon experience lost by the lack of competence of the game freak program and "take care" of the gold mine that is its product.
    Expand
  90. Nov 21, 2022
    4
    Think about this: Pokemon is one of the most profitable IPs in history, and the only thing it offers us is a game with PS2 graphics with a filter to make them look "Better" and whose code came out so broken to say that "The game has bugs" is insulting, rather "There's a bit of game in those bugs"
    It's just bad, not terrible, but bad, the good ideas and interesting mechanics that the game
    Think about this: Pokemon is one of the most profitable IPs in history, and the only thing it offers us is a game with PS2 graphics with a filter to make them look "Better" and whose code came out so broken to say that "The game has bugs" is insulting, rather "There's a bit of game in those bugs"
    It's just bad, not terrible, but bad, the good ideas and interesting mechanics that the game tries to offer are overshadowed by a low-quality product that needed at least two years of development to be a decent game for your console.
    Expand
  91. Nov 21, 2022
    4
    It's almost amazing, which makes it terrible. Let me elaborate:

    The Good: - Open world is a nice idea, and it was really fun to explore and have the freedom to choose the order of gyms and paths. I ended up doing it slightly out of order and the challenge was very rewarding. - The characters (other kids) had pretty compelling arcs for the most part, and I actually liked them more than
    It's almost amazing, which makes it terrible. Let me elaborate:

    The Good:
    - Open world is a nice idea, and it was really fun to explore and have the freedom to choose the order of gyms and paths. I ended up doing it slightly out of order and the challenge was very rewarding.
    - The characters (other kids) had pretty compelling arcs for the most part, and I actually liked them more than other recent rivals / characters. The final part of the story wraps up all the 3 individual paths nicely and it felt like you were living out a pokemon movie.
    - The pokemon models are to scale and more detailed, and I loved seeing them in the open world just vibing.

    Now, the Bad (there's a lot):
    - The textures, visuals are... atrocious. Not just for a game coming out in 2022, but for a game that exists after the year 2010. I don't know if they aren't loading or if that's geniunely what it looks like but it's distractingly bad. I'm not a stickler for fancy nice pretty graphics- plenty of my favorite games have serviceable looks. But many of the features you see in the world unironically look like the in games like GTA 5 where the map glitches out and buildings only render as muddy polygons- but in S/V, these are just the actual geometries and textures even up close. I would get it if this were an Alpha state of an Indie game on Steam, but this is pokemon.
    - The performance is similarly awful. Maybe this will be patched, but for a fully released game this is not acceptable. We seem games like BOTW, which came out on the switch in 2017, not only looking much better but running much smoother than this game. It's clear that this just isn't optimized. Hell, even the BOTW on the WiiU runs better than this. This is just framerate, too. A lot of the character animations when you're not standing right next to them run at literally 5fps. Microsoft powerpoint speeds.
    - Certain mechanics from Arceus didn't return, namely the catching one. I understand different teams from GameFreak worked on this but really missed that mechanic in this game, and would have probably enjoyed and gone out of my way to catch pokemon in this game.
    - The open world feels empty and incomplete. For every somewhat memorable design in the world, there's something that breaks immersion. A lot of the 'routes' or paths feel interchangeable in this game aside from maybe the first couple, and aside from trainer battles, there isn't really any standout locations in the world. Contrast this with past games where areas not only had their own character in design but also the locations/dungeons you associated with them- Lavender Town's Pokemon Tower, the Pokemon Mansion on Cinnibar Island, Sprout City's Sprout tower, the Abandoned Ship, the Old Chateau- just to name a few. It doesn't help that most towns have literally 0 building interiors besides their Gym. One of my favorite immersive parts of past games was getting region lore by talking to everyone in the town and seeing their homes.
    - This is more subjective, but the school stuff didn't really do it for me. I skipped most classes because the few I did were really boring- but also because even more so than the other games the dialogue (even when text speed is fast) takes an eternity. Nearly every transition shot between dialogue fades out and it just pads out a ton of time. Also, it kinda cheapened the champion route for me, as SPOILER you don't become Champion, you become 'Champion Rank', which is a small but meaningful difference. You don't go on the journey to become the very best, you're just... very good? Get an A+ ? Which leads me to my next critique:
    - The Elite Four / Champion. I actually liked the champion's design and the rooftop battle, but the events preceding and following it are less than ideal. Starting with the Elite Four: The Designs are really lame, and the personalities are similarly shallow. In the past, you can tell what kind of pokemon an E4 member might be using as its incorporated into their design and room design. But, gone are both the distinct bold designs and the rooms. Yes, all E4 members are fought in a clean boring sterile padded cell. This detracts even more from them feeling like this amazing final feat. More so, one of the Elite Four members is literally just a Gym Leader who is just being forced to also be an E4 member, and straight says something along the lines of 'Yeah I like my Gym type but I **** hate my E4 type but I gotta ig.' And then, after defeating the champion, no longer do you go into the a seperate room where you save your team and commemorate your accomplishment, its just a pat on the back. I mean... yeah it really is a downer.

    IN CONCLUSION:
    For everything nice S/V does with its open world and story ideas, it's undermined by its buggy technical performance, overall **** visuals, shallow settings, and extremely unrealized and boring school setting. Extremely disappointing.
    Expand
  92. Nov 22, 2022
    4
    You can have a good time playing it, but sadly It's so ugly and full of bugs.
  93. Jul 12, 2023
    4
    Con "Pokemon Scarlatto e Violetto",Game Freak ha provato a portare una boccata d'aria fresca al franchise con la creazione del primo gioco di Pokemon Open-World.La volontà di creare un gioco del genere si riscontra già nei DLC di "Pokemon Spada e Scudo" e "Pokemon Leggende Arceus".
    Trovo che la soluzione Open-World di Pokemon come un possibile futuro della serie,come già in Leggende
    Con "Pokemon Scarlatto e Violetto",Game Freak ha provato a portare una boccata d'aria fresca al franchise con la creazione del primo gioco di Pokemon Open-World.La volontà di creare un gioco del genere si riscontra già nei DLC di "Pokemon Spada e Scudo" e "Pokemon Leggende Arceus".
    Trovo che la soluzione Open-World di Pokemon come un possibile futuro della serie,come già in Leggende Arceus,trovo molto divertente girovagare per la determinata regione in "liberta".
    Passando a quello che troviamo nel gioco:
    Il mondo Pokemon non è mai stato così tanto curato negli ultimi anni...ma soltanto della teoria,la storia della regione,delle persone più influenti e dell'accademia del gioco sono curatissime e ben spiegate tra i dialoghi deli NPC e varie lezioni e libri accademici ma è accompagnato dal peggior mondo Pokemon creato al livello tecnico-grafico,graficamente al livello di Pokemon Leggende Arceus.
    Per farla breve,se stilassimo una lista dei punti positivi e negativi di Pokemon Scarlatto e Violetto otterremo:
    Punti Positivi:
    •Innovazione per il primo gioco open-world,funziona e diverte.
    •Maggiore cura delle texture,modelli e animazioni dei Pokèmon.
    •Una flora molto poco più presente e curata di LPA,ma almeno più presente.
    •Ottime spiegazioni dei personaggi,del mondo in cui ti trovi e delle varie dinamiche,spesso queste informazioni le trovi nell'accademia di riferimento che rende sensato l'esistenza di essa.
    •La Teracrystal la meccanica di questa generazione,per quanto esteticamente possa non piacere è contestualizzata bene nella regione,diverte usarla e può creare un nuovo competitivo interessante.
    •Primo gioco Pokemon con più di una storia,anche se parallele e indipendenti l'una da l'altra ma riescono ad intrecciarsi bene tra di loro.
    •Citazioni ad eventi di giochi passati che rende più reale il macro-mondo pokemon.
    •Gameplay ibrido tra Pokemon Spada e Scudo e LPA.
    •Mantentimento di alcune features di LPA e altri titoli come le cavalcature Pokemon (Presenti anche in Sole/Luna),la possibilità di cambiare le mosse del proprio pokemon a piacimento senza interruzioni o NPC di qualche tipo (Come in LPA) e la possibilità di cambiare il sopranome del pokemon dal menù pokemon (Come nei let's Go).
    •Le funzioni multigiocatore sono ok,molto meglio di Pokemon Spada e Scudo.
    •La presenza della cura automatica è un ottima aggiunta.
    •La modalità "vai a avanti" (ENG:Lets Go) è interessante e utile per farmare xp e drops dei pokemon.

    Ma ora arriviamo alla parte dolente,i punti negativi:
    •Graficamente scadente per essere un titolo tripla-A.Texture ambientali a risoluzione bassissima.
    •Il frame-rate,scarso e instabile. Il gioco spesso lagga e scatta.
    •Presenza di troppi bug,spesso solo visivi. Con la telecamera puoi attraverare i muri,le roccie e le montagne. I pokemon spesso sono conpenetrati nel pavimento o nei muri,non sempre il gioco riesce a comprendere il pavimento durante una cattura e la pokeball rimane sospesa a mezz'aria e durante "l'evoluzione dal vivo" dato se il gioco non riconosce il pavimento,dunque parte l'evoluzione standard che abbiamo visto in tutti gli altri titoli.
    •Il pokedex è uno spoiler vivente,se affronti un NPC e perdi ti registra nel Pokedex anche i pokemon che non hai visto,quando guardi il pokedex spesso si bugga e vedi i modelli di pokemon che non hai visto,la modalità "note trovate di recente" fa vedere le silhouette di vari pokemon,anche leggendari ed esclusivi (paradox compresi).
    •La modalità "stealth" è inutile,i pokemon ti vedono e ti sentono lo stesso (In LPA funzionava bene).
    •La mira spesso non funziona neache ad 1 mentro dal pokemon (Anche questa funzionava bene in LPA).
    •Si sente l'assenza di lanciare le pokeball come in LPA.
    •Personalmente i Raid li rintengo inferirori a quelli di Pokemon Spada e Scudo,il fattore tempo invece che turni è un idea stupida,ma le IA dei bot forse sono leggermente meglio.
    •Le città più piccole del normale,può essere ok,ma con 0 case interaggibili,gli shop sono menù e non stanze.
    •Spesso riesci ad attraversare alberi,cristalli dei raid e pokemon.
    •Il box lagga e non carica velocemente i modelli dei pokemon.
    •La cura automatica non riconosce le ricariche totali come items di cura e non ti permette di rianimare i pokemon.
    •Gli oggetti sembrano piazzati in maniera randomica
    •Anche se il motto di questi giochi è "esplora come vuoi",puoi farlo ma non è presente uno bilanciamento nei livelli delle palestra.Se percorri tutta la zone est di Paldea quando arriverai ad ovest con i Pokemon al lvl50 la palestra sarà al 20.
    •Extra:Primo gioco pokemon dove sento la necessità di un doppiaggio,ma manca.
    -------
    Capisco le varie recenzioni ma non riesco a capire i voti come i 100 e gli 0,Personalmente rintengo il gioco scadente ma divertente per questo il mio voto è tra il 4 ed il 5. Preferisco dargli 4/10 per il frame rate e per i bug.
    Expand
  94. Nov 22, 2022
    4
    its great for being pokemon, but it gives me headache on laggy gameplay and fps drops. Pkm company continues to be lazy with their game products.
  95. Nov 23, 2022
    4
    It's pain me to leave a bad review on a pokemon game, but it's unaceptable that in 2022, and with other games like Xenoblade or Brathe of the Wild in the same console, Gamefreak release a game with so many bugs and so low fps; at the point when people reports that the game produce headaches. Nintendo and gamefreak have become conformist with the pokemon franchice, and aren't making qualityIt's pain me to leave a bad review on a pokemon game, but it's unaceptable that in 2022, and with other games like Xenoblade or Brathe of the Wild in the same console, Gamefreak release a game with so many bugs and so low fps; at the point when people reports that the game produce headaches. Nintendo and gamefreak have become conformist with the pokemon franchice, and aren't making quality games anymore. Expand
  96. Nov 23, 2022
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game seems like an old man’s desperate attempt to modernize a franchise. Beyond bugs and uneven graphics, Game Freak still struggles to take Pokémon to the state games look and work in 2022. The game is evidently unfinished. You can no longer access buildings, and even stores are no longer 3D rendered spaces, as they have been turned into flat menus that break into your screen when you “go through a door”. They couldn't even bother to give a background to the Elite 4 members and went for a generic battle arena where you wait for the next one to show up. The open world is fun enough to explore, but the map is almost impossible to work with, zooming in and out returns you to the place you’re at, forcing you to start over if you’re looking for a specific city or area you need to go to, there’s so little information or clues to help you navigate, you’re left alone, forced to get lost and move around Paldea with no sense of what an ideal progression should be (unless you take it to yourself and look it up online, but games shouldn’t give us homework). Ok, honestly, exploring a Pokémon world with no compass might seem like a fun thing to do, and it would be, if the game’s difficulty would adapt to the player’s level, thus becoming a unique experience for every user and an overall gratifying playthrough. It doesn’t. If you take the “wrong path” you’ll be facing tough challenges at first (a nice change of pace for a game that loves to hold hands and treat everyone like a 2 year old), but then again, if you do so, everything else will be so ridiculously easy it’ll become a chore to actually finish the game. This time around they decided to mix up the formula by threading 3 different storylines into the main game. And I was excited at first. Then I realized it’s the same 3 challenges over and over and over again. Gyms are a joke as usual, easy to defeat with one move. Titans have the exact same mechanic 5 times in a row: fight, defeat, follow the titan two steps further, fight again. Arven shows up. He prepares a sandwich. He gives you a sandwich. You give the sandwich to Koraidon. Arven gets mad at koraidon. Arven gives his sandwich to his own Pokémon. The Pokémon feels a bit better. Every single time. Same animation. Same dialogue. It’s infuriating. And finally there’s team star. Where you get into a base and run around pressing the R button for a challenge they pretend is harder than it looks. Then face the leader, defeat with one super effective move, listen to the story of how they were bullied into leaving the academy. And that’s that. Repetitive, unimaginative, it doesn’t ask us to be creative or strategic. Just learn one move that’s super effective and keep pressing that A button. To be fair, the new Pokémon do introduce new mechanics, new abilities and new moves that will make battling with friends more exciting. But if that’s what you’re selling, then cut out the mediocre storyline you force us into. Is it better than Gens 6, 7, and 8? Yes. Is it thousands of years away from the original 5? 100%. Pokémon used to push the boundaries of handheld systems. Now it’s the punchline of how bad a game can be and still sellout in stores. Expand
  97. Nov 24, 2022
    4
    Couldn’t finish the game bc of the low frames and the glitches not worth 60€
  98. Nov 25, 2022
    4
    Many bugs, bad graphics, looks like pre alpha, it's not open word.
    One good thing is the new Pokedex and some new Pokemon
  99. Feb 28, 2023
    4
    Pokémon Scarlet isn't such a bad video game, it deserves a 4/10 in my opinion.
    Empty world, awful cities, cute Pokémon aesthetics but nothing exceptional. This is a game full of flaws, the only thing it really succeeded in are the characters, which I genuinely liked (Clavell, Arven, Larry, Penny and Team Stars).
    For them alone, I don't feel like putting less than 4.
  100. Nov 27, 2022
    4
    When I first learned of the game, I heard that there was a co-op mode. I bought both versions so my daughter and I could play together even when I fly out to work.

    They really need in markers on your screen to show your party members location and minimap instead of opening the map with Y (which takes a while to load currently). I quite enjoyed Legends Arceus where you could select your
    When I first learned of the game, I heard that there was a co-op mode. I bought both versions so my daughter and I could play together even when I fly out to work.

    They really need in markers on your screen to show your party members location and minimap instead of opening the map with Y (which takes a while to load currently). I quite enjoyed Legends Arceus where you could select your first pokemon on a whim to battle. In this version, you have to open your bags to swap around your line up which just ruins the flow of gameplay. You can customize your character with different hairstyles and facial features which is nice, but apparently you're stuck wearing 4 different versions of your school uniform which is disappointing. Character models at a distance have reduced frame rate, so their movement is quite clunky - though this is a rendering issue due to the hardware limitations of the switch.

    Gameplay it's the rock paper scissors, so nothing new in that regard.

    Seems to have a lot of content. I havnt encountered any game breaking bugs, though my daughter had her character lose its face and was walking around with eyeballs and exposed teeth which was humorous but creepy.

    I'm hoping some software updates will improve the game to players expectations.
    Expand
Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 118 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 56 out of 118
  2. Negative: 2 out of 118
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 24, 2024
    60
    Not a bad game. It still has its solid core, new Pokémon, and what's worked for years continues to work. The open world is a questionable addition in my opinion. [Issue#324]
  2. Dec 14, 2023
    70
    Pokemon Scarlet and Violet take the long-awaited step into a fully open-world, but one poorly implemented and marred by frustration. A compelling story and characters are a saving grace in what is ultimately a fun game, but Pokemon's attempts at modernising continue to fall disappointingly short.
  3. Jul 31, 2023
    20
    A square wheel spins more smoothly and fluidly than this game. If three Pokémon or characters come into view at once, the whole game creaks and falters. Edge-off unplayable. And that's a shame. Because the addition of an open world is "on paper" a puffy idea to refresh the franchise. No more linear walking that takes you past gyms and ever stronger and different Pokémon, gotta catch 'em all. You can go wherever you want. With some tactics, you can take on some very tough challenges with Pokémon that aren't nearly strong enough. Fun! Except this game just wasn't ready. It's shameless that Nintendo and Game Freak are still throwing it on the market. Nevertheless: 10 million games sold in just three days.