Pokemon Scarlet

 Switch
User Score
3.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 3197 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 755 out of 3197
  2. Mixed: 290 out of 3197
  3. Negative: 2,152 out of 3197
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  1. GlennDH
    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.
  2. OhNoItsSenpai
    Dec 8, 2022
    5
    The rumors are true. This game is an absolute broken mess. It seems a lot of people are ready to forgive Pokemon while Cyberpunk was crucified and refunds were demanded. I however have no obsession with Nintendo so here's an honest review. This is the worst running game on the switch in dock mode, it feels like it should have never been released on the switch. It's crashed more thanThe rumors are true. This game is an absolute broken mess. It seems a lot of people are ready to forgive Pokemon while Cyberpunk was crucified and refunds were demanded. I however have no obsession with Nintendo so here's an honest review. This is the worst running game on the switch in dock mode, it feels like it should have never been released on the switch. It's crashed more than Legends Arceus which is a superior pokemon game,… Expand
  3. Reez96
    Dec 8, 2022
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Die grafic im spiel ist eine Katastrophe und die glitsche sind auch müll pokemon kassirt nur geld wegen die marke.… Expand
  4. Standri
    Dec 8, 2022
    0
    Ils se foutent de vous, RÉVEILLEZ VOUS!!!!! La licence la plus lucrative du monde qui pond des jeux comme ça alors qu'on mérite mieux nous les fans et joueurs qui veulent du bien de cette licence qui malheureusement va droit au mur grâce à NINTENDO et ses fans aveugles sans esprit critique.
  5. Keorus
    Dec 8, 2022
    7
    El nuevo juego de Pokémon para mi es un acierto de compra. Muchos dicen que hay bugs y los he visto, pero yo no los he sufrido, asi que no puedo informar sobre ello. La historia es mas que aceptable y han apostado por cosas nuevas y diversas.

    Lo bueno: El mundo me encanta y a mi porlomenos no se me acaban las cosas. El sistema de Pokémon montura es todo un acierto para recorrer el mundo.    El nuevo juego de Pokémon para mi es un acierto de compra. Muchos dicen que hay bugs y los he visto, pero yo no los he sufrido, asi que no puedo informar sobre ello. La historia es mas que aceptable y han apostado por cosas nuevas y diversas.

    Lo bueno: El mundo me encanta y a mi porlomenos no se me acaban las cosas. El sistema de Pokémon montura es todo un acierto para recorrer el mundo. Los nuevos diseños me parecen muy bonitos. Las incursiones me parecen super bien hechas en cuanto a dificultad. El multijugador es muy recomendable.

    Lo malo: El sistema de captura me hubiera gustado que fuera como el Pokemon Arceus, sin tener que entrar en combate. El sistema de crianza nuevo a mi no me gusta. Algunos fallos de rendimiento en personajes que estan lejos. Hay gente que usa programas externos para conseguir las cosas faciles.

    Mi opinion es que es un juego muy divertido, que puedes disfrutar solo o acompañado y con uno de los mejores competitivos de nintendo.    … Expand
  6. Alebernard
    Dec 8, 2022
    1
    GF didn't take advantage of what worked in Legends Arceus, movement in attacks during battles, mounts that didn't lock like Koraidon and Miraidon. There is a drop in fps and polygon that irritate and disturb the fluidity. Not to mention characters, grass, trees, mountains that just suddenly appear at a certain distance. And to finish in my opinion the terastal mechanic is ugly with thatGF didn't take advantage of what worked in Legends Arceus, movement in attacks during battles, mounts that didn't lock like Koraidon and Miraidon. There is a drop in fps and polygon that irritate and disturb the fluidity. Not to mention characters, grass, trees, mountains that just suddenly appear at a certain distance. And to finish in my opinion the terastal mechanic is ugly with that clumsy thing in the head. All shameful for Nintendo and TPC in an unfinished game that costs $60.00… Expand
  7. WahleeBoi
    Dec 8, 2022
    0
    The graphics are absolutely terrible.Please take your time and release optimised games from next time
    .Its such a downgrade from Legend Arceus
  8. Armynd
    Dec 8, 2022
    0
    It makes Pokémon Arceus a good game if we compare it, They sold us a beta for $60
  9. LyshXD
    Dec 8, 2022
    0
    este juego es una mierda, enserio es infumable, está rotisimo pero aunque no tuviera bugs es un juego de mierda, enserio es mas divertido no jugar a nada que jugar este insulto a los fans de la saga.
  10. NixyFox
    Dec 8, 2022
    0
    Again GameFreak have let the fans down by not coding in all the Pokémon thus people are not getting the experience they're paying for, Pokémon from 6 years ago still stuck in the Limbo of Pokémon Home!

    The game is a mess, not just because of the disgusting state it was released. We were sold on freedom of playing the game in any way we choose, this was false. Areas all have level    Again GameFreak have let the fans down by not coding in all the Pokémon thus people are not getting the experience they're paying for, Pokémon from 6 years ago still stuck in the Limbo of Pokémon Home!

    The game is a mess, not just because of the disgusting state it was released.

    We were sold on freedom of playing the game in any way we choose, this was false.

    Areas all have level variances so do gyms, titan Pokémon, team star bases etc.

    The experience does not scale to your personal progress, which would have made the games actually great, since you get badges for completing elements of the game those badges should affect the levels of the content you play, but NO! They took the easy lazy option, what's worse is the Pokémon centres are supposed to guide you through the content to give you a smoothe experience but they send you to content that's closest to you regardless of what level you are, it's not good...

    To play the game and have half a decent experience you need to use a guide to follow the true route, oh and you thought you could skip doing certain content you don't want to do because it's monotonous and boring? Guess again, you have no choice but to do it because you need to do it all to complete the main story.

    Honestly I've been playing Pokémon since the beginning in the 90s, the switch games have been a slap in the face, hoping things will improve in the next game, that GF actually listened to feedback and would correct their mistakes, but nope, they've gotten lazy and complacent and worse! because they know their game will sell record numbers regardless.

    I'm done with the series on the switch, I'm not paying into this franchise anymore until GF do better!    … Expand
  11. Doggus
    Dec 7, 2022
    0
    This, is not how to make a game, is joking for everyone who spend 60$ and time for this thing called "games".
    The openworld is fake because you need to fully upgrade the koraidon (or miraidon), the only skill useful for exploratory purposes is unlocked much further on, there is nothing to explore in fact after the first aerials at 100% you will follow the path that is not there anyway it    This, is not how to make a game, is joking for everyone who spend 60$ and time for this thing called "games".
    The openworld is fake because you need to fully upgrade the koraidon (or miraidon), the only skill useful for exploratory purposes is unlocked much further on, there is nothing to explore in fact after the first aerials at 100% you will follow the path that is not there anyway it is nothing to explore.
    the plot is trivial, the characters seem fake with only one mood, the gameplay remains what it was in the previous chapters, with a hint of difficulty, very easy...    … Expand
  12. Oreon
    Dec 7, 2022
    2
    Best bug and glitch of the Pokémon franchise with a dash of game. I don't know the audacity of this developers to push the game for release. Absolutely no respect for its fanbase.
  13. Latruongbach410
    Dec 7, 2022
    10
    I have no idea why do people give this such low score but I have really enjoyed the game so far. Music, graphic and Story (oh especially the story telling) is great and wayyy better than Sw and Shield. There is a bit of lag thougj
  14. Danneevee
    Dec 7, 2022
    10
    The best history in a Pokémon game, an amazing open world and incredible new Pokémon with the biggest amount of number in the past 4 generations.
  15. BrVentura
    Dec 7, 2022
    0
    Jogo miseravelmente horrível! Já conheci um jogo bom do Pokémon, mas esse foi a pior coisa que eu já joguei. Além da empresa farmar em cima de quem é fã, não dá uma resposta sobre os acontecimentos de bugs e gráficos horríveis dentro do game, sem contar a localização que não tem pro Brasil. O básico é ter as legendas traduzidas na nossa língua.
  16. Charsept
    Dec 7, 2022
    8
    It isn't pretty but it's the most fun Pokemon game I've played in 10 years. For a first attempt at a true open world, they knock it out of the park. If you care about framerates, this might not be for you. But if you like that traditional turn-based RPG gameplay, this delivers with a fresh coat of paint.
  17. arh3399
    Dec 7, 2022
    8
    In my opinion this generation are the best pokemon games every made. They have more story content then ever before. There is actually some character development for pretty much the first time ever in the series. Some of the new pokemon designs are my favorite since the first few generations. Its a true open world where you can walk from one end to the other with no loading screens.In my opinion this generation are the best pokemon games every made. They have more story content then ever before. There is actually some character development for pretty much the first time ever in the series. Some of the new pokemon designs are my favorite since the first few generations. Its a true open world where you can walk from one end to the other with no loading screens. And most importantly of all, they are super fun to play. Obviously the big elephant in the room is that the performance is pretty terrible. In my 65 hour play through I never had a crash but the draw distance is really bad, the environmental textures are super low res (but the pokemon textures actually look pretty good, particularly for the steel type pokemon), and if you get in a battle on even a slight incline the camera clips through the ground. If you are a graphics snob you should wait until they patch the performance which Nintendo has already announced is coming (but who knows when). If graphics aren't a big deal to you and you like pokemon then this is a must play.… Expand
  18. RR-Angels
    Dec 7, 2022
    0
    the fps of everything further than 8 meters away from you drops to like 15-30 fps idk.

    I really love every single part of the pokemon serie but this one is the first one ever that really dissapoint me. The immersion of this game is really bad, the poke stations looks like 24/7 ai robot operated petrol stations The first city you enter fells really heartless made, as soon as you    the fps of everything further than 8 meters away from you drops to like 15-30 fps idk.

    I really love every single part of the pokemon serie but this one is the first one ever that really dissapoint me.

    The immersion of this game is really bad, the poke stations looks like 24/7 ai robot operated petrol stations

    The first city you enter fells really heartless made, as soon as you leave the main road, its just super poorly made, the textures are bad, the lineup of some of the buildings is bad

    skirts are missing.

    im not someone who gets super angry because of one of these little things, but theres just so much little things that i dislike on it that the game is just all in all super shabby, its still playable but i wont have nearly the same joy as on any other pokemon game.    … Expand
  19. Redchook
    Dec 7, 2022
    8
    Obviously the people who give this game low ratings have not played it all the way through or really appreciate what Pokemon is about.
    To me, it is a classic call back to the originals with a good bit fairly quiet plot and excellent music. Also the first game for a long time to introduce an entire rooster of new Pokemon that are all good and I would train up at least for a period.
    Yes, the    Obviously the people who give this game low ratings have not played it all the way through or really appreciate what Pokemon is about.
    To me, it is a classic call back to the originals with a good bit fairly quiet plot and excellent music. Also the first game for a long time to introduce an entire rooster of new Pokemon that are all good and I would train up at least for a period.
    Yes, the game is buggy, but for myself and most players nothing game breaking. And a lot of games are being released like that now, and o believe scarlet and violet can be fixed.
    Yes, the graphics maybe are not quite what the switch is capable of, but for the series of pokemon, they are improving as a whole.
    If DLC was added to make the game longer and most the bugs are patched I would probably give it a ten    … Expand
  20. BladeX95
    Dec 7, 2022
    8
    Scarlet and violet have the best characters and stories we've had in several generations. The game is glitchy in the early game and lags even when offline. Not my favorite pokemon designs and moving TMs back to single use is a step backward. Graphics are a decent improvement from SW/SH, The open world is diverse and decently sized. The ability to explore most areas from the start isScarlet and violet have the best characters and stories we've had in several generations. The game is glitchy in the early game and lags even when offline. Not my favorite pokemon designs and moving TMs back to single use is a step backward. Graphics are a decent improvement from SW/SH, The open world is diverse and decently sized. The ability to explore most areas from the start is great, I wish there was level scaling build in but there seems to be parts of each story line that are a decent challenge at any level. Raids are fun and harder than the ones in Sw/SH.… Expand
  21. MeterSmash2022
    Dec 7, 2022
    0
    The conversation surrounding this game shouldn't be about whether it's "Fun" or not, it's about the utter disrespect to the loyal Pokemon fan base by releasing an unfinished, rushed and buggy product, it's completely broken. Under there, there's a good game, I saw a lot of potential here but it's ruined by the performance and how ugly the game looks. If the Switch is capable of moreThe conversation surrounding this game shouldn't be about whether it's "Fun" or not, it's about the utter disrespect to the loyal Pokemon fan base by releasing an unfinished, rushed and buggy product, it's completely broken. Under there, there's a good game, I saw a lot of potential here but it's ruined by the performance and how ugly the game looks. If the Switch is capable of more impressive games, why did Gamefreak do the bear minimum here? Hell, Arceus was more stable and looked better than this, and that shouldn't even be a compliment since that game looked extremely bad.

    Overall, I am completely disappointed, I could look past Arceus' issues and still have a great time, but this? This is pushing it, have more respect for the consumer, and to blind fanboys have some respect for yourselves, don't support this lazyness or defend it, you are all pathetic.    … Expand
  22. Alexander135
    Dec 7, 2022
    3
    Pokemon Scarlett is a game that seems to have been made by passionate programmers/artists/designers, but rushed and released unfinished. You will buy it because it's Pokemon, but the product is of overall low quality. The open world is beautiful, the battles are enjoyable, the gym leaders interesting, the story multifaceted and engaging. All of this is tarnished by poor performance.

    There    Pokemon Scarlett is a game that seems to have been made by passionate programmers/artists/designers, but rushed and released unfinished. You will buy it because it's Pokemon, but the product is of overall low quality. The open world is beautiful, the battles are enjoyable, the gym leaders interesting, the story multifaceted and engaging. All of this is tarnished by poor performance.

    There is a plethora of bugs. I'll break down the bugs into three categories below.

    Unavoidable & understandable: there are many times where the game slows down. For the minor instances these are understandable as many Switch titles have difficulty maintaining an ideal frame rate due to limited hardware. Additionally, distant characters will appear at varying levels of choppiness. Say you are next to a character, they move smoothly, you move 15 steps away and they are moving at 12fps, you move even further and now they are moving at 3fps. These are annoying and feel unpolished, but I could understand these being necessary to establish a smooth frame rate.

    Immersion breaking: there are several scenes, notably in school, where the obvious choppiness of the characters moving at only a few frames per second, distracts and detracts from the immersion of the game and diminishes the gameplay experience. If this was an intentional feature, they should have used pre-rendered videos rather than a live display. Here you are learning about math and these robotic children around you keep jittering around. Another issue is the at times extreme slowdowns. I've had the game freeze for several seconds, I've moved at far less than half of normal speed for 5-10 seconds, I've had cutscenes display improperly due to not rendering correctly. These are unacceptable and we are owed them being fixed.

    Game breaking: I've had several instances where loading screens never load. I enter a city, I'm looking at a blank loading screen, a minute goes by, then five, then ten. I have to close the game and relaunch it to play it. Additionally, seemingly at random times, the game will crash. This can be: mid battle, when running around, when entering a new area. It doesn't happen often, but I've never had a Switch game experience crashes like this. Something is not right.

    The story is pretty good overall, but poorly executed. Early on in the game you are given three main paths to pursue. All of them are necessary overall to advance, but you can do them in different orders. There is Team Star to pursue and beat to take down their bases, There is the option to pursue the Titans (which unlocks new areas to travel to), and lastly there are the gym leaders.

    One area that the game lacks is direction. It seems like they wanted the game to be open and more free than previous Pokemon games, which is great, but they also have linear elements to the story which prevent this. Example: early in the game you are presented with two options: travel West and earn gym badges, or travel East and pursue Titans. This is misleading though. Both directions contain both titans and gym leaders of undisclosed difficulty. I chose to go West, and encountered higher level gym leaders. I got a few gym badges, then came back to head East only to encounter a gym leader with Pokemon nearly 20 levels under me. In no way was it suggested that I should start with the Eastern gyms. While it's great that you have some freedom in the order that you battle the gym leaders, the lack of direction provides an unnecessary hurdle. If the intention was to have a game where you wander wherever you please and battle whatever gym you came across, then the gym leaders should have dynamic levels. Say that the first gym will have Pokemon lvls (10, 10, 11, 12), the second gym has Pokemon lvls (14, 14, 16, 16), this should be the levels of the Pokemon no matter who you fight. If your second gym is the Ghost leader, or the Fighting leader, or Normal leader, all of their Pokemon would be the difficulty that a second badge should be. If they wanted the game to be open but varying in difficulty depending on where you go and when, they should have given clues as to what path leads where. I do like the game overall, but it was delivered in a very poor condition to consumers. It's a game where I feel in six months it will have many issues ironed out, but I disapprove of the business model of "release a broken title and hopefully fix it later".

    If you are not in a hurry to get this title, I suggest you wait until they iron out the bugs so that you can have a nice gameplay experience.    … Expand
  23. Feanch
    Dec 7, 2022
    0
    As a fan since the first game on gameboy, I'm really pissed by this game. It's litteraly a beta test. It's far from finished, and this metacritic score is a joke. Too many technical problems, bugs and low fps, there's a memory leak too. It's one of the worst game on the Switch, even previous Pokémon games are better than this one. It just deserves to be taken of eShop. Please, Nintendo,As a fan since the first game on gameboy, I'm really pissed by this game. It's litteraly a beta test. It's far from finished, and this metacritic score is a joke. Too many technical problems, bugs and low fps, there's a memory leak too. It's one of the worst game on the Switch, even previous Pokémon games are better than this one. It just deserves to be taken of eShop. Please, Nintendo, GameFreak and The Pokemon Company, take times and put some work in the next game.… Expand
  24. Nilaul
    Dec 7, 2022
    1
    Although the game is fun, it is unplayable due to glitches, bugs and poor optimisation. Nothing to do with how powerful the switch is, but developers simply not going though their code and properly optimizing it, as evident by other more demanding switch games both running perfectly and looking great. Performance like this is unacceptable.
  25. xblackdemonx
    Dec 7, 2022
    1
    The framerate is horrible. The game bugs very often. The game textures are very bad. It looks like a PS2 game. It feels like the game is still in early access.
  26. Lassavins
    Dec 7, 2022
    10
    The best pokemon game yet BY FAR. And I've been playing since red and blue in the late 90s. Most of the bad reviews are from kids coming from their favorite youtube sensacionalist channel that, in their spree for views, over exagerated performance concerns.

    Best story. The open world is gorgeous. The multiplayer is excelent. This is the direction Game Freak should push. And I'm afraid    The best pokemon game yet BY FAR. And I've been playing since red and blue in the late 90s. Most of the bad reviews are from kids coming from their favorite youtube sensacionalist channel that, in their spree for views, over exagerated performance concerns.

    Best story. The open world is gorgeous. The multiplayer is excelent. This is the direction Game Freak should push. And I'm afraid that, with all this internet trolls that didnt even play the game, we could return to those linear 2.5D games.

    Sales dont reflect what trolls say.    … Expand
  27. smolcharizard
    Dec 7, 2022
    10
    Do not believe the review bombs on this game. I love this game so much, I’ve been playing Pokémon for over 10 years now and this is my favourite game. The open world is great, the variety of Pokémon is excellent, and the story in this is hands down my favourite Pokémon story, it is just so good. I personally haven’t experienced any glitches apart from a handful of minor graphical ones,Do not believe the review bombs on this game. I love this game so much, I’ve been playing Pokémon for over 10 years now and this is my favourite game. The open world is great, the variety of Pokémon is excellent, and the story in this is hands down my favourite Pokémon story, it is just so good. I personally haven’t experienced any glitches apart from a handful of minor graphical ones, nothing severe enough to impact my enjoyment of this game. If you haven’t played it yet, do yourself a favour and try and go in spoiler free.… Expand
  28. cHughes
    Dec 7, 2022
    7
    An encapsulating story filled with lovable characters creates an utterly fantastic campaign, followed by the best ending sequence of the Pokémon series to date makes Pokémon Scarlet an extremely enjoyable experience for Pokémon fans. This is in addition to a wide array of fantastic new Pokémon designs and new ‘Paradox Forms’ which are a great idea to switch up the norm. Unfortunately, thisAn encapsulating story filled with lovable characters creates an utterly fantastic campaign, followed by the best ending sequence of the Pokémon series to date makes Pokémon Scarlet an extremely enjoyable experience for Pokémon fans. This is in addition to a wide array of fantastic new Pokémon designs and new ‘Paradox Forms’ which are a great idea to switch up the norm. Unfortunately, this game is let down by the frustrating performance issues which are inescapable when playing, from the Windmill in Artazon to Pokémon lagging in the wild, the game is extremely hard to watch and is not as pleasing to the eye as Pokémon Sword and Shield.
    This being said, Pokémon Scarlet is a fantastic of example of how to structure a main series Pokémon game, but also of how important the performance of these games are. Overall however, the game is extremely enjoyable and is a worthy addition to the series.    … Expand
  29. Crissaegrimm
    Dec 7, 2022
    0
    Worst pokemon game ever made. It doesn't value 60 dollar. It's totally a mess.
  30. rowlett
    Dec 7, 2022
    9
    Excellent story with terrible graphics... i'm rather angry they're ruining such good content with technical issues but i highly recommend the game itself
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 118 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 56 out of 118
  2. Mixed: 60 out of 118
  3. 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. VideoGamer
    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.
    Read full review
  3. Het Nieuwsblad
    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.
    Read full review
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