- Publisher: Nintendo , The Pokemon Company
- Release Date: Nov 18, 2022
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- Critic score
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- Unscored
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Nov 17, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet focus on exploring, but the technical issues are hard to ignore. The story struggles to expand its limits, so it's weak and shallow; the gameplay is solid as ever, luckily, and it introduces some new mechanics perfect for PvP. Discovering and capturing pokémon is enjoyable thanks to many new ways to explore the region of Paldea. We hope they will be the last transitional pokémon games.
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Dec 14, 2023Pokemon 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.
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Edge MagazineDec 29, 2022None of this is nearly enough to spoil everything Scarlet and Violet get right, such as some of the best (and downright strangest) monster designs in some time, and absorbing final act and postgame, and a soundtrack that could well be a new series peak. [Issue#380, p.121]
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Dec 13, 2022There are some mechanics that ultimately feel gimmicky, but Scarlet and Violet's storytelling and exploration feel like the breath of fresh air the franchise desperately needed. More than anything, I have hope for how eventual DLC might be able to improve the overall experience or how Game Freak can learn from its mistakes to create an even more memorable experience in the future.
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Dec 12, 2022Pokemon Violet feels like a giant step in the right direction for the franchise in most ways, but also a step back in others. While I still consider Pokemon Legends: Arceus a more polished experience, there is no denying the quality of core gameplay, new mechanics, and music in Pokemon Violet. The whole experience is held back by abysmal performance and poor visuals though.
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Dec 8, 2022Pokémon Violet is a highly enjoyable game. While it is hard to figure out a balanced path in its open world, it will also bring hours and hours of fun to those who want to fully explore it. Despite adding some fresh ideas, the story isn’t memorable, but the great variety of Pokémon, the art, and the turn-based battle system will surely please fans and newcomers alike.
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Dec 7, 2022Hugely engaging monster hunting, but not without major problems.
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Dec 7, 2022Moving to an open-world concept is a brilliant step forward for the Pokémon series, but currently, this release lacks the Nintendo quality that we expect from their published titles. In terms of mechanics, vision and gameplay elements of Pokémon, this is a shift in the right direction, and it only makes me get excited to see what future games do on new Nintendo hardware, whenever that arrives. I still recommend Pokémon Scarlet and Violet to fans of these wonderful little critters or to people who grew tired of the original formula, as the shift to an open world makes for a more exciting experience. Just be prepared to suffer from something that is very un-Nintendo like with this game’s inconsistent frame rates and the occasional glitch, which will put a dent in what should have been a wonderful new direction for the extremely popular creature collecting series.
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Dec 5, 2022Scarlet and Violet offer some great new ideas for the Pokémon franchise, ruined by a world that seems very rushed and unfinished.
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Dec 4, 2022This time it's up to us to set the pace. With a successful incursion into the open-world, Pokémon evolves, and the result is unfortunately shamefully ugly. It's minus one.
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Dec 2, 2022With routine patches and dedicated bug fixes, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet could end up being a transcendent moment in franchise history. The ambition of its branching paths, the size of its open world, and the selection of different Pokemon available are all massive, signaling that Game Freak and The Pokemon Company wanted this to be a flagship moment for the series. Unfortunately, all of that ambition is marred by the technical trials left in its wake, creating some truly infuriating moments during a game where I should be adventuring with a smile on my face. The foundation of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is strong, but there are too many technical shortcomings in the experience to truly call it great.
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Dec 2, 2022Scarlet and Violet takes the evolution of the Pokémon series one step forward and two steps back. It excels in providing an excellent open-world gameplay experience, but falls flat on a technical level, feeling more like an alpha build than a final product. Unfortunately, the severe lack of polish and optimization holds Scarlet and Violet back from what very well could have been the best Pokémon generation yet. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have enough enjoyment to make it well worth my time, but Pokémon Legends: Arceus tickled my fancy just a bit more.
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Nov 28, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Violet manages to be a fun adventure in spite of numerous technical issues thanks to great open world design.
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Nov 24, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Violet contain high highs and low lows. The open world feels very liberating, but technical problems wear it down.
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Nov 23, 2022By and large, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are fun. It's telling that I had a lot of fun with them despite the absolutely unforgivable performance problems. The basis for an extremely strong and engaging Pokémon game is here, but it's out in the wild without the extra months of development that it still needed to improve performance issues. If you're willing to forgive some jank for an otherwise great Pokémon experience, then you'll have a great time. Otherwise, it's probably worth skipping until it gets some patches. Even die-hard Pokéfans might have trouble getting past seeing their favorite Pokémon crawling along at five fps.
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Nov 23, 2022Pokemon Violet and Pokemon Scarlet certainly don’t put their best feet forward. They run rough. Visual downgrades are clear. But ultimately, once you settle in, they’re certainly full Pokemon games. We’re hoping some post-launch bug-squashing will help them run better, but in the long term, The Pokemon Company might need to implement a plan that offers Game Freak longer development windows for tentpole releases.
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Nov 22, 2022These would be the best Pokémon games ever if not for the performance issues. Gen 9 provides an amazing plot, the fun battling mechanics we've always loved, and freedom to explore just about anywhere. However, extreme choppiness, lag, and frame rate issues sour the experience.
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Nov 22, 2022Ugly visuals and an all around lack of polish detract from what is an incredibly strong, compelling, and well designed core adventure, one that represents the series' strongest outing in a very long time otherwise.
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Nov 21, 2022As a whole, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is the most fun I’ve had on a Pokemon adventure in a long, long time. But this is completely in spite of itself. There are unforgivable graphical issues, and despite endless charming creatures and characters, the open world itself lacks nearly completely in personality or a sense of progression. Nonetheless, it has never felt better being a Pokemon trainer than it does in Gen IX, thanks to the smoothest mechanics yet and quality-of-life improvements.
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Nov 18, 2022The transition to true open world play may not be going as smoothly as we might have hoped, but the technical issues have yet to push me away. In the end, I’m really just here for the weird wildlife, and there’s certainly no shortage of that in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
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Nov 17, 2022Anyone who can overlook the difficulties will still have fun with the new generation. After all, the core remains collecting medals and completing the Pokédex, which is also entertaining in the new editions, coupled with the open structure. Maybe the Pokémon Company will be able to fix the current construction sites for the tenth generation in a few years.
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Nov 17, 2022Pokemon Scarlet and Violet feel like the awkward second evolution of one of its starters. It's growing into something resplendent, it's showing signs of an exciting second type, but it's got that weird vibe of a 20-something that hasn't quite figured out who they actually are. Add that weirdly stretched feeling to the constant technical oddities and you've got a game that's undoubtedly good fun, but it's still not even its final form. I can't wait to see what Pokemon becomes, but it’s not quite there yet.
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Nov 17, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a real step forward for a series that’s been locked in a holding pattern for well over a decade. The open-world pivot successfully reinvigorates a stale premise by giving trainers more control over the pace and difficulty of their journey. Like every recent Pokémon game, however, deteriorating tech and half-hearted experimentation still makes it feel like we’re five years away from the franchise’s true return to glory.
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Nov 17, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have finally delivered on the promise of an open-world entry, but with all the technical issues and stripped-back features, it’s hard to not feel like the Nintendo Switch held these games back. But if this is what an open-world Pokémon game is now, it's tantalising to consider what is coming in the future.
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Nov 17, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Violet take a step forward that fans have wanted to see for years — but it’s not quite far enough.
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Nov 17, 2022There are still plenty more ways we’d like to see the Pokémon franchise evolve, but Pokémon Scarlet & Violet has us excited about the series' future. We really hope Game Freak can figure out how to smooth out the series’ ongoing performance issues on Switch because they'll certainly rub some players the wrong way — and they’re going to become a serious detriment over time. Scarlet & Violet is most fun and exciting when you're just exploring the world, and while there are many small new details and improvements to the Pokémon formula, it still plays it safe in a few areas. Regardless, things point toward a promising future for Gen 9 and beyond. It’s a smaller step than many may have hoped for, especially considering what Pokémon Legends: Arceus did, but it's definitely one in the right direction.
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Nov 17, 2022Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have some excellent ideas that push the franchise in a fresh direction, but they’re unfortunately bogged down by unacceptable performance problems at every single turn. While my biggest problems with the games could theoretically be addressed in future patches, I’m not sure how feasible that is given the capabilities of the Switch’s hardware. That said, there is still a lot to enjoy, but it’s hard imagining that these games will have wide appeal outside of the dedicated Pokemon fans that are willing to put up with the issues and inconvenience.
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Nov 17, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have failed as open-world games. Its premise with three routes seems original, but it becomes a repetitive task in which some mini-games in the gyms are really boring. Although the Pokémon are better recreated than ever in their wild environments, the overall performance of the game is terrible, affecting the gameplay and giving the impression that we are playing an incomplete game.
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Jan 20, 2023That’s where I stand with Scarlet and Violet. It’s got the trappings of a great Pokémon game, but I think this is most certainly a learning experience for both the players and the developers. Hopefully, the next generation will improve on both the pacing and the technical issues found here. In the meantime, players can get a lot of enjoyment out of this outing, just remember, even though this is a choose your own adventure style game, it doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want when you want.
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Dec 6, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Violet try to take the franchise in a new direction, but can feel empty and hollow as a result. The open world has bright spots, especially multiplayer, however a lack of care in its design leads to a game that’s haphazard and lifeless.
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Dec 2, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Violet offer a unique and incredibly engaging experience that the series has desperately needed since its transition to 3D back in 2013. Unfortunately, it has also been released in an incredibly unoptimised state which sours the whole experience.
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Nov 28, 2022Despite the score, I’m going to spend a stupid amount of time in the world of Paldea. The technical issues with the game will eventually be fixed, and what will be left is a great Pokemon experience. If you’re still on the fence at this point, it’s certainly fair to wait for patches to smooth things out, but at some point I hope everyone can come along for the ride. And based on the opening weekend sales, I might’ve gotten my wish already.
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Nov 24, 2022Pokémon Scarlet & Violet represents the power struggle between innovation and execution. There’s so much promise in the idea of a fully integrated, cooperative Pokémon game, yet the final product I experienced with Pokémon Violet falls short of those aspirations. There’s still a lovable structure found within the game, driven by a more immersive world design and a new generation of adorable mons. Though the polish is lacking, failing to completely realise the ideas put in place and falling short of expectations.
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Nov 24, 2022With its world now completely open, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet clearly make for the best episodes of the saga, but also the most innovative. But on the other hand, it's also the worst in the entire franchise, because of its many bugs that make the internet laugh and its technique that harkens back to the PS2 era. Empty backdrops, blurry textures, framerate dropping all the time, gamers deserve better than this.
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Nov 21, 2022A milestone in the franchise - in both good and bad ways. In the end, the flaws of the 9th generation prevail, these editions do not go beyond disappointing average.
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LEVEL (Czech Republic)Jan 24, 2024Not 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]
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Jan 25, 2023Pokémon Scarlet and Violet brings the Pokémon series to an open world experience and while there's plenty here to enjoy and co-op gameplay stands out very positively, there are several elements that needed more work, namely the difficulty balance that puts a hindrance on open world exploration, and the technical performance that raises unnecessary obstacles. Overall Pokémon fans still have plenty to explore here, and the plot grows increasingly interesting near the end, but Scarlet and Violet definitely could have benefited from a bit more time in the works.
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Jan 3, 2023Pokemon Scarlet & Violet brings forth a much-needed evolution for the series. The core gameplay has been refined and rejuvenated to please fans new and old, however, its performance betrays it, preventing these games from reaching their full potential.
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Dec 24, 2022Pokemon Scarlet and Violet bring a lot of innovation to the mega-popular series of collecting and battling lovable pocket monsters, but all those great new ideas are undone by the game's criminally poor performance and bugs.
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Dec 16, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are big and ambitious and bold, but it's hard not to imagine what they could have been if they’d just been given a little more time to cook.
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Dec 12, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Violet make a strong case for the continued development of open-world Pokémon games, but its frankly unacceptable number of technical issues put a damper on the entire experience.
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Dec 5, 2022Playing with friends, coming up with battle strategies, and catching Pokemon are the most entertaining activities in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Unfortunately, the bland open world and technical problems weigh down what could have otherwise been another exceptional main series Pokemon game experience. The bones are here to build something special, so hopefully future Pokemon games do the concept of an open-world Pokemon game justice.
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Dec 1, 2022Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is an audacious experiment toward the franchise's future and hosts a lot of potential to grow into something that changes everything we know about Pokemon for the better. It has a lot of issues in performance which could do with some tender love and care, but that doesn't stray from the fact it's a solid, wholesome Pokemon game down to its core.
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Nov 29, 2022It’s hard to make a bad Pokémon game because the series’ standard gameplay is still so satisfying. But you can make a disappointing one, and that’s exactly what Game Freak did here. Whether it can be blamed on a lack of time, a lack of resources, or a lack of talent within the developer itself, Pokémon Violet is not up to the level where a game of this caliber should be. And while I will gladly continue to fill out my Pokédex until I’ve captured every critter hiding in this world, I’m always going to be left mourning what this game should have been rather than what it ended up being.
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Nov 29, 2022As good as it is bad, Pokemon Violet & Scarlet doesn't do anything lightly. For the first time in the series, we experience a pure freedom. Paldea is very huge, Pokemon are numerous and it has never been so exciting to complete your Pokédex. However, the technical aspects are a pure disaster. Instead of being a Nintendo Switch must-have, this 9G starts is just a hyper addictive okay game.
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Nov 28, 2022These are games that anyone that has ever considered themselves a Pokemon fan deserves to play; but not today, and not in this state. One can only hope that a day will come when that recommendation can come easily; I’d like nothing more than to be able to do so.
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Nov 28, 2022Pokémon Scarlet & Violet is the greatest design leap in the history of this storied series. Unfortunately, it’s also unfinished, unpolished and doesn’t meet the fans' high expectations. There can be no more excuses for the woeful technical quality and graphics.
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Nov 25, 2022Pokémon Scarlet & Violet is a frustrating beast. I’ve enjoyed my time with it, and if you’re a Poké-fan you won’t begrudge it for the technical issues and design flaws, but it’s impossible to recommend when it feels so half-baked. There are good ideas here, but it feels like it would have benefited if developer Game Freak had been given a little more time to refine the numerous ideas here.
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Nov 24, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Violet jump between future and past, like their cover monsters. A freely explorable Open World but unable to performing well and killing all the new good ideas. It’s a classic from Game Freak, a place where every step forward is followed by some steps backward. And maybe is not enough anymore, it’s time to force the best-selling franchise in the world to grow up.
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Nov 23, 2022The open-world gameplay of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a brilliant direction for the future of the franchise, but this promising shift is sabotaged by the numerous ways in which Scarlet and Violet feel deeply unfinished.
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Nov 23, 2022Unfortunately, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet didn’t get the development time they deserved. It’s hard to see a franchise that means so much to me finally start heading in the right direction only to come up short. I sincerely hope that Game Freak and Nintendo will start listening to fans and critics and turn things around.
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Nov 17, 2022Pokémon's first fully open-world title has a lot of ideas but never quite manages to stick the landing with any of them.
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Nov 17, 2022The basic mechanics of Pokemon remain largely untouched – it's still catching, battling, and training as you remember it – and while that may be enough for many devotees, Generation 9 is a tougher sell for those who need more of a reason to engage with the series, impacted as it is by technical issues, mechanical oversights, and a lack of vision. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet should have been a bright and bold entry that sets the series up for future expansion, but an attempt to modernize while staying loyal to the past hasn't really succeeded in doing either one – and the headache doesn't help, to boot.
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Nov 17, 2022Here, Game Freak draws up an exciting new open-world blueprint for the Pokémon franchise, but appears to have lacked the time and knowhow to deliver it to spec. Compare this with June’s gorgeous Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which runs on the same console, and it’s hard to shake the feeling that you’re beta testing an open-world Pokémon. With more time in the oven, this could have been genuinely exciting. As it stands, this fun-filled adventure asks you to put up with an awful lot more of the rough than the smooth.
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Dec 1, 2022Pokémon Scarlet is a good game undone by extremely poor performance. The open-world set-up is fantastic, and the title does a good job of letting you wander into the deep end, but not forcing you to drown. Unfortunately, the copious amount of technical issues with it prevent it from reaching the heights it should have.
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Dec 21, 2022Pokémon Scarlet and Violet somehow manage to be the best entries to the series and the worst ones, at the same time. Even though there’s plenty of fun to be had in Paldea, awarding these unbelievably buggy games a higher score would be a disservice to everyone, including Game Freak.
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Dec 10, 2022Pokémon Scarlet/Violet had the potential to become the most exciting adventure in its entire history. New battle mechanics, an improved UI and a gameplay that has matured over the years, along with the appearance of an open-world region, could have been the game that all fans deserved. Ultimately though, The Pokémon Company delivers a rough-on-the-edges, unpolished and underdeveloped game, with an amount of graphical and technical inconsistencies that reveal the lack of time the developers had.
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Nov 28, 2022Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is an imaginative reinvention of the iconic Pokemon adventure, with a heart wrenching story and a real sense of soul, which is let down by sloppy mechanics, half-fulfilled ideas and disappointingly common cut corners.
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Nov 28, 2022Pokémon Violet offers a ton of familiar and enhanced fun, but the lack of polish and outright unacceptable performance let it down as one of Nintendo's most iconic franchises. The open-world setting and gameplay additions hint at an exciting future for the Pokémon franchise, but the state this was released in too often overshadows that. Before it's been patched up and optimised, it's tough to recommend.
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Nov 28, 2022What nearly sinks Pokémon Violet in the end isn’t any pretense of player freedom. Rather, it’s the game’s glaring technical issues, as this is easily one of the sloppiest-looking triple AAA titles in recent memory.
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Nov 25, 2022Scarlet and Violet is a pair of obviously rushed products that look so much poorer for following an excellent refreshment in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Regressive and outmoded, the ninth Pokémon generation still boasts some enjoyable content but I couldn’t in good faith say it’s a quality experience. The utterly shameful performance issues hammer home how crudely made it is. It’s staggering just how terribly it runs. We’ve pilloried games for less, but we’re supposed to just accept it here because it’s Pokémon...It’s still fun, sure, but that fun is not enough to excuse its many, many failings. Not at all.
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| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
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Jan 20, 2023Took them long enough, but Game Freak finally delivered on their vision for an open world. Pokémon Scarlet & Violet know full well how to mix up exploration, combat and monster collection; and feature abnormally good stories. These start slow, but end up kicking like thunder. Definitely worth experiencing. [Recommended]
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Nov 17, 2022It's Pokemon. It works...Unfortunately, the weaknesses of Pokemon games are very much still present. Interacting with other characters in Pokemon games is always a drag, with reams of dry dialogue reliably halting momentum. Now that exploration is more free and alluring than ever, the plodding interactions with friends and rivals induce correspondingly larger groans. Some of the Gym Leaders are cute, but the vast majority of people you meet have the depth of cardboard cutouts. Lack of voice acting can make cutscenes almost comically ineffective. One interaction with a rapping character falls especially flat. But, like past games, those frustrations abate in the wild. Collecting Pokemon is still addictive, and feeling the wind breeze in your hair as you travel through the open world is a thrill -- even if a stuttering frame rate makes the wind more choppy than you'd like.
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Nov 17, 2022An interesting reworking of the traditional Pokémon gameplay for an open-world setting brought low by its lifeless environments and graphics
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Nov 18, 2022The age of the Switch's hardware and GameFreak's prowess as a studio is on full display in the newest Pokemon release as we see muddy textures and single frame animations. While we get a new crop of cute Pokemon, a more open world, and new battle mechanics we're unfortunately stuck trudging along at a snail's pace because of the game itself. [Quick Look]
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Dec 1, 2022I really hope that the performance issues don’t ultimately define how we talk about this generation of games. This isn’t just a game that needed more time in production—Paldea is fundamentally not designed to be pleasant to explore. The open-world mechanics might have felt more novel if I hadn’t also fallen off Pokémon Legends: Arceus earlier this year for similar issues with samey world design and unremarkable graphics. Scarlet needed to clear that low bar, and it did not. Maybe by the time the next generation comes along, the series will be able to recapture what makes Pokémon so thrilling in the first place.
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Nov 17, 2022At its baseline, it’s a compelling enough Pokémon game, with stories among the series’ most memorable. However, as I reflect on Scarlet and Violet, I do find myself thinking back on Pokémon Legends: Arceus more fondly. It had some loose screws of its own, but it tightened so many more, ones that still jostle in Scarlet and Violet. I’m hopeful that Arceus is the foundation for the next outing in the series, even if there are lessons to be learned in the open fields of Paldea, as well.
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Nov 17, 2022None of these issues amount to a deal-breaker. I had a lot of fun with Violet and Scarlet, and I’ve already gone back into the world after the credits rolled so that I can fill out my pokédex and dig into the post-game missions. The present of Pokémon is arguably as good as it’s ever been. This new release is huge and varied; it took me 30 hours to wrap up the main storyline, and there’s still lots to do. (I haven’t even been able to try out the online features yet.) At the same time, it feels like we’ve reached the limit of what the Switch is capable of, at least for this style of game.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 635 out of 2050
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Mixed: 205 out of 2050
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Negative: 1,210 out of 2050
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Nov 19, 2022Pokémon scarlet and violet are masterpieces, also I’m first review which is nice but go play this game
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Nov 19, 2022
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Nov 19, 2022