Pokemon Violet

 Switch
User Score
4.0

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 2050 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 635 out of 2050
  2. Mixed: 205 out of 2050
  3. Negative: 1,210 out of 2050
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  1. localnativeeemi
    Nov 19, 2022
    1
    Terrible performance would ruin this game even if it was pleasant as a game. Even in curated cutscenes in small rooms with a small number of characters on-screen, their animations drop to literal slideshows where you can count 2-3 individual frames in their looped animation.

    Beyond being essentially non-functional on the technical side, the game's another creative downgrade. Player    Terrible performance would ruin this game even if it was pleasant as a game. Even in curated cutscenes in small rooms with a small number of characters on-screen, their animations drop to literal slideshows where you can count 2-3 individual frames in their looped animation.

    Beyond being essentially non-functional on the technical side, the game's another creative downgrade. Player customization in terms of clothing has been almost entirely removed. The little bits we have left, like socks, hats and gloves clash with the game's uniforms.

    Cities are basically empty. 90% of houses are inaccessible facades. And 90% of the remaining 10% are shop menus. You don't even enter a shop anymore and see customers/mannequins. It's just a menu where you select purchases from.

    Lacking around half of all Pokemon is, of course, still a major turn-off from the franchise that, for over 2 decades, said "Gotta catch 'em all".

    Awful games.    … Expand
  2. Flango
    Nov 19, 2022
    2
    This game was specifically made for this console and is worse then many better looking and better playing ports.
  3. Googy
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    an irredeemable mess from a multi billion dollar franchise, Crashes/frame rate issues poor texture quality poor pop in poor texture pop in, dreadful music. the first game in the series I will be refunding.
  4. 360barrier
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    jesus christ how long did it take for them to make this game? 3 weeks? what on earth are these animations man its absolutely atrocious. lazy, unfinished and is not worth the money.

    and now for the usual Awful graphics, awful controls, awful camera and bad theme. This is a pretty mediocre release in every way. Graphics are like welcome to five years ago. Were they blindfolded when    jesus christ how long did it take for them to make this game? 3 weeks? what on earth are these animations man its absolutely atrocious. lazy, unfinished and is not worth the money.

    and now for the usual

    Awful graphics, awful controls, awful camera and bad theme. This is a pretty mediocre release in every way. Graphics are like welcome to five years ago. Were they blindfolded when making the camera? Main character is boring. Hopefully this is the last game in the series    … Expand
  5. greninjaX
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    another disappointing pokemon game. these games are being rushed out way too fast. their bare bones, dumbed down, and don't even function properly. gamefreak learned nothing from the SWSH controversy.
  6. Blentz499
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    I'm a huge Pokemon fan, but the performance in these games are unacceptable. It almost never hits a steady framereate with terrible memory leak and slowdown. There is almost no anti aliasing anywhere in the game. This is an embarrassment for Nintendo who used to be about delivering a quality game. The graphics look comparable to games 20 years ago. I don't need photorealism, but thisI'm a huge Pokemon fan, but the performance in these games are unacceptable. It almost never hits a steady framereate with terrible memory leak and slowdown. There is almost no anti aliasing anywhere in the game. This is an embarrassment for Nintendo who used to be about delivering a quality game. The graphics look comparable to games 20 years ago. I don't need photorealism, but this doesn't even meet basic quality standards that most AAA games have. Shame on Gamefreak and Nintendo for releasing this abortion of a Pokemon title.… Expand
  7. GStriker
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    Filled with bugs, glitches, horrendous graphics, poor performance, tons of lag, buggy and bad animations, litteraly an unfinished game.
    If this is standars for pokemon games in 2022 its embarassing.
    Not worth 60$, not even worth 10$. If you want a pokemon game for nintendo switch i recommend legends arceus instead of this crap. Really dissapointing game coming from the grossest media    Filled with bugs, glitches, horrendous graphics, poor performance, tons of lag, buggy and bad animations, litteraly an unfinished game.
    If this is standars for pokemon games in 2022 its embarassing.

    Not worth 60$, not even worth 10$.

    If you want a pokemon game for nintendo switch i recommend legends arceus instead of this crap.

    Really dissapointing game coming from the grossest media franchise ever.    … Expand
  8. World_Norsky
    Nov 19, 2022
    4
    Pokemon Violet will literally shift my behavior to purchase a hard copy in the future. It is nonrefundable with the digital version. I looked through hundreds of posts on twitter and decided to refund my preorder the day before it released, but it forced me to download. Even though I knew it would not be so great, the real game nevertheless is even worse than my expectation. The starters'Pokemon Violet will literally shift my behavior to purchase a hard copy in the future. It is nonrefundable with the digital version. I looked through hundreds of posts on twitter and decided to refund my preorder the day before it released, but it forced me to download. Even though I knew it would not be so great, the real game nevertheless is even worse than my expectation. The starters' designs were not fantastic, no access to any buildings except for those in the storyline, rigid motions, too many bugs. GF is absolutely deluded by feedbacks from Arceus. Indeed, players were saying that they wanted an open world doesn't mean you have to follow an advice from laypeople. Game Freak, you guys are the game producers afterall, and you don't even know what to do with this game. That's horrible.… Expand
  9. PaulGR
    Nov 19, 2022
    1
    We are beta-testing a Pokémon open world for them.

    Technical Issues: - Performance is atrocious for a triple-AAA company releasing on a stable console OS. - The game has serious fps drops on my new Switch OLED. I get drops that feel as low as 4-8 fps, and the game seems to barely be above 25 fps. It’s giving me a headache. - There are shadows flickering all over the place. NPC and    We are beta-testing a Pokémon open world for them.

    Technical Issues: - Performance is atrocious for a triple-AAA company releasing on a stable console OS.

    - The game has serious fps drops on my new Switch OLED. I get drops that feel as low as 4-8 fps, and the game seems to barely be above 25 fps. It’s giving me a headache.

    - There are shadows flickering all over the place. NPC and Pokémon shadows are barely 10 pixels each. It feels like trying to run a PC game on low because you do not meet the recommend specs.

    - NPCs move around like robots at 3 FPS like a slideshow, unless you are very close to them. - Many times the camera clips underground and you can see the abyss below. This happens often in trainer battles that are on elevated ground. - On several occasions I have fell through the floor and had to reset my Switch OLED because I was stuck in the “falling” animation.

    - Character movement is so weird and clunky. You move like a robot too, snapping into a locked position when ascending/descending. Movement isn’t fluid and realistic. - Lighting is as bad as it gets. Many times the time of day causes your character to look pitch black (even though you are white). Other times the lighting causes your character to look completely white like a ghost.

    Weird Graphics:
    - Graphics are atrocious in my opinion. I’d rather have the more cute, bright and “cartoony” style of SwSh than this more “realistic” style mode. It’s creepy because Pokémon now look like actual real animals.

    Empty World:
    - The world is big but barren and depressing. There is no depth and detail to anything. The world is as big as the ocean but as deep as a puddle. There is just nothing to see or do, other than traverse large distances that are empty of content. The cities are entirely dead, the majority of the NPCs can’t be interacted with, and all the stores pop-up Trade UI menus to buy and sell. There are no store interiors any more. The lazy failures didn’t even design a simple clothing shop. Character: - Character customization is terrible. There are only 4 outfits that are just ugly. Tights pants that are orange with stripes? Who thought of that? It’s like you are wearing clown pants. Every player looks the same now. There is zero diversity. Zero role playing value. The accessories you can change (gloves/hat/bag) are a few recolors that feel pointless since the main attire is disgusting. SwSh had the best clothing options, especially with the DLCs. You could role-play as anything. Not any more. You are stuck wearing clown-pants with suspenders throughout the game. Pokémon: - The new Pokémon are mediocre. They are literally a pig, a flamingo (named Flamigo), and a few birds. It looks like Animal Planet. Not a Pokémon game.

    Verdict:
    This is definitely an early alpha version of the game released to the public. People need to start getting fired at Game Freak because this garbage is not a video game. This is really sue-able; especially if they do not offer refunds.    … Expand
  10. ApeironStrife
    Nov 19, 2022
    1
    Worst graphics and glitchy as hell
  11. MrNeedlemouse
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    People who give more than 6 don't know a sheep about videogames. When Cyberpunk released, everywhere get mad and called it a failure. Pokemon is full of bugs and glitch, worst game of 2022 because it has empty space, bad designed pokemon and FPS drops. How can anyone play this trash?
  12. seojoon98
    Nov 19, 2022
    1
    Their arrogance went too far. It is a clear fraud to launch into the market without even doing basic testing.
  13. MVILLANEZ
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    Gamefreak has scammed everyone with a $60 piece of garbage, they should be ashamed and promptly fix all the bugs. While theyre at it, finish the game because it was obviously incomplete.
  14. shu98
    Nov 19, 2022
    2
    As a long pokemon fan, i find this game insulting in many ways. I had always tried to find the good in all the last pokemon games to find em more enjoyable and fun, but this is just unacceptable.

    First, let's pretend this is a finished product (when it is clearly not) subjectively find the design of the new pokemon really lame and poorly inspired, the worst generation by far. Too much    As a long pokemon fan, i find this game insulting in many ways. I had always tried to find the good in all the last pokemon games to find em more enjoyable and fun, but this is just unacceptable.

    First, let's pretend this is a finished product (when it is clearly not) subjectively find the design of the new pokemon really lame and poorly inspired, the worst generation by far. Too much humanoid evolution and so many weird evolution. That is just my taste though so it wont matter much in the score.

    The story and narrative is good at times but quite bad and messy overall.
    The difficulty is completely unbalanced, since level scaling dont exist and as such you can trivialize most of the challenges simply chosing a certain order.
    I dont expect much from a pokemon game in these two categories though, so i can let that slide.

    The real problem is: the game is totally void. It is big in its scope, but devoid of any type of activity, sidequest, interaction with npc. City are totally empty and useless, the open world is big without a level design. You just roam around to pick items at some point, since if you challenge all the trainer you will fing yourself overlevelled, unless you constantly change your party making it weaker on purpose. I am not even talking about team star base and "boss", such a disappontment

    The quality of life is reduced from some of his previous interaction, you cannot turn down the animation and fight style is fixed on set, so you cannot decide to turn it down from option, just like the exp share.

    Honestly, a pokemon game even in its lowest moment managed to be fun since its core gameplay is extremely rewarding and functional per se, even considering its poor story, childish character development, low difficlutybut and mid to low level design in puzzle and exploration. This time they manage to make a pokemon game almost boring, even as a die hard fan.

    That would be a 6 for me, if not for the fact that this game is not finished. It should not have been sold in this state, it is like a alpha rather than a finished product.
    Aside for the low quality res and texture, except for the pokemon model which are greatly improved from the previous game, everything is a mess.
    Performance is really bad, 15 fps in some moment even lower, despite being few object on screen,
    camera angle problem, glitch, soft lock and some real issue about lighting and npc modeling.

    The switch is not the problem, optimization is.
    This is the first time i am asking for a refund, it should be illegal to sell a game in this state.    … Expand
  15. 32fromdiscord
    Nov 19, 2022
    2
    The main game is fun enough for Pokémon, the open world is nice and allows for lots of freedom, some of the battles were genuinely hard, but the presentation is just off. The game severely lacks polish with its terrible graphics, bad performance and unacceptable amount of glitches. Ignoring the technical issues, the game lacks the kind of content that made the older games so beloved. TheThe main game is fun enough for Pokémon, the open world is nice and allows for lots of freedom, some of the battles were genuinely hard, but the presentation is just off. The game severely lacks polish with its terrible graphics, bad performance and unacceptable amount of glitches. Ignoring the technical issues, the game lacks the kind of content that made the older games so beloved. The postgame amounts to an extra 40 minutes of story to conclude the game, a **** battle facility (calling it that is not even really accurate), 6/7 star raids and a wild area-esque area for catching Paradox Pokémon. **** GSC had more content than this, and that was on a 2 MB cartridge for a 20 year old console. Hell, Crystal even has a Battle Tower, which this game lacks. There's no excuse.

    Honestly, I haven't even touched on the various problems I have with this game, but pointing out the main ones should be enough to tell you everything you need to know about it. It is not acceptable for a game from the biggest franchise in the world to be released in this state at full price, and if there isn't a series of patches to fix the numerous issues with the game, then I would be very dissapointed. I give Scarlet/Violet a rating of 2 purely because I got some form of enjoyment out of playing it, which is more than I can say for SwSh, but I had to bring the score down due to the aforementioned issues.    … Expand
  16. OnlyOneHere
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    This game is extremely expensive. The greedy developers are charging a ridiculous price of $120 to get the complete experience of this broken game. I had already written a review of Pokemon Scarlet. I don't think I need to repeat myself. The game is a broken piece of garbage full of bugs, glitches, pop-ins, awful framerate, crashes, freezes, stuttering, clipping issues, stuck on blackThis game is extremely expensive. The greedy developers are charging a ridiculous price of $120 to get the complete experience of this broken game. I had already written a review of Pokemon Scarlet. I don't think I need to repeat myself. The game is a broken piece of garbage full of bugs, glitches, pop-ins, awful framerate, crashes, freezes, stuttering, clipping issues, stuck on black screen, you name it. Metacritic needs to bundle these games together for reviews, because it is the exact same trash. Just because the developers cut the game in half doesn't make it a different game. It is still the same game split in half.

    The graphics are a joke. They are charging $120 for goodness sake, we should expect much better graphics at that premium price. Stray was $30 at launch and Dakar Desert Rally is $40, both of these games look 100 times better. Game Freak has more money than Stray and Dakar devs combined by a landslide, and this game cost way more than those 2 games combined. Nintendo and Pokemon make billions of dollars meaning there is literally no excuse for such puke-worthy graphics from these cheap and lazy developers. It's funny how Pokemon fans make fun of Call of Duty for being the same game every year. What does that make Pokemon then? At least Activision doesn't charge $120 upfront for a shovelware game.

    As of right now with the insane price of $120, I can honestly say without a shadow of doubt that this is the worst game I have ever played in my life. Keep in mind that I have been playing video games since the Atari days. Nintendo, you better start contacting those retailers about refunds because I expect a full refund. You will not get away with the biggest heist of the video game industy. Speaking of which, this game is the laughing stock of the video game industry. I am beyond infuriated with this scam. I don't recommend this joke of game at all.    … Expand
  17. mestaku
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    Someone should pay you to play this absolute garbage game. The graphics are the same as some random bad game from 2005.
  18. Tomplexthis
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    This game is unplayable, and all it does is crash, stutter, or freeze, at 5 frames a second.
  19. joaresazrio123
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    This game is is extremely broken in many ways. The game itself is a broken and buggy mess. The game meta is broken from the get go with recovery nerfed, a OP gimmick and a lot of offensive new threats and online still rubbish. Fix your bloody game GF!!
  20. airmaverick
    Nov 19, 2022
    3
    Rose colored pokemon goggles shouldn't save the performance dumpster fire of Scarlet and Violet.

    Characters and animations often move at a robotic 3fps, clipping, pop ins, stuttering, pausing between actions, ugly textures, wonky camera - and it happens non-stop. Whilst the aging switch hardware is a limitation, there many other better looking and more expansive games that run way    Rose colored pokemon goggles shouldn't save the performance dumpster fire of Scarlet and Violet.

    Characters and animations often move at a robotic 3fps, clipping, pop ins, stuttering, pausing between actions, ugly textures, wonky camera - and it happens non-stop.
    Whilst the aging switch hardware is a limitation, there many other better looking and more expansive games that run way better than this.

    If somehow you can get past all the performance issues (I couldn't) the game play itself feels mediocre at best. A lot of the innovation introduced by Arceus is ignored here.

    Music and sound is poor with weird silences throughout and the lack of voice acting for a fully realized 3D adventure is disappointing.

    If you want to play a Pokemon game I recommend any other in the series over this. After the "fresh air" of Arceus, this game is a new stifling all time low.    … Expand
  21. Zenata
    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.
  22. Axonnius
    Nov 19, 2022
    2
    Game is borderline unplayable in its current state. Absolutely shameful of Nintendo to allow it on the shelves. Speaking As a huge Pokémon fan, please don’t buy this
  23. D1ztortion
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    Honestly I don't know why Nintendo with Game Freak keeps doing games like this. Besides the technical issues from glitches and bugs (you can already know that from other reviews) the story is nothing new, nice music, nice models, bad animation and map interactions(textures), if you are a casual player a who is willing to pay 60 bucks for a demo version go ahead, it might be your game then,Honestly I don't know why Nintendo with Game Freak keeps doing games like this. Besides the technical issues from glitches and bugs (you can already know that from other reviews) the story is nothing new, nice music, nice models, bad animation and map interactions(textures), if you are a casual player a who is willing to pay 60 bucks for a demo version go ahead, it might be your game then, or maybe if you are a 7 year old kid who doesn't really care.… Expand
  24. Daniel44
    Nov 19, 2022
    1
    After ignoring the unacceptable graphics of pokemon the cuts on the dex and the previous realised pokemon remakes of diamond and pearl this game made all of that look pretty good games yes I love the fact pokemon scarlet and violet is open world it is mo excuse for the performance of the game the glitch of the camera and more and I found all of this with only 3h of gameplay
  25. Theplayfulgamer
    Nov 19, 2022
    1
    Poor graphics, glitches, fps drops, there's a lot of games with better graphics on switch than this and don't haven 10% of problems pokemon scalet has. Lacking of PT-BR localization, again.
  26. souziago
    Nov 28, 2022
    0
    N64 textures, bugs, glitches... You name it. Pokemon Violet has it all. I can't believe this was made by a multi-billion dollar company.
  27. Vegetasan
    Nov 27, 2022
    0
    HOW DID POKÉMON VIOLET PASS GOLD CERTIFICATION?! Everything SUCKS!! I only liked the music's and pokemon new designs but.. GRAPHICS PERFORMANCE SUCKS BUTT!!
  28. Versalador
    Nov 27, 2022
    0
    I did everything in my power to like the game, I even made like 15 videos explaining everything about the game...

    But you can't, you simply can't ignore how insulting the gameplay and NPC design is.
  29. Paenguin
    Nov 27, 2022
    0
    Ok i'm still halfway through the story and have not finished the game but man, the graphics and performance really ticks me off. I feel really scammed into buying this game. Everything else is nice and good but i should not have been made to pay full price for this game. At the get go you will really feel that you are playing a browser game. The lag is framerate drop is really noticeableOk i'm still halfway through the story and have not finished the game but man, the graphics and performance really ticks me off. I feel really scammed into buying this game. Everything else is nice and good but i should not have been made to pay full price for this game. At the get go you will really feel that you are playing a browser game. The lag is framerate drop is really noticeable when you are in cities and when in the open world, i dont notice the pokemon spawn since there is a spawn delay. I also have experienced crahes early on so it really destroys the experience. i would not recommend buying this game nor celebrating the developers due to the unpolished nature of the game. Yes it is going to be fixed but its not supposed to be that way. They shouldve charged way less for this game.… Expand
  30. Zekyu
    Nov 25, 2022
    3
    La manera en que hicieron el cambio a mundo abierto fue muy buena, desafortunadamente el trabajo entregado al final fue mediocre, caidas de cuadros constantes, calidad gráfica pobre que lo hace parecer con escenarios sacados de Nintendo 64 y un sin fin de bugs. Una lastima que Nintendo haya entregado al público un producto en tan terribles condiciones.

    Y para aqueyos que tanto lo    La manera en que hicieron el cambio a mundo abierto fue muy buena, desafortunadamente el trabajo entregado al final fue mediocre, caidas de cuadros constantes, calidad gráfica pobre que lo hace parecer con escenarios sacados de Nintendo 64 y un sin fin de bugs. Una lastima que Nintendo haya entregado al público un producto en tan terribles condiciones.

    Y para aqueyos que tanto lo defienden, no olviden que hay Breath of The Wild o Xenoblade 3    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

3
#3 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 118 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 55 out of 118
  2. Mixed: 61 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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