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. ChainsawMcConel
    Nov 28, 2022
    6
    A Step in the right Direction! You have a Open World which feels quite good even tho it feels quite empty sometimes. The Pokemon variety is overall alright, especially at the begining. Trainer Battles are mostly very easy as usual but sometimes you can find harder ones, always a small highlight. The Battles against Main Characters are actually Difficult! Not the Gym Leader Battles butA Step in the right Direction! You have a Open World which feels quite good even tho it feels quite empty sometimes. The Pokemon variety is overall alright, especially at the begining. Trainer Battles are mostly very easy as usual but sometimes you can find harder ones, always a small highlight. The Battles against Main Characters are actually Difficult! Not the Gym Leader Battles but Battles against the The Team Star Leaders or like the Battle against the Academy Director. Some Trainer can One shot you with ease. The 3 Main Storys are a welcomed change, The Bullying-Topic in the Team Star Story had a good Message in it. The Character Designs, Dialogues and the new Team (Team Star) are way more "normal" so you wont have many Cringe-Situations at all and especially no annoying Characters like you had a Ton of in Sword/Shield. Like our Rival is not an annoying Kid, but a nice looking and kind Teenager Girl, also the Game isnt to Childish, by which i mean not too Colorful in a wrong way. When i think of Pokemon Sun/Moon & Pokemon Sword & Shield i have to say that Pokemon Violet Purple is a much better Game.… Expand
  2. Fer010
    Nov 25, 2022
    6
    Since their debut in 1996, finally, Pokemon has been shown to be capable of delivering a story with more layers around the characters and the world of the game. Besides providing new mechanics, and a new wonderful way to play Pokemon that was just tasted with the Pokemon Legend: Arceus, sadly this wonderful franchise has shown to be in the wrong hands. The game is shown to be in worstSince their debut in 1996, finally, Pokemon has been shown to be capable of delivering a story with more layers around the characters and the world of the game. Besides providing new mechanics, and a new wonderful way to play Pokemon that was just tasted with the Pokemon Legend: Arceus, sadly this wonderful franchise has shown to be in the wrong hands. The game is shown to be in worst technical condition than its predecessor, full of bugs, glitches and game-breaking mechanics (like the pokemon cloning). It seems that the game needed more time to correct all these errors (like usual from Game Freak) this game for me is able to reach a 6 only for the features and not for quality, the game shows mechanically, shows, to be below average besides the name and the legacy that continues to have.… Expand
  3. QUIICKCLAW
    Dec 5, 2022
    7
    Pokémon Violet is a step in the right direction for GameFreak and the Pokémon Company.
    The first ‘truely open-world’ Pokémon game delivers on the expectation. Enjoyable world traversal, interesting locales to explore and unique Pokémon to find makes the Paldea region a joy to simply wander.
    For the first time in a while, GameFreak has also stepped up its character writing. Each of the    Pokémon Violet is a step in the right direction for GameFreak and the Pokémon Company.
    The first ‘truely open-world’ Pokémon game delivers on the expectation. Enjoyable world traversal, interesting locales to explore and unique Pokémon to find makes the Paldea region a joy to simply wander.

    For the first time in a while, GameFreak has also stepped up its character writing. Each of the prominent characters are a treat to deal with, Arven in particular, and Nemona is one of the first ‘Rival’ characters in some time to feel like a genuine rival to the player.

    Despite these excellent improvements to the series, Violet is not without some significant issues holding it back. Game slow-down is a major flaw in the Generation 9 experience, noticed in many areas across the game, sometimes to extreme degrees, quickly breaking immersion and gameflow.
    The game’s ‘Tera Raid Battles’ also suffer serious desync issues that result in buggy fights, confusion in what is happening and even serious glitches, such as being forced to sit on a white screen for up to a minute while battle sounds continue to play in the background.

    Pokémon Violet is 100% a step in the right direction for the Pokémon franchise, but its lack of polish is worrying as it seems to be becoming a bit of a norm.
    Had Violet been a polished experience on launch, it may have been lauded as the one of the best Pokémon games in a decade…    … Expand
  4. epeternally
    Dec 10, 2022
    5
    Rather lovely at its best moments, but hilariously buggy and shamelessly unfinished. This is one of those games that didn't need another 6 months of development, it needed another 12-18. The core gameplay loop is still fun - there's only so far you can screw up Pokemon, but none of us should have put up with this level of disrespect from Nintendo.
  5. Eleiyas
    Dec 6, 2022
    6
    Pokémon Violet is a good Pokémon game - but it is not a good game, if that makes sense.

    It's arguably one of the most fun and most modern Pokémon experiences we've had, which is why everyone is giving this a 10/10, however it is marred by technical issues; poor graphics, poor performance, scummy marketing practices that are a decade-outdated and more. Despite the Switch supporting    Pokémon Violet is a good Pokémon game - but it is not a good game, if that makes sense.

    It's arguably one of the most fun and most modern Pokémon experiences we've had, which is why everyone is giving this a 10/10, however it is marred by technical issues; poor graphics, poor performance, scummy marketing practices that are a decade-outdated and more.

    Despite the Switch supporting 1080p, 60fps, this game runs (docked) at 720p, 30fps - yet the thing is, you'll barely ever get those 30fps, because of the constant stuttering and assets loading in in the background.
    In certain areas and cities, you will be lucky to get 20fps, let alone 30fps.
    The graphics, despite being much better than some past titles, still pale in comparison to nearly any other modern game - heck, Breath of the Wild still looks better and that game is a good few years old now. Anything in the distance becomes a blur of muddy, tiled texture-work, while when you get close it just slaps the higher-fidelity texture on, with zero fade-in. It's incredibly jarring.
    One of the most crazy things is that this game makes Legends: Arceus look fantastic - and although they were developed at the same time, Arceus did come out first, meaning the older game does look better.
    It's also still debateable whether they should have settled on Let's Go: Pikachu/Eevee art-style and graphics, rather than this semi-realistic look they are currently going for (and kind-of failing at).
    This doesn't even cover the terrible coding this game seems to have, with NPCs and Pokémon dropping to 3fps when they go more than 1 metre away from the player, while when entering a city, the models will pop into existence mere centimetres from the player.

    In terms of other cons, the National Dex cut does still affect these games, so be prepared for scummy DLC that re-adds a bunch more mons in.
    There's also the topic of the dual-version release, which is still just as scummy as it always was.
    Scarlet and Violet, just like Sword/Shield and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, are the exact same game, just shipped with 2 lines of code differing between versions.
    As many dataminers have proved, you can actually get Violet to run as Scarlet using an extremely quick memory edit - which is ridiculous.
    This practice should have ended when the internet became accessible (DS era) - but it still exists in full force, to get unknowing/hardcore fans to pick up the dual pack and dual-DLC-pack for the extra $$$. Not to mention the Pokémon Home and Switch Online subs as well.

    Now, as I said, these games are fun and are arguably the best Pokémon games in a long time.
    For once, the story is actually darn good. Like, really darn good.
    Finding Pokémon in the overworld and such is also really nice and exploring Paldea on-top of the box-legend is a neat feature - although I would have preferred the Let's Go version where we could ride any Pokémon we owned.

    A big issue concerning the story elements though, is that there is no level-scaling. You can do everything out of order, which is a fresh-take on the formula, but the lack of level scaling means that if you do do things out of order, you might find yourself with level 30 mons against the "8th" gym with level 45-50s, or you could have level 60 mons against the "1st" gym that has level 14-15 mons.
    Essentially, if you don't want to get stomped, or don't want to do the stomping, you need to look up a "recommended guide/path" - which then makes the game extremely linear, just like every game before it. Also, because Gym Badges only work based on the caught-level, there is a high probability the player will take their level 5-10 starter and a couple of "route 1" mons and power-level to 50+, simply by exploring the map and catching/battling higher-level mons.

    I know I keep going kind of back and forth between pro and con here, but that is ultimately what the game is like. For every step forward, there are 1 or more steps backwards. Getting competitive Pokémon and power-levelling to 100 is easy with Raid Dens and such - but then you find out that certain options that were staples, like "battle mode" or "battle animations" have been completely removed for no apparent reason. Finding nearly the entire Pokédex, either in the wild or in Raid Dens is amazing, but then, due to the terrible pop-in and draw-distance, you will be zooming around on the box-legend and getting into so many tedious and unwanted wild battles, because you will not see the Pokémon you slammed into, before you slam into it.

    Overall, I'll rate Pokémon Violet (and Scarlet as they are the same game) a 6/10 on my end. They have potential, but should not have been released in this state - and for how long do we have to keep saying "it's a step in the right direction" before we get the game we actually should have on the Switch?    … Expand
  6. MentosFreshner
    Nov 29, 2022
    7
    Would be an easy 8 for me if it ran a bit better, maybe a 9 if the world was a bit more realised and polished. Can’t say I’ve encountered any major glitches, mostly just slowdown/frame rate stuff. I honestly have been loving my experience but I do think Pokémon deserves more time and care. They have such an amazing history of groundbreaking games and this one just seems to be scraping byWould be an easy 8 for me if it ran a bit better, maybe a 9 if the world was a bit more realised and polished. Can’t say I’ve encountered any major glitches, mostly just slowdown/frame rate stuff. I honestly have been loving my experience but I do think Pokémon deserves more time and care. They have such an amazing history of groundbreaking games and this one just seems to be scraping by in some places. That being said, the characters, story, music and Pokémon are all sweet as, the open world is fun to traverse too!… Expand
  7. xSpOokie
    Sep 1, 2023
    6
    after the realease we all know that the game had controversies , because of its poor performance and because of the game optimization , is by far the worst point about the game but there are a lot of other negative aspects .

    1. the first negative aspect that you realise just in the beginning of the game is that the variety of the first pokemons you encounter is SUPER blank , in terms of    after the realease we all know that the game had controversies , because of its poor performance and because of the game optimization , is by far the worst point about the game but there are a lot of other negative aspects .

    1. the first negative aspect that you realise just in the beginning of the game is that the variety of the first pokemons you encounter is SUPER blank , in terms of looks , choice and even powerfull pokemons , the pokemons that generally we are looking for in a new gen is of course the new pokemons , but the first couple of pokemons in the route makes that impossible and every person you see playing the game ends up leaving the first route with a fletchling and hoppip.

    2. the poor performance of this game is what it makes almost impossible to enjoy , at the beginning everyone who played the game thinked for themselfs " ah this isnt to bad , clearly has some graphical issues but i can deal with it" but all of us thought about it before getting into the academy , after that we can see how lame the graphical issues and the performance are even 3ds pokemons games had better performance than this game .

    3. the concept of Crystallization at first look it looked interesting and fun but after playing the game for a while you see how useless and boring it is , was something just to "had" since shield had dynamax version but tbh it would be better without it .

    4. the story , it is good , i saw some people saying that the game was probably one of the best stories in pokemon and could compete with black and white but that is the biggest lie anyone could tell you about this game , the story is good? debatable , why you ask? because the only thing really good about the story of the game was the final who gave us a little bit of more emotion about the story and nice little flavor like " this was a interesting experience , not the best , not the worst , but it had potential" but the final apart the story is like a 6/10 .

    yeah overall its not a good experience just for the fact that any possitive aspect will be almost unrelevant because of its performance , makes it almost impossible to enjoy , its not the worst to tho its a experience that you end with mixed feelings , but majority of your walkthrough will depend of how much you love pokemon.    … Expand
  8. Wushall
    Nov 30, 2022
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'm 30 years old and I played all the games in the franchise, and after being disappointed with Sword and Shield, I came with a lot of hype for this game.

    Yes, the performance of the game is terrible, the game is clearly not finished and gamefreak shouldn't have released this as a final product, the deadlines have clearly been cut so that it could be released this year, which I don't think was necessary as it had the remakes last year and Legend Of Arceus at the beginning of the year, you could have waited longer for these games to be released.

    As for the game itself, it's amazing. Open world exploration makes you lose hours walking around the map and forgetting to do the game's main quests, the variety and number of pokemons is also incredible and for the first time in the franchise, we had more serious stories with a heavier background and not just someone wanting to conquer the world. Team star's story is great and that of Arven and his father/mother and his dog brings tears to any pokemon fan. And the ending with Ed Sheeran's music hits the nail on the head.

    Finally, if you are going to analyze the game technically, it is a 7 because I can't ignore the low performance that gets in the way and irritates at times, but in terms of grandeur and history, this game, on a scale of 0 to 10, receives an 11. the best pokemon story and when you finish the story of area 0 after the league, it's a wonderful feeling that I've never felt in any pokemon game after all these years.    … Expand
  9. Danelius216
    Dec 1, 2022
    7
    Pokemon Violet was the first game I've been able to complete since Pokemon Y or Omega Ruby. I have purchased and failed to complete Pokemon Moon, Sword, Brilliant Diamond, and Legends Arceus. I do want to eventually go back and finish them, but I struggled to maintain focus. Pokemon Violet (and Scarlet are riddled with graphical glitches, bugs, and frustrating mechanics, however the corePokemon Violet was the first game I've been able to complete since Pokemon Y or Omega Ruby. I have purchased and failed to complete Pokemon Moon, Sword, Brilliant Diamond, and Legends Arceus. I do want to eventually go back and finish them, but I struggled to maintain focus. Pokemon Violet (and Scarlet are riddled with graphical glitches, bugs, and frustrating mechanics, however the core of the gameplay, story, and characters kept me there for the entire game. Pokemon riding my ass while battling something else and immediately getting me caught in unwanted battles was real frustrating. The "Let's Go" feature is pretty rough around the edges. Feeling unresponsive at times. The pop in is really bad, and frame drops sometimes make me want to turn the game off with how bad it can get. But that was only twice and never did I get a crash or bug that broke my game. To be honest it didnt sour my experience much because I was just happy that the core game was good. Great even. The new Pokemon are wonderful, the story is the best in the series in my opinion. The region is stellar (when it doesnt chug at 10 frames per second with pop in and such) but that didnt really kill my excitement. I felt like a kid again. I think people are too cynical about performance. This felt like a real Pokemon game and I hope with patches and bug fixes that it will just continue to get better with time and DLC. When the problems get fixed I can easily see this as a 9/10, but for now 7/10 is my score.… Expand
  10. Devashish623
    Dec 5, 2022
    7
    Pros: Amazing Soundtrack.
    Truly open world.
    When completely still/no bugs, game looks amazing! Heart touching story. Cons: Though I have not got any major bug, it might be cause I play offline solo, the game does run slow, which is to its detriment. Heck, a single player only person like me is giving this otherwise amazing game a 7 due to how bad the fps can be, and how slow and sluggish    Pros: Amazing Soundtrack.
    Truly open world.
    When completely still/no bugs, game looks amazing!
    Heart touching story.

    Cons:
    Though I have not got any major bug, it might be cause I play offline solo, the game does run slow, which is to its detriment. Heck, a single player only person like me is giving this otherwise amazing game a 7 due to how bad the fps can be, and how slow and sluggish it feels.
    The soundtrack does get boring soon due to repetition.    … Expand
  11. LysanderAG
    Dec 10, 2022
    5
    This game feels very rushed, doesnt even feel like an actual pokemon game because of how much bugs it has and the gameplay it has aswell, the graphics and sounds are some points, ill give you that, but id rather play pokemon yellow than buy and play this.
  12. VinceTrousers
    Dec 29, 2022
    5
    Overall, a shockingly disappointing downgrade from Legends Arceus in almost every regard. The world may be open, and you may be able to tackle objectives in any order, but the whole ordeal is so lifeless. It's like looking at a table with various slices of cheese laying about, not on plates or anything, just kinda sitting flat on the table. Some slices are slightly moldy, others have catOverall, a shockingly disappointing downgrade from Legends Arceus in almost every regard. The world may be open, and you may be able to tackle objectives in any order, but the whole ordeal is so lifeless. It's like looking at a table with various slices of cheese laying about, not on plates or anything, just kinda sitting flat on the table. Some slices are slightly moldy, others have cat hair on them, and the rare few that are clean were left out of the fridge for too long and taste somewhat passable, but are a little too soft and dubious to truly enjoy. You can eat the slices in any order you'd like though!… Expand
  13. StarterBordlord
    Feb 3, 2023
    7
    Pretty fun game, only reason I'm giving it a 7 is that I got softlocked because I kept on crashing in the 7th gym. Took me a literal month until it worked again.
  14. drseven
    Jun 30, 2023
    6
    A change is needed in the Pokemon saga. The low performance and the level of bugs that the game presents is frustrating, the draw distance is nil. The game is fun and the open world is a good implementation in the saga, but one of Nintendo's pillars like the Pokemon saga deserves better treatment and standards, since all the good ideas they raise are clouded by their technical section.
  15. Mene0
    Nov 25, 2022
    5
    Pokemon Violet(and Scarlet) is a clearly unfinished product. There is a very fun game beneath all the catastrophic performance issues, ugly graphics and animations and terrible design decisions, but these are very hard to overlook. If this wasn't a pokemon game it would have been bashed to hell and back by everyone, but apparently it's just "taking steps in the right direction" despitePokemon Violet(and Scarlet) is a clearly unfinished product. There is a very fun game beneath all the catastrophic performance issues, ugly graphics and animations and terrible design decisions, but these are very hard to overlook. If this wasn't a pokemon game it would have been bashed to hell and back by everyone, but apparently it's just "taking steps in the right direction" despite being a 30+ years old franchise that makes billions of dollars. The worst part is that this will never change, given the game's absolute sales success. Gamefreak will keep pumping out terrible products and holding a series dear to many hostage to terrible development. The amateurish is display here is staggering, and it saddens me to see a good game squashed by terrible decisions.… Expand
  16. kringle
    Nov 24, 2022
    5
    The game is fun, but with all of it's performance issues and glitches, it's barely passable. The best aspect of this game is the mixture of free open world exploration with the classic Pokemon formula, but even that isn't perfect. Gym battles strongly encourage the player to challenge the gym in a set order, and the three stories consist of battling, battling, and battling, with very fewThe game is fun, but with all of it's performance issues and glitches, it's barely passable. The best aspect of this game is the mixture of free open world exploration with the classic Pokemon formula, but even that isn't perfect. Gym battles strongly encourage the player to challenge the gym in a set order, and the three stories consist of battling, battling, and battling, with very few changes to make each story stand on its own, making the choice to focus on certain paths less engaging. Like most Pokemon games, this one introduces new features, but also lacks ones that made older titles appealing. Most new Pokemon are cool, the soundtrack is catchy, and QOL upgrades enhance the open world exploration, but for all good features, there's several aspects of the game that make it hard to enjoy these. The game looks more or less better than the previous title, Pokemon Legends Arceus, but at the cost of the framerate costantly chugging and Pokemon constantly popping up frustratingly clise to the player. Another downgrade from Pokemon Legends is the lack of any ability to catch Pokemon without battling. One would think Legends style catching would be a priority to make the open world experience more convinient, but the feature is unfortunately absent. As of writing this post, I have around 50 hours clicked into the game, with the three stories close to completion, but I don't find myself playing the game as much since the cons of the game are starting to wear me down. If Pokemon Scarlet and Violet get performance patches that fix various issues in a reasonable amount of time, I would love to return to review this game with a more positive outlook, but if these issues remain unaddressed, I can't see myself return to this game, or even the series if The Pokemon Company sweeps these issues under the rug and start development on another rushed game. I'm sorry if my writing style came across as sloppy, I haven't written any long posts in a while.… Expand
  17. twinmannequin
    Nov 22, 2022
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Ahh, Pokémon Violet. Where to even begin...

    I feel like there are two sides of this game to discuss: the actual game, and the performance.

    So, first off, for those of you who are of the opinion that the majority of the reviews being negative is indicative of some trolling or review-bombing, that isn't what this is about. At least for me personally, the only reason I would be so passionately frustrated by this game in the first place would be because I love this series. Pokémon is a staple of my childhood, and like a parent, I've been waiting for the day my child would finally mature and become the beautiful person I knew they could. That has... sort of happened here.

    If you're like me, then this is the first game in the mainline series you've played since X and Y, though you've watched the series through a window for the past decade, wondering when it would change. If we ignore all the technical stuff (which we definitely will come to), then this really is the best Pokémon game I've ever played.

    The combat is actually difficult now, where a super-effective move doesn't just one-shot your opponent, there are many new moves that incentivize more strategic plays that aren't just about doing the most damage as soon as possible. The story is actually enjoyable??? The narratives in these games have always just been "I love Pokémon so much :))", "I want to steal Pokémon >:)))", "Nooo!! Stop right there Mr. Mean, Pokémon are our friends", and while it's still no Breaking Bad, I have actually found myself smiling and laughing at the dialogue and being genuinely intrigued by some of the concepts. The first Team Star boss battle where I get to the final opponent and realise it's the CAR ITSELF, really did make my jaw drop - I never thought a Pokémon game would be capable of giving me those sorts of memorable and unique moments.

    The designs of this generation are honestly some of my favourite ever, especially since you see them naturally walking around in herds in their natural habitats - it's really immersive and helps ground this series in a way it's been begging for for years now.

    But, but, but, but, but, BUT. MY. GOD. The performance of this game is just awful. It's PLAYABLE. But that is literally the lowest possible bar for any game to pass let alone POKÉMON, the largest entertainment franchise in the entire world, and it frustrates me to see the fans who are willing to defend this at any cost. I'M A FAN! We're all in the same boat here! I agree that this is a fantastic game! But dude could you imagine what a memorable masterpiece it would be if it looked beautiful too? Imagine if all the NPCs further than 5 feet from you moved at more than 2 frames per second, what if the city off in the distance didn't look like a school science fair model of itself made out of cardboard and paper mâché, what if the lighting from the Terra crystals didn't make the ground become pixelated like TV static? And this isn't me saying I need this game to have more conventionally "good" graphics, which nowadays basically means "realistic", I'm just saying that so many games of this caliber have pulled off this simple, cartoonish, but vibrant and engaging style in a way that looks amazing on this same hardware: BotW, Xenoblade 3, Dragon Quest 11, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Mario Odyssey, MH Rise, etc. etc. etc. I'm not sure what exactly lead to the game releasing in this state, but I really don't believe it was due to a lack of passion on the part of the developers, because this game shines in that regard in every other aspect: the music, world design, Pokémon design, characters, activities, narrative, the UI - specifically the PokéDex which is just super neat and fun this time around - the picknicking with your team, the slapping music, the interesting new gyms, the Titan encounters.

    I absolutely adore this game, it really is amazing, but it's just such a terrible shame that I'm essentially ignoring how bad it looks and feels in order to enjoy it fully.    … Expand
  18. edta_na
    Dec 5, 2022
    6
    The story of this game, is one of the better ones since the days of B/W and B/W 2. But, the performance issues are atrocious. It would have been better, if Scarlet and Violet were scheduled for a late 2023 release instead.
  19. Joogz
    Nov 23, 2022
    5
    I am disgusted as a life long Pokemon fan. How is this game the same $60 dollars that say BoTW is or Cyberpunk 2077? I feel cheated. This should be a $20 game. I am not sure that the devs even care or are trying. I think the Pokemon franchise is just a cash cow at this point that fans will mindlessly purchase. This will be the last time I preorder a Pokemon game.

    The Good: - New    I am disgusted as a life long Pokemon fan. How is this game the same $60 dollars that say BoTW is or Cyberpunk 2077? I feel cheated. This should be a $20 game. I am not sure that the devs even care or are trying. I think the Pokemon franchise is just a cash cow at this point that fans will mindlessly purchase. This will be the last time I preorder a Pokemon game.

    The Good:
    - New Pokemon Designs
    - The attempt at shaking up the formula.
    - The gimmick. A nice compromise between Z-moves and Dynamax.

    The Bad:
    - Graphics and performance. The game looks and runs worse than games on the switch that came out 5 years ago.
    - The game has significantly less trainers than prior Pokemon games and the great majority of them only have one Pokemon to battle you with, which you almost always out level by 20 levels or so.
    - No level scaling, which means even though its open world, there is little variation you can take from the planned route, and the fact that you are gate kept by the HM Pokemon that you ride on.
    - I didn't think it would be possible to make a Pokemon game even easier than the Let's Go games or Sword and Shield, but here we are. This is by far the easiest Pokemon game due to lack of level scaling minimal trainers, and very simplistic and easy trainers. For the Team challenges you have 10 minutes, which would be easy even for one who had significant intellectual disabilities, and provides zero challenge or reward to the vast majority of the population including children. The gym battles are the easiest in the franchise. I wish they had some respect for their audience and at least made it as difficult as Black and White or Sun and Moon. Considering adults make up the great majority of the video game player base.
    - Androgynous character models. They made it so that all characters have the body of a boy. They got rid the ability to change your clothes. There is no skirt or feminine clothes for the character model. They went full woke gender neutral, which was a huge disappointment for most of the population.
    - The "three stories" that were so heavily marketed are a variation of the same three stories (Pokemon gyms, team whatever, and legendary Pokemon) all Pokemon games have, except they are now told in a jarring and asynchronous manner that doesn't do the lackluster story any favors.
    - No voice acting in a $60 dollar game. Seriously, still?
    - Lack of endgame content. Most boring endgame of any Pokemon game.    … Expand
  20. Turambar501
    Nov 20, 2022
    6
    Although a step forward in certain aspects, they are also some steps back in many other ways.
    - The Pokemon designs not only are the most forgettable in the franchise, but they feel out of place, incoherent, even BAD.
    - Not that Gigantamax was great, but Terracrystalization simply isn't well implemented, like other new mechanics. Once you use it, you have to go back to a Pokemon center    Although a step forward in certain aspects, they are also some steps back in many other ways.
    - The Pokemon designs not only are the most forgettable in the franchise, but they feel out of place, incoherent, even BAD.
    - Not that Gigantamax was great, but Terracrystalization simply isn't well implemented, like other new mechanics. Once you use it, you have to go back to a Pokemon center and recharge it, so you'll end up using it around 10 times in the whole game.
    - About the story and structure, one cannot help but compare it to Fire Emblem Three Houses with its multiple paths, the academy, etc., but it looks GameFreak just forgot about a good cast, memorable situations and a good story. And let's obviate the tehcnical optimisation.

    However, the new region finds some charm here and there, inspired by the Spanish and Portuguese cultures (as Sword and Shield so well did), mainly in the interior designs and the exterior of houses. The bigger size of the region, helps the game feel more immersive at times, although at the same time, the lack of coherence and engage makes it also feel more inert than ever. It feels rather empty.

    Overall, they are fine game. If you're expecting a Pokemon game, these are Pokemon games. But their inspiration and polish leave a lot to desire. It tries more than Sword and Shield. Fails much more than Sword and Shield. Better than Legends Arceus? Sure. Some additions are welcome, but the thing is that for each one of them there are 5 mistakes or downgrades.
    With great potential, Scarlet and Violet fall near the bottom of the franchise, but still make for a decent game.    … Expand
  21. JadenSpooky
    Dec 6, 2022
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This review is based on my complete experience of the game up until the post-story game sequence.

    I am absolutely absorbed in the game. After BW 1/2, I thought every main title game left something to be desired (mainly Speaking: SM, and SwSh). At least, this game tried to be a little different.

    Was going to write a megapost review, but I'll keep it to a few sentences.

    Tera transformations are a nice addition to the game. It changes the pokemon's type, and boosts moves of the same type. I wish they had used something besides the den system, but making it time based instead of knock-out cap was a welcomed change.

    The big bad didn't really connect the plot points together imo. It really only resonated with one story line, and the rest feels tagged along.

    The gym challenges are just okay. I didnt enjoy pushing the bean to the goal.

    Team Star challenges are pretty repetitive.

    Titans were silly.

    Breeding makes you play an active role, which I feel neutral to.

    The boss fight was pretty cool. I very much prefer it to SwSh's chairman bossfight.

    You all know about the framerate issues and glitches. I don't like them. Buuut Despite the issues i had with the game, I don't think SV doesn't deserve an initial score less than SwSh or BdSp.    … Expand
  22. VanguardSoul
    Dec 7, 2022
    5
    The Good: Fantastic new Pokémon and evolution mechanics. Game Freak hit it out of the park as far as those are concerned. Decent story too.

    The Bad: The most extreme frame rate and visual glitch problems I’ve ever seen in a Nintendo game. It becomes downright unenjoyable to play at times. Additionally, I’ve rarely played an open world game such as this one that leans so heavily on the    The Good: Fantastic new Pokémon and evolution mechanics. Game Freak hit it out of the park as far as those are concerned. Decent story too.

    The Bad: The most extreme frame rate and visual glitch problems I’ve ever seen in a Nintendo game. It becomes downright unenjoyable to play at times. Additionally, I’ve rarely played an open world game such as this one that leans so heavily on the structured story. Half the point of an open-world game is the exploration and “making your own story”. This game doesn’t really do that too much, as the open world feels fairly shallow without much mystery or wonder in it. Also, the game is far too easy. I’m not expecting a Nintendo game to be too difficult, but this game is like a light stroll at the park, even for most children. Lastly, there is almost no postgame content. Once you beat the game, there’s very little to do, which has not been the historical case for Nintendo games which usually try to provide a replayable activity or series of particularly difficult challenges unlocked after beating the main game. This game doesn’t truly have that. All-in-all I would not recommend this game to almost anyone. Children may highly enjoy it, but anyone older than 12 years old is going to be frustrated with the lag, glitches, and ease of the “challenges” and bosses.    … Expand
  23. BatLB
    Nov 19, 2022
    5
    The Game itself is fine. Its fun to go out and hunt different pokemon, catch and collect them. The EXP Share from level 1 is a welcome feature to make it possible to actually evolve Pokemon you arent constantly using and to complete the Pokedex as good as possible.

    The Story is classic Pokemon for 9 year olds. The Open World is nice. You can explore, catch different pokemon, find    The Game itself is fine. Its fun to go out and hunt different pokemon, catch and collect them. The EXP Share from level 1 is a welcome feature to make it possible to actually evolve Pokemon you arent constantly using and to complete the Pokedex as good as possible.

    The Story is classic Pokemon for 9 year olds.

    The Open World is nice. You can explore, catch different pokemon, find Items, do what you like - Hunt Badges? Follow the "Team Rocket look-alike" storyline? Go on some quest to hunt some mysterious pokemon? Your choice.

    HOWEVER: The technical issues are a BIG problem. I would have given this game a 7,5-8/10 without the technical problems, even with the bad graphics, but the state of the game is NOT release ready.
    I am not sure how this game made it through Nintendos normally very strict QA.    … Expand
  24. FreeRunner29
    Nov 19, 2022
    5
    For starters, I love Pokémon, therefore this is far from a review bomb. It's just the truth...people stating they have experienced no frame drops or slow downs in the games current state are either bots or blind..As of right now the slow downs, and choppy frame rates are worse than anything I have ever experienced since W2K18 on Switch. (I only played that to see how awful the frame rateFor starters, I love Pokémon, therefore this is far from a review bomb. It's just the truth...people stating they have experienced no frame drops or slow downs in the games current state are either bots or blind..As of right now the slow downs, and choppy frame rates are worse than anything I have ever experienced since W2K18 on Switch. (I only played that to see how awful the frame rate and slow down was.) Game freak clearly needed an extra year to work out the bugs, considering they were also working on Arceus. (Which I feel is the best Pokémon game I have played since Sapphire version) As of right now the game is virtually unplayable, lighting disappears at times, Pokémon clip through the environment and constant skips and jitters plague cutscenes...whoever optimized Arceus needs to help with a patch on Scarlet and Violet..underneath all of the crippling tech issues could have been the best Pokémon game yet.… Expand
  25. Vidril
    Nov 20, 2022
    7
    If Game Freak patches the game to fix the pop-in and frame dips the score bumps to an 8.
    This is the best game in the series by a relatively large margin otherwise.
    The already refined, fundamental gameplay of Pokémon gets so much out of being able to go wherever you want to find the Pokémon you want to use. The new Pokémon this gen introduces are all really well designed and the    If Game Freak patches the game to fix the pop-in and frame dips the score bumps to an 8.
    This is the best game in the series by a relatively large margin otherwise.

    The already refined, fundamental gameplay of Pokémon gets so much out of being able to go wherever you want to find the Pokémon you want to use. The new Pokémon this gen introduces are all really well designed and the returning ones are all fan-favorites. The story, while dumbed down for the absolute youngest audience, kept my enjoyment and the final section was a marvel for Pokémon. The music is fantastic as always, with the addition of Toby Fox returning for the best tracks in the game.
    The pure gameplay is the best the series has to offer, if only they learn what the hell software they're using and actually fix the pop-in and nauseating frame issues.    … Expand
  26. Reasonableguy
    Nov 20, 2022
    5
    The game is not as bad as the drones on this website say. YES theres problems and glitches, but the game is crazy addicting. I've not enjoyed a region like this in a WHILE. NEED a patch tho, the frame rates are def not good, but the content is MOSTLY solid. **** the sandwiches tho
  27. Yang738
    Nov 19, 2022
    5
    It would be a really nice game if there weren't these graphical issues and bugs. It feels like the development was rushed.
  28. jamsbat99
    Nov 21, 2022
    6
    I feel like people are a wee bit too hard one this game. I think this game is fun, I enjoy the gym battles, the new team star battle system is breath of fresh air, and the path of legends. I really like some of the newer pokemon design and the openess of the world and how it is truly your adventure. However I feel like I need to adress the elephant in the room the graphics are bad and theI feel like people are a wee bit too hard one this game. I think this game is fun, I enjoy the gym battles, the new team star battle system is breath of fresh air, and the path of legends. I really like some of the newer pokemon design and the openess of the world and how it is truly your adventure. However I feel like I need to adress the elephant in the room the graphics are bad and the developers need to fix the pop in and the frame rate issues. This game is jank it feels like the team for legends Arceus and this game are two completely different studios that never even spoke to each other . Game freak almost had it perfected and could only go up but they some how mangaed to take 3 steps foward and 4 steps back. Gamefreak needs to take their time with their next installment, I feel the open world can work just they have to actually put the effort and work unto making it a great success.… Expand
  29. eye-zitt
    Nov 23, 2022
    6
    10/10 gameplay, 0/10 technical capability. Averages out to a mediocre experience overall.

    I personally had a lot of fun playing through all of the stories of Pokemon Violet, but I want my score to reflect that this game squandered its potential due to all of the bugs and glitches I’ve experienced and have seen other experience while playing. Truly sad to see.
  30. Officialalexj7
    Nov 19, 2022
    5
    This game would be so good if the performance and graphics were better. They rushed this game and in my opinion you should wait to buy this one until they patch it.
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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.
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  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.
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