Pokemon Scarlet & Violet (Nintendo Switch) is here! How is the latest open world Pokemon adventure? Let’s talk.
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Hey and we're back with another episode Of before you buy the show where we give You some straight up gameplay and our First impressions of the latest games Releasing today we're talking Pokemon Scarlet Violet so arguably for the Second time this year Pokemon goes open World yes after Pokemon Legends Arceus Did so much to update the standard Pokemon formula now a Mainline entry is Doing a similar thing but in a different Way set in the Spain inspired region of Paul DEA the story this time is that Your character is the newest student of The prestigious Pokemon Academy like With pretty much every other main series Pokemon game your primary goal is to Earn badges by defeating 8 Gym Leaders Spread out in the region using a team of Six monsters you collect by trapping in Pokeballs I don't think I really need to Go into a lot of detail as to what you Do in a Pokemon game at this point the Series has been going for over 20 years And well you're doing that stuff the Difference is that instead of being a Linear Journey this time time you're Free to encounter each gym leader in Whatever order you want that's also not All you're doing either there's two Other main quests as well along with Taking on gym leaders in the Victory Road Quest you're also tasked with Fighting five legendary Titan Pokemon
Found in various locations around the World with the path of Legends quest and You take on this game's version of Team Rocket team star in the Starfall Street Quest it's a pretty big change to how a Pokemon game is normally structured but For the most part if you've played any Of these games none of this should feel Really out of place or anything now There is an absolute time to get into But we have to address the elephant in The room you're seeing the footage right Now and yes that is what this game looks Like at this point I know switch users Are sick of people complaining about Performance and I get it of course There's going to be some compromises When it comes to the graphics you're Looking at of any game on this system The switch is more than five years old At this point and the switch's visuals Weren't even Cutting Edge back in 2017 So of course they're not going to look Or run as well as games on next-gen Hardware Pokemon scarlet and violet uh They look rough in open World areas Especially cities the frame rate tanks Textures are often blurry NPCs and any Moving background objects they're low Frame rate look pretty bad and the game Can just look straight up ugly at times And that is not getting into the various Visual glitches that we have experienced Like Shadows especially seem to have a
Hard time in the open world normally They look pretty rough but we've Experienced a lot of instances where Shadows would appear and disappear Randomly which looks strange I mean it's Not something we've never seen before in A game but this is the latest Mainline Pokemon game now it's also forgivable But what isn't what really hurts the Game is the Slowdown unless you're Indoors this game really struggles to Hit 30 FPS and there are just constant Frame drops and stuttering certain towns In the game going to full on slow motion Uh like it just does not feel good to Play When the frame rate is this in Consistent all the graphics and Performance issues are a real Downer Because the open world is fantastic Conceptually the region of paldea is one Of the best realized worlds in a Pokemon Game yet it's big varied and a ton of Fun to explore just the fact that you Can now complete your various quests in Any order is a huge change for the Pokemon series even if in practice You're probably going to be following The same general route as you know you Normally do all the Pokemon trainers and Team members you take on have locked Experience levels and just like in any Pokemon game before this one defeating Gym Leaders makes it so higher level Pokemon are more likely to listen to you
In battle so going for the toughest gym Leader first isn't exactly easy but it's Possible which is positive in my book Because some people are completely Nonsense and decide to do things that Way sometimes it's just fun also Sometimes it's fun to see how bad the Worst guy is gonna whoop you so you know What you're aiming for that being said It does actually take quite a while to Get to the open world there's about a Two hour stretch of the game where you Have to play at the start before the World actually opens up and lets you Freely explore it there's a fair amount Of tutorializing here but a lot of this Stuff is found in the Pokemon school Which is actually pretty easy to skip Out on entirely you'd think the whole School thing would be a central feature Of the game and there'd be like Persona School-like stuff you'd have to do but Honestly I don't hate the fact that the Classes are completely optional because They don't really add that much while I Overall really like the world here one Thing that it may bug people is the lack Of Interiors there are obviously some Interiors like the school and some shops But otherwise don't expect a lot of like Caves or unique dungeons like in Previous Pokemon games stuff like the Abandoned department store and Pokemon Sun and moon were great so it's kind of
A shame that there's not more like that In scarlet and violet another new Feature where you can start up a picnic Also feels pretty pointless it's cute And you can interact with your Pokemon And the sandwich making minigame is Bizarrely in depth if that's something That you find fun but the whole thing Doesn't really add that much and I don't Love it in multiplayer it might feel More significant but in single player I Never really felt the need to do a lot Of picnicking if there's one new feature That does stand out it's Auto Battle the Game lets you throw out any Pokemon you Got in your first slot to explore with You in the open world they'll pick up Any items nearby and fight the enemies Around automatically which will Automatically get them experience it and That's a great feature it makes grinding A snap but switching between Pokemon in The top slot is a little clunky it's Also kind of annoying because it's just One of a couple things that Pokemon Legends Arceus already solved so I don't Know if the teams working on these games Weren't talking to each other or were Running very different schedules or just Couldn't be in sync but for some reason A lot of the improvements introduced in That game just aren't here in scarlet And violet and and it seems to not Really be for a good reason it's
Especially unusual because the Auto Battle here is an essential mechanic for The Starfall Street quests whenever you Attack one of the five team star bases For some some reason you can only fight Them using the top three Pokemon on your Team with Auto Battle if your Pokemon Aren't the right type for the job you're Pretty much screwed so these missions Are either a cakewalk where you're Brainlessly throwing out your monsters And not doing a whole lot else or really Painful slog speaking of quests one of The most interesting in theory isn't Actually particularly exciting like the Path of Legends has you hunting down Five legendary Titan Pokemon which Sounds interesting like the word Titan Is in there that certainly implies some Sort of heft or danger you know but There isn't really a lot of strategy to Finding them you just go to a location Fight a big Pokemon there then it runs Away and you fight it again with the Help of your buddy now to be fair Completing the path of Legends gets you The best rewards uh you learn new Abilities for the legendary Pokemon Karidon or meridon depending on your Version you actually get these guys Ready to start of the game but at first They're pretty Limited in what they can Do you can't really use them in battle All you can do is ride them which is
Nice for getting around but at they do Sometimes like to get stuck in the Environment did not say this game was Devoid of glitches did I no I did not in Fact there are plenty Um as you unlock new abilities you'll be Able to travel through water or Glide And it makes getting around a lot more Fun even if performance issues make Moving around the open world not as fun As it could be or should be trainer Battles are similar to previous years But instead of having to defeat their Gym uh you're tasked with completing a Gym test which is usually some kind of Mini game these are generally pretty Unoffensive and slight which honestly Describes a lot of the content in the Game most of what you're doing is Traveling from place to place grinding Up your Pokemon and catching everything You see the towns though detail don't Really have a lot going on there are a Lot of shops mostly selling different Kinds of food but you're probably not Going to be spending a lot of time at These places and I know it's kind of a Nitpick but the eating animation really Stands out a lot like it looks bad it's Weird because most of the other Animations in this game look really Really good but look at this this does Not work now I've gotten quite a ways in And I haven't mentioned one of the
Central mechanics of this game remember Gigantomax forms from sword and shield Well this is the terraform instead of Becoming Giants Pokemon turn into Crystals with these silly things in Their heads which sounds like a Downgrade but I don't mind it what makes It actually kind of interesting is it Depending on your Pokemon the Terra type Might actually be different from the Normal type so an electric type Pokemon Can turn into like a ground type which Can add a really unexpected twist to the Fight the Transformations are pretty Quick too they don't slow anything down I'm not gonna say it's the best new Battle gimmick but it works pretty good And it doesn't make the game worse in Fact it's kind of it's fun and I think It averages out to be a positive so I Can't ding it too bad in terms of sound Uh it's a Pokemon game even after all The work they've done to modernize the Series in a few key ways they're still Missing some basic stuff like voice Acting and cutscenes which is especially Weird this time where there's fully Animated sequences with people's mouths Moving and nothing comes out most Pokemon cries still sound like they're Coming out of a Game Boy speaker and and That's common in the series but also Comment in the series that the music is Still great a lot of the incidental
Pieces are fantastic this year but one Gripe I do have is the main city theme Which is kind of short and repetitive Which is weird and greats on the nerves Faster than you would expect so overall My opinion on Pokemon Scarlet violets Kind of mixed like I really want to like This game and when everything comes Together correctly it can be a lot of Fun exploring the open world but the Performance issues really drag the game Down like Sonic Frontiers has some Performance issues and some weird stuff For instance but if you remember I Didn't make the technical aspect of it a Real big reason why that game wasn't Perfect in my before you buy this one I Mean this isn't even a game oriented Around speed this is a game oriented Around walking around and doing Turn-based battling and the performance Issues just drag it down it leads me to Wonder if we really need two major Pokemon games this year or couldn't they Maybe have just delayed this to 2023 and Iron out all the issues uh maybe they Still will like it would be wonderful if They patched this thing and it worked Better Um obviously we'll see if that happens It has in the past it's not like it Hasn't and if you can get past the Performance problems which like I said Is a pretty big thing to get past
Because there's a lot of them there is a Lot to like here like the open world is Appropriately massive there's tons of Things to see and do the soundtrack is Mostly really really good the character Designs are on point as per usual like It's a solid Pokemon game with one huge Drawback like it runs like crap I can't Help but like it despite all of these Problems but that doesn't mean the Problems aren't serious they are serious With all that said it's tough for me to Recommend Pokemon scarlet and violet Like maybe if they patch out the Glitches and get the game to a more Stable frame rate it's a no-brainer but They haven't done that yet like I said I Don't know if game freak is capable of Doing that we've never seen a Pokemon Game come out with issues like this like Arceus doesn't run like this so it's Hard to say exactly how game freak is Going to address all this stuff maybe in The hypothetical future where the game Works perfectly and the glitches are a Thing of the past or even just smoothly Maybe not perfectly I mean a lot of Games don't run perfectly but with that Stuff happening I could easily happily Recommend this game because the content Great as it is currently I really can't I'm gonna say wait and see I really do Hope the criticism from not only myself But a lot of other people gets through
To game freak and they do at least Attempt to fix these issues because this Isn't like realistic lighting Ray Tracing and all that it's a cartoony Looking Pokemon game so wait wait on it Unless you have a very high tolerance For a game that doesn't run well that's What I think what do you think leave us A comment let us know if you like this Video click like if you're not Subscribed as a great great time to do So we upload brand new videos every day Of the week the best way to see them First is a course and subscription so Click subscribe don't forget to enable Notifications and as always and thank You very much for watching this video my Name is Falcon you can follow me on Twitter at Falcon the hero we'll see you Next time right here on game ranks right Here
