Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Reviews
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet is simply a frustrating release, despite its many positive aspects. It's stuffed to brim with ambition, but it looks like Game Freak should start from scratch in the next major release and completely redo their engine.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Far from perfect, Game Freak’s latest title finally delivers a proper, console-sized Pokemon experience.
Pokémon Scarlet is a weird game. Game Freak introduced some welcome changes to the core gameplay and also took a mechanic or two of the acclaimed Legends: Arceus. Unfortunately the graphics and performance of the game leaves a lot to be desired even for fans of the franchise.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
I am very sorry to give such a mid-table score to games that I have enjoyed so much like Pokémon Scarlet and Purple, but not even all the good things they have manage to make it possible for me to give them a higher rating when it comes to giving a final grade. , and it is absolutely unacceptable that they come out like this. It doesn't have to be God of War Ragnarok visually, but at least there aren't so many technical problems that distract you from the game itself. If you are able to overlook these aspects, add 20 points to them.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
With a new region, comes new Pokémon, and the Paldean region is home to 400 Pokémon, with just over a quarter of them being genuine to that area. This number includes the two Paldean forms of Wooper and Taurus, the re-imagined evolution lines of Toedstool (Tentacool) and Wiglett (Diglett), all new evolutions for earlier generation Pokémon, and Paradox Pokémon. Paradox Pokémon are end-game Pokémon, reimagined futuristic/ancient forms of previous generations. These forms are also heavily tied into the story, so I won’t be touching on that subject. Whenever a new Pokémon generation comes out, there is a lot of skepticism about the new Pokémon, but I can personally say I’m a big fan of 80% of this generation’s designs.
The ninth generation of Pokémon has unfortunately begun in the worst possible condition. Pokémon Scarlet has some great ideas but it is mired in technical shortcomings.
Pokemon Scarlet/Violet has delivered the large open-world Pokemon experience we have always wanted but not at the quality level we would expect from a Pokemon game or Nintendo in general. Sloppy textures, countless bugs and a frame rate that rarely runs above the 20s show how rushed and unfinished this game is. The franchise has a ways to go before it catches up with modern gaming standards. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet may have been the best-selling Pokemon game of all time but this is in no way a suggestion that it is the best quality.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s rough quality is unacceptable. I hope that Game Freak and Nintendo will work quickly to patch the performance after all this ruckus, but even if it somehow ends up running smoothly enough to not be headache-inducing, I doubt I will ever revisit this game.
Overall, Pokémon Crimson/Purple captivated me despite its many bugs and performance issues. The gameplay and its mechanics are simply successful in my eyes. I can overlook the many stutters and glitches. Only with the breeding, which is a central part of the game series for me, I haven't really warmed up yet. Although it's faster to get a good number of eggs and hatch them, you have to prepare the Pokémon you want to breed, which takes up an unnecessary amount of time and resources. Before, I could simply swap out the "target monster" to boost stats. Now, no eggs appear in the basket unless the Pokémon has been previously nurtured and leveled. Whether this is a bug I can't say, but I was still surprised. You can tell that the developer wanted to make an effort to tell the stories as nicely as possible and has also included many dialogues and events. However, some passages repeat themselves so often or always run identically, so that at some point you just click and hope that it will finally continue. It is also a pity that especially the top four were much too easy. In the first run, these are fixed in level, so you can "overlevel" them super easy. This also applies to the tournaments in the "post-game". All in all, the game still has many construction sites and shows once again that Nintendo urgently needs a new hardware generation to be able to display better graphics. If the in-house or flagship titles like Pokémon or Bayonetta look so bad, Nintendo should have noticed that. It also didn't matter whether a Switch or Switch OLED was used. Still, despite its negative criticisms, the game is the right approach to pick up fans like me. It's a lot of fun and has finally kept me glued to the Switch for a longer period of time, well beyond the test phase. Rarely in the past have I accumulated so many hours of play (60+) in such a short time.
Review in German | Read full review
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.
Although Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have some, if not all, noticeable issues, it still manages to offer one of the best Pokémon experiences to date. Its deviation from its traditional roots has made the game even more enjoyable, offering a plethora of gameplay and a good amount of content. Both veteran and fresh fans of the game will love this game and it should be recommended to anyone who wants to try Scarlet and Violet.
Although Pokemon Scarlet / Violet is at an unacceptable level in terms of technical performance, it is the most innovative game among the mainstream pokemon games with its new features and enjoyable open world and it is definitely a lot of fun to play.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet leave us with the big question: "Why did everything go so wrong?"
Review in Greek | Read full review
Despite being the title with the most content and the one that I enjoyed the most in the entire series, unfortunately Pokémon Scarlet/Violet will always be remembered for its release full of bugs and with an unacceptable technical sloppiness for a game of such an important franchise. Without a doubt, it is a step forward in the series and the sense of discovery and fascination with a new world is something I haven't felt in years. I have no doubt that the foundation laid here will be the standard in future titles. However, as fun as it is, during gameplay you are constantly reminded that this game lacks care and was released earlier than it should have been.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
An interesting concept constrained by an unbreakable release date. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet was not a ready-to-launch game.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The frame rate is constantly dropping, the visuals are abysmal, and there is no excuse for the unfinished state of the game. But underneath the hood are the best characters the franchise has ever had, an adventure you can tackle your own way, and the best mainline Pokemon game in decades.
Whether it’s the new designs, the legendary Pokémon bikes, the new changes to the combat system, the Team Star and Titan Pokémon elements, or the multiplayer, there is a surprising amount of things to love about the new Pokémon games despite their technical flaws. That’s where the game’s biggest problems are: technical issues and downgrades from the previous Switch entries. The core of the game is still just as fun as ever. The game earns a 6/10 due to being a solid entry in the Pokémon series riddled with technical issues.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will, undoubtedly, be the most talked-about, and divisive, titles in the series for several years now. The havoc, in technical terms, wrought by Game freak cannot be ignored, and the history of "transitional chapters" can no longer stand as a solid bulwark of defense against the developers.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are so, so close to reinventing the Pokémon series in a brilliant way. They’re just held back by unacceptable bugs and performance issues that simply shouldn’t be happening this frequently in such a monolithic and profitable franchise. I hope Game Freak is able to implement some much-needed patches, as there’s a remarkable diamond in this copious rough.
Pokémon Scarlet doesn't have the level of polish one would expect, yet still offers another fantastic evolution of a franchise that continues to give fans new ways to catch them all.