Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Reviews

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet is ranked in the 44th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
7 / 10.0
Nov 27, 2022

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet manages to be a fun adventure in spite of numerous technical issues thanks to great open world design.

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7 / 10.0
Nov 24, 2022

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet represents the power struggle between innovation and execution. There's so much promise in the idea of a fully integrated, cooperative Pokémon game, yet the final product I experienced with Pokémon Violet falls short of those aspirations. There's still a lovable structure found within the game, driven by a more immersive world design and a new generation of adorable mons. Though the polish is lacking, failing to completely realise the ideas put in place and falling short of expectations.

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GamingBolt
Top Critic
7 / 10.0
Nov 22, 2022

Ugly visuals and an all around lack of polish detract from what is an incredibly strong, compelling, and well designed core adventure, one that represents the series' strongest outing in a very long time otherwise.

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7.5 / 10.0
Nov 17, 2022

Whilst there's still stumbling missteps as Game Freak try to find their footing in the future of Pokémon, Scarlet and Violet is an endearing, and enjoyable attempt at a fundamentally different Pokémon experience. New ideas, some quality of life improvements, and some excellent new Pokémon designs make the trip to Paldea worthwhile.

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7 / 10.0
Dec 18, 2022

Scarlet & Violet bring alluring open-world gameplay and a slew of colorful new monsters to the fold, but quirks and spotty performance keep it from being the Titan it could've been.

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7 / 10
Dec 7, 2022

Moving to an open-world concept is a brilliant step forward for the Pokémon series, but currently, this release lacks the Nintendo quality that we expect from their published titles.

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4.1 / 5.0
Dec 5, 2022

Pokémon Scarlet is just a ton of fun. The gameplay is engaging, the battling is satisfying, and catching the 'Mons scattered throughout a vast open world is addicting. It's a shame the presentation doesn't hold up it's end of the bargain, BUT, if you can get past that like I did, I think Scarlet is a real gem.

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7 / 10.0
Dec 2, 2022

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet offer a unique and incredibly engaging experience that the series has desperately needed since its transition to 3D back in 2013. Unfortunately, it has also been released in an incredibly unoptimised state which sours the whole experience.

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Gamersky
Mega杰尼龟
Top Critic
8.5 / 10.0
Nov 21, 2022

Pokemon Scarle and Violett for the series blew a wind of change. It broke the Pokemon series used for more than 20 years of linear design. But it still reflects the low technical ability of the GameFreak. It's far from a good game, but it's still the most fun Pokemon game on Switch today, enough to make me look forward to the next generation.

Review in Chinese | Read full review

7.8 / 10.0
Nov 17, 2022

Scarlett and Violett, in all their hicupps and issues, try to do something new for the franchise. We can't definitely say that they are good at everything they do (not at all) and they still run pretty bad on Nintendo Switch, but some of their ideas are way more entertaining than what we saw in Sword and Shield. And, maybe, in Sun and Moon, too.

Review in Italian | Read full review

gameranx
Top Critic
Unscored
Nov 19, 2022
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet - Before You Buy - YouTube video thumbnail
Dec 12, 2022

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet evovles the franchise in exciting ways, but brings along some undesireable traits.

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8 / 10.0
Dec 2, 2022

This game, like Pokemon Arceus, is arguably what many Pokemon fans have requested for years. If Nintendo can keep the positives while fixing the graphical issues, they could easily win Game of the Year in the near future. These two new games do a lot of things right with only a few issues to complain about in the long run. If you are a fan of the Pokemon franchise, we definitely recommend checking out Pokemon Violet and Scarlet.

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Scarlet Bell
Top Critic
7 / 10.0
Nov 28, 2022

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are games I want to rate higher based on my own experiences, but I can't meaningfully do so given their stark technical flaws. If you're a Pokemon fan and can look past the graphical and performance issues, you'll likely have as good a time as I have. If not though, I'd recommend waiting for an update and picking it up down the line.

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5 / 10
Nov 27, 2022

Pokémon Violet offers a ton of familiar and enhanced fun, but the lack of polish and outright unacceptable performance let it down as one of Nintendo's most iconic franchises. The open-world setting and gameplay additions hint at an exciting future for the Pokémon franchise, but the state this was released in too often overshadows that. Before it's been patched up and optimised, it's tough to recommend.

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Rudy Lavaux
Top Critic
6 / 10
Dec 15, 2022

Pokémon Scarlet is as fun as the franchise has always been, no one can deny that. The new Pokémon creatures are endearing and the series still manages to create new and fun ways to get the player invested in their Pokémon training and catching sessions. As with Pokémon Legends Arceus before it, however, this is all marred by a level of technical mastery that is downright inexcusable. Not only is the game still not quite up to the level of something like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, released over five years ago on the same system, but it is, at least at time of writing, riddled with visual glitches and performance issues. It looks downright unfinished at times. This is simply intolerable. Therefore, it is impossible to give this a better score in good conscience as a point has to be made once and for all that things need to change going forward.

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8.5 / 10.0
Dec 12, 2022

Pok'mon Scarlet is perhaps the pinnacle of team's effort to put the game to open-world frenzy and push series further. Three main lines are changing way of your progress, offer plenty of options but keep the main promise: to wander and catch them all.

Review in Slovak | Read full review

8 / 10.0
Nov 22, 2022

What we have in our hands is potentially the best Pokemon game in history. If the optimization issues had not undermined the enjoyment of the game, we might be talking about very different things. However, I have great hope that the game will improve in the future. If I had just one wish from Jirachi, it would be for Scarlet & Violet to run smoothly. Don't be in a hurry to purchase, but if performance issues are solved, as a PokeManiac, I would say don't miss this experience.

Review in Turkish | Read full review

57 / 100
Nov 30, 2022

Pokémon Scarlet is a good game undone by extremely poor performance. The open-world set-up is fantastic, and the title does a good job of letting you wander into the deep end, but not forcing you to drown. Unfortunately, the copious amount of technical issues with it prevent it from reaching the heights it should have.

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6.5 / 10.0
Nov 28, 2022

The technical issues with the game will eventually be fixed, and what will be left is a great Pokemon experience. If you're still on the fence at this point, it's certainly fair to wait for patches to smooth things out, but at some point I hope everyone can come along for the ride. And based on the opening weekend sales, I might've gotten my wish already.

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