Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Reviews
Despite technical shortcomings and some filler content, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are chock-full of meaningful additions to one of gaming’s most popular franchises. At worst, these games are steps towards the Pokémon games for which players have clamored, but more often, they serve as effective thesis statements for where the series goes from here. Either way, I can’t wait to see where Game Freak evolves the experience from this point.
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 is a step in the right direction. Game Freak successfully reimagines the formula in an open-world format and improves on its previous experiments with this design. The ability to tackle any gym is refreshing and the three distinct story paths give more reason to explore. Unfortunately, the number of performance issues cannot be overlooked and these hinder what could have been a highlight of the series.
On paper, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet sounds like a Pokémon fan's dream come true. Paldea impresses with a very extensive game world, different storylines and new gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, the poor technical and optical quality of the ninth generation throws a big spanner in the works. Game Freak has a lot to do here, especially given the fact that only 400 different Pokémon have made it into the game.
Review in German | Read full review
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.
Unfortunately, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet didn’t get the development time they deserved. It’s hard to see a franchise that means so much to me finally start heading in the right direction only to come up short. I sincerely hope that Game Freak and Nintendo will start listening to fans and critics and turn things around.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are a stunning glimpse into the future of the Pokemon video game series. Ambitious gameplay and thoughtful narratives create an experience that stands above prior titles. With performance patches to improve the games’ stability, this could be one of the most important generations yet. For now, though, it’s simply a very good one.
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
By and large, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are fun. It's telling that I had a lot of fun with them despite the absolutely unforgivable performance problems. The basis for an extremely strong and engaging Pokémon game is here, but it's out in the wild without the extra months of development that it still needed to improve performance issues. If you're willing to forgive some jank for an otherwise great Pokémon experience, then you'll have a great time. Otherwise, it's probably worth skipping until it gets some patches. Even die-hard Pokéfans might have trouble getting past seeing their favorite Pokémon crawling along at five fps.
I’m really stretching for things to criticise though, because overall I have had such a wonderful time with Pokémon Violet and Scarlet. None of the issues that I have with these games are anything but the most mild and forgivable irritations. Meanwhile, the promise of a big but blissfully uncomplicated world, filled with adventure and monsters to collect, brought me right back to what drew me into the whole Pokémon franchise in the first place. Is Scarlet and Violet a technical mess? Sure. Do I care? Not in the slightest. I’m here for the pokémon. Not to count frames.
While Pokémon Scarlet and Violet may not be a perfect experience, it's still an absolute delight in almost every way.
Pokemon Violet and Pokemon Scarlet certainly don't put their best feet forward. They run rough. Visual downgrades are clear. But ultimately, once you settle in, they're certainly full Pokemon games.
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 open-world gameplay of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a brilliant direction for the future of the franchise, but this promising shift is sabotaged by the numerous ways in which Scarlet and Violet feel deeply unfinished.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet jump between future and past, like their cover monsters. A freely explorable Open World but unable to performing well and killing all the new good ideas. It's a classic from Game Freak, a place where every step forward is followed by some steps backward. And maybe is not enough anymore, it's time to force the best-selling franchise in the world to grow up.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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.
Ultimately, these games were the result of Game Freak and Nintendo taking a risk and giving the fans something they've been begging for over a long while. It tries to mix Legends: Arceus with the main series, and it half-succeeds. Some things brought innovative and fun changes, while we learned others were better off they way they were before. If Pokémon fans can look past the obvious flaws and limitations, there's so much to appreciate here.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet largely deliver the open-world RPG experience fans barely dared dream of for decades, with a huge, lively map and a surprisingly-engaging trio of stories nicely complementing the franchise’s rock-solid core mechanics. Yes, the game has more than its share of technical issues, but its shortcomings are largely cosmetic and the folks most excited to play probably aren’t going to be that bothered about its pixel count or performance. This Pokémon may be humble-looking, but it brings the fight where it counts.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are an ambitious take and while the open world and density of the Pokemon world are nailed the story feels like a background element and performance issues are constant
Beneath all the jank and technical disaster, there's a Pokemon game that deserved better.