Pokémon Violet (2022)

Been looking forward to this video, it’s super interesting to see the technical details of how Scarlet and Violet fall short with their graphics and performance. I remembered Arceus for having mediocre visuals, but when put next to Violet, the difference in quality is mind blowing.

I will note, I don’t think the performance issues really hamper the gameplay too much since there aren’t any action mechanics. I’m having fun myself, but jeez I really wish Game Freak would get it together.

Finished all stories and reached the credits

Wow, this game is both amazing and terrible at the exact same time for trying to be very ambitious.

What I liked:

• Characters that I actually cared about and have actual development
• The overall story is actually good and I'd say even on par / possibly better than story-driven 5th Black & White. Collecting 8 gym badges + beating Elite Four / Champion is now de-emphasized from being the game's main premise... which means...
• ...The game's finale is unique, as it gets to do something new instead. And in my opinion? Well-executed.
• Much more late-game battles that actually have full 6-Pkmn teams!
• Battle transitions from overworld is very seamless!
• CLODSIRE IS THE MOST PRECIOUS THING

What I didn't like (on release):

• Easily a broken and unpolished game. Bugs & crash galore (happened after a gym battle!). Dev assets like the placeholder Pokeball are still left in.
• Very ugly and lifeless environments, worse in detail than even Sword/Shield's already underwhelming Wild Area.
• Open-world with no level scaling at all. There is definitely an order where how you should tackle all challenges, but it's impossible to tell without a guide. Otherwise, you'll run into trainers/gyms 10 levels higher than you that you can't back out from.
• More small features removed. I play with Set rules and now that's removed.
• I really feel the game needs voice acting at least for the important cutscenes or musical people at this point.

The game is a technical disaster when there are much better-looking open-world switch games (i.e. Xenoblade 3), and the story isn't super in-depth either (i.e. Xenoblade 3 again). Even so, I really like this game's positives, and thus really liked Pokémon Violet.

What happens when you rush out a game that isn't ready onto the public?

What happens when you don't care about the quality of the overall product, just as long as the cash keeps rolling in?

What happens when you are so stubborn, you refuse to outsource production to a third party, despite the obvious evidence that you don't have the resources necessary to produce a high quality product?

What happens when you continue to rely on the "but the Switch hardware is outdated!" as your cop out for a broken game, despite the fact much more intensive games like DOOM, Skyrim, even more recent games like Person 5 Royal run just fine on the Switch?

Shame on Game Freak, Nintendo and the Pokemon Company for not demanding excellence from one of the most valuable video game franchises. It's pathetic and inexcusable.

Some accountability needs to take place.

Finally into the first town, I've gotten a very similar feeling to the first session of playing Arceus where I felt I could just roam for hours. The more conventional battling and auto-battling while exploring, combined with slightly less to do right from the get go make me think I will not burn out so quickly (if at all) like I did with Arceus. The final 2 areas of that game were just me sprinting from story quest to story quest.

Anyway, in terms of gameplay mechanics, I get an early impression that this is a great compromise between swrod/shield and Arceus, and a step forward from gen 8. We will have to see if the quality of life improvements that made sword and shield such a big step forward translate well to this new version of an open world. Like sigint has said, this may be the most fun I've had in the first hours of a pokemon game ever. It gets to the action right away, even compared to Arceus (minus the picking your starter in that game).

Performance has seemed slightly less choppy than arceus, but I have encountered more glitchyness. We will have to see if the game can keep itself together as I get into more areas, which I assume become more complex. All in all, I really do feel like these can be an improvement. While we all know they won't take the time to polish this blueprint and will just churn the next game out leaving behind plenty of mechanics, I think this could be a great skeleton to please players who have enjoyed everything about past games and players who really enjoyed the final DLC of Sw/Sh and Arceus. I'm having a lot of fun, which it seems a lot are, but I may be the minority in thinking that these are (in some ways) an actual step forward for the series.

Edit: Into the first city (Mesagoza), not town.

I am honestly having a great time overall, but there are two things I take major issue with so far:

1. These stupid school uniforms are a huge step backwards in the progression with customization that the last several Pokemon releases have had. The face/hair customization first thing is great, but now I'm stuck with all of these ugly-ass uniforms that I hate and tons of shoe/sock/backpack options that would be great if THEY MATCHED.

2. Three "storylines" and three types of "badges" but the Gym badges are still the only ones that raise the level that Pokemon will listen to you and it's in increments of freakin' 5. So you're basically forced to do Gyms instead of exploring freely and doing the three storylines however you like as advertised because you're constantly trying to keep your team from leveling 5 times before you make it to another Gym. This has been super frustrating. I finish one Gym and just want to go fight a Titan or explore another huge area and, oop, half my team is about to hit 35, better rush to a Gym. The fuck.

I unfortunately am not having fun yet. I'm mostly overwhelmed by the big spaces and the quantity of pokemon. Maybe once I get to the academy, that will change. I'm expecting more purpose from then on. I don't think I'll be catching them all in this game though as that seems like a lot.

Sometimes I'm in a grassy area and the camera isn't in a good angle, and I stumble into a pokemon because I did not see them. I suppose the encounter mechanics in the previous pokemon games make sense.

All right, all I'm gonna say for now is this: I just played for a few hours, and that may be the most fun I've had on my first day with The New Pokemon Game in......... 18 years...?

Will this revamped formula hold up for 20-30+ hours, or will I burn out on it? Will the open world format utterly destroy the game's balancing to a point where it's no fun anymore? I don't know. But I am definitely looking forward to going back and playing some more (after some IRL side objectives).