Scarlet and Violet!

[Pixel]

OOOOOOO YEAH IT'S TIME

[Pixel]

OKAY. 

Technical issues aside

What do we think?

Personally I haven't had this much fun with Pokémon in a long time. And that's saying something because I have fun every time. SV feels familiar and also manages to feel like something brand new, contrast to SWSH which felt DISTINCTLY like a Pokémon game. 

[NyxAvatar69]

17 hours ago, Pixel said:

What do we think?

Since I currently don't have the game yet, the following opinions will be based entirely on what I've seen from other people (a couple of VTubers and a couple of people I regularly watch on Twitch, and a couple of reviews).

Ignoring the technical issues, it does feel like a step up from Sword and Shield, but in my opinion, that's an incredibly low bar since Sword and Shield are pretty awful to begin with.  It's a perfectly serviceable game for what it is, and at the very least, I'm glad my boy Staraptor has finally been released from purgatory in a mainline game.  Now, if only the same could be said from it being moved out of BL in Smogon's tier list.

In general, I like the concept of "do what you want."  It's a nice change of pace from being put on a linear path, do 8 gyms, maybe stop a world ending apocalypse or evil syndicate, Elite Four + Champion, then GGs.  From what I hear, however, the non gym challenge storylines aren't as fleshed out as the gym challenge, which I don't think is a real dealbreaker, since the gym challenge has sort of been Pokemon's thing since Gen 1, with Gen 7 being the sole exception because island trials.  The new gimmick is thankfully less broken and unbalanced in singles as Dynamax was and Tera Blast sort of feels like the replacement to Hidden Power, especially with the fact it's damage is calculated by your higher offensive stat.  While the mechanic can be used to give STAB moves a boost, you can also use it defensively to change your type, and lacks the same snowbally nonsense Dynamax contained with it's double HP and stat buffs on some attacks.

However, the performance issues are very hard to ignore.  They are bad, in some ways, even worse than anything Sword and Shield put out.  This is a system that even just this year released titles like Bayonetta 3, Monster Hunter Rise, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and none of those games have the sheer level of performance issues that Scarlet and Violet do.  I am one of those people who have a very negative lens of Game Freak since the whole dex cut issue back in Gen 8, and seeing the game in the state it's in only lowers my opinion of them even further.  Will I still enjoy the game?  Probably.  But I can't just ignore the glaring problem staring me and many other players in the face. 

Beyond that, I don't enjoy how they removed the set battle feature, another in the laundry list of things that shouldn't have been removed and probably was for either no reason or a completely dumb reason.  It honestly feels like they're taking away player choice.  Some of the moveset removals also have me scratching my head, like Scald being taken from just about everything but Volcanion, which already has a signature move in Steam Eruption.  Stall getting a nerf with recovery moves having their PP reduced to 5 (8 max) was fine, but things like Scizor and Volcarona losing Roost was pretty eh.  I am very much glad they nerfed Zacian, however, as it was on Mega Rayquaza's level of sheer brokenness.  A shame about Protean getting nerfed, but that's been a problematic ability since it was introduced on Greninja's line back in Gen 6.

Also, please stop adding Charizard back in every game.  Give some of the lesser used starters some love.  Meganium's been getting fucked since Gen 5 when it got Leaf Guard while Venusaur got a vastly superior ability in Chlorophyll, a mega, AND a Gigantamax form.  Also Meganium and Feraligatr are both still in purgatory while Charizard specifically gets a pass because the Game Freak devs seem to love it over all other starters in my opinion.

 

EDIT: Continuing that Meganium comment, even though it got a sucky HA in Gen 5, it wasn't even available at all until Gen 6 and I believe was only distributed one time, and on top of that, it was through Pokemon Bank.

Edited November 20, 2022 by NyxAvatar69
Give my boy Meganium some love, Game Freak.

[Pixel]

@YoriNya Got all that?

Yeah there's some choices being made there for sure. I'm happy to see Ninja again, but the fact that his abilities were both nerfed makes him seem border unusable competitively, I don't know, though. I'll have to play test when I get the opportunity.

I'll HARD agree with Zacian, the fact that he got a constant +1 attack just for existing at all times was sort of absurd. I don't know if you played in the Ultimate Finale at all for SWSH, but they may as well have called it The Great Zacian Clash. I personally believe that there should never be a single mom so ridiculously strong that it is absolutely essential to have on a team to stand a chance competitively. I'm looking RIGHT at Mega Ray and Primal Groudon.

I didn't think MAXing was as big of an unbalanced issue as Mega evolution (even though, my god do I miss Mega Evo), but I like the unpredictability of Tera typing a lot, where as in SWSH you could scout out your opponent's team and almost always safely predict who was getting MAX'd and pick who was going in based on that, any Pokémon having the ability to Tera type and possibly gain a huge advantage makes things a while lot gamey-er and I think the competitive scene is going to be a hell of a good time once everyone has it completely figured out.

As far as the issues go with the software, the glitches, it's not a hardware problem. It's a Gamefreak problem lol. People are always giving them way more credit than they should. Sure, the guys struck gold with Pokémon and a franchise with a following like that has a certain expectation behind it, but they've literally never been a great development team all around. I also feel like they can't meet deadlines well, if they had a bit more time it would have been alright I think. I haven't experienced many issues other than minor frame rate drops here and there, myself. I think it's funny as hell what people are sharing though.

As far as the dex cut, they definitely should have come out and said it for what it was, that being a way to add longevity and playability to the game by not giving everyone everything right away. And THAT leads me to the fire lizard.

There's too many memories and too much money attached to Gen 1 for them not to do these things. I think all three of the boys should get equal fare, but Charizard is the one and the Pokémon company knows this. There are people who will base make or break decisions based entirely on whether or not Charizard is in it. Look at the Pokémon TCG singles market, every Charizard has that Charizard tax, for no reason other than being Charizard. I call it Gerrychamandering. He's always gonna get the shit, that's always how it's been and it's always how it's gonna be. But, look at the comments sections of anything including the Zard Tera raid event. We're not alone lmao.

For what we've got, though, I'm having an absolute blast with Violet. I put a day and a half into it and feel like I've gotten almost nothing done because it's so vast and I don't want to miss a single thing, I have one gym badge, one titan down and one base beaten and I have a fully evolved team lmao. I've got a lot of playing around to do with it to figure some Pokémon out and figure out Tera typing and how easy it's gonna be to train everyone up for competition, but yeah. I'm having a really good time.

[Bluenails]

It's messy but fun and I should do things, I've got stuff to make, but ... pokemon first.

[Pixel]

UM OKAY BUT HOW MUCH OF A QUEEN IS RYME?

[YoriNya]

10 hours ago, Pixel said:

UM OKAY BUT HOW MUCH OF A QUEEN IS RYME?

Yes

[Bluenails]

But how much of a cutie is Grusha. though?

[Pixel]

I haven't read too much about him, but the way he talked about things makes me feel like he's got a re sad story, maybe be got hurt snowboarding and can no longer live his dream. The pain was evident.

[NyxAvatar69]

This is a copied version of my entire opinion after finally finishing Violet.  I can't post it as a status because it's likely too long for the character limit, so I'm posting it here and will probably make an abridged version.
 

Quote

 

So I finished it...and yet, when it comes to rating it, I feel conflicted.  Don't get me wrong, the game is fun.  In some aspects, miles better than Sword and Shield was.  The story idea being a treasure hunt was a lot more interesting than the same old generic Pokemon story.  Sure, you have to do all three story paths to get to the endgame path, but each story was good in their own ways.  Team Star was probably the weakest storyline since it's a lot of tell, not show and the identity of the big boss of Team Star is incredibly obvious.

Path of Legends ties into the final story, while Victory Road was your standard "beat 8 gyms and the Elite Four" idea that we've seen for 8 generations now with the exception of Gen 7.  The gym tests, while pretty easy, were a nice changeup that made the formula fresh.  On one hand, however, this game lacks level scaling.  Once you're let off the leash, you can wander into an area where Pokemon far above your weight class are casually walking around.  Gym leader levels are also fixed, so there's a sort of order you should do, but can realistically avoid.

Even though this isn't exactly Game Freak's first outing with an open world, because Legends Arceus exists, I would say the exploration is pretty nice once you can ride your bike Pokemon around the world.  Getting the movement upgrades like dashing, gliding, and swimming made getting around better too, and it was a nice way of adding to the range of places you could explore.

Meanwhile, as much as I didn't like the endgame of Sword and Shield being a "interrupt your final battle for an end of the world scenario," the last story being at the very end feels like a much better place to put the finale with the Area Zero things.  We get a bit of info on our major players and learn the real professor actually is already dead.  Death, in a Pokemon game, am I right?  A rare subject they like to avoid like the plague.  Having an endgame trainer who only used the Paradox mons was interesting too, as it was different from most evil leaders or final story parts.  Being able to finally use Miraidon in it's battle form for the final battle was nice too.

However, this is where my confliction comes into play.  This game was released in an abysmal state, to the point that it is utterly unacceptable for a 2022 Nintendo game to release in such a state.  As fun as the game was, I cannot ignore the blatantly awful way this game was released.  Camera issues, NPCs moving at 5 FPS, a memory leak, an RNG seed in online battles that led to problems on turn 6 along with certain move combos allowing OHKO moves to always hit, lag in raid battles.  This game needed more time in the oven for sure, and people were rightfully mad about these issues.  

Say what you will, but I think a game releasing in this state should have points taken off...but, therein lies the problem.  I don't like doing half stars when I give ratings.  It should either be all or nothing, but this is a special case.  The game is fun, the story is good for Game Freak standards post Gen 5, competitive teambuilding is easier than ever, but the sheer fact they actively released the game the way they did must have points taken off.