11/21/2022: Pokemon Scarlet and Violet - First Impressions

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet released on Nov. 18th, and I've been playing it non-stop since then. I got it on Day 1, although I was supposed to get it at 23:00 the night before. There was some confusion on the pre-order, but it got resolved, and I've been having fun. That said, there's been a lot of discussion following its release, and not all of it is good, to say the absolute least. I'm having conflicting feelings about the situation, so I wanted to put pen to paper (or the blogging equivalent) to talk about my thoughts and feelings.

Let's do a classic Criticism Sandwich: We'll start with the positives, talk about the negatives, and then we'll talk about possible solutions in an optimistic light. I want to keep my review lighthearted while still addressing what I have issues with, as I feel like that is both more appropriate for a casual review and it may be more persuasive with this tone.

Note: Be aware that there will be spoilers ahead, so if you want to go play it blind or just don't want to see spoilers, this is your warning!

The Positives

A lot of the new Pokemon designs, types, and mechanics are pretty cool! I like that we finally have a Grass / Fire, Rock / Poison, and Poison / Normal type Pokemon, and we finally have a dolphin, flamingo, and ostrich Pokemon. I think that the way that Finizen evolves into Palafin is interesting, and I think that Palafin's form-changing mechanic in battle is fun! Scovillan being a hot pepper that's Grass / Fire type is pretty funny. I like the Paradox forms, even if I wish that there were more.

I like riding around on Koraidon (I got Pokemon Scarlet), and I think that the fact that there's no loading screens between areas is pretty cool. Knowing that Pokmeon Legends Arceus didn't let you move from one area to another without going back to the village, I like this change. I like that I only need one Ride Pokemon in order to dash, swim, climb, and glide. I also like how he's characterized in a lot of cutscenes. It does feel a little odd that a brand-new Trainer was able to befriend a Legendary Pokemon, but the opening cutscene where you two meet shows that he cares about you.

Overall, I'm having a lot of fun with Pokemon Scarlet. The original plan was to have a Let's Play going into the game blind, but that's not able to happen anymore. However, it could be interesting to have a playthrough later on, so if you're interested, keep an eye out!

The Negatives

There have been a lot of video clips circulating online detailing glitches, issues, and bugs that people have been encountering, and I'm no different. I've seen the camera clip into the ground when starting a battle, Pokemon and human models clipping into one another, models being loaded into cutscenes and areas where they're not even supposed to exist, and more. I'm not here to defend The Pokemon Company, Game Freak, or Nintendo; the state that this game was released in is shocking.

If we compare this game to several open-world games that were released on similar hardware in years past, we see that it simply doesn't stack up. Mario Odyssey was launched with the Switch five years ago, and it doesn't suffer from camera clipping or framerate drops. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild boasts a much bigger world with better textures, lighting, and interactivity. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate and Monster Hunter Rise both allow for a better multiplayer experience in a world with both large and small monsters. All of them were also released on the Switch several years ago.

I'm not a game developer, so I'm not 100% sure what went wrong. However, I'm also not an train conductor, but I still know what a trainwreck looks like. I'm not sure if they needed more development time, more programmers, more experienced programmers, or what, but I can say with 99.99% confidence that a lack of funding is not the issue. Pokemon is the highest grossing media franchise of all time, and even though a lot of that money is being used for merchandise, anime production, and other media ventures, surely they could divert more funding into the production of the actual games that make it so popular. This is one of the biggest sticking points that critics will point to when criticizing the franchise, and I agree: They should be spending more time and money on the actual games. Again, I'm unclear on where, exactly, those funds need to be used, but it's clear that something has gone wrong.

The Critique

One of the discussion points that tends to factor into these discussions is that Pokemon is a multi-media franchise with a lot of moving parts. If the main game was delayed, then the Trading Card Game, anime, and merchandise would be released before the new game could come out, and this causes a lot of production issues. It would be ridiculous to put all of that production on pause just because the game needs more time, but that's what the game needs: more man-hours spent working on it.

This could be remedied by having a larger development team. TPC could have two teams, one working on the upcoming game and one working on the next game. By the time the upcoming game is out, then the next game would be, say, halfway done. Then the team that just finished could work on the following game. This strategy has worked for a number of production companies, and it would allow the games to have effectively twice the development time. Of course, this requires twice the people, but again, this company is able to cough up the cash. We just need to tell them that it's worth it.

In Conclusion

While I've been having a lot of fun with Pokemon Scarlet and will likely play another round of it in the future, I'm also aware of its flaws, and I once again wish that the game would be better. Maybe the modding scene will help with some of the issues, but that's not accessible to everyone, and it shouldn't be necessary to make the game playable for people. I have hope that The Pokemon Company, Game Freak, or Nintendo will step in and have better QA next time, but I don't want to make excuses for the companies. Whether or not you have bought the game, plan to do so, or otherwise, I feel like we all have the right to critique and have our feelings heard.