Pokémon Scarlet and Violet — Promising Steps into an Uncertain Future

People have a tendency to fixate on the negative. In everyday life, we tend to gravitate towards criticisms and shortcomings, often at the expense of overlooking achievements and milestones worth celebrating. Gamers are no exception to this rule, with critical game reviews and user feedback often influencing our state of mind and expectations of new games before we even start playing them.

Heading into Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, I was fully aware of the reputation the games were developing in the broader Pokémon and gaming communities leading up to their release. A considerable amount of discussion was directed at the game’s poor graphics and performance, which has been described as embarrassing, unacceptable and a “comprehensive technical failure.” Although I strived to approach the game objectively, I still encountered occasional moments during my playthrough where I subconsciously thought about the state of the game and questioned how it would impact my overall enjoyment of it.

After clocking over 30 hours into Pokémon Violet and taking in everything that it had to offer, I tend to agree with the recurring criticisms that have been made concerning the technical limitations of Scarlet and Violet. Scarlet and Violet’s graphics are easily the worst out of all the Pokémon games released for the Nintendo Switch, and they are downright pitiful for a game released in 2022. PS3 games released over a decade ago have a more polished and detailed visual presentation than Scarlet and Violet. The game also lacks the stability we would expect from a modern title, with fluctuating frame rates and moments of frustratingly slow performance that occur when the game gets overwhelmed by overlapping environmental effects and assets.

Even though I have experienced Pokémon Violet at its worst, I do not think the drawbacks of the game overshadowed all the things the game did right as the newest Pokémon installment. Scarlet and Violet had so many high points worth praising and introduced several positive changes which I feel demonstrate the Pokémon franchise evolving and moving in the right direction. My review will cover Scarlet and Violet’s world building, narrative and gameplay to ultimately gauge whether Game Freak’s efforts in these areas make up for the glaring technical constraints of the game.

In my review, I am not going to discuss any of the new Pokémon introduced and their designs, as I feel it is a highly subjective topic. In terms of narrative and world design, I will not be comparing Scarlet and Violet against Pokémon Sword and Shield, as I have not played Sword and Shield myself. However, I did look into Sword and Shield’s implementation of Pokémon training and battling, and I plan to discuss how it has taken a step forward in Scarlet and Violet through several additions and changes made to this aspect of the game.

Open World

Scarlet and Violet is the first “true” open world Pokémon game. After completing of a brief introduction, players are free to explore the Paldea region as they see fit. This style of gameplay naturally draws comparisons to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Game Freak’s first “open exploration” title. Although Legends: Arceus had multiple open zones rather than a singular open world map, I personally feel that these zones were better constructed and more memorable overall because each location’s terrain and overall landscape exhibited more distinct variation and variety. A good example would be the Alabaster Icelands, a snowy area which contains intricate underground caves, hot springs, deep chasms and large protruding ice formations. Scarlet and Violet has plenty of environmental diversity as well (e.g. bamboo forests, lakes, deserts, etc.), but I felt Legends: Arceus’ locations were more imaginative and unique in comparison.

Scarlet and Violet’s open world does succeed in many other ways. Paldea evokes an impressive sense of scale with the region feeling significantly larger than all of Legends: Arceus’ zones combined. I think it takes around 20 minutes to move from one end of the region to the other, which is quite remarkable considering that Paldea is the first open world map in featured in a mainline Pokémon title. Exploration also feels natural and rarely disjointed thanks to the game’s stellar world design. Different locations and environments mesh and transition perfectly with one another, giving Paldea a cohesive and unified feel as you venture from one place to the next.

Another area of note is the Great Crater of Paldea, a separate zone unlocked much later in game. The visual presentation and overall atmosphere of the Great Crater is phenomenal. It truly feels like an uncharted new world with how it differentiates itself from the rest of the region design-wise. For instance, the Great Crater places a strong emphasis on verticality as you make your way across and down into the depths of the crater. The Great Crater is absolutely one of the best locations that Game Freak has ever featured in a Pokémon game.

On the flip side, the towns and cities of Paldea are memorable… for all the wrong reasons. Compared to previous Pokémon games, there is a significant lack of interactivity in towns and cities. Most buildings cannot be entered, and the majority of buildings that can be interacted with fully recycle assets which appear elsewhere in the game or do not have an indoor space at all to walk around in. Towns frequently share the same shops and vendors, which are all 1:1 copies of each other even down to the items sold in them — get used to seeing places like the Go-for-Broke Grill and Deli Cioso in what feels like every city in Paldea. Paldea’s towns and cities seriously left me speechless with how little effort and attention to detail Game Freak put into designing them. I really miss the days where the cities of Pokémon had their own unique charm and character, and succeeded in enticing players to explore them corner to corner to learn about what makes them special. Although Paldea’s towns all look different on the outside, they all share the same hollow interior and are undeniably the biggest blemishes on an otherwise well-constructed region.

In terms of player movement and traversal, I do feel that Legends: Arceus did it better. Climbing and flying felt less restrictive in Legends: Arceus compared to Scarlet and Violet. The movement in Scarlet and Violet is not bad by any means, but it at times does feel more taxing than it needs to be. The game makes up for some of this though with a great fast travel system that enables players to freely travel to previously visited Pokémon Centres and landmarks across the entire region.

Lastly, I feel that some of the decisions Game Freak made from a game progression standpoint makes it difficult for Scarlet and Violet to fully enable players to take advantage of the player choice and freedom inherent to open world games. The lack of level scaling across different areas and story objectives in the region encourages players to progress through the game in a more linear fashion. Even though players can technically skip ahead to areas featuring stronger Pokémon and trainers, I feel this usually ends up worsening the experience for most players. They will either end up getting brick walled and forced to backpedal, or over-level their team which inevitably makes some areas of the game far too easy. I ended up turning to a recommended completion order for gyms and quests to regulate the game’s difficulty, but I wish a better system was in place to encourage completing objectives in different, non-linear sequences without putting the game’s difficulty in a constant state of flux.

The game’s issues with difficulty are also impacted by the always-on EXP Share, one of the most controversial features added to modern Pokémon games and my biggest complaint with Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. The EXP Share in Scarlet and Violet still makes it easy for players to over-level their teams if they are not careful, which ends up souring the gameplay experience by eliminating the challenge of Gyms, Team Star Leaders and other key battles in game. The impact of the EXP Share on the game is less severe than BDSP, as there are no mandatory trainers and fewer trainers overall. I thought it was easier to manage the level of your party in Scarlet and Violet compared to BDSP, but I was far more conscious of the EXP Share this time around and the consequences of not planning around it. Nonetheless, I find it irritating that I still have to skip trainers and even limit my usage of a beneficial new feature — the Let’s Go feature (auto-battle wild Pokémon) — to keep the game reasonably challenging. I would encourage players early in Scarlet and Violet to raise more than six Pokémon and not battle too many trainers / wild Pokémon to avoid over-leveling.

Story

Although Scarlet and Violet’s open world has some rough edges, the game features one of the most compelling narratives ever presented in a Pokémon game. Unlike past titles, Scarlet and Violet’s main narrative is told through three separate story paths, each with different characters and objectives. The story paths all begin at the same time after a brief introduction and are completed simultaneously. Players can progress through the three stories in their preferred order, mixing and matching objectives from the different paths. Once the first three paths are cleared, a fourth and final path is unlocked to wrap up the game.

Path 1: Victory Road

Victory Road is what Pokémon fans will be most accustomed to, as it chronicles the character’s journey to becoming a Pokémon champion through Pokémon Gym battles and defeating the Pokémon League. One of my favorite things about Victory Road is the player’s rival, Nemona. Nemona is quite unique compared to other rivals featured in the Pokémon series. Instead of being someone just starting out their journey, Nemona has already conquered the Pokémon League and distinguished herself as one of the most skilled and talented trainers in the region. She has already achieved the goal you are just beginning to work towards at start of the game. This leads to an interesting dynamic between the player and the rival which I absolutely adored — instead of feeling like a competitor, Nemona becomes an enthusiastic mentor and cheerleader for the player. Ultimately, Nemona’s goal as your in-game rival is to help you get to her level and become her equal. I absolutely loved the direction Game Freak took with Nemona, and enjoyed the positive and supportive energy she brought to this part of the game.

With regards to the game’s Gyms, Game Freak changed the typical puzzle into a ‘Gym Test’ aligned with the theme of the Gym Leader. These Gym Tests felt simpler and more straightforward compared to gym puzzles from previous Pokémon games, which were generally more creative and required a bit more critical thinking to solve. A few of the ‘Gym Tests’ were memorable (e.g. being a contestant for a live stream) because they were more narrative based, featuring a decent amount of character dialogue. As for the Gym Leaders themselves, half of the Gym Leaders were incredible characters, arguably some of the best designed in the series to date with their unique personalities and attributes. The other Gym Leaders were fairly forgettable though.

Path 2: Path of Legends

Path of Legends is focused on powering up Koraidon or Miraidon, the box-art legendary which serves as your companion throughout the game. In this story path, players search for Herba Mystica, a rare ingredient guarded by large Titan Pokémon. The Herba Mystica have powerful restorative properties — when consumed by Koraidon or Miraidon at the end of each objective in this story path, new abilities like surfing and gliding are unlocked to open up new exploration options available to the player.

Unlike typical treasure hunting storylines where the main motivation for finding treasure is wealth and glory, I enjoyed the Path of Legends because it had a more grounded and emotional storyline. Arven — the player’s classmate and companion for this path — is search of Herba Mystica to heal his injured partner Pokémon, Mabosstiff. Arven’s grows into a more multi-dimensional character over the course of the Path of Legends — he is introduced in Scarlet and Violet as a seemingly stubborn and brash character, but he slowly begins to open up to the player and show a more vulnerable side as the story progresses.

The gameplay in this path was unfortunately quite lackluster. All it entailed was finding the Titan Pokémon on the map and defeating them in battle. I found the battles to be very easy and straightforward, since you only fight the Titan Pokémon by itself. I wish these battles were modelled more closely after the Totem Pokémon battles from Pokémon Sun and Moon, which were similar in concept but included additional elements that made them more challenging (Totem Pokémon received a stat buff at the start of battle, and could call in multiple allies).

Path 3: Starfall Street

Wow. I never expected that Starfall Street, the path revolving around the game’s villainous team, would end up becoming one of my favorite stories ever told in a Pokémon game. From a narrative perspective, it is an order of magnitude better than Victory Road and the Path of Legends.

Starfall Street felt incredibly fresh and engaging because it deviates from the formula that Pokémon games traditionally embrace for villainous teams. Instead of being a predictable evil organization harboring objectives akin to world domination, Team Star is a grassroots movement comprised of misfit students from the academy that you are attending in Scarlet or Violet. The game initially presents Team Star like any other villainous team, but as the story progresses and slowly drip feeds key plot revelations surrounding the history of the team, my perspective on Team Star gradually changed and I eventually became sympathetic to their struggle. The underlying motivations of Team Star — which I will not elaborate on further due to spoilers — would appeal greatly to both younger and older players. Most players would be able to closely relate with Team Star’s ambitions having gone through primary / secondary school with first-hand experience on the challenges that can come with being a student. The fact that players can easily draw parallels between Starfall Street and their own personal experience makes it even more meaningful and rewarding to watch the story unfold. I also liked some of the more nuanced commentary the story provided on the relationship that exists between students and teachers / school administrators, and the misunderstanding that can arise between both groups. Apart from these aspects, Starfall Street had a fairly memorable and well-designed cast of characters, a good balance of emotional and funny character interactions, and a fulfilling ending. Narratively, Starfall Street was the highlight of Scarlet and Violet, and it succeeded primarily due to its unique storytelling style and unorthodox direction as a villainous team storyline.

From a gameplay perspective, Starfall Street did fall flat. The main quest objectives for Starfall Street involve taking down Star Bases, which requires finishing a time trial defeating 30 Pokémon using the Let’s Go feature and defeating the base’s Squad Boss in battle. I have no gripes with the Squad Boss battles, which were essentially reskinned Gym Leader battles. I do have some reservations with the time trials because they were almost impossible to lose and were essentially the same across all the bases, with the only difference being the Pokémon you were facing against. I do wish taking down these bases involved more battles against Grunts (which the game has a surprisingly limited number of), and featured different types of puzzles and objectives on top of the time trials themselves.

Path 4: The Way Home

The final story path, The Way Home, functions as a direct continuation of the Path of Legends and concludes the game’s overarching story arc on Koraidon and Miraidon. It is a singular, linear questline that brings a fantastic change of pace to Scarlet and Violet.

Apart from taking place in the Great Crater of Paldea (which I already discussed above), the player is also accompanied by the main NPCs from the first three story paths — Nemona, Arven and Penny — in this section of the game. One of the strongest points of The Way Home are the dialogue and interactions between these three characters during their descent down the Great Crater. Having these three characters meaningfully work and converse with each other during this section of the game effectively highlighted and contrasted their different backgrounds, perspectives and personalities. Ultimately, engaging with these characters in a new setting and under different circumstances compared to their original story path helped me better understand and appreciate them.

The plot and subject matter of The Way Home is quite sophisticated and mature for Pokémon standards, with some interesting sci-fi-esque revelations and lore that will captivate many long-time Pokémon fans. The conclusion to The Way Home ends Scarlet and Violet on a high note with an epic and cinematic battle that needs to be seen to be believed. One of the best parts of this battle is how the battle itself tells its own story, drawing parallels to the last trainer battle in Legends: Arceus. I quite like how Game Freak is intertwining narrative with Pokemon’s signature battling gameplay in recent titles to boost the immersion and interactivity of key story beats.

All in all, the narrative of Scarlet and Violet is the game’s crowning achievement in my opinion. Although the gameplay within these sections is hit and miss, great characters, solid pacing and thoughtful writing that avoids the usual storytelling cliches Pokémon fans are accustomed to is ultimately what allows Scarlet and Violet’s story to stand out from other Pokémon titles.

Gameplay

The battling in Scarlet and Violet is absolutely great, building upon the strategically deep foundation that the series has established over multiple generations of games. With the last two Pokémon releases (BDSP and Legends: Arceus) both featuring a more scaled back implementation of Pokémon battling, Scarlet and Violet’s restoration of moves and mechanics omitted in these titles is a welcomed return to form for the series.

The biggest change in Scarlet and Violet worth elaborating on is the new Terastallization mechanic. Similar to past “gimmicks” such as Mega Evolution and Dynamax, Terastallization enables the player to change the type of one Pokémon in their party, once per battle. Because a Pokémon can Terastallize into any type in the game, Terastallization adds a massive layer of strategy to competitive Pokémon battling. Players now need to think through which Pokémon to Terastallize in battle and the best time to do it, what Tera Types each Pokémon in their party should be assigned and what movesets / items make sense for a Pokémon given that it has the option to Terastallize. Furthermore, players also need to consider their opponent’s use of Terastallization as well and how to play around their strategy. The sheer number of Tera Type combinations — 18 — for each Pokémon opens up a myriad of new options on how a Pokémon can be utilized in battle. In my opinion, the customization and flexibility of Terastallization makes the mechanic more nuanced than gimmicks of the past because it introduces more variables to the battle itself in comparison to mechanics like Mega Evolution and Dynamax. I also like how the depth of Terastallization fosters greater player experimentation for battling, as different Tera Types can be tested to uncover unique combinations that work well for specific Pokémon and the teams they are on.

On the topic of competitive Pokémon battling, I also LOVE how the game has made it easier and more time-efficient to raise competitively viable Pokémon and build a proper team. Multiple quality of life enhancements were introduced in Scarlet and Violet, such as:

• Key training and battle items are all purchasable with Pokédollars at especially reasonable prices. This includes held items, EV training items, Mints to change Pokémon natures (which impact stats) and Bottle Caps (which are used for Hyper Training, explained below). This change makes it easier and less time-consuming to acquire these items compared to previous games, where Battle Points (BP) earned exclusively from the Battle Tower and Online Battles were often needed to purchase these items. Pokédollars can be farmed more efficiently and there are more methods of earning Pokédollars in-game compared to BP.
• Hyper Training allows the player to trade in Bottle Caps to maximize the Individual Values (IVs) of a Pokémon, which are hidden values influencing a Pokémon’s stats. In addition to Bottle Caps becoming easier to acquire with Pokédollars, the Hyper Training minimum level has been reduced from Lv. 100 to Lv. 50. Drastically reducing the level grind required to qualify a Pokémon for Hyper Training is a huge time saver, especially since many Pokémon in the wild surpass Lv. 50 already.
• For those unfamiliar with TMs, they are used to teach a Pokémon new moves. Scarlet and Violet replaces the Watt Trading system in Sword and Shield with TM crafting. Watt Traders were more unreliable since the TMs that were available for trade for Watts were randomized every day. Players in Sword and Shield had no way to guarantee they could receive the TM they were looking for. The TM crafting system enables 24/7 access to any TM in the game provided that the player has unlocked the TM in-game and possesses the required amount of League Points (LP) and crafting materials. Materials and LP are fairly simple to accumulate, and the most critical TMs (e.g. Earthquake) are not difficult to locate in game to add as a crafting option.
• Egg Moves are special moves that Pokémon can learn through breeding. In the past, Egg Moves were only transferrable to Pokémon hatched in eggs, but Sword and Shield introduced enhancements that allowed the parents to learn Egg Moves during the breeding process. Scarlet and Violet retains a similar version of those enhancements. Gone are the days where breeding and training freshly hatched Pokémon from Lv. 1 was a core component of raising competitive Pokémon.

As someone who was turned off by the enormous grind required to raise competitive Pokémon in past games, the lower barrier to entry in Scarlet and Violet has made me seriously consider investing time into competitive Pokémon myself. There are still a few grindy aspects like changing a Pokémon’s default Tera Type, which can only be reliably done through grinding raids. For newcomers to competitive battling though, I do not think these more time-intensive tasks are critically necessary to build a viable and effective team. They can absolutely be skipped for casual to semi-competitive online battles without significantly impacting team performance.

To round out this section, there are a few gameplay elements in Scarlet and Violet that I did not really interact with during my playthrough. I have some brief thoughts about them, which you should take with a grain of salt as they are very surface level:

• Co-op Play: Even though I only played Violet offline, I do feel that Co-op play is a step in the right direction for Pokémon by elevating even more of the franchise’s traditional gameplay with multiplayer and social features. I do feel Co-op Play needs more Co-op oriented objectives outside of raids like Co-op only quests and challenges, and I am hoping this is how Co-op Play evolves for future titles.
• Raids: I like how raids provide players with an avenue to acquire Pokémon with different Tera Types without having to grind Tera Shards (the material used to change it manually), along with rare items valuable for competitive Pokémon. Beating higher tier raids also looks to be incredibly rewarding given their difficulty and the need to plan the raid in advance by determining the most optimal Pokémon to bring in, along with the best moves and most ideal sequence to use them in battle.
• Sandwich Making: I enjoy how sandwich making caters to players invested in the catching / collecting aspect of Pokémon by enabling these players to control wild spawns with sandwich bonuses. Game Freak emphasized this feature (along with restaurant meals) more than they probably should have though — does there really need to be that many sandwich ingredient shops and restaurants in game?

Conclusion

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s release comes at a critical juncture point for the Pokémon franchise as the games transition to more powerful hardware. With this transition comes a greater bar for performance and gameplay that Game Freak has rarely been benchmarked against in the past. Scarlet and Violet has made it clear that Game Freak still has a ways to go to meet the standard that players expect for a game on the Nintendo Switch in 2023. It is obvious where Game Freak’s gaps are, and where further investment is recommended to bridge these gaps. As a long-time Pokémon fan, it is my hope that Game Freak is self-aware of where they are falling behind, and pulls the trigger to make the right changes so future releases are set up for success.

Even though Scarlet and Violet have a fair share of deficiencies, Game Freak’s ability to tell riveting stories, create ambitious worlds and deliver a polished battling experience made these games an experience where players can seek their treasure and rediscover what attracted and kept them invested in the Pokémon series. To meaningfully move the Pokemon franchise forward, it equally as important for Game Freak to never stop building upon the innovative ideas and strengths that have enabled them to keep Pokémon shining brightly in the broader video gaming world.