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Glad to see you're enjoying it, Secret_Tunnel! The performance is unfortunate, but the co-op adventure alone is already making this the most enjoyable Pokémon game, and in a number of ways it feels like what Sword and Shield should have been. I've mainly been playing the game with my significant other, but through the launch weekend we also had two friends join us; it was a lot of fun to goof around in the early game as we figured out how everything works. We're taking our time playing through this one and focusing on exploring each area as we come to it, so we have only three total badges so far, the Bug and Grass gyms, and the first titan. We've filled out a lot of the PokéDex though, catching as many of the Monz as we can locate. We like how there's also lots of items scattered around the land to find. When the four of us were playing, we tried making sandwiches together, which is a pretty funny minigame of sorts! Here's the first one we made, which definitely looks like something a group of kids would concoct: |
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I have finished this as well.
And sure, let's get this out of the way. I'll say this as though every YouTuber on the planet hasn't made a video called "Pokemon fans deserved BETTER" or "why _______ MATTERS": this game is super jank. The framerate is bad, the environments often look, dare I say, Gamecube level, the menus are sluggish, actions in battles are often slow to load, the camera gets messed up, and the controls are often finnicky. It's kind of a mess. The game even crashed on me once.
That being said, I thought it was really good in spite of all of these issues. YouTubers will have you believe that this is some kind of life or death issue on the level of major geopolitical issues, but it's really not. It's a janky game that doesn't feel finished, and doesn't look nearly as good as the three console games that preceeded it. That's pretty much it. It's a disappointing game in a lot of respects. No, Pokemon still doesn't live up to your wildest fever dreams you've had since you were a kid. I think everyone looks at the anime and goes "I just want a game that makes me feel like I'm on an adventure like Ash, immersed in this beautiful world, going on a real adventure at my own leisure." No, this isn't that.
Even the gameplay doesn't feel refined. This game is not nearly as "open world" as advertised. You can go to a lot of places from the get go...but some places will be hard-locked by your movement abilities, or lack thereof. Other areas will be severely soft-locked, as you won't have Pokemon high enough level to proceed. Unless you read online how to break this game, you'll generally be doing stuff in a certain order. So, this was a little disappointing. It's not like you can do Cinnabar Island before Saffron City, for a gen 1 analog. And yes, you can pretty much avoid every wild battle in the game by running around Pokemon. With no forced battles, it's up to the player to battle and level up on their own. So if you're the kind of person who needs some extra motivation to get through these kinds of games...the game won't do you any favors here. Pokemon are aggressive, but not enough to force battles. Granted, you WILL bump into Pokemon all the time, especially tiny ones that are hard to see, or Pokemon that INSTANTLY load in front of you due to some technical shortcomings.
BUT even in spite of that, I did wind up putting over 50 hours into it over the last month. Catching Pokemon is easy and addicting. Not as easy as in Legends Arceus, but I think that's a good thing. The end of the game is great, even if the postgame feels virtually non-existent. Building a team is fun due to the sheer number of Pokemon you have available to you. The music is so-so, and unfortunately the worst the series has seen. But still, moving around the world was fun, and the gameplay loop had me engaged. As janky as this game is, its core concept is strong enough to overcome a lot of its issues.
And that brings me to this...am I the only one who enjoyed this more than Arceus? Looking at reviews, you would think Arceus was the best game ever, the equivalent of gaming nirvana...but I was pretty disappointed by it. I honestly think a lot of people liked it simply because it was "new and different." But for someone who was a fan of how Pokemon already WAS, this game didn't land for me. The beginning of the game is a HUGE slog, as characters dump piles of exposition on you, repeating dialogue to hammer in certain ideas. The game takes hours before it feels like you can run around and do your own thing. And once you DO get out in the world...I'm left thinking- what am I doing and why? I know I'm supposed to help fill up the Pokedex, but it's just not fun having to fill out micro objectives like seeing Pokemon do X number of moves. That'd be fun as a little bonus, but this is like the WHOLE game. Maybe the story starts going places, but I thought this game was incredibly aimless and repetitive, lacking much of a purpose behind most of the action. I think I would've preferred that each Pokemon actually has like, 5 or 6 paragraphs in the Pokedex, and completing more objectives helps you learn more about them. From what I can tell though, you get a Pokedex entry by doing a couple minor things, and then you never learn more about them. I DO appreciate the sidequests that have you learning more about the Pokemon, and definitely hope that sticks around for future entries.
And on top of that- this kind of gameplay isn't really what I go to Pokemon for. I don't like that my character has health. Pokemon, for me, is a passive game, and I should be able to stand around without fear that a Tauros is going to ram into me and kill me. I get that there's a story conceit behind this idea, but it's not one that I'm a fan of. I also just don't like how easy it is to just run out and get HUNDREDS of Pokemon without any real effort. You're one of the FIRST Pokemon trainers ever, but apparently you can just start chucking Pokeballs and catching almost everything with ease. Catching a Pokemon isn't really an EVENT anymore. There's no suspense anymore. And battling? If you like battling wild Pokemon, this game is definitely for you. If you like battling trainers and their teams of Pokemon, then this game has virtually none of that.
If there's some hook to Arceus that really pulls players in, I'm not sure I've seen it. Sure, it's fun to see the Pokemon in their natural habitats and everything, but that novelty only goes so far for me. Otherwise, the game feels meandering and aimless, with a lot of repetitive filler tasks that don't really seem to aid in my progression. It's the talkiest Pokemon game ever, which just leaves me kind of unenthused about finishing it. Change my mind!
Basically, to me, what Pokemon really needs to do is just streamline everything. I shouldn't have to wait 10 seconds to see that my Pokemon has been "buffeted by a sandstorm" anymore. Just have a little icon pop up and deduct some HP. Keep those notifications in a list in the corner so I can review how the battle has gone, like an MMO. Keep some icons on screen to remind me if my Pokemon's stats have been changed. Just get out of my way and let me play the game. Menus should open quickly and fluidly. Gameplay should be a good mix of wild Pokemon and trainer battles. The graphics should be clean and the art style should be more than enough to overcome and graphical hurdles. It's crazy comparing this to something like Dragon Quest XI. I think Violet, and elements of Arceus, are showing some vague footsteps in the direction of my dream Pokemon game, but time will tell what direction the series goes in.
I need to play Sword and Shield again before I can say if I liked Scarlet and Violet more. I miss the "style" of that game. There was at least a lot of personality to its menus and interface. Scarlet and Violet DEFINTELY dropped the ball here. This game mostly feels devoid of any personality.
Anyways...this is a GOOD game IMO. It's jank as hell, and doesn't feel finished at all, but I enjoyed it more than Brilliant Diamond and Arceus. ::shrugs:: |
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My SO and I have finished the game as well. As people who have never been fans of Pokémon, we feel this game is far and away the best entry in the mainline series, warts and all. Granted, part of that is because of the co-op adventure, though there are certainly other worthy aspects. The limitations of the co-op are a bit disappointing, such as how players can't enter into the same battles together. I'm trying to not complain too much though, since this is still a huge step up from anything they've done before. We've had a lot of fun relaxing together with this game, exploring every bit of the world to see the sights, helping each other catch all the Monz roaming about, lots of items to collect, plenty of blackout spots to find... What story exists is decent and comes together in a nice way. A lot of the new Monz are pretty good. I wouldn't begrudge anyone who thinks they're stupid, but I also like the Bikémon. Nice soundtrack. I agree with @PogueSquadron's thoughts above that the Internet has once again blown problems with a game out of proportion. Not that there aren't a lot of performance issues: there are, and most should have been fixed. More that there isn't really anything which ruins the game, though it did crash on us several times and that's the only truly bad issue the game has. I've played games on Xbox which, while they had a smaller number of bugs, the ones they did have were worse, such as requiring restarting a level or even deleting a save file. Skyrim is one of the most broken games in existence and everyone loved that one, why can't people do the same for Pokémon? As for Legends, I never thought the game was amazing or even great, at best it's a good game. ScarVio is overall better, for sure. It's probably best that it released before ScarVio, because I think one reason I was so into it was due to how much of a breath of fresh air it was for the franchise. With that said, it does still feel like a bit of a different experience from the main series with its world setup and focus on filling the Poxédex, and has a number of aspects I like. Some of which I wish had also found its way into ScarVio, such as the ability to move the trainer during battles; tossing out more than one Mon at a time; ability to advance game time to day or night; and a few other odds and ends. |
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I haven't finalized my "Pokemon game tier list" yet, but overall my gut thoughts are:
Black/White - Perfection of the classic games IMO. I liked having 150 all new Pokemon for a change. Loved the story/premise. Great music. Heart Gold/Soul Silver - This one is unfortunately a little hard to go back to because of how slow it is compared to the newer ones, but it's classic. I'd love to play the original GSC. I watched a video on YouTube that made a good case as to why it's still better than the remake. It would be cool to hear the original soundtrack in game. Red/Blue/Yellow - Hyper classic and nostalgic. It's pretty janky, but it's simple and fun. Dynamite soundtrack that takes you back. Ruby/Sapphire - I actually skipped gen 2, believe it or not, so it was really fun for me in gen 3 to revisit Pokemon. I loved the SNES style of graphics on the GBA, though part of me wished that it had little more going on. I remember thinking "We can have Golden Sun, but THIS looks really simple..." SwordShield====Scarlet/Violet - I haven't decided which overall experience I like better. I like what SV is going for, but Sw/Sh is more streamlined and polished, so it's kind of two halves of the same coin. The polished old version, or the janky new version? Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee! - This was a fun romp for me and Amanda a few years ago. I remember for some reason we were kind of depressed and played this all day in co-op. Really polished version of the original, though I wish it just had regular random battles. Sun/Moon[/color - I thought the locations were all forgettable, the new team Skull was silly (fun, but silly), and the new Pokemon were also forgettable. Nice to have a change, but overall, not my jam. Would like to revisit. Diamond/Pearl - Cookie cutter, IMO. Some fun moments, but not a high point for the series Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl - It's funny, because when I first played Diamond, I thought it was pretty lackluster, and didn't have too much personality. And now this remake is even MORE devoid of any kind of personality, and is definitely the worst game in the series IMO. Add to that, the new controls seem messed up as well. Even with the d-pad, my character just doesn't do what I want him to do. It took 4 tries for me to navigate this ledge in Mt. Coronet, and I had to REALLY ease up with the analog stick to make sure I didn't fall. Overall, a failure to me. And from what I hear, the difficulty is about to get stupid at the end, so that's fun.
I still have never played: The original Gold/Silver/Crystal Black 2/White 2 Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon Sword/Shield DLC
I'd like to play them all one day. I'll be curious if and when Pokemon Bank gets shut down for good. I know it becomes free in March. I'm just kind of done with playing Pokemon exclusively on a handheld, so I may resort to...other means to try to get them on a TV. |
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Hm, not entirely sure how I might rank the series, but for now, this is what I'm thinking:
9. Pokémon Emerald There's a lot I didn't like about this game, such as the world, then-new mechanics, and most introduced Monz. The only thing I remember liking is the Contests side game.
8. Pokémon Blue This wasn't my first game, so it felt pretty primitive. I can respect it for being first and jump-starting the franchise, though.
7. Pokémon Platinum I don't really remember this game, which probably means it had nothing of interest that stood out to me.
6. Pokémon Shield Pretty mediocre. Plain and straightforward. Reduced Monz was a bummer. The Wild Area was just a proof of concept for ScarVio. I still had some fun from the multiplayer, and the DLC was a little better than the regular game, but that was mainly it.
5. Pokémon X I don't remember much about this one either, which probably means it was solid but nothing remarkable either way. I think this one introduced clothing, which is nice. I also recall taking photos and walking around everywhere with the dowsing machine. They should bring that back.
4. Pokémon Black + Black 2 I did like the seasonal idea, and the story started out strong but they quickly backpedaled from it. It was interesting to have a direct sequel that took place at a later time with 2, but it handled things poorly. So why is this so high? PokéStar Studios! It's like a fun little puzzle side game, and the mini stories have better writing than anything else in the series.
3. Pokémon UltraMoon The largest collection of Monz in the series. Finally started to shake up the formula in several ways, such as the new trials in place of gyms, which were fun.
2. Pokémon Gold + HeartGold This is mainly this high because Gold was my first Pokémon game, so everything was new fresh and exciting. The remake was a nice nostalgia trip with some nifty improvements and features, such as having a Mon follow around the character.
1. Pokémon Violet Finally full co-op adventure! Well, sorta, but a big step for this series at least. Fun world to explore. Finally some much needed improvements, such as being able to swap moves on the fly. The jankiness is a bummer, though. |
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Pokemon is probably the only game franchise where I need to give background context before sharing my opinion. I apologize for the length, but this is important for the integrity of the opinion.
I started with Red/Blue. I was 5-6, and didn't understand the English the games were in. Like barely any word. Thankfully I was learning in kindergarten at the same time but Pokemon Red helped me with English much more than school. To be fair to school, I was practicing many more hours with Red. Anyway, super into the game before I could read. Stumbled through it thanks to help from the anime. Loved the anime and the cards. I was the typical Pokemon kid.
Gold/Silver came out, got them at launch, adored them, got deeper into them. Felt like the perfect sequel. When I saw PKMN Trainer Red I literally cried. Got a shiny, still was shit at the game and teambuilding. (I grinded to win). Still the typical Pokemon kid, got all the decks and saw the show.
Skipped Ruby, went straight into Diamond and that was the one. I was 14 at the time. By this time I had gotten tired of the anime and TCG which I never touched again to this day. The game though, got into online battling, shiny hunting, nuzlockes, all that. Pokemon was the fucking shit and it made me use my brain (both rationally and creatively) so much. Teambuilding, getting the perfect pokeball aesthetic, learning shiny odds and battle odds just to name a few. Loved the gameplay, the lore, the visual upgrade since Crystal, Pokemon Diamond was just amazing and Platinum was even better. The physical/special split is the only reason the game is still alive, best design decision in all of gaming history.
HeartGold/Soulsilver was just mindblowing. In my top 4 of all time. Between all Gen 4 games I sunk around 200 hours or more, loving every second. A lot of that time is the game idle while waiting on trades or battles, or shiny hunting, but still.
This is where I stop buying handheld systems and start skipping Pokemon games. I was also a late teen and was into trying to get girls and all that. Still a huge gamer, but I mean I wasn't stressed about missing the latest Pokemon. I wasn't about to buy a 3DS or DSi. So no BW, no ORAS, no XY, no SM
I get a Switch, as a Nintendo fan does, and buy Let's Go. It was alright, graphics were cozy. It was gaming comfort food and for a while I couldn't get enough. Probably put 30 hours. Then I got Sword. I put 450 hours into Sword.
I was 27 getting back into Pokemon since around 15 or 16. This time unlike when I was a teen, I knew a lot of people that played Pokemon, and met many more on Discord. So yeah I did everything. Dynamax Raids, Ranked, shiny, going on discord trading black markets to get hacked shiny locks, gen 8 shiny living Dex, I could go on. But first, let me tell you:
I hated the campaign in Sword. Graphics are terrible, music is terrible, story is absolute garbage, the battling animations are so stiff and it takes forever while all the little status effects end-turn pile up. I had played Persona 5 before this. It's embarrasing. I was mashing A the entire time, battling trainers, building whatever team. It's my least favorite game in the franchise, to the point where I literally sold it when Scarlet came out. My huge Pokemon collection is in my save file, aka in Home, so I will never replay this terrible game in my life.
It's the multiplayer post game that got me. Just like it did as a kid, except this time at a much more massive scope because I was a nerdy adult with a nerdy job that knew people instead of a shy kid or teen. Back as a kid we did play cards in school, but never the games much, I was alone there. But as a teen with Diamond I was mostly alone except for the serebii/IGN forums
I got into PvP battling intensely, I got into trading intensely, would trade for 3-4 hours, that was my gaming session for the day, just with Sword. I truly believe Pokemon success is made by the community interactivity it allows. It's the personal stamp you can put on so many aspects of your team (choice, shiny/non shiny, pokeball aesthetics, moves). It's collecting. It's the community.
People complain Pokemon should gear towards being an MMO, that it's the biggest missed opportunity, while failing to realize it scratches the same itch and it fits the literal meaning of the term to a tee.
I liked BDSP and loved Arceus, but probably put around 80 hours into each, fully completing it and getting some sick shinies. No Ranked though, no Raids, no Battle Tower though, kinda hard to keep going. I crave the MMO. Still, 80 hours is A LOT. More than I play most games.
Scarlet though, finally getting to it, I'm already at 150 hours and the game has barely started, not even the DLC dropped yet. Sword was alive for three full years and I was there the entire time. Anyway, Scarlet campaign was also pretty bad, yet much better than Sword. Hated the glitchy open world, hated the visuals, hated how it's not open since the bosses don't scale, but loved some of the QoL features, auto battling, texture improvements on Pokemon is a big win, and (and this next one is a very important one): music is back to being amazing, far from that of Sword, and just like in Arceus.
Would never replay it again, but the post game is much better. Now that I've beaten the game, traversing the open world is at least somewhat entertaining as opposed to the literal hallways with bad music in Sword. Lvl 3 Sandwich Shiny Hunting with Papa Jefe's recipes is next level fun, Raids are fun, getting to Master Ball in Ranked is thought-demanding and the rewards are sick, Tera Raids are glitchy as fuck but decent, and when Home compat. drops I will get my entire gen 8 collection on there and be rolling in dough.
Anyway, that's my opinion on Scarlet. Yes the context was way longer than the take, that was the point. The campaign is kinda bland and there's not much I have to say about it beyond that. Pokemon Scarlet is my ticket to the ongoing Pokemon post-game multiplayer experience.
TL;DR: hate the game, put over 150 hours into it as of now |
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