Honest Thoughts on Scarlet/Violet?

[PostZordem]

After playing through 35+ hours of Pokémon Scarlet (the version I played) and nearing completion of the 3 main paths at the time I’m posting this, I have come to formulate my own personal opinion on the game. The big open world, 3 main quest lines, ridable legendaries, and the past/future thing (that I have yet to see for myself, but am looking forward to experiencing) are all great additions to the game and are quite a step up from previous entries. Unfortunately, Scarlet and Violet are plagued by a good number of bugs, glitches, and a general lack of quality that prevents me from making it my favorite Pokémon game in the series. That being said, I have enjoyed playing through Pokémon Scarlet and plan on seeing the game through to its end.

Hopefully Gen 10 takes some of the innovations that Gen 9 has introduced to the main series and improves on it while avoiding the buggier, suckier parts of Scarlet and Violet. But that’s just my take on the newest Pokémon game(s) in the series, what is your honest opinion on Scarlet/Violet?

(Also, don’t at me for this, buuuuuuut… *cough* Koraidon > Miraidon *cough*) 

[Emobot7]

I honestly thought it was great. There so many quality of life feature that are worth it and the game is just so fun to explore. I also think there are major step up with the story, we get a lot of progression for quite a few characters and those that don't have any progression are already very solid. Talking about characters, these games has lot of characters and some of them are really memorable. As for the Pokemons, there are also a lot of great new ones in my opinion (obviously will depend on taste) and Terracrystalisation really help making use of certain of them. I will also say that I was worried when we learned that your mean of transport was the legendaries Pokemon and was extremely worried they would give them to us far too early, but no, the manner in which they handled the whole Legendaries situation was really good and really helped make you care about them. 

Honestly, its not perfect and some will say there could have been more side content like the side quests of Legend Arceus but I honestly didn't mind it all that much. There still plenty to do. 

My 3 main complains are:
1. The bugs and glitch but this is not even Game Freak fault at this point, the Pokemon Company alway push them to release at a certain date and they cannot delay the games because of the merchandising. This is made so much worse by the fact this is a open world game. Not saying we shouldn't complain but our frustration should be directed at those taking the decision at the top and not the poor developers doing their best with their working condition. 
2. No level scaling of any kind. This seem stupid but in a open world game where you can go anywhere you want at any point, this would have been really useful. I mean, if you go and beat a Gym Leader which you are supposed to fight later, you'll need to switch your team against a weaker gym leader to keep any kind of challenge. I actually did that against one of the weakest gym leader and I was rewarded with a fight against one of my rival after the gym fight in which I got destroyed by pokemon 20 level over me. 😂 
3. Taking away some legitimate option we used to have. As someone who alway used to play Pokemon game on Set mode for a bit more challenge, the fact they simply removed was a bit of a blow for me. I know its not a big issue because you can still choose not to take advantage of the Switch mode but it still annoyed to a certain level. 

Overall, none of those points were bad enough to make playing through the game a bad experience, I had and still am having fun with it. I understand that considering the price tag, those games at release shouldn't be so buggy, yet I still think this a huge step up from Sword and Shield who were somewhat dissapointing to me.

@CyberZord Couple of question if you don't mind me asking. What was your starter and how did you feel about it? What was your favorite new Pokemon? Did you have a favorite characters among the gym leaders or other NPCs?

Finally, I'm going to say its completely fine you like Koraidon over Miraidon, as someone who played Violet, I obviously like Miraidon a bit better but both are really nice and the way they were implemented into the game was really satisfying. So all in all, Koraidon = Miraidon. 😁

[Jyosua]

I've been playing it quite a bit and having a blast. This is the first pokemon game in years that has kept me playing beyond the first half of the gyms.

The things I like:

• Really enjoy the open world. When I was a kid playing RBY/GSC, this is what I envisioned future games would be like. I would like more of a mix between Arceus and Scarlet/Violet for actually catching pokemon (thinking, you can try to catch outright, but if you fail then a battle starts), but this is overall a huge improvement for Pokemon's world building and it's really fun.
• Cooperative play in the open world is nice to have. This is definitely a contributing factor to why I kept playing the game past a few hours. It's a little sparse on content, but it's a good start and I really hope they flesh it out in later games.
• Raids. While they feel like a bit of a time waste if they're too low level, it's still good to have another method of multiplayer interaction and it is fun to look for the nodes. Also the higher level raids giving specific pokemon you'd want makes it a desirable feature. Just being able to chill and join other people's raids if you want is also nice, although the UI for finding and joining is pretty terrible.
• Map system seems good. I don't remember it being as useful in older pokemon games, but I've been detached from the series for a long time. It also helps for tracking progress through the main 3 objectives and while it could still be even better, it's a big upgrade from what I remember of older games.

What I didn't like:

• Performance was garbage. It's beyond just not looking pretty; I can totally forgive shoddy graphics, but on a pretty frequent basis the game slows down and doesn't feel responsive. This is a big foul in my opinion. I can even forgive the large number of bugs; I remember playing FFXV when it was new and there were a ton of (really funny) bugs in that game. The major difference is the FFXV felt good control-wise, while this game feels like it's chugging far too often.
• UI is kinda bad. Might be par for the course with pokemon games, but no search functionality in the dex and a very confusing layout for where everything is, is a bad combination. I'm constantly forgetting which buttons I need to press to get where and where specific functions or information is. I can't even fine-tune my party order from the main party menu and have to go into the Box to do that? Like come on. Not to mention how poor the raid system UI is. lol
• Not much scaling. To echo what Emobot said, I basically had the same idea with regards to power scaling. The only thing that seems to scale is your rival. It's good there's even that, though. I think it would be pretty difficult to implement power scaling in a practical way that would also jive with multiplayer coop, so I don't really count this as a HUGE foul, but I think they probably could have thought of something better than the existing system. Maybe they'll address this in the next mainline game.

While I think the bugs and performance issues with the game really soured a lot of people, this is really a promising starting point for the next era of mainline pokemon games if they can iterate on and refine what they have here. I'm really excited and will definitely consider playing the newer games if they manage to address the issues mentioned above.

[Emobot7]

8 hours ago, Jyosua said:

The only thing that seems to scale is your rival. It's good there's even that, though. I think it would be pretty difficult to implement power scaling in a practical way that would also jive with multiplayer coop, so I don't really count this as a HUGE foul, but I think they probably could have thought of something better than the existing system.

Yeah, sadly, even the feeling of your rival scaling is fake, the game is just scripted to have  fights with them after a set amount of badges and their pokemons level isn't even related to the gym leaders you last fought or are gonna fight next. 

As for the argument of it being difficult to make power scaling in a coop game, I understand it and completely agree with it. They honestly don't need to change anything to the wild Pokemons or even the different trainers you meet in the wild. But it would be great if at the very least, the Gym Leaders would have different teams with stronger or weaker Pokemons based on the amount of badges you had. Thats a concept they had in the Pokemon Origins anime I believe and it propably wouldn't be that complicated to implement. Its propably another thing they couldn't bother with because they didn't had the time to be honest. 

Edited January 15, 2023 by Emobot7

[eclipse]

I'd like it more if I didn't get sick while playing it.  The surfing was especially bad, because the up-and-down bobbing made me feel awful.  Still, wandering around without a care was great, and I really wish there was some map function that allowed me to place some custom pins.  That way I could go back to items that I wasn't able to get.

Edited January 17, 2023 by eclipse

[FlyingKitsune]

This was honestly a super fun game! The fact that you can control the pace yourself was probably the best part of the three routes, where you can easily jump between Titans, Teams Star Bosses, and the Gyms without a care in the world. The lack of scaling kinda stinks, but whatever. The raids are, funnily enough, really fun despite their brokenness. I don't think I've seen people strategize so much in a the main game's battles before! Although to be honest, I think I've spent way, way too long shiny hunting and building my comp-teams, lol. Also, the end-game story was weirdly a lot better than the previous games. The graphical bugs are a bit wacky, and the glitches even more so, but I really don't care. The lag is pretty noticeable though. The new Pokemon are really cool too. Overall, I give it 8.5/10.

[PostZordem]

On 1/14/2023 at 10:06 PM, Emobot7 said:

My starter for Scarlet was Sprigatito (considered Quaxly at one point but the grass cat had my heart from the moment I saw it). I thought Sprigatito was absolutely adorable which was one of the main reasons why I choose it over the other two. The other reason was that I choose starters purely off of looks because I’m shallow. Plus, Meowscarada is a very cool looking final evolution that just makes the grind worth it.

Favorite new Pokémon? Sprigatito for the reasons mentioned above. But if you want me to tell you which one I liked most that wasn’t a starter, then probably Cyclizar since it’s the Present version of Koraidon (past) and Miraidon (future). I mean, who wouldn’t like a Pokémon that’s related to the cover legendaries?

Favorite character, eh? In terms of gym leaders I’d have to say the streamer that is the gym leader of the Electric Gym. She has a fun personality and seems like someone who could possibly even be friends with you. Plus, she has one of the better gym tests so that’s a plus. Honorable mentions go to the former snowboarder that leads the Ice Gym and Larry, the Normal Gym Leader (who is ironically the only gym leader I can remember off the top of my head despite being as normal as the type itself). The former for being a pretty chill dude (no pun intended) and having certain fan art that made me believe he had a beard under that scarf of his and the latter for being so unremarkably remarkable that I couldn’t forget the guy if I tried. Plus he’s the first Normal Gym leader in the series as far as I know.

If we’re talking in general, then I’d have to say Arven because he just seems to have the most depth of all the characters in Scarlet/Violet. Plus, I love his interactions with the player in the Path of Legends quest line.  
As for some of the other notable characters, Nemona’s alright, but “Champion that has an unhealthy amount of interest in you and wants to battle you every chance she gets” weirds me out more than anything. I thought Hop was a far better rival in comparison because: 1. He grows along side you for the duration of the game 2. He has a pretty good character arc in Sword/Shield 3. Bro manages to even get one of the two legendaries at the end of the game. 
Director Clavell (AKA Clive) is a pretty cool character and I like how he joins you in Operation Starfall. 
Professor Sada (the version exclusive professor I got) is a character I find interesting because I don’t know much about her and I think she has all of the juicy lore bits surrounding Koraidon (or something about the great Paldean Crater). Hope I can go down into that crater myself one day… 

Now that I have answered your questions, I would like you to answer them yourself as well. What was your starter for Violet and what are your thoughts on said starter? What’s your favorite Pokémon in S/V and what is/are your favorite character(s) in the game?

P.S. Curse you, Emobot7 for providing the most dignified response that anyone could have given to my terrible attempt at invoking a legendary debate. I suppose it’s really just down to which version someone plays and general preference, but you are right, Koraidon == Miraidon.