Total generations of Pokémon historical past usually really feel outlined by a single sport. As wide-ranging as this franchise is—video games, anime, buying and selling playing cards, way of life merchandise—Recreation Freak’s video video games present the only artistic wellspring from which every part else springs forth. As such, video games like Scarlet and Violet usually dominate how we glance again on completely different generations of Pokémon as a complete, for higher or worse. Now, a yr after its rocky launch, what’s going to Scarlet and Violet’s legacy be within the Pokémon sequence’ historical past? It’s unhappy to say, however there in all probability hasn’t been a sport that has so embodied each the sequence’ gorgeous ambition and the hurdles that it has but to beat.
The belief of a childhood dream
Scarlet and Violet have been the primary actually open-world Pokémon sport. Sure, Legends: Arceus has open environments to discover, however Scarlet and Violet’s Paldea area is a steady world you’ll be able to discover with out a loading display. Make no mistake, you’ll see a few of that loading taking place in real-time off within the distance as you fly, swim, and climb, however it’s a principally seamless expertise not like something Pokémon has ever pulled off. There’s one thing sort of magical about flying round a Pokémon world, seeing completely different critters working round, and leaping proper into battling and capturing them with none of the menus and obstacles that wasted your time in earlier video games.
A part of that magic comes from experiencing Paldea’s open world with buddies. Enjoying with as much as three buddies, working round a Pokémon world with out interruption, battling, buying and selling, exploring collectively, is the actualization of a childhood dream.
![Shep poses with Jesse and Rayne.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/d0d347be8782e12cbe31bcc5babf6520.jpg)
A few of my favourite online game recollections over the previous yr got here from getting along with buddies or my brother to expertise some amalgamation of the Pokémon journey I all the time dreamt of alongside these closest to me. My Change’s screenshot folder is filled with selfies and impromptu photoshoots of my buddies exploring Paldea, capturing Pokémon and discovering all its secrets and techniques collectively.
Expansive video video games like Scarlet and Violet are an inherently communal expertise. We collect on voice calls and social media to inform one another about every part we discover and see. Scarlet and Violet are essentially the most community-oriented a Pokémon sport has felt since Pokémon Go. Now, we don’t have to simply inform one another about our experiences and discoveries, we are able to discover them collectively in the identical open world. Pokémon has all the time asserted that the journey is greatest when taken collectively, and Scarlet and Violet have established that it could possibly and ought to be a advantage expressed within the video games past simply coaching and battling.
Welcome to Exp. Share, Kotaku’s Pokémon column by which we dive deep to discover notable characters, city legends, communities, and simply plain bizarre quirks from all through the Pokémon franchise.
Scarlet and Violet preserve gamers coming again
Sword and Defend and Pokémon Go made raids a typical ingredient of the sequence, and Scarlet and Violet’s “Terastal” twist on the format created occasions which have caught with followers lengthy after they’ve concluded. We overcame a few of the most tough challenges Recreation Freak has thrown at us, and it actually underlines how deep Pokémon’s fight might be, even exterior of the aggressive surroundings. Every Pokémon sport solely has so lengthy within the highlight earlier than the following one usurps it, and Scarlet and Violet have made essentially the most of their time with frequent occasions, challenges, and rewards to maintain gamers coming again.
![Rayne, Shep, Jesse, and Eric prepare for a Tera Raid.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/30d88cf0322f79be963cb893804838d5.jpg)
The narrative potential
Whereas Scarlet and Violet confirmed a want to develop from a design standpoint, one among its greatest swings is within the narrative division. Yeah, it’s nonetheless obtained the usual “get eight fitness center badges and grow to be the League Champion” story, but it surely additionally has diverging paths you’ll be able to take at your individual tempo. The “evil staff” plotline with Workforce Star, as a substitute of specializing in the schemes of a legal group, explores childhood bullying with a stunning quantity of nuance and empathy (which debatably can’t be stated for The Hidden Treasure of Space Zero DLC) and is a welcome change from the crooked villains we’re used to in Pokémon.
However essentially the most memorable storylines got here from Arven and the area’s Professor. What begins as a transparent case of kid neglect on the a part of Paldea’s esteemed professor (Sada in Scarlet, Turo in Violet) turns into one of many most fascinating, subversive finales Pokémon has ever put forth. Scarlet and Violet go right into a full Yoko Taro-style escalation, revealing the Professor has lengthy since handed and has been changed by an AI recreation of their recollections. It not solely cleverly ties into the themes of discovering one’s personal bliss in an open-world Pokémon sport however reminds us that this world is all the time larger than it felt to us as youngsters. Scarlet and Violet’s ending seems like a fulcrum level for the sequence to proceed telling darker tales as a substitute of burying these truths in subtext and Pokédex entries.
![The AI Turo holds a Master Ball in Area Zero.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/af45b72c6a368d31b5c605da69c5a266.jpg)
The issue with Scarlet and Violet is you’ll be able to’t praise them with out additionally including an asterisk to the assertion. That’s what makes trying again on the sport and breaking down its probably legacy such a confounding, irritating train. Contemplate…
After a yr of updates, Scarlet and Violet are nonetheless a technical mess
There’s an argument to be made that Pokémon RPGs haven’t seemed good since they made the transition to 3D, however Scarlet and Violet open world seems, at greatest, like an unpleasant GameCube sport. Textures are flat to non-existent, animations are stiff, and it’s not till you get to one of many well-produced cutscenes that you simply get a way of what a better-looking sport may have captured. The shortage of visible polish seems like an extension of the sport’s general lack of technical polish. After a yr of patches, Scarlet and Violet nonetheless run fairly terribly, and even really feel worse within the DLC for some gamers.
Scarlet and Violet’s technical issues have spanned just about each difficulty you’ll be able to think about in an open-world sport. Texture pop-in, cratering framerate drops, complete objects, characters and Pokémon disappearing, glitchy animations, erratic digital camera angles, and inconsistent lighting, to call just some. Technical issues have been so pervasive that Nintendo needed to apologize in patch notes and claimed efforts have been being made to enhance the video games. And but, as I wrote in my assessment for the Teal Masks DLC, the sport continues to be working at what seems like single-digit framerates after 13 months’ value of fixes.
![Shep and Raichu watch a Pokemon battle.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/102c5442c79035d2b126c330cfc5c631.jpg)
Scarlet and Violet already confirmed main indicators of technical stress, and the bulging seams are much more obvious in The Teal Masks. As a lot as I loved this DLC, it stays disappointing that a few of Pokémon’s greatest stuff is being dragged down by a sport engine that feels prefer it’s only a slight breeze away from falling aside.
The kneejerk response is guilty the Change’s {hardware}, however video games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom show that the hand held/console hybrid is greater than able to working an open-world sport of even bigger scale. Certain, that sport has its chugs, however by no means approaching Scarlet and Violet’s ranges.
A step again within the open-world format
Scarlet and Violet are two steps ahead and one step again for Pokémon’s open-world evolution. Whereas the seamless world and multiplayer are nice within the face of Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ solitary, sequestered maps, dialing again from its predecessor’s action-oriented spin on the sequence is one among its most notable downgrades. In equity, Legends: Arceus launched the identical yr as Scarlet and Violet, and overlapping growth cycles imply not each thought from one sport would seem within the different. However that proximity makes these comparisons extra stark.
![Shep, Beautifly, Torterra, Typhlosian, Goodra, Palkia, and Raichu stand on the edge of a cliff.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/7a13a1e51fa88fc262be9a7de67985c8.jpg)
In Legends: Arceus, 10 months previous to Scarlet and Violet, we have been sneaking, leaping, traversing the Hisui area, and even capturing Pokémon in real-time, like in an motion sport. Certain, the motion wasn’t genre-defining, but it surely was surprisingly easy, thrilling, and felt easy to maneuver by means of. In the meantime, Scarlet and Violet’s technical troubles make their motion really feel inflexible and seize mechanics much less exact; general it feels much less releasing to exist in its world.
I might like to see the following Pokémon sport take Legends: Arceus’ motion and management and marry it with Scarlet and Violet’s seamless open-world design, as a result of proper now it seems like each video games are two halves of a whole thought.
What did the DLC do for Scarlet and Violet?
The Hidden Treasure of Space Zero growth got here in two elements: The Teal Masks and The Indigo Disk. One is a prologue that feels smaller in scope, whereas the second feels extra substantial and is principally a toolkit for creating aggressive groups with a very good (not nice) conclusion to the overarching story. Each have their strengths and ache factors, embodying the perfect and worst elements of Scarlet and Violet. They’re buggy, they’re heartfelt, they’re socially-driven, they’re ugly as sin. Each cute new thought they add is undermined by an engine that may’t preserve a secure framerate while you rotate the digital camera. The DLCs are expansions within the purest sense in that they’re a continuation of the very same sport Recreation Freak has did not construct a correct basis underneath.
![Shep and Professor Turo trade books through time.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/c9da236e4d6729d4c5dcbae475a81e4e.jpg)
Nevertheless it bought anyway
Scarlet and Violet are shining examples of one thing Pokémon is reckoning with. It has a attraction that pulls folks in, however most franchises of this scale can be rightfully raked by means of the coals for delivering one thing this subpar. And but, these video games bought greater than 23 million copies, making them collectively one of many highest-selling video games on the Change, and the third-best-selling video games within the sequence behind Sword and Defend and the unique Pink and Blue. That is taking place all over the place in Pokémon proper now; witness public clusterfucks just like the scalping points The Pokémon Firm doesn’t create provide to account for and the way Pokémon Go adjustments disproportionately have an effect on disabled and rural gamers. What motivation is there to enhance if folks proceed to pay giant sums of cash for issues that may rightfully result in most firms and franchises dropping public belief?
To that finish, Scarlet and Violet is an trustworthy illustration of the state of Pokémon in its ninth era. It has loads of fantastic concepts it could possibly’t capitalize on and is aware of exactly which heartstrings to tug to activate the cash machine. As many cherished recollections as I’ve of those video games, we’re all simply as trapped on this loop as a Pokémon is in a Poké Ball. It’s only a matter of how lengthy the neighborhood is keen to place up with being crammed contained in the machine.
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