Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

[Skull]

They may not make a Third Version, both XY and SWSH skipped them after all - the latter in favour of DLC episodes in particular means we may never see a third version again...

[Deathhappens]

I'm getting the game but literally nothing in this trailer or any of the previous ones actually hyped me up for it. I've just missed "regular" Pokemon, I guess, especially catching up to a new gen before all the special events run out and majority of people dry out.

- - - Updated - - -

They may not make a Third Version, both XY and SWSH skipped them after all - the latter in favour of DLC episodes in particular means we may never see a third version again...

Yeah, I think DLC are pretty much all we have to look forward to in terms of new content going forward.

[Spinach]

The game's direction intrigues me, but the core gameplay is still not enough to draw me in. I also struggle to point to more than three new Pokemon I think look cool or interesting, and some of those are unevolved forms, so it's hard to get attached to anything enough to want to play these games. I'm old and prefer a fair few older design trends, but I've always managed to make a list of cool designs from every generation. Except this one. Arceus renewed my hope in the potential for good Pokemon games, and this game looks like a step in the right-ish direction, but it's still too few steps forward to be something I want to buy into. The new battle gimmick is whatever, it's somewhere between Megas (decent gimmick) and Dynamax (bad gimmick), but at least it isn't Z-moves (terrible gimmick). In a generation or two mainline games might be worth money again, this feels like the sun has begun to creep up over the horizon, sneaking through thick stormclouds, after a dark, rainy night.

Make another Arceus-like game though and refine it some more, jfc.

[pinetree]

Yeah, pretty good assessment of the situation.
And I'm sure we'll get more Legends, no way they let that die after such a big success.

[Spinach]

I really hope so but the last 10 years really shook my faith in these guys, lol.

[Spartacus]

man I only like the Fire Starter's final form, and the pseudo-legendary

[pinetree]

I'm the kind of person that says "idk I just don't see it" whenever performance issues are brought up (I've got no complaints about Arceus on that front), but the performance in these games might actually keep me from buying them.
It just looks like absolute hell with the constant slow motion. I'm much more wary of buying it than I was yesterday.
I'll probably wait for some extensive gameplay videos to showcase it before deciding for sure.

[pinetree]

People calling it their favorite pokemon game of all time and the most atrocious performance on the Switch on the same breath dude, fuck I don't know

[Skull]

Given how everyone and their mother I've seen has said that they're getting the Violet version, I am quite surprised to see that it was Scarlet instead that was listed as the "#1 Top Seller in PC & Video Games" on Amazon (at least in my country anyways).

[pinetree]

Red always wins doesn't it? I can't remember any gen it didn't.

[Mattias]

People calling it their favorite pokemon game of all time and the most atrocious performance on the Switch on the same breath dude, fuck I don't know

So it's the same situation as Deadly Promonition 2 then.

[Deathhappens]

Reviews seem to be generally positive as well despite complaints about the horrible performance (I mean, the score is always inflated because it's Pokemon), but it seems people generally have good impressions of it. I'm just counting down a few hours until the store opens, I'll get it day 1 and probably regret it later.

BTW managed to make it to day 0 without having spoiled any of the new Pokemon or the starter evos, this must've been quite a run of good karma lol

[Nanaya]

performance is absolutely abysmal. Like, the worst I've encountered in a good while. So far it feels like any other pokemon but with some alterations. Maybe I'm doing it wrong but the pokemon I use in the field doesn't do a good job of sticking with you and just ends up returning to the ball which is kind of annoying since the point is to be able to explore more freely while it's doing its thing. It's nice there isn't any cut in screen for battle but the performance is so bad that I feel like the difference isn't that much and might be a net negative just because of how janky it looks and feels when it is lagging.

E: They basically hit us with an Early Access game. Should have delayed it.

[Deathhappens]

Ι only got to play around an hour but so far it seems I've been lucky. Texture pop ins here and there, but no major fps drops or anything.

[Deathhappens]

Shadows keep flickering on and off, it's somewhere between hilarious and tragic.

[Nanaya]

Some thoughts.

Performance is soooooo bad it is unbelievable. The frame drops and freezes just throwing a pokeball. A swarm of bombirdier spawned and it was like I was in the early 2000's playing an MMO with 100 people on screen. DAT LAG. The game has actually crashed on me just going through a door/loading screen. Yuck.

Spoiler:

The terrible performance aside the game is pretty decent. They did a good job with Pokemon placement all over including mixing in high level pokemon and Tera mons with lower level pokemon. I like seeing things like Bisharp leading pawniards around and the like. I looked up at one point and saw Dragonite flying through the sky so I had Koraidon chase its ass down by climbing a mountain to get ahead of it which is nice. So the exploration is about what you'd want from the game in terms of pokemon encounters. The random loot/TM etc feel pretty underwhelming as rewards though.

However I find the fact that the Koraidon/Miraidon traversal options are locked behind a specific line of missions complete garbage. Ass backwards and defeats the point of the game's exploration and choose your own adventure aspect they were going for.

Story is fine. Bullied students is kinda underwhelming but whatever. Mabosstiff was much better for me. Titan Pokemon were dumb except for Great Tusk and probably whatever its Violet switch-in may have been.
This game has the ugliest models and art design ever. What are those fucking npc trainers? Also too much school uniform.
Some of the new pokemon designs are pretty good though. Annihilape the GOAT. They couldn't have done a more perfect evolution. Literally did everything right with him. Skeledirge is cool and Torch Song is the shit. That little bird is cute.

Pawmo, Bramblin, Rellor proving that anything involving the word GO is complete shit. Having to run around in this jank ass Let's Go mode to evolve them pissed me off. Between them returning to their ball because they can't keep up, forcing you to sacrifice your superior mode of transport while you do it, the animation and lag when you're issuing the commands, auto battling not giving you the evolution prompt and making you get a new level I hope they refine that shit. At least give me a fucking meter to know what's being registered as far as steps go. Your pokemon should have been like the sunflora in the one gym test. They just ZOOM right to you no matter what you're doing and you can still ride Koraidon while keeping them tethered to you. I don't need the kind of realism that comes with a 6 inch mouse waddling after me at 1/4th my walk speed.

VGC should be fun. Tera seems a lot more promising than past gimmicks even if they're not as cool.

Also fuck the cutscenes. Especially with the performance problems. There are too many.

Game is a slog but still fun enough and an overall good direction as it maintains the core of the main pokemon games while expanding the world. But definitely needs fine tuning. Not just technically but in their vision. Really should have more freedom of traversal much earlier on.

[Deathhappens]

Performance issues are (apparently) alleviated if you close and restart the game every so often, particularly if you've been to a city (suspected memory leak somewhere). So far I've been lucky enough not to hit any serious framerate issues besides obvious shortcuts (any moving animation more than 2m away becomes a slideshow, sometimes even closer-see the cutscene where the PC introduces themselves to their class). Also had the camera clip through the ground a few times (which explains why the Pokeballs you throw are stuck floating in the air most of the time rather than falling as they usually did) and actually managed to glitch MYSELF through the floor once in the Grotto Inlet cave.

The game is kind of a mess in general, not gonna lie. It's not unplayable by any means, but if you actually sit and take stock there's... a lot of problems.

[Deathhappens]

Nothing new, but hearing it from an expert is...yikes.

[Nanaya]

GF on suicide watch.

[Skull]

S/V sold 10 million copies in the first 3 days, making it the single biggest launch in Nintendo history.