Pokémon Scarlet and Violet review: a step back for the open-world era

You can find all the information here Pokémon Scarlet And Violet’s stumbles in their attempts to usher the series into a new chapter, the most glaring among them is that a more convincing, ultimately superior blueprint was already laid for the series’ future 10 months ago with the release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

Arceus was dead set on making the world of Pokémon as compelling to explore in a mechanical sense as the series has always felt thematically. To do so, it Fluid traversal was used, as well as action-driven battle system. It turned out to be one of most thrilling experiences this series has ever seen. Scarlet VioletOn the contrary, They go the extra mile to ensure that the Paldea area of modern Paldea feels more alive and full. There are many things to do.The actual act of these things does not sing as well as it did in the past. Legends: Arceus.

Pokémon Scarlet And Violet take pains to create a greater sense of freedom than the Pokémon series’ more recent mainline games like Pokémon Sun And Moon, And Pokémon Sword And Shield. The world, this time, is your Cloyster. It claims to allow you to freely follow quest lines across the map at your own pace. It became apparent that much was not as it seemed. I flew, ran and drove through Paldea.

Image: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, Nintendo via Polygon

Scarlet And Violet’s central hub is an academy sitting smack dab in the middle of the map: Naranja Academy Or Uva Academy, depending on whether you’re playing Scarlet or Violet, respectively. (I played Violet (Thank you for reading this review. Here, students come from across Paldea to study Pokémon, life skills, and all other sorts of academia under the tutelage of a colorful cast of teachers. Many of the academy’s students are a result of this institution. Scarlet And Violet’s Stories, big and small.

Teachers and professors were always willing to help me and share their stories and wisdom. The social simulation aspects aren’t as deep as the likes of RPGs like Persona, but I appreciated the sense of community at Uva Academy. I felt compelled to learn more about my teachers (like the academy’s eccentric director Clavell) And my classmates (like the gung-ho, supportive rival Nemona).

The relationships I formed with my teachers are all fine and well, but the bulk of the relationship-building in Scarlet and Violet This takes place out in their open space, along three routes. All Academy students are sent out into the region to find their “treasure”: One involves defeating eight gym leaders alongside Nemona; one tasks you with taking out bases run by Scarlet And Violet’s designated Evil Group, Team Star; the third sees you helping Arven, the son of the region’s professor, conquer massive Titan Pokémon who are popping up around Paldea. These three paths open the door to the next. Scarlet And Violet’s Beautiful characters and great world-building are not only a problem, they also reveal their flawed open-world design.

Image: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, Nintendo via Polygon

You can actually approach the three stories in any order. However, I discovered that the challenges are not scale-able for players who arrive at different points in their journeys. Other routes. A Team Star blockade that blocked my path was only possible by defeating the boss of a nearby stronghold. In another case, I stumbled across trainers and wild Pokémon whose levels far outranked the team I’d been building. My play time was spent in large parts. Violet feeling disoriented, tackling these routes with what felt like a whimsical precision, only to be met with sudden difficulty spikes, or segments where my opponent’s Pokémon were a dozen levels below mine.

It’s the nature of open-world games to invite you into certain areas while deterring you from others. However, Scarlet And Violet lack many of the methods previous Pokémon games used to signpost whether you were in a dangerous zone. The removal of random battles means you can walk right past a wild Pokémon It is impossible to comprehend its immense magnitude. You can go through entire cutscenes only to be met with a battle you’re not cut out for waiting on the other side. Scarlet And Violet There are many scenes where Clavell, the director, assures students they can achieve their goals whenever and wherever they choose. These words sound hollow after only a few hours on the field. There’s a disconnect between what Scarlet And Violet What they promise, and what they really allow.

This frustration is compounded when you consider that Scarlet And Violet don’t integrate several of Legends: Arceus’ quality-of-life changes that made interacting with its open areas manageable, satisfying, And fluid.

Scarlet and Violet let you traverse Paldea on the backs of Koraidon and Miraidon, two Legendary dragon-type Pokémon who gain a suite of exploration abilities as you progress. But these mounts never achieve the same agility of the local Pokémon you met along the course of your journey in Legends: Arceus — they’re cumbersome and slow, even when flying over the landscape. I found myself using fast-travel points more often than riding on the Miraidon’s back.

Image: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, Nintendo via Polygon

One of the biggest failures was Scarlet Violet Also, I took a backward step from Arceus’ action-based Pokémon-capturing mechanics. They borrow from Arceus’ stealth system, allowing you to crouch And sneak behind unsuspecting Pokémon before throwing one of your own monsters at it for a preemptive strike. But there’s no way of aiming a Pokéball directly at a target; there’s no way to capture Pokémon without having to enter a battle; and there’s certainly nothing to match Arceus’ evolution of the core catch-’em-all mechanics; Scarlet and Violet can’t come close to the sheer joy Arceus Discovering, collecting, documenting and sharing in an open world is what you will find.

On a more granular level, Scarlet Violet introduce their own spins on the series’ battle mechanics, most notably in the new Terastal forms, which allow you to change or strengthen a Pokémon’s elemental type to experiment with new tactics. The thrill of seeing new strategies develop was evident even in single-player games against trainers. In one case, a gym leader Terastallized a Sudowoodo (normally a rock-type Pokémon) into a grass-type opponent. I initially sent out my water-type Quaxly to take advantage of Sudowoodo’s weakness to the element, only for the Terastal form to put me on my back foot. Then, suddenly I felt vulnerable.

Most of the generational gimmicks Pokémon Games offer a quick power boost that is often coupled with a powerful transformation or a bit of legend. But they’re fairly straightforward in how they change up gameplay. They are quite different from Sword Shield’s Gigantamax feature or X Y’s Mega Evolutions, Terastallizing feels like it could have lasting strategic effects on Pokémon’s Scene for competition. At its core, the mechanic is calculated and strategic, and opens so many possibilities for how an individual Pokémon can change throughout the course of a fight.

Image: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, Nintendo

It is not the promise of this battle element, but it’s my greatest redemption factor. Scarlet And Violet Its writing is intact, and, therefore, it’s still a good idea. Legends: ArceusIt builds up to a really stellar and compelling endinggame. Although I was frustrated with the structure and mechanics of it, as well as the fact that the game runs almost like a GameCube game (there were many instances where animations of characters would stop at the end of open-world areas), I left the game. Scarlet And Violet enamored by its character relationships And neatly tied-up themes of finding one’s own joy in the big, wild Pokémon world. I’ve found Game Freak’s most recent Pokémon stories among the best the series has ever told, and I’m hopeful whatever comes next will follow Scarlet and Violet’s Story lead

I do leave Scarlet & Violet with a lot of excitement for the future, but even still: It’s a strange phenomenon to watch a series enter a new generation while still grappling with its identity as a whole. Pokémon Legends: ArceusFor all its strength, was a piece of sand in the microchip of Pokémon’s near-annual machine. However, it proved so promising in fluid exploration, intuitive capture, and unified systems. To see Scarlet And Violet Falling behind 10 months later is not only disappointing, but it’s also quite frustrating.

At its baseline, it’s a compelling enough Pokémon game, with stories among the series’ most memorable. As I think about it, however. Scarlet And VioletI often think back to those times. Pokémon Legends: Arceus More fondly. Although it had some loose bolts, the machine tightened many more. Scarlet And Violet. I’m hopeful that Arceus This is the basis for the next installment in the series.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Nintendo Switch releases the game Nov. 18. Nintendo provided a prerelease code for the game’s review. Vox Media is an affiliate partner. Although these partnerships do not impact editorial content, Vox Media could earn commissions from products sold via affiliate links. Find out more. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.